I really shouldn't be taking too much time to write just now, I should be hopping on a bus to go downtown and deliver some packages. I keep telling myself that I'll head back home later today before I head back out for New Years, and that I therefore have time to spare THEN to do my last entry for the month. I even need to pick up milk on the way home, something I can not do after New Years style celebrating.
And yet here we are. Because at the very least, I know if I don't type this now, then either I won't go out later because I'll be rushing to make this very post, or, and this is unlikely, I go out, run out of time, and miss my deadly quota.
But that crisis is averted.
I don't have much in the way of time, as I've already explained, so let me just briefly mention some of the STUFF I got for Christmas.
Dad got me some nice new pants, a size up around the waist for relaxin', with a too big around the collar button up shirt, and a pajama combo.
Jordan got me Ferris Bueller's Day Off and 3:10 To Yuma (new version).
Simon got me the Cromartie High School series, which is something I love. It's something that you will either love or hate, I think. I love it.
PJ got me a hardcover collection of the comic event/series Flashpoint from DC, as well as a new nephew.
That's the lot from immediate family, besides cash and cash like entities from Grandpa and Aunt Margaret respectively.
Not to disregard them, I recieved some love from the D&D crew in the form of fair trade chocolate and a lovely card with some money in it. I'll skip their names since they're a bashful sort, but Cool Geoff knows who I'm talking about.
And of course I got to go to Medieval Times with Jordan. Sure, I paid for everything, but it was half off with the coupon from my friends out in Saskatoon. So, sure, let's say I got that coupon for Christmas, why not.
Really, I would have preferred to talk about the Medieval Times visit here, but I'd rather have more time for that, and I want to scan a picture of my brother and I for the purposes of posting here (and making my facebook profile image awesome).
Oh, too bad I couldn't have done some kind of "year in review" type thing here, that would be appropriate. Later I guess. It's time and past time that I got going.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wodehouse
Oh! Wodehouse, not "Road House". I... listen, I just thought about that Family Guy bit (look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just kind of happened) where Peter Griffin takes his life inspiration from the Patrick Swayze movie "Road House" and starts round house kicking everything he can. I think that's how it went. And then later in the episode a cartoon version of House showed up, and then Peter went "Rude House"... um, because he was also constantly saying "Road House".
So, I, you know, just realized they could have made a P.G. Wodehouse gag in that episode.
I'm sorry!!
Anyways, P.G. Wodehouse is basically THE humorist of the 20th century. He was crazy prolific, and yup, the dude got knighted. He died pretty soon after that, which makes sense as the guy had said that he had now accomplished everything he wanted in life.
The lesson? Always aim to visit Alpha Centauri. That way, you'll live forever! Unless you really have done everything and are ready to check out.
Since being introduced to this writer I've easily blazed through 3 of his Jeeves novels. They're a series about a chump of an aristocrat (he calls himself a chump, what? He also tends to say what. What? But, er, rather more like an unspoken "eh, what?") who, whenever he gets into trouble, or wants to help out a chump of a pal, he rings for his "gentleman's gentleman" Jeeves who puts the old brain power to work and sets things in order.
The titles are all very similar, and though there is a continuity to the stories, it isn't needed at all, so you really can pick up any of the series and have a go at it (at least, up to the third book, I can't speak to the rest). My favourite though is the first book I read, which was that third in the series, because the stories were more self contained there than in the others. So at the begining whatever trouble would happen would be brought up, expounded upon, and solved in that chapter. Or, er, you know. Self contained.
*coughs*
I love how Bertram Wooster (that chump of an aristocrat) always sings Jeeves' praises even though the brilliant plan will very often be more beneficial to Jeeves than to Wooster. I'm not a 100% on this, but I'd probably let my butler go if he got me out of engagements by convincing the potential father-in-law that I was insane. Would hurt the old pride, what?
I tried to find a good copy of the thing, with a pair of fingers crossed for that third book, so I could give it to a friend at a Christmas party. Unfortunately, all I could find was a copy at Chapters that had a cover I really didn't like. Remember kids, always judge a book by its cover!
But it worked out in the end, I found a copy of Zot! by Scott McCloud for a great price at a book store across the street from the Chapters at Yonge and Eglinton, and it was really such a perfect thing to get for her, I'm quite happy how that worked out.
The point is, read Wodehouse AND Zot!
So, I, you know, just realized they could have made a P.G. Wodehouse gag in that episode.
I'm sorry!!
Anyways, P.G. Wodehouse is basically THE humorist of the 20th century. He was crazy prolific, and yup, the dude got knighted. He died pretty soon after that, which makes sense as the guy had said that he had now accomplished everything he wanted in life.
The lesson? Always aim to visit Alpha Centauri. That way, you'll live forever! Unless you really have done everything and are ready to check out.
Since being introduced to this writer I've easily blazed through 3 of his Jeeves novels. They're a series about a chump of an aristocrat (he calls himself a chump, what? He also tends to say what. What? But, er, rather more like an unspoken "eh, what?") who, whenever he gets into trouble, or wants to help out a chump of a pal, he rings for his "gentleman's gentleman" Jeeves who puts the old brain power to work and sets things in order.
The titles are all very similar, and though there is a continuity to the stories, it isn't needed at all, so you really can pick up any of the series and have a go at it (at least, up to the third book, I can't speak to the rest). My favourite though is the first book I read, which was that third in the series, because the stories were more self contained there than in the others. So at the begining whatever trouble would happen would be brought up, expounded upon, and solved in that chapter. Or, er, you know. Self contained.
*coughs*
I love how Bertram Wooster (that chump of an aristocrat) always sings Jeeves' praises even though the brilliant plan will very often be more beneficial to Jeeves than to Wooster. I'm not a 100% on this, but I'd probably let my butler go if he got me out of engagements by convincing the potential father-in-law that I was insane. Would hurt the old pride, what?
I tried to find a good copy of the thing, with a pair of fingers crossed for that third book, so I could give it to a friend at a Christmas party. Unfortunately, all I could find was a copy at Chapters that had a cover I really didn't like. Remember kids, always judge a book by its cover!
But it worked out in the end, I found a copy of Zot! by Scott McCloud for a great price at a book store across the street from the Chapters at Yonge and Eglinton, and it was really such a perfect thing to get for her, I'm quite happy how that worked out.
The point is, read Wodehouse AND Zot!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Christmas Eve
In the above picture you'll find myself, my Grandpa, my new nephew Silas, and my brother/new dad PJ. He's not MY new dad, he's the kid's new dad.
This day was the first I got to meet the little fella. He's a cute one, was really quiet on the road trip up to Cobourg and throughout dinner. I understand a quiet baby is desirable.
The captured moment above is seconds before, after the urging cry of my Grandfather to "spit on him, spit on him!", the obedient Silas let loose with his attack. I stepped back and cleared the entire area, with Grandpa getting the resultant guckiness on his pants and sweater. Justice.
It was basically the funniest thing that could have happened, and I was at the forefront with the heartfelt laughter.
I commandeered the rental van for the ride home (and that is actually how to spell 'commandeered' apparently) so that I could avoid the back seat driver stress that I'm often subjected to. Though it's always a long drive back, I was electrified and alert. "Must. Keep. Baby. Safe."
I'm sure my not having the headlights on for most of the drive was a great way to accomplish that.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Activate the Chronotons!
I'm just stretched out across the old bed, listening to this Simon and Garfunkel CD. Oops, I hit restart on the thing when there's actually a whole other CD I could pop in. The start of which is Mrs. Robinson! And I just finished a comment over at http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.ca/ which is really an excellent site.
I woke up from a bit of Inception just now. I thought I was awake, having just woke up, but ah-HA! I was still dreaming.
Whilst in the deepest parts of it there was a story concerning a girl that had been turned into a cyborg, getting chased by a guy who, after an explosion in his car, was fused with some other guy. The effect is a half and half person, half chalk white, half robotic grey, with thick dark blue lips, all black eyes, and platinum blonde hair like a Dragonball character.
He was pretty scary, but I was still complaining about how, from a narrative perspective, the villain was undeveloped.
I seemed to inhabit a young super scientist that, through a process of the will, "turned off all limitations". The effect was, as proclaimed in an explanatory manner, that pain could no longer be felt, I had become intangible, rather I had become a creature of light, beaming across the planet. It was pretty fun when I managed to be in control, and that was for a great portion of things.
Then I "woke up" and explained to Simon about this dream, and how I turned off these limiters with chronotons. I think I made a Futurama reference too. I explained the turning off of limiters like how, if there are two people that are equally as strong as each other, but one is tired, then that one appears weaker. Removing the limitation of getting tired, and now the two are equal again. It was like a way to make calculations more reliable and fitting with the perfect theoretical by getting rid of, say, wind resistance or some such.
Hey, if that sounds stupid to you, blame dream Isaac.
Then I walked down the hall and was asked to shave my head for cancer research. I was hesitant at first, but then said okay.
Then I woke... and my hair was GONE!!!!! That's not true, but could you imagine?
I woke up from a bit of Inception just now. I thought I was awake, having just woke up, but ah-HA! I was still dreaming.
Whilst in the deepest parts of it there was a story concerning a girl that had been turned into a cyborg, getting chased by a guy who, after an explosion in his car, was fused with some other guy. The effect is a half and half person, half chalk white, half robotic grey, with thick dark blue lips, all black eyes, and platinum blonde hair like a Dragonball character.
He was pretty scary, but I was still complaining about how, from a narrative perspective, the villain was undeveloped.
I seemed to inhabit a young super scientist that, through a process of the will, "turned off all limitations". The effect was, as proclaimed in an explanatory manner, that pain could no longer be felt, I had become intangible, rather I had become a creature of light, beaming across the planet. It was pretty fun when I managed to be in control, and that was for a great portion of things.
Then I "woke up" and explained to Simon about this dream, and how I turned off these limiters with chronotons. I think I made a Futurama reference too. I explained the turning off of limiters like how, if there are two people that are equally as strong as each other, but one is tired, then that one appears weaker. Removing the limitation of getting tired, and now the two are equal again. It was like a way to make calculations more reliable and fitting with the perfect theoretical by getting rid of, say, wind resistance or some such.
Hey, if that sounds stupid to you, blame dream Isaac.
Then I walked down the hall and was asked to shave my head for cancer research. I was hesitant at first, but then said okay.
Then I woke... and my hair was GONE!!!!! That's not true, but could you imagine?
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Unfun video game business (aka, writing ANYTHING before bed)
I don't really seem to have that much patience for video games these days. I gave Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword a try on Christmas Day, and have since given the thing up. Everything was too slow for me- the dialogue took forever to scroll through (A,A,A,A,A... come on! I already read you!) And the busy work they had me doing inplace of forwarding any kind of narrative really annoyed me.
Then there's trying to use the wiimote to swing your sword around. If the control actually worked intuitively, if I could just swing the thing around with a corresponding attack on screen, that'd be something. But that's not how it works. And I CAN'T get the balancing mechanic right for those tight rope walking sections. It's obvious that if I don't master that immediately it'll bite me later. Well, it shan't get the chance to do any biting- ha!
As much fun as it is to not so slowly boil over in raging frustration, I'll pass thank you.
Instead, I've been offered Mega Man Battle Network 1 from 2001, and although it's still got me yelling into the air with how often the viruses kill me and I'm reduced to my last save point (which was HOW LONG AGO?!?), but I'm otherwise having a fine time with it. If I was expected to get frustrated with finding my way through the twisty turny game landscape, well that isn't happening. I was far more frustrated with navigating Skyward Sword. Trying to find those stupid kiwi creature men at the beginning, with that useless device that, ostensibly, points right where you want to go... great, if there wasn't always some tree or cliff face in the way. I just never felt like I was getting anywhere. Highly annoying.
With Battle Network, even when I do a horrible job, I get some money to spend on upgrades. Things get advanced.
In short, whether deserved or not, Skyward Sword has made an enemy of me. Give me a call when it doesn't use the wii motion controls.
Then there's trying to use the wiimote to swing your sword around. If the control actually worked intuitively, if I could just swing the thing around with a corresponding attack on screen, that'd be something. But that's not how it works. And I CAN'T get the balancing mechanic right for those tight rope walking sections. It's obvious that if I don't master that immediately it'll bite me later. Well, it shan't get the chance to do any biting- ha!
As much fun as it is to not so slowly boil over in raging frustration, I'll pass thank you.
Instead, I've been offered Mega Man Battle Network 1 from 2001, and although it's still got me yelling into the air with how often the viruses kill me and I'm reduced to my last save point (which was HOW LONG AGO?!?), but I'm otherwise having a fine time with it. If I was expected to get frustrated with finding my way through the twisty turny game landscape, well that isn't happening. I was far more frustrated with navigating Skyward Sword. Trying to find those stupid kiwi creature men at the beginning, with that useless device that, ostensibly, points right where you want to go... great, if there wasn't always some tree or cliff face in the way. I just never felt like I was getting anywhere. Highly annoying.
With Battle Network, even when I do a horrible job, I get some money to spend on upgrades. Things get advanced.
In short, whether deserved or not, Skyward Sword has made an enemy of me. Give me a call when it doesn't use the wii motion controls.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Amazing Spider-Man #700
I've loved Spider-Man for a very long time. An insidious, unconditional love, that twists perspectives.
I say that because when J. Michael Straczynski wrote for Amazing Spider-Man, I bought it every month, and hardly perceived how much darker the book had gotten. What did he have, a five year run? Six? Without a doubt, Straczynski defined an era for the web-head. When One More Day happened, magically wiping away, SPECIFICALLY, Peter Parker's 25 year marriage to Mary Jane Watson, it was a travesty that Straczynski didn't want his name attached to.
Brand New Day was how Spider-Man was re-introduced after this status quo shift, now a weekly book with a rotating creative staff, all new villains, and, surprisingly, a new lease on life.
I couldn't wait to see what this Brand New Day fuss was all about. I forget if I was coming or going from school, but I stopped on a bench at Downsview station and read that first issue. And it was amazing! In a flash the darkness of the Straczynski run was revealed to me. How had I not seen it? Here was Spider-Man! Hello again, old friend! (this despite the crassness of having the first image of that issue be Peter Parker making out with some young hottie in a night club. It was a subtle touch guys. Reeeal subtle.)
I greatly appreciated the rotating creative team, not just for the different styles I got to enjoy (no more 6 year stretches of darkness) but for the fact that each team undoubtedly acted as a counter to the others. You had an out there idea? Great! But it has to be vetted by all these other guys, each with their own ideas. I personally found this era to be a highlight in the career of the Spider-Man comic.
I have just finished reading Amazing Spider-Man #700. Once again, I didn't wait to get home. I wasn't riding on the bus, heading to this appointment or that. I bought this comic, wandered over to a bench in the Agincourt Mall where I bought this comic, and sat and read it from cover to cover.
This wasn't from any excitement on my part. Due to spoilers on the internet (and, to give terrible credit where it's due, much of this spoiling happened before any actual comic panels had been released, spoiled instead by a misguided attempt at hyping the story by the very creators themselves! When the contents of the issue cause the internet to fold in on itself in incoherent rage, know that it was the creators themselves that built up this dread in me.) I wanted to see how bad it was. How much damage had been done.
How did we get to this point? An all too short time ago, the Spider-Man comic was riding high. What changed? Amazing Spider-Man #700 is only the latest, most overt, example of a theme by Dan Slott.
Now don't get me wrong. The man does good work. His was the first name listed on that Brand New Day issue that had me so enthralled in my spot at Downsview station those years ago. The mini-series "Spider-Man and the Human Torch" was equal parts funny, exciting, and a touching homage to the bygone eras of stories past. But for the past few years, Slott has been doing his best to change Spider-Man.
Changing Spider-Man. That's a tricky thing to attempt, altering the core of a character that has been around since 1962. If you were to try it, then a light touch is required. A gentle course correction so that the end result, if we absolutely must have your end result, is an organic one.
Obviously the perfect example of the opposite of what I'm talking about is having a mystical demon show up to "make a deal" and then magic things into how they "should" be. That this is exactly how Brand New Day got it's set up should be revelatory of the kind of culture at work creating these stories, and why I shouldn't be surprised when something similar happens in the future (though on a lighter scale, because, come ON. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, and I burn your institution to the ground.)
Here is the change in a nutshell. "Spider-Man is a good looking, brilliant, super-empowered hero, with plenty of friends in that super hero community. So why is he a broke loser with no job? THAT doesn't make sense. So I will fix it." This is a short sighted, wish fulfillment or "fan-ish" approach to the character that ignores two very important factors. First is the real neurotic, self destructive quality of Peter Parker/Spider-Man that sabotages his efforts to be a not-"broke loser with no job". To try and proceed with making Parker a success without addressing that self destructive quality, to pretend that he is a victim of "the old Parker luck", is to forfeit claims to understanding the character.
The second factor it ignores is the meta narrative one. Peter Parker Spider-Man is an everyman who worries about money, gets the sniffles, etc. etc. These very real world problems, this level of relatability, is core to the success of the character (how many letter column entries at the back of a Spidey book have told the tale of someone loving Spider-Man because of how they identified with the character? Brother, they weren't identifying with the web-slinging, super side!), to attempt to change that is to play with the hottest of fires. This is the same reason why Oracle couldn't, despite living in a world of wonders, regain the use of her legs. If she ever did, the character would be fundamentally altered- which, whether or not you like the current Batgirl book, I think everyone could agree that Barbara Gordon, ex- Oracle, is no longer the same person as Batgirl.
Slott has taken leave of his senses and decided to cure his hero's tragic flaw. Not through any earned progression, but through magic changes out of nowhere.
Parker is out of work and low on funds. Solution? Marla Jameson shows up using her connections as a scientist to hook Peter up with "Max Modell" super genius operator of Horizon Labs, who ends up giving Peter the job of his dreams. Be a scientist. Oh, you have to leave unexpectedly to fight crime? No worries! We're a progressive institution, come and go as you please. You have experiments on hand that'd reveal your identity as Spider-Man? No worries! Here's a special box closet thing that you can keep all your private stuff in, no one will ever see, not even me.
Both of those provisions, about leaving anytime and having a private box to store stuff in, were specifically mentioned in that first issue where Peter got the job. It's like the whole scenario was specifically designed to be Parker-proof. Not even Peter's self destructive habits could get him fired from this job, now he HAS to be well off for his work! No more money complaints from this guy! Even on the occasion when Peter acts suspiciously, even when Modell does go into that box and sees all the incriminating Spider stuff, there's nary a thought of "He's Spider-Man!"
To contrast, back in the day ol' Harry Osborn can find a pair of Spidey pajamas in his roommates drawers and KNOW that this is Spider-Man.
Obviously, Slott is bending over backwards to remove that sort of drama from the Spider books. And refocusing on adventures isn't a mistake at all... but to arbitrarily skip over the drama when his own writing created that drama is a mistake.
This is all separate from the oddity of how Peter has suddenly become, not just a brilliant chemist/physicist but a classic "omnidisciplinary scientist" that can build whatever mad creations you want, ala Reed Richards, which, you know, is Reed Richards thing. I personally find it very out of place in a Spider-Man book, but whatever.
After getting Peter Parker the job of his dreams that not even his being Spider-Man can ruin for him and get him kicked out of, Marla Jameson gets killed. She dies, and it effects Spider-Man to such a degree that ever since he's been quite emphatic about having no one else die when he's around. This displays a surprising lack of maturity about ones own limitations, but in itself is something Spider-Man could believably say, I suppose (I mean, if he didn't say it when Gwen Stacy died, it's not something he's going to say ever, but fine, for the sake of argument let's leave it). This desire to be a Spider-Man that never fails, a "Superior Spider-Man" if you will (oh, no! I'm starting to pull things together!), takes the odd turn of having him invent a series of super suits to aid in his war on crime or whatever.
These suits, a couple of neon Tron looking numbers, and an armoured one, haven't reappeared after their initial use despite their effectiveness. Why is that? Because of their negative side effects in regards to creating drama in the story. It's the same reason why Superman gets depowered a bit every ten years (an act which misses the point about Superman and the source of that characters drama, but that's another topic), so that the enemies can remain a substantial threat. That Slott didn't consider this when he let the genii out of the bottle is yet another example of short sightedness. Of course I apologize if it was mandated from on high that they wanted some action figure designs. Wait, that would only work if I had seen any action figures based on these designs, so I retract my possibility of retraction.
Furthering his aims towards creating a "Superior Spider-Man" was the story arc leading up to Spider-Island, where Spider-Man loses his spider sense and ends up training with Shang Chi to create "Spider-Fu". And yes, I am embarrassed to have typed "spider" so often in that last sentence. The problem as percieved by Slott was that Spidey relies too much on his spider sense. Slott's solution was to remove that spider sense as an excuse for training, making Spider-Man that much more effective when he got his spider sense back. Instead of capitalizing on the dramatic potential of taking away what is arguably Spider-Man's greatest ability (to be fair, the story arc leading up to the loss, and the first issue where he operates without it, were fantastic), Slott goes for a power up.
Not just a power up, but a power up suited to a boyish power fantasy. Spider-Man needs to be better? Kung fu. Obviously that's the answer. This is why the Spider Island story was so disappointing. The premise was beautiful: everyone in New York has Spider-Man's powers (plus webbing for some reason), so when you factor things out, Peter Parker has no more power, and therefore no more responsibility than anyone else. Even better, Peter didn't have his spider sense, so he's actually at an enormous disadvantage! I would have greatly enjoyed seeing Peter having to use his intelligence to solve the problem of the day, while constantly navigating the treacherous world that has erupted around him.
Instead, he has spider-fu, and is able to beat up everyone there. That is of course why people like Spider-Man: because he beats people up. Yes, I've heard that many a time.
All of which brings us to Amazing Spider-Man #700, wherein Doctor Octopus is in the body of Spider-Man and vice versa. Hardly the first time that a body swap has occurred between hero and villain, one could argue that the same trick was given us when the Chameleon had our hero chained up under a pot of acid or somesuch and went about AS Peter Parker. If memory serves, the Chameleon got away with that particular impersonation job, which is funny, because what usually happens with these stories is some other character sees through the charade and calls the villain out on it.
This time Slott is reacting to criticisms of his own story (I'm pretty sure it was Slott that wrote that bit with the Chameleon...): how do I keep the supporting cast members that know the main character so well, who live in a universe where body swaps happen and are therefore credulous enough to be on the lookout for them? Easy! I'll just give my body swapped characters all the memories of the other person.
Once more, Slott is trading away dramatic potential (Doc Ock in Spider-Man's body must now keep on his toes to avoid alerting Peter Parker's closest friends to the switch up, to say nothing of the Avengers or the Fantastic Four) for the sake of removing a problem that... wasn't a problem. I'm sure I've never lost sleep at night over the Chameleon's inability to know my innermost thoughts when he's stealing my life.
So Slott didn't want to do a straight body swap, he wanted to figurativlely sew Doc Ock's head onto Spider-Man's shoulder, complicatedly mish-mashing the characters together. All well and good, except for the infuriating part where he insists he's telling a body swap story. Doc Ock's body dies with all of Peter's and Ock's memories inside of it, but Peter's body lives with all of Peter's and Ock's memories inside of it. And yet we are told this is a body swap story, and that it is sad when "Peter" dies. I like how Octopus gloats about having all Peter's memories, and Peter has "all" of Ock's... excepting the part about how the mind copy-pasting was done. We'll just skim over that little problem, shall we?
This is actually a CLASSIC Marvel philosophical problem- what makes a person a person? Having the memories of a lifetime isn't apparently enough, since both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly get really messed up by the prospect of being a clone. Yes, the problem of feeling a kinship with friends and relatives who have never actually met you and already have "you" in their life is a juicy one... so why these comics feel the need to dwell on whether or not they deserve life or have a soul or not is sure confusing. Anyways.
Even though I greatly disagree with the assertion that what has happened in the story is a body swap, everything else that we're told by the writer, by the characters, everything we're directed to feel by the story is such that we are supposed to take this as a body swap. It's just like when you were little and playing action figures with some other kid, and you'd smash them together and the other kid would always declare himself the winner, despite the lack of reason behind that call. I win because. This is a body swap and now it's Ock Spider-Man because.
I say again, infuriating.
The actual flow of the main #700 story was quite well done up to the point where Peter-in-Ock's-body attempted to switch back with the little gold octobot. The action kept rising, both sides constantly countering the other in a "I know you know I know" sort of fashion. Despite the grittiness of it, the act of having Ock-in-Peter's-body punch off the Scorpion's jaw excellently illustrates why we root for Peter Parker, that we're on the side that controls that kind of power.
(It also, by the way, acts as the counter-argument to the need for a "Superior Spider-Man"- Spider-Man is already privy to such power that the act of improving him from a physicality standpoint is pointless. It also renders Doctor Octopus's condition as much less sympathetic. Before, it was framed such that the mean old Spider-Man had caused Octopus's state of being through the repeated body blows, but this points out Octopus was lucky to get out of even their first encounter with his head intact. To repeatedly antagonize Spider-Man becomes an act of stupidity on the Doctor's part.)
The turn around came, ignoring JJJ's slobbering over the Ock Spidey (this despite actively seeing Spider-Man be a menace with that jaw punching thing... sloppy characterization), when the gold octobot failed to switch back the "body swap".
From then on, it's all gobbledygook in the vein of Spider-Island. There's somehow a constant link, or something, between each characters minds (a fact that conveniently hadn't been brought up until now) and so Peter forces Octopus to REALLY relive some memories, thereby getting Octopus to see the error of his ways, and promising to be a good-ish Spider-Man. A Superior Spider-Man! One that will never fall for brain switching doodads! Then Peter-in-Ock's-body dies.
If we must take this story as a body swap, that it is indeed sad that Peter dies, then this story breaks the rules of good triumphing over evil. If this can happen, then when Thanos kills half the worlds population, there's no reason to think they'll be brought back to life by stories end. It's if the hero's journey, instead of a boy leaving his village for adventure and returning a conquering hero, it's the boy leaving and dying somewhere outside the village. No one really knows where, we never heard from him again, and we assume the worst.
If this wasn't really any kind of a body swap, like I've been talking about this whole time, that Peter Parker isn't really dead, then #700 is a story told under false pretenses that doesn't deserve any attention, and we've gone through all these hoops to try and mentally agree with this "body swap" idea for no reason.
The letters page has tributes to the character Spider-Man from various industry professionals. Some give touching accounts about, ultimately, the power of fiction to effect one's life, re-directing it's course forever, and then you have some joke tributes that cheapen the whole exercise.
The final letter in the book, from Kevin Tu, 13 years old, from Pennsylvania, tells us how these comics bridge time together. He's talking about the time Peter took a job at Tricorp, and how he ended up fired because he couldn't be reliable enough for the hours (thanks, Spider-Man!), and was hoping something similar didn't happen to Peter at Horizon labs. This is amazing to me. This kid was barely even alive when I was reading that Tricorp stuff, but look at him now, he's blazed through all the Amazing comics and is referencing Tricorp, the Clone Saga, other stuff that I've just now forgotten what he said... this is the power of a character like Peter Parker, a timelessness that lets people enjoy him in 1962, 1992, and 2012. One might even say that writing this character is a great responsibility.
Slott has dropped the ball on that responsiblity, aiming for a memorable run instead of maintaining the stewardship of the character. I've bought issues of Amazing Spider-Man since I was ten (I know, I'm surprised I was that old too, but I just checked the dates) and now, even if I wanted to, I can't anymore. What are the ten year olds of today to do?
I say that because when J. Michael Straczynski wrote for Amazing Spider-Man, I bought it every month, and hardly perceived how much darker the book had gotten. What did he have, a five year run? Six? Without a doubt, Straczynski defined an era for the web-head. When One More Day happened, magically wiping away, SPECIFICALLY, Peter Parker's 25 year marriage to Mary Jane Watson, it was a travesty that Straczynski didn't want his name attached to.
Brand New Day was how Spider-Man was re-introduced after this status quo shift, now a weekly book with a rotating creative staff, all new villains, and, surprisingly, a new lease on life.
I couldn't wait to see what this Brand New Day fuss was all about. I forget if I was coming or going from school, but I stopped on a bench at Downsview station and read that first issue. And it was amazing! In a flash the darkness of the Straczynski run was revealed to me. How had I not seen it? Here was Spider-Man! Hello again, old friend! (this despite the crassness of having the first image of that issue be Peter Parker making out with some young hottie in a night club. It was a subtle touch guys. Reeeal subtle.)
I greatly appreciated the rotating creative team, not just for the different styles I got to enjoy (no more 6 year stretches of darkness) but for the fact that each team undoubtedly acted as a counter to the others. You had an out there idea? Great! But it has to be vetted by all these other guys, each with their own ideas. I personally found this era to be a highlight in the career of the Spider-Man comic.
I have just finished reading Amazing Spider-Man #700. Once again, I didn't wait to get home. I wasn't riding on the bus, heading to this appointment or that. I bought this comic, wandered over to a bench in the Agincourt Mall where I bought this comic, and sat and read it from cover to cover.
This wasn't from any excitement on my part. Due to spoilers on the internet (and, to give terrible credit where it's due, much of this spoiling happened before any actual comic panels had been released, spoiled instead by a misguided attempt at hyping the story by the very creators themselves! When the contents of the issue cause the internet to fold in on itself in incoherent rage, know that it was the creators themselves that built up this dread in me.) I wanted to see how bad it was. How much damage had been done.
How did we get to this point? An all too short time ago, the Spider-Man comic was riding high. What changed? Amazing Spider-Man #700 is only the latest, most overt, example of a theme by Dan Slott.
Now don't get me wrong. The man does good work. His was the first name listed on that Brand New Day issue that had me so enthralled in my spot at Downsview station those years ago. The mini-series "Spider-Man and the Human Torch" was equal parts funny, exciting, and a touching homage to the bygone eras of stories past. But for the past few years, Slott has been doing his best to change Spider-Man.
Changing Spider-Man. That's a tricky thing to attempt, altering the core of a character that has been around since 1962. If you were to try it, then a light touch is required. A gentle course correction so that the end result, if we absolutely must have your end result, is an organic one.
Obviously the perfect example of the opposite of what I'm talking about is having a mystical demon show up to "make a deal" and then magic things into how they "should" be. That this is exactly how Brand New Day got it's set up should be revelatory of the kind of culture at work creating these stories, and why I shouldn't be surprised when something similar happens in the future (though on a lighter scale, because, come ON. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, and I burn your institution to the ground.)
Here is the change in a nutshell. "Spider-Man is a good looking, brilliant, super-empowered hero, with plenty of friends in that super hero community. So why is he a broke loser with no job? THAT doesn't make sense. So I will fix it." This is a short sighted, wish fulfillment or "fan-ish" approach to the character that ignores two very important factors. First is the real neurotic, self destructive quality of Peter Parker/Spider-Man that sabotages his efforts to be a not-"broke loser with no job". To try and proceed with making Parker a success without addressing that self destructive quality, to pretend that he is a victim of "the old Parker luck", is to forfeit claims to understanding the character.
The second factor it ignores is the meta narrative one. Peter Parker Spider-Man is an everyman who worries about money, gets the sniffles, etc. etc. These very real world problems, this level of relatability, is core to the success of the character (how many letter column entries at the back of a Spidey book have told the tale of someone loving Spider-Man because of how they identified with the character? Brother, they weren't identifying with the web-slinging, super side!), to attempt to change that is to play with the hottest of fires. This is the same reason why Oracle couldn't, despite living in a world of wonders, regain the use of her legs. If she ever did, the character would be fundamentally altered- which, whether or not you like the current Batgirl book, I think everyone could agree that Barbara Gordon, ex- Oracle, is no longer the same person as Batgirl.
Slott has taken leave of his senses and decided to cure his hero's tragic flaw. Not through any earned progression, but through magic changes out of nowhere.
Parker is out of work and low on funds. Solution? Marla Jameson shows up using her connections as a scientist to hook Peter up with "Max Modell" super genius operator of Horizon Labs, who ends up giving Peter the job of his dreams. Be a scientist. Oh, you have to leave unexpectedly to fight crime? No worries! We're a progressive institution, come and go as you please. You have experiments on hand that'd reveal your identity as Spider-Man? No worries! Here's a special box closet thing that you can keep all your private stuff in, no one will ever see, not even me.
Both of those provisions, about leaving anytime and having a private box to store stuff in, were specifically mentioned in that first issue where Peter got the job. It's like the whole scenario was specifically designed to be Parker-proof. Not even Peter's self destructive habits could get him fired from this job, now he HAS to be well off for his work! No more money complaints from this guy! Even on the occasion when Peter acts suspiciously, even when Modell does go into that box and sees all the incriminating Spider stuff, there's nary a thought of "He's Spider-Man!"
To contrast, back in the day ol' Harry Osborn can find a pair of Spidey pajamas in his roommates drawers and KNOW that this is Spider-Man.
Obviously, Slott is bending over backwards to remove that sort of drama from the Spider books. And refocusing on adventures isn't a mistake at all... but to arbitrarily skip over the drama when his own writing created that drama is a mistake.
This is all separate from the oddity of how Peter has suddenly become, not just a brilliant chemist/physicist but a classic "omnidisciplinary scientist" that can build whatever mad creations you want, ala Reed Richards, which, you know, is Reed Richards thing. I personally find it very out of place in a Spider-Man book, but whatever.
After getting Peter Parker the job of his dreams that not even his being Spider-Man can ruin for him and get him kicked out of, Marla Jameson gets killed. She dies, and it effects Spider-Man to such a degree that ever since he's been quite emphatic about having no one else die when he's around. This displays a surprising lack of maturity about ones own limitations, but in itself is something Spider-Man could believably say, I suppose (I mean, if he didn't say it when Gwen Stacy died, it's not something he's going to say ever, but fine, for the sake of argument let's leave it). This desire to be a Spider-Man that never fails, a "Superior Spider-Man" if you will (oh, no! I'm starting to pull things together!), takes the odd turn of having him invent a series of super suits to aid in his war on crime or whatever.
These suits, a couple of neon Tron looking numbers, and an armoured one, haven't reappeared after their initial use despite their effectiveness. Why is that? Because of their negative side effects in regards to creating drama in the story. It's the same reason why Superman gets depowered a bit every ten years (an act which misses the point about Superman and the source of that characters drama, but that's another topic), so that the enemies can remain a substantial threat. That Slott didn't consider this when he let the genii out of the bottle is yet another example of short sightedness. Of course I apologize if it was mandated from on high that they wanted some action figure designs. Wait, that would only work if I had seen any action figures based on these designs, so I retract my possibility of retraction.
Furthering his aims towards creating a "Superior Spider-Man" was the story arc leading up to Spider-Island, where Spider-Man loses his spider sense and ends up training with Shang Chi to create "Spider-Fu". And yes, I am embarrassed to have typed "spider" so often in that last sentence. The problem as percieved by Slott was that Spidey relies too much on his spider sense. Slott's solution was to remove that spider sense as an excuse for training, making Spider-Man that much more effective when he got his spider sense back. Instead of capitalizing on the dramatic potential of taking away what is arguably Spider-Man's greatest ability (to be fair, the story arc leading up to the loss, and the first issue where he operates without it, were fantastic), Slott goes for a power up.
Not just a power up, but a power up suited to a boyish power fantasy. Spider-Man needs to be better? Kung fu. Obviously that's the answer. This is why the Spider Island story was so disappointing. The premise was beautiful: everyone in New York has Spider-Man's powers (plus webbing for some reason), so when you factor things out, Peter Parker has no more power, and therefore no more responsibility than anyone else. Even better, Peter didn't have his spider sense, so he's actually at an enormous disadvantage! I would have greatly enjoyed seeing Peter having to use his intelligence to solve the problem of the day, while constantly navigating the treacherous world that has erupted around him.
Instead, he has spider-fu, and is able to beat up everyone there. That is of course why people like Spider-Man: because he beats people up. Yes, I've heard that many a time.
All of which brings us to Amazing Spider-Man #700, wherein Doctor Octopus is in the body of Spider-Man and vice versa. Hardly the first time that a body swap has occurred between hero and villain, one could argue that the same trick was given us when the Chameleon had our hero chained up under a pot of acid or somesuch and went about AS Peter Parker. If memory serves, the Chameleon got away with that particular impersonation job, which is funny, because what usually happens with these stories is some other character sees through the charade and calls the villain out on it.
This time Slott is reacting to criticisms of his own story (I'm pretty sure it was Slott that wrote that bit with the Chameleon...): how do I keep the supporting cast members that know the main character so well, who live in a universe where body swaps happen and are therefore credulous enough to be on the lookout for them? Easy! I'll just give my body swapped characters all the memories of the other person.
Once more, Slott is trading away dramatic potential (Doc Ock in Spider-Man's body must now keep on his toes to avoid alerting Peter Parker's closest friends to the switch up, to say nothing of the Avengers or the Fantastic Four) for the sake of removing a problem that... wasn't a problem. I'm sure I've never lost sleep at night over the Chameleon's inability to know my innermost thoughts when he's stealing my life.
So Slott didn't want to do a straight body swap, he wanted to figurativlely sew Doc Ock's head onto Spider-Man's shoulder, complicatedly mish-mashing the characters together. All well and good, except for the infuriating part where he insists he's telling a body swap story. Doc Ock's body dies with all of Peter's and Ock's memories inside of it, but Peter's body lives with all of Peter's and Ock's memories inside of it. And yet we are told this is a body swap story, and that it is sad when "Peter" dies. I like how Octopus gloats about having all Peter's memories, and Peter has "all" of Ock's... excepting the part about how the mind copy-pasting was done. We'll just skim over that little problem, shall we?
This is actually a CLASSIC Marvel philosophical problem- what makes a person a person? Having the memories of a lifetime isn't apparently enough, since both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly get really messed up by the prospect of being a clone. Yes, the problem of feeling a kinship with friends and relatives who have never actually met you and already have "you" in their life is a juicy one... so why these comics feel the need to dwell on whether or not they deserve life or have a soul or not is sure confusing. Anyways.
Even though I greatly disagree with the assertion that what has happened in the story is a body swap, everything else that we're told by the writer, by the characters, everything we're directed to feel by the story is such that we are supposed to take this as a body swap. It's just like when you were little and playing action figures with some other kid, and you'd smash them together and the other kid would always declare himself the winner, despite the lack of reason behind that call. I win because. This is a body swap and now it's Ock Spider-Man because.
I say again, infuriating.
The actual flow of the main #700 story was quite well done up to the point where Peter-in-Ock's-body attempted to switch back with the little gold octobot. The action kept rising, both sides constantly countering the other in a "I know you know I know" sort of fashion. Despite the grittiness of it, the act of having Ock-in-Peter's-body punch off the Scorpion's jaw excellently illustrates why we root for Peter Parker, that we're on the side that controls that kind of power.
(It also, by the way, acts as the counter-argument to the need for a "Superior Spider-Man"- Spider-Man is already privy to such power that the act of improving him from a physicality standpoint is pointless. It also renders Doctor Octopus's condition as much less sympathetic. Before, it was framed such that the mean old Spider-Man had caused Octopus's state of being through the repeated body blows, but this points out Octopus was lucky to get out of even their first encounter with his head intact. To repeatedly antagonize Spider-Man becomes an act of stupidity on the Doctor's part.)
The turn around came, ignoring JJJ's slobbering over the Ock Spidey (this despite actively seeing Spider-Man be a menace with that jaw punching thing... sloppy characterization), when the gold octobot failed to switch back the "body swap".
From then on, it's all gobbledygook in the vein of Spider-Island. There's somehow a constant link, or something, between each characters minds (a fact that conveniently hadn't been brought up until now) and so Peter forces Octopus to REALLY relive some memories, thereby getting Octopus to see the error of his ways, and promising to be a good-ish Spider-Man. A Superior Spider-Man! One that will never fall for brain switching doodads! Then Peter-in-Ock's-body dies.
If we must take this story as a body swap, that it is indeed sad that Peter dies, then this story breaks the rules of good triumphing over evil. If this can happen, then when Thanos kills half the worlds population, there's no reason to think they'll be brought back to life by stories end. It's if the hero's journey, instead of a boy leaving his village for adventure and returning a conquering hero, it's the boy leaving and dying somewhere outside the village. No one really knows where, we never heard from him again, and we assume the worst.
If this wasn't really any kind of a body swap, like I've been talking about this whole time, that Peter Parker isn't really dead, then #700 is a story told under false pretenses that doesn't deserve any attention, and we've gone through all these hoops to try and mentally agree with this "body swap" idea for no reason.
The letters page has tributes to the character Spider-Man from various industry professionals. Some give touching accounts about, ultimately, the power of fiction to effect one's life, re-directing it's course forever, and then you have some joke tributes that cheapen the whole exercise.
The final letter in the book, from Kevin Tu, 13 years old, from Pennsylvania, tells us how these comics bridge time together. He's talking about the time Peter took a job at Tricorp, and how he ended up fired because he couldn't be reliable enough for the hours (thanks, Spider-Man!), and was hoping something similar didn't happen to Peter at Horizon labs. This is amazing to me. This kid was barely even alive when I was reading that Tricorp stuff, but look at him now, he's blazed through all the Amazing comics and is referencing Tricorp, the Clone Saga, other stuff that I've just now forgotten what he said... this is the power of a character like Peter Parker, a timelessness that lets people enjoy him in 1962, 1992, and 2012. One might even say that writing this character is a great responsibility.
Slott has dropped the ball on that responsiblity, aiming for a memorable run instead of maintaining the stewardship of the character. I've bought issues of Amazing Spider-Man since I was ten (I know, I'm surprised I was that old too, but I just checked the dates) and now, even if I wanted to, I can't anymore. What are the ten year olds of today to do?
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Toys for Christmas
Yesterday I made a stop off at Toys R Us to pick up a toy to donate this year. I didn't end up finding a readily accessible place to drop it off that evening, and didn't end up leaving the house today (someone was supposed to come over, but that didn't end up happening..).
I consoled myself with the thought that I'd be out and about Monday... but now I'm reading online that for most places the deadline is the 23rd, aka today. This is troubling.
Apparently fire stations (where they house people to put OUT fires, thankyouverymuch) will accept toy donations any day of the year, so I can drop this guy off, but I, and I really don't want to think this, may have missed out on this Christmas.
Among my options at Toys R Us, there were plenty of hardcore Spider-Man figures, thanks to this summers movie. No kid should be subjected to that. Iron Man is a complicated figure for a kid (though a hero nonetheless... I actually think I did a blog post here examining that difficulty.) Captain America is great, but a little country specific. Thor looks kind of scary.
Speaking of scary, the new figures for the latest Ninja Turtles cartoons are terrifying in how angry they make the turtles look. This from what is arguably the most cutesy incarnation of the group.
I ended up going with a decently priced box containing Batman and Joker figures.
It's more fun to have a villain to play off with.
Another option that I would have NEVER considered is the Green Arrow/Prometheus pairing.
You know what story has both Prometheus and Green Arrow together? The one where Prometheus kills Green Arrows adopted grand-daughter, whereupon Green Arrow hunts down and murders Prometheus.
To have these two in a fun little package together for kids is, yeah, obscene. What brain dead executive thought this was an appropriate pairing? What? Who?
At least Batman and Joker can laugh together. And more importantly, are in well written stories.
I consoled myself with the thought that I'd be out and about Monday... but now I'm reading online that for most places the deadline is the 23rd, aka today. This is troubling.
Apparently fire stations (where they house people to put OUT fires, thankyouverymuch) will accept toy donations any day of the year, so I can drop this guy off, but I, and I really don't want to think this, may have missed out on this Christmas.
Among my options at Toys R Us, there were plenty of hardcore Spider-Man figures, thanks to this summers movie. No kid should be subjected to that. Iron Man is a complicated figure for a kid (though a hero nonetheless... I actually think I did a blog post here examining that difficulty.) Captain America is great, but a little country specific. Thor looks kind of scary.
Speaking of scary, the new figures for the latest Ninja Turtles cartoons are terrifying in how angry they make the turtles look. This from what is arguably the most cutesy incarnation of the group.
I ended up going with a decently priced box containing Batman and Joker figures.
Another option that I would have NEVER considered is the Green Arrow/Prometheus pairing.
To have these two in a fun little package together for kids is, yeah, obscene. What brain dead executive thought this was an appropriate pairing? What? Who?
At least Batman and Joker can laugh together. And more importantly, are in well written stories.
Why I'll need to do something else. (Hint: It's for more money)
You know that thing where you bring up what had once been a sore spot months or years later and all the parties involved have a good laugh about it? That was attempted last night. Apparently I'm not able to laugh at it yet. Awkward.
(The night before- edit) Last night was highly weird.
Chiefly this was due to me having to be in upbeat party mood, when I had recieved my first paycheck for doing courier work and was let down. I thought I'd already lowballed what I might be getting (lowered expectations=never disappointed) but I, er, got to be surprised.
This is mitigated by three factors:
1. Due to getting the job on the Monday, I had only worked 4 of the 5 days that week.
2. The natural inefficiency that comes from having to do major guess work about where certain places are along a length of road.
3. My taking it relatively easy in getting to work, thereby starting late and reducing my earning potential.
For this past week problem 1 was eliminated, and problem 2 was greatly reduced. Unfortunately I was even worse about getting started in the morning. Adding that up will probably negate the benefit of having the extra week...
However, as a potential plus factor, there was no indication whether that first paycheck was on 50% or 65% commision. It was likely 50% because that's what you earn when you don't put in a full week. So unless they were REALLY generous about the fact that I obviously couldn't have worked that first Monday, then I'll get that boost with the following weeks cheque.
All together, I should be able to raise the amount to a suitable earning level, but most likely at the cost of some of the fun I was having with the job.
I took a short poll concerning whether my next venture should be getting the private investigators licence or taking the necessary course to become a personal trainer. Of the three people asked, the only definitive answer was in favour of the personal trainer option. I'll look into both sides in the meantime. Plus, there's no question that EVENTUALLY I'm getting the private investigators licence. It's too awesome a thing to not get.
In other news, "douce" is dictionary.com's word of the day, and it means sedate; modest; quiet.
Like some sleepy village out in the countryside.
It also sounds exactly like deuce. Crazy.
P.S.- I can sort of hear a difference, maybe. Still, in any kind of conversation it'd be all up to context.
(The night before- edit) Last night was highly weird.
Chiefly this was due to me having to be in upbeat party mood, when I had recieved my first paycheck for doing courier work and was let down. I thought I'd already lowballed what I might be getting (lowered expectations=never disappointed) but I, er, got to be surprised.
This is mitigated by three factors:
1. Due to getting the job on the Monday, I had only worked 4 of the 5 days that week.
2. The natural inefficiency that comes from having to do major guess work about where certain places are along a length of road.
3. My taking it relatively easy in getting to work, thereby starting late and reducing my earning potential.
For this past week problem 1 was eliminated, and problem 2 was greatly reduced. Unfortunately I was even worse about getting started in the morning. Adding that up will probably negate the benefit of having the extra week...
However, as a potential plus factor, there was no indication whether that first paycheck was on 50% or 65% commision. It was likely 50% because that's what you earn when you don't put in a full week. So unless they were REALLY generous about the fact that I obviously couldn't have worked that first Monday, then I'll get that boost with the following weeks cheque.
All together, I should be able to raise the amount to a suitable earning level, but most likely at the cost of some of the fun I was having with the job.
I took a short poll concerning whether my next venture should be getting the private investigators licence or taking the necessary course to become a personal trainer. Of the three people asked, the only definitive answer was in favour of the personal trainer option. I'll look into both sides in the meantime. Plus, there's no question that EVENTUALLY I'm getting the private investigators licence. It's too awesome a thing to not get.
In other news, "douce" is dictionary.com's word of the day, and it means sedate; modest; quiet.
Like some sleepy village out in the countryside.
It also sounds exactly like deuce. Crazy.
P.S.- I can sort of hear a difference, maybe. Still, in any kind of conversation it'd be all up to context.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Courier gig
Last week I started work as a courier. It's a job that I've dreamed of doing for a long time, and the fact that I'm actually doing it now is somewhat crazy. It makes me think maybe, just maybe, I can do a bunch of stuff that I want to do.
A friend of mine asked me about it, and here's what I had to say:
So here's the big thing. You get paid per package you deliver. The amount varies slightly depending on size of package, and probably whether it's a rush job or whatever. I don't know the exact numbers on that stuff because, well, I'm not a big money guy. I'm getting my first paycheck this friday, so even though I said I'm not a money guy, I have no choice but to be a little practical, so this check will really determine how long I can do this job.
As for how I'm liking it? I LOVE it! They've got the three courier types at this place, drivers, metropassers, and bikers, and as I've said before I'm metropassing it. I think the bikers have the best shot at raking in the dough, and if it wasn't on the verge of winter slushness I could probably see to trying it (honestly, I saw a bike almost get hit by a taxi today, and when that biker tells the story she'll be all "man, taxis are CRAZY" but from where I was sitting she almost drove into him). So I just walk around, and very often just smile that I get to be outside and walking around. My knees were pretty sore the first few days, but that seems to have died down, and I haven't had the energy to hit the gym afterwards since I started (which, I think you'll agree, is pretty understandable!) You can take a break whenever you need one, well, I assume. I mostly just chill out, eat my food and whatnot, whenever I have some unusually long subway distance to travel. Otherwise I try to plug along like a good, responsible, trooper.
The hardest part has actually been getting up in the mornings. Apparently even when you like what you do, you like your bed even more. So I keep hitting the snooze button WAY too much... and you know what they say when I drag myself over to yonge and bloor an hour late? Nothing! They don't seem to care! First time that's happened... but obviously I need to get there earlier to increase the ol' earning potential. In my defence, I haven't had to get up this early in well over a year, in fact it's basically the polar opposite schedule that I had been working (overnights... I actually went to bed at the sime time I'm getting up now).
My world just feels so much larger now. It's like I no longer have the urge to withdraw the maximum from my credit card and run away on the train for as far as it'd take me. You know, for now, anyways.
A friend of mine asked me about it, and here's what I had to say:
So here's the big thing. You get paid per package you deliver. The amount varies slightly depending on size of package, and probably whether it's a rush job or whatever. I don't know the exact numbers on that stuff because, well, I'm not a big money guy. I'm getting my first paycheck this friday, so even though I said I'm not a money guy, I have no choice but to be a little practical, so this check will really determine how long I can do this job.
As for how I'm liking it? I LOVE it! They've got the three courier types at this place, drivers, metropassers, and bikers, and as I've said before I'm metropassing it. I think the bikers have the best shot at raking in the dough, and if it wasn't on the verge of winter slushness I could probably see to trying it (honestly, I saw a bike almost get hit by a taxi today, and when that biker tells the story she'll be all "man, taxis are CRAZY" but from where I was sitting she almost drove into him). So I just walk around, and very often just smile that I get to be outside and walking around. My knees were pretty sore the first few days, but that seems to have died down, and I haven't had the energy to hit the gym afterwards since I started (which, I think you'll agree, is pretty understandable!) You can take a break whenever you need one, well, I assume. I mostly just chill out, eat my food and whatnot, whenever I have some unusually long subway distance to travel. Otherwise I try to plug along like a good, responsible, trooper.
The hardest part has actually been getting up in the mornings. Apparently even when you like what you do, you like your bed even more. So I keep hitting the snooze button WAY too much... and you know what they say when I drag myself over to yonge and bloor an hour late? Nothing! They don't seem to care! First time that's happened... but obviously I need to get there earlier to increase the ol' earning potential. In my defence, I haven't had to get up this early in well over a year, in fact it's basically the polar opposite schedule that I had been working (overnights... I actually went to bed at the sime time I'm getting up now).
My world just feels so much larger now. It's like I no longer have the urge to withdraw the maximum from my credit card and run away on the train for as far as it'd take me. You know, for now, anyways.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
The Name of the Wind
I asked a few friends of mine for some reading recommendations. The first I got was the Jeeves series of books by P.G. Wodehouse, the second was "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.
Recommedations made, my reading order had been decided.
The Jeeves books I'll get into later (truthfully, I thought I'd already written about them), but right now I want to spew vitriol against The Name of the Wind (hereafter referred to as NW for short).
Full disclosure: I have very little interest in fantasy books. I recognize their essential similarity to my beloved super hero comics, and I'm even told fantasy books are folded under the speculative fiction umbrella. I personally define speculative fiction as "our world with a twist, an 'if only', a 'but this'- and that being the case fantasy books tend to require an exponential number of such twist/only/this's that I hardly think it's a fair comparison. But whatever.
Also important to note that, in consequence of my lack of interest, I haven't read much fantasy. I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy in grade 8 (my only accomplishment during my year of home schooling), and made a half-hearted attempt at the Silmarillion (I haven't touched the thing since). The Hobbit had been read to me by my mother, and that's the only reason I'm going to humour this first-of-an-unnecessary trilogy that's just come out... though I will certainly be waiting at least a month before I go see it. I've read all the Harry Potter series, some entries had been read to me, but the effect is near enough to the same thing. The Narnia books were also read to me.
That, I believe, is the extent of my fantasy knowledge, again, discounting more modern set "science" fantasy. If it has technobabble in place of magic, that's science fiction/fantasy, and I'm much better versed in it (Doctor Who, I'm looking at you). Star Wars certainly has fantasy elements... you know what, forget this disclaimer. I've got enough fantasy knowledge to stand by my problems with this NW book. Even if I didn't, I would certainly be able to discuss it through my more general literary/story-telling sensibilities.
The novel is by one Patrick Rothfuss, it's his first, and it's a monster at 662 pages. Page counts are impressive right? They sell, right? It seems to me rather an exercise in self importance to have this novel reach this page count with so little story actually taking place within its pages. It's mind boggling to me how little seems to have actually happened in this book, how little actual 'story' has actually taken place.
The first problem is that it's never been decided what the story for this novel is. Supposedly it's the coming of age of this character Kvothe, as told by an older Kvothe, now living in hiding at an inn, to a master storyteller or somesuch. There is some problem that needs to be faced in this present, but we're only given the barest of glimpses at it. Something around five or six such interludes that marginally suggest that there even is some mystery in the present-to-the-future. During the telling of Kvothe's backstory (i.e. the main narrative) they have various characters tell tales of the world's history or it's own maybe fiction. The stories within the story actually are the best, most satisfyingly constructed stories. They have a beginning, middle, and end. Strange though that may seem. Climax and denoument and whatnot.
There's actually an infuriating interlude near the end of the novel that makes my point for me. Kvothe says that he's just about finished the difficult work of constructing the ground work for his story. Well, to borrow Scarlett O'Hara's excellent catchphrase, Fiddle-dee-dee! No, you don't get to be a novel whose sole job is to set up for the sequel. Not at this size.
There is so much half formed in this book, the qualities of young Kvothe are those of any three (four?) protagonists for three separate novels. He is, among other things, a master musician, a student of medicine, and a student of a sort of magical blacksmithing. Again, among other things! Too many, in fact, that we never really get to EXPERIENCE any of them. We're told that he spends two hours a day in the medical, uh, faculty, learning and practicing that craft. We even meet a potential love interest/friend from the medical school. Or maybe she's an enemy. Or maybe she's... nope, she's nothing. She gets introduced, several hundred pages later she goes with Kvothe to treat another character (who didn't end up even needing any medical treatment..) with very little introduction and very little effect on the story (though this character, Auri, actually has LOADS more significance than this medical student girl). An efficient story-teller would have excised this medical stuff completely, or mentioned it only EVER in passing. To have, my best guess, 30-40 pages of the medical school stuff in a 662 page book is to have no effect on the story.
If this character becomes important in the later novels (of this "Kingkiller Chronicle Trilogy" only the second novel is even out yet, so there're no guarantees of anything) then I can understand the use of her. Understand, not excuse, because it still adds nothing to the actual story of this novel in my hands.
This is one instance of a systemic problem in the novel, one of a lack of focus. The lack of depth in the characters is astounding. Kvothe's best friends at the University are Wil and Simmon. Besides being privy to their introduction we don't get to SEE them become friends. We're just told that they are. Best friends, in fact. We're told some of their background, but it never has any baring on the story. They hardly even hang out together, but at least we know they're the best friends of the main character at this point in his life. Again, if they do something significant in the next novel, that's great for that novel, but it doesn't do any good here.
There's the girl from the library (Archives) who Kvothe met on or around his first day. She comes back later to play at the damsel in distress to get saved, as well as a sort of accomplice when Kvothe breaks into the archives. Those are two interesting parts, important to both this novel AND setting up for the next. She's probably in 40-50 pages (if we're lucky).
The character Denna is the actual love interest, and according to the Your Mileage May Vary section on tvtropes.org she's part of the novels "romantic plot tumour". She has a lot of pages devoted to her. A lot. And that's fine! She's important to the story... I think the hearing about all the times Kvothe went out looking for her was probably completely irrelevant and wasted space in the book. Denna has a vastly disproportionate amount of the story devoted to her, but all it does is make me question what these other women are doing popping up in the story at all. These are the main characters/leading ladies of entirely different novels, and it seems Rothfuss wanted to shove them all together for his opening act.
I would probably be more forgiving of all this if Kvothe, when telling the professional story teller who he's dictating his life story to, hadn't yelled at this storyteller/writer, asserting that Kvothe himself was a master storyteller born and raised with a travelling troupe of showmen and that if this guy writing everything down changed even a word of what he was being told... I forget if he threatened the guy or just threatened to tear up the story. Either way, it was crazy irritating at the time, and then when Kvothe goes on to tell this mish-mash of mental wandering. Pfeh!
The antagonism between Kvothe's equivalent Snape and Malfoy (the characters Hemme and Ambrose) is, once again, hardly touched on through the course of the book. They show up every couple hundred pages, do something villainous (or just plain spiteful, an act that therefore hardly needed recording) then exuent stage right. Neither one could really be called the villain of the piece. There ISN'T any villain to the novel. There are some villainous characters, some of which provide a problem for our hero, but nothing over arcing.
There's a very fun battle with a draccus (sort of a dragon thing) near the end of the book. I guess that's the climax. It just sort of appeared while some other mystery was busy not getting solved this novel.
The history of this world and the intricacy of the rules of its magics are both impressively thought out. No question about that. But the story...
And now, as a petty final jab, here's an excerpt from p.54:
"My father was a better actor and musician than any you have ever seen. My mother had a natural gift for words. They were both beautiful, with dark hair and easy laughter. They were Ruh down to their bones, and that, really, is all that needs to be said.
Save perhaps that my mother was a noble before she was a trouper. She told me... (the passage goes on.)"
So, uh, maybe save that "and that is all that needs to be said" stuff for when you're actually done saying stuff. You monster.
Recommedations made, my reading order had been decided.
The Jeeves books I'll get into later (truthfully, I thought I'd already written about them), but right now I want to spew vitriol against The Name of the Wind (hereafter referred to as NW for short).
Full disclosure: I have very little interest in fantasy books. I recognize their essential similarity to my beloved super hero comics, and I'm even told fantasy books are folded under the speculative fiction umbrella. I personally define speculative fiction as "our world with a twist, an 'if only', a 'but this'- and that being the case fantasy books tend to require an exponential number of such twist/only/this's that I hardly think it's a fair comparison. But whatever.
Also important to note that, in consequence of my lack of interest, I haven't read much fantasy. I read The Lord of the Rings trilogy in grade 8 (my only accomplishment during my year of home schooling), and made a half-hearted attempt at the Silmarillion (I haven't touched the thing since). The Hobbit had been read to me by my mother, and that's the only reason I'm going to humour this first-of-an-unnecessary trilogy that's just come out... though I will certainly be waiting at least a month before I go see it. I've read all the Harry Potter series, some entries had been read to me, but the effect is near enough to the same thing. The Narnia books were also read to me.
That, I believe, is the extent of my fantasy knowledge, again, discounting more modern set "science" fantasy. If it has technobabble in place of magic, that's science fiction/fantasy, and I'm much better versed in it (Doctor Who, I'm looking at you). Star Wars certainly has fantasy elements... you know what, forget this disclaimer. I've got enough fantasy knowledge to stand by my problems with this NW book. Even if I didn't, I would certainly be able to discuss it through my more general literary/story-telling sensibilities.
The novel is by one Patrick Rothfuss, it's his first, and it's a monster at 662 pages. Page counts are impressive right? They sell, right? It seems to me rather an exercise in self importance to have this novel reach this page count with so little story actually taking place within its pages. It's mind boggling to me how little seems to have actually happened in this book, how little actual 'story' has actually taken place.
The first problem is that it's never been decided what the story for this novel is. Supposedly it's the coming of age of this character Kvothe, as told by an older Kvothe, now living in hiding at an inn, to a master storyteller or somesuch. There is some problem that needs to be faced in this present, but we're only given the barest of glimpses at it. Something around five or six such interludes that marginally suggest that there even is some mystery in the present-to-the-future. During the telling of Kvothe's backstory (i.e. the main narrative) they have various characters tell tales of the world's history or it's own maybe fiction. The stories within the story actually are the best, most satisfyingly constructed stories. They have a beginning, middle, and end. Strange though that may seem. Climax and denoument and whatnot.
There's actually an infuriating interlude near the end of the novel that makes my point for me. Kvothe says that he's just about finished the difficult work of constructing the ground work for his story. Well, to borrow Scarlett O'Hara's excellent catchphrase, Fiddle-dee-dee! No, you don't get to be a novel whose sole job is to set up for the sequel. Not at this size.
There is so much half formed in this book, the qualities of young Kvothe are those of any three (four?) protagonists for three separate novels. He is, among other things, a master musician, a student of medicine, and a student of a sort of magical blacksmithing. Again, among other things! Too many, in fact, that we never really get to EXPERIENCE any of them. We're told that he spends two hours a day in the medical, uh, faculty, learning and practicing that craft. We even meet a potential love interest/friend from the medical school. Or maybe she's an enemy. Or maybe she's... nope, she's nothing. She gets introduced, several hundred pages later she goes with Kvothe to treat another character (who didn't end up even needing any medical treatment..) with very little introduction and very little effect on the story (though this character, Auri, actually has LOADS more significance than this medical student girl). An efficient story-teller would have excised this medical stuff completely, or mentioned it only EVER in passing. To have, my best guess, 30-40 pages of the medical school stuff in a 662 page book is to have no effect on the story.
If this character becomes important in the later novels (of this "Kingkiller Chronicle Trilogy" only the second novel is even out yet, so there're no guarantees of anything) then I can understand the use of her. Understand, not excuse, because it still adds nothing to the actual story of this novel in my hands.
This is one instance of a systemic problem in the novel, one of a lack of focus. The lack of depth in the characters is astounding. Kvothe's best friends at the University are Wil and Simmon. Besides being privy to their introduction we don't get to SEE them become friends. We're just told that they are. Best friends, in fact. We're told some of their background, but it never has any baring on the story. They hardly even hang out together, but at least we know they're the best friends of the main character at this point in his life. Again, if they do something significant in the next novel, that's great for that novel, but it doesn't do any good here.
There's the girl from the library (Archives) who Kvothe met on or around his first day. She comes back later to play at the damsel in distress to get saved, as well as a sort of accomplice when Kvothe breaks into the archives. Those are two interesting parts, important to both this novel AND setting up for the next. She's probably in 40-50 pages (if we're lucky).
The character Denna is the actual love interest, and according to the Your Mileage May Vary section on tvtropes.org she's part of the novels "romantic plot tumour". She has a lot of pages devoted to her. A lot. And that's fine! She's important to the story... I think the hearing about all the times Kvothe went out looking for her was probably completely irrelevant and wasted space in the book. Denna has a vastly disproportionate amount of the story devoted to her, but all it does is make me question what these other women are doing popping up in the story at all. These are the main characters/leading ladies of entirely different novels, and it seems Rothfuss wanted to shove them all together for his opening act.
I would probably be more forgiving of all this if Kvothe, when telling the professional story teller who he's dictating his life story to, hadn't yelled at this storyteller/writer, asserting that Kvothe himself was a master storyteller born and raised with a travelling troupe of showmen and that if this guy writing everything down changed even a word of what he was being told... I forget if he threatened the guy or just threatened to tear up the story. Either way, it was crazy irritating at the time, and then when Kvothe goes on to tell this mish-mash of mental wandering. Pfeh!
The antagonism between Kvothe's equivalent Snape and Malfoy (the characters Hemme and Ambrose) is, once again, hardly touched on through the course of the book. They show up every couple hundred pages, do something villainous (or just plain spiteful, an act that therefore hardly needed recording) then exuent stage right. Neither one could really be called the villain of the piece. There ISN'T any villain to the novel. There are some villainous characters, some of which provide a problem for our hero, but nothing over arcing.
There's a very fun battle with a draccus (sort of a dragon thing) near the end of the book. I guess that's the climax. It just sort of appeared while some other mystery was busy not getting solved this novel.
The history of this world and the intricacy of the rules of its magics are both impressively thought out. No question about that. But the story...
And now, as a petty final jab, here's an excerpt from p.54:
"My father was a better actor and musician than any you have ever seen. My mother had a natural gift for words. They were both beautiful, with dark hair and easy laughter. They were Ruh down to their bones, and that, really, is all that needs to be said.
Save perhaps that my mother was a noble before she was a trouper. She told me... (the passage goes on.)"
So, uh, maybe save that "and that is all that needs to be said" stuff for when you're actually done saying stuff. You monster.
Friday, November 30, 2012
In response to the Batgirl thing again
Okay, last one for the month, and not a moment too soon. I have a job tonight that, while I was originally going to go to, end the shift at 10:30, then come home and write a post about it, well, things happen, and I don't want to miss my quota because of unforseen circumstances.
It should be pretty cool, it's access control for a school dance. Fingers crossed it's like a middle school or something. Maybe I should keep my stubble to be more intimidating.
I just wrote a good reply to the reply of my comment on that Batgirl topic (see earlier post) and I've got it all control-copied, ready to go right here, but would it make sense in a vacuum, without the comment it's replying to? Actually, maybe it's fine. Plus, like I said, I've got to get cleaned up to go soon, I'll want to be gone in about an hour or so.
For some flavour, be aware that while responding and therefore while writing this, I was eating an apple, so yes, it took awhile to type it out one handed. Of course, maybe that difference is negligible, what with the fact that I barely type better than a one-to-one hunt and peck style.
I'd be in big trouble if they ever shifted the keys to straight alphabetic. Wait, actually, most people would be in trouble, so never mind.
Anyways.
"Oh, thanks for the response Colin, but I should clear up one point on my end. When I was asserting that there was no clue as to why Batwoman would treat Batgirl as an equal partner, or thereabouts, and suggesting a lack of evidence for their deciding to work together, I didn't mean to gloss over the points you brought up at all, rather I should have said "it's evident why Batwoman would thing Batgirl an admirable person, what with her conceding the brawl so quickly/humbly, but where was the clue to point out that Batgirl was a capable crimefighter."
It's not for nothing that there have been examples upon examples of various Bat-family members telling other super people and copycats to get out of the game, what with their lack of proper training/skills/temperment. That's what made it so noteworthy in the Aztek book when Batman specifically told the title character that he was clearly trained enough to be a superhero (though also this is likely evidence of a more than slight mary-sue treatment on the part of the writers towards Aztek).
I suppose, and this isn't a criticism of this issue, but rather the series as a whole, this ties back into the lack of reason given for why Batgirl IS Batgirl. Mind, this isn't me advocating for a grim'n gritty raison d'etre, I liked that Batgirl operated simply because this was something she was capable of doing. But the story has gone out of its way to show us a stumbling Batgirl- this was done to ameliorate the outrage against suddenly undoing a paralytic injury- but really, if Batgirl can't convincingly protect herself in these dangerous situations she's throwing herself into, how can she justify going out night after night?
This is actually where the grim n' gritty origin comes in handy. If you can handwave this irresponsibility by saying the character is driven to it regardless of their physical conndition, well, that explains it. I guess what I'm saying here is- what drives Barbara Gordon?
I may have fallen off my original train of thought, but hopefully the cars are connected?"
It should be pretty cool, it's access control for a school dance. Fingers crossed it's like a middle school or something. Maybe I should keep my stubble to be more intimidating.
I just wrote a good reply to the reply of my comment on that Batgirl topic (see earlier post) and I've got it all control-copied, ready to go right here, but would it make sense in a vacuum, without the comment it's replying to? Actually, maybe it's fine. Plus, like I said, I've got to get cleaned up to go soon, I'll want to be gone in about an hour or so.
For some flavour, be aware that while responding and therefore while writing this, I was eating an apple, so yes, it took awhile to type it out one handed. Of course, maybe that difference is negligible, what with the fact that I barely type better than a one-to-one hunt and peck style.
I'd be in big trouble if they ever shifted the keys to straight alphabetic. Wait, actually, most people would be in trouble, so never mind.
Anyways.
"Oh, thanks for the response Colin, but I should clear up one point on my end. When I was asserting that there was no clue as to why Batwoman would treat Batgirl as an equal partner, or thereabouts, and suggesting a lack of evidence for their deciding to work together, I didn't mean to gloss over the points you brought up at all, rather I should have said "it's evident why Batwoman would thing Batgirl an admirable person, what with her conceding the brawl so quickly/humbly, but where was the clue to point out that Batgirl was a capable crimefighter."
It's not for nothing that there have been examples upon examples of various Bat-family members telling other super people and copycats to get out of the game, what with their lack of proper training/skills/temperment. That's what made it so noteworthy in the Aztek book when Batman specifically told the title character that he was clearly trained enough to be a superhero (though also this is likely evidence of a more than slight mary-sue treatment on the part of the writers towards Aztek).
I suppose, and this isn't a criticism of this issue, but rather the series as a whole, this ties back into the lack of reason given for why Batgirl IS Batgirl. Mind, this isn't me advocating for a grim'n gritty raison d'etre, I liked that Batgirl operated simply because this was something she was capable of doing. But the story has gone out of its way to show us a stumbling Batgirl- this was done to ameliorate the outrage against suddenly undoing a paralytic injury- but really, if Batgirl can't convincingly protect herself in these dangerous situations she's throwing herself into, how can she justify going out night after night?
This is actually where the grim n' gritty origin comes in handy. If you can handwave this irresponsibility by saying the character is driven to it regardless of their physical conndition, well, that explains it. I guess what I'm saying here is- what drives Barbara Gordon?
I may have fallen off my original train of thought, but hopefully the cars are connected?"
Elevator goes up, goes down.
I got to do a really cool job a couple of weeks back. This ad agency, somethingsomethingsomething music, was having an afterparty at their place of business downtown. The elevator only accesses their floor, the sixth, using a keycode that workers have. Due to the fact that it's a party, and not only workers are invited, the problem of getting people up the elevator to and from the party arose.
That's where myself and another guard come in.
All we had to do was pack in the elevator, then alert the guard on the sixth floor to press the elevator call button, and up it goes. We were essentially a hi-tech (relatively speaking) elevator operator! How awesome is that!?!
The shift was only about 5-6 hours, I forget exactly how long, which was also a relief. My shifts generally range from 9-12 hours, so anything less is a proverbial cakewalk.
The building itself was quite interesting. Situated just off Spadina, it houses a Toronto School of Art classroom (I'm pretty sure that was the title, regardless, it was an art class that wasn't OCAD based), I was told they were doing some life art/nude model drawing. That may have been a joke though, I'm not sure. Among other businesses in the building which I can't remember, I CAN remember "E-Lite Express", or, well, E-Lite something. Could it be a courier service? I like how I first read it as Ee-Light, just based off reading the spelling as is. Don't worry, I caught the clever cypher pretty quick.
I asked whether or not we had to keep track of how many people entered and exited the party for the purposes of keeping up with maximum occupancy laws or whatever... but nope, we didn't have to worry about it. Just press the button, send the elevator up. Be personable with the guests, easily done. Open the front door after it electronically locked (that was a bit of a surprise, but hardly anything to get worked up over).
Once again, working a stupid job that anyone and his monkey coulda done, but at least this time it was fun.
That's where myself and another guard come in.
All we had to do was pack in the elevator, then alert the guard on the sixth floor to press the elevator call button, and up it goes. We were essentially a hi-tech (relatively speaking) elevator operator! How awesome is that!?!
The shift was only about 5-6 hours, I forget exactly how long, which was also a relief. My shifts generally range from 9-12 hours, so anything less is a proverbial cakewalk.
The building itself was quite interesting. Situated just off Spadina, it houses a Toronto School of Art classroom (I'm pretty sure that was the title, regardless, it was an art class that wasn't OCAD based), I was told they were doing some life art/nude model drawing. That may have been a joke though, I'm not sure. Among other businesses in the building which I can't remember, I CAN remember "E-Lite Express", or, well, E-Lite something. Could it be a courier service? I like how I first read it as Ee-Light, just based off reading the spelling as is. Don't worry, I caught the clever cypher pretty quick.
I asked whether or not we had to keep track of how many people entered and exited the party for the purposes of keeping up with maximum occupancy laws or whatever... but nope, we didn't have to worry about it. Just press the button, send the elevator up. Be personable with the guests, easily done. Open the front door after it electronically locked (that was a bit of a surprise, but hardly anything to get worked up over).
Once again, working a stupid job that anyone and his monkey coulda done, but at least this time it was fun.
Between Batgirl and Batwoman
This post is a comment/response to this article:
http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.ca/2012/11/on-batgirl-12-by-gail-simone-ardian.html
I've mentioned them before, but it really can't be said too much that toobusythinkingaboutcomics is just about the best place to go for comic discussion, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, here's my response:
I'm pretty sure I've got this issue holed away somewhere in the house. That I'm not 100% sure is a testament to how forgetable I found it.
I know I've said this before, Colin, but I really can't get behind this book like you do. One small sticking point is that one looks like a superhero, and the other looks like a movie adaptation of a superhero. There are just the two characters whose designs clash with the new 52-niverse because they weren't updated with everyone else: Batwoman and Damian-Robin. If nothing else it's a testament to the lack of overall editiorial oversight or cohesive vision for the setting.
Regardless, I have to point out one section of your text here:
"The fact that it's Gordon and not Kane who takes the lead in the operation to free the imprisoned Rickey, for example, shows that there's a measure of appreciation that's quickly developed on Batwoman's side. After all, Kane wouldn't ever let an untrustworthy amateur take the point in a mission that's as dangerous as this, and Simone trusts us to note this without her having to ladle on the schmaltz."
Obviously the real reason Batgirl is in the lead is that it's her title- which is certainly fair enough. Even if we had been treated to a tale of an uber-able Batwoman, completely outshining Batgirl in every way, that would be fine so long as the viewpoint character was Gordon. That can be her story, otherwise I'm reading a Batwoman title.
But as you've pointed out here, the two ARE treated as equals, that Batwoman almost immediately recognizes Barbara as such, and for that I have to ask, why? What was the clue that told Batwoman she could count on Batgirl to effectively pull her weight? In my mind, there was none, beyond the editorial fiat stating to push Batgirl to the forefront as the more "iconic character".
It's incredibly difficult, your argument notwithstanding Colin, to see the need for both a Batwoman and a Batgirl title. And before you say it, I know, I know! The multiple Batman titles and Batman-style comics (Nightwing, if nothing else, though he's obviously quite unique from Batman..) would argue otherwise, and it IS a good thing to have more female-lead comics out there, but I just don't think Batgirl is the book to get more people into the medium.
If not for how aware I am that they're pushing Gordon as "the one true Batgirl", whatever that's worth, then I would be asking why the solo book for Barbara? The strategy for a good many of the 52 books is to go the team route, built around one solid selling character, but allowing dark horses to take off from there, with the fingers crossed result of finding other popular characters to launch a franchise with, examples of which being Tim Drake Robin being the lead in the Teen Titans book, Red Hood leading in his eponymous book, Booster Gold as the centre of the JLI book, as well as, to an extent, the Green Lantern books.
Considering this hook/lead-character-with-surrounding-team strategy, it seems like it would have been a natural to make it "Batgirl and the Birds of Prey". The character chemistry is already there, though necessarily altered by the change from Oracle to Batgirl, and it's not as though Gail Simone hasn't worked with this premise before.
Actually, to answer my own question (well, to answer it twice, since the "pushing Barbara to the forefront" is the other reason she got her own title) I wonder if having "Batgirl and the Birds of Prey" would have made too glaringly obvious the reduction of ability that would have taken place going from Oracle to Batgirl? If so, it's unfortunate that an idea for a cool book is thrown out immediately for the sake of hiding away the fact that they are trying to fit a square shaped Oracle into a circle shaped Batgirl.
http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.ca/2012/11/on-batgirl-12-by-gail-simone-ardian.html
I've mentioned them before, but it really can't be said too much that toobusythinkingaboutcomics is just about the best place to go for comic discussion, at least as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, here's my response:
I'm pretty sure I've got this issue holed away somewhere in the house. That I'm not 100% sure is a testament to how forgetable I found it.
I know I've said this before, Colin, but I really can't get behind this book like you do. One small sticking point is that one looks like a superhero, and the other looks like a movie adaptation of a superhero. There are just the two characters whose designs clash with the new 52-niverse because they weren't updated with everyone else: Batwoman and Damian-Robin. If nothing else it's a testament to the lack of overall editiorial oversight or cohesive vision for the setting.
Regardless, I have to point out one section of your text here:
"The fact that it's Gordon and not Kane who takes the lead in the operation to free the imprisoned Rickey, for example, shows that there's a measure of appreciation that's quickly developed on Batwoman's side. After all, Kane wouldn't ever let an untrustworthy amateur take the point in a mission that's as dangerous as this, and Simone trusts us to note this without her having to ladle on the schmaltz."
Obviously the real reason Batgirl is in the lead is that it's her title- which is certainly fair enough. Even if we had been treated to a tale of an uber-able Batwoman, completely outshining Batgirl in every way, that would be fine so long as the viewpoint character was Gordon. That can be her story, otherwise I'm reading a Batwoman title.
But as you've pointed out here, the two ARE treated as equals, that Batwoman almost immediately recognizes Barbara as such, and for that I have to ask, why? What was the clue that told Batwoman she could count on Batgirl to effectively pull her weight? In my mind, there was none, beyond the editorial fiat stating to push Batgirl to the forefront as the more "iconic character".
It's incredibly difficult, your argument notwithstanding Colin, to see the need for both a Batwoman and a Batgirl title. And before you say it, I know, I know! The multiple Batman titles and Batman-style comics (Nightwing, if nothing else, though he's obviously quite unique from Batman..) would argue otherwise, and it IS a good thing to have more female-lead comics out there, but I just don't think Batgirl is the book to get more people into the medium.
If not for how aware I am that they're pushing Gordon as "the one true Batgirl", whatever that's worth, then I would be asking why the solo book for Barbara? The strategy for a good many of the 52 books is to go the team route, built around one solid selling character, but allowing dark horses to take off from there, with the fingers crossed result of finding other popular characters to launch a franchise with, examples of which being Tim Drake Robin being the lead in the Teen Titans book, Red Hood leading in his eponymous book, Booster Gold as the centre of the JLI book, as well as, to an extent, the Green Lantern books.
Considering this hook/lead-character-with-surrounding-team strategy, it seems like it would have been a natural to make it "Batgirl and the Birds of Prey". The character chemistry is already there, though necessarily altered by the change from Oracle to Batgirl, and it's not as though Gail Simone hasn't worked with this premise before.
Actually, to answer my own question (well, to answer it twice, since the "pushing Barbara to the forefront" is the other reason she got her own title) I wonder if having "Batgirl and the Birds of Prey" would have made too glaringly obvious the reduction of ability that would have taken place going from Oracle to Batgirl? If so, it's unfortunate that an idea for a cool book is thrown out immediately for the sake of hiding away the fact that they are trying to fit a square shaped Oracle into a circle shaped Batgirl.
The take away here is that caffeine is a stimulant.
Travelling back a ways, I discovered that two completely unrelated people that I'm friends with- unrelated in that they are part of two distinct social circles- actually happen to know each other by virtue of it being a small world after all.
Or rather they work at the same cafe. So the real coincidence is that they both know me, I guess.
It would have been an easy enough circumstance to pass by entirely. "I'm going to my friend such and such's party." "Oh, what a coincidence, my friend that I work with also happens to be going to a party for a such and such."
"Wait, what's your friends name?"... "We're going to the same party! And we already know each other!"
Obviously this was exciting news... because we clearly need to get out more.
I decided against the winking/tongue sticking out emoticon just now. Good decision?
Due to this cross over of the century (fortunately, DC already crossed over with Marvel in the last century, so we're on safe hyperbolic ground) I made the trip out to visit their place of work last Saturday, the 24th. I had to head out anyways, since it was my dad's birthday and I had to pick up baking supplies as well as a gift (I opted for season 5 of the Simpsons. The Simpsons was a given, since there was an old school Simpsons reference that completely flew over the guy's head on my facebook page, and when I asked two people which season I should get they both immediately said, and without consulting each other, season 5. Seemed a safe bet.), so things worked out in that regard.
The place is called The Red Rocket Cafe, uh, or something like that, and it's really quite charming. By the entrance there are framed comic pages, Donald Duck being the prominent star in my mind. Several newspapers hung about the table by the fireplace (I think it was a fireplace... it wasn't lit up in any event), and I was happy to read the opinion sections while waiting for an audience with the captive employees I'd come to visit.
I also got a a pumpkin latte... or maybe it was an espresso... is pumpkin latte espresso an option? If so, that's what I got. Additionally, I got a pumpkin spice cake loaf thing. I wasn't too crazy about either thing, nothing against the food at this establishment, I'm just not too into "spice" cake, and I don't really do hot beverages OR caffeine, so that was a two-fer.
It did help keep me going for the rest of the day, so I appreciate that.
Or rather they work at the same cafe. So the real coincidence is that they both know me, I guess.
It would have been an easy enough circumstance to pass by entirely. "I'm going to my friend such and such's party." "Oh, what a coincidence, my friend that I work with also happens to be going to a party for a such and such."
"Wait, what's your friends name?"... "We're going to the same party! And we already know each other!"
Obviously this was exciting news... because we clearly need to get out more.
I decided against the winking/tongue sticking out emoticon just now. Good decision?
Due to this cross over of the century (fortunately, DC already crossed over with Marvel in the last century, so we're on safe hyperbolic ground) I made the trip out to visit their place of work last Saturday, the 24th. I had to head out anyways, since it was my dad's birthday and I had to pick up baking supplies as well as a gift (I opted for season 5 of the Simpsons. The Simpsons was a given, since there was an old school Simpsons reference that completely flew over the guy's head on my facebook page, and when I asked two people which season I should get they both immediately said, and without consulting each other, season 5. Seemed a safe bet.), so things worked out in that regard.
The place is called The Red Rocket Cafe, uh, or something like that, and it's really quite charming. By the entrance there are framed comic pages, Donald Duck being the prominent star in my mind. Several newspapers hung about the table by the fireplace (I think it was a fireplace... it wasn't lit up in any event), and I was happy to read the opinion sections while waiting for an audience with the captive employees I'd come to visit.
I also got a a pumpkin latte... or maybe it was an espresso... is pumpkin latte espresso an option? If so, that's what I got. Additionally, I got a pumpkin spice cake loaf thing. I wasn't too crazy about either thing, nothing against the food at this establishment, I'm just not too into "spice" cake, and I don't really do hot beverages OR caffeine, so that was a two-fer.
It did help keep me going for the rest of the day, so I appreciate that.
At the movies for Skyfall
An interesting thing happened on the way to go watch Skyfall last week. Okay, it was actually an interesting thing during the movie, but I didn't want to pass up the chance to use that idiom.
Though the movie was into its second week, it was a cheap tuesday showing at the Scarborough Town Centre, so the theatre was pretty packed, and we ended up taking seats at the top row of that very front section that everyone hates to sit in. If I remember correctly we were slightly closer to the middle (just by one seat though) until our neighbors begged us to move over one for a friend of theirs. So it goes, and thus I was seated with one empty chair to my right, separating me from the aisle.
Appearing soon afterwards, a mousy little asian girl, maybe in her late teens (if I'm lucky- you'll see why soon) came and asked if she could take that lone aisle seat. We said she could. She immediately placed all her belongings, winter jacket and a bag, on the seat before leaving the auditorium. My friend to the left and I exchanged glances, commenting on the oddity of just leaving your belongings with strangers with nary a word of explanation. Perhaps she trusted in the audacity of the action. We obviously didn't go through her stuff, so how terrible a call could it have been?
During the movie itself she very often, well,what would be the word here... it was like she brushed her hair without a brush, but I don't mean she was literally combing her fingers through her hair, she had the length of her hair gathered on the one side of her face, and was continually running her left and right hand down it. It didn't seem to be a nervous action necessarily, but it was a sort of grooming habit that definitely stood out in the midst of a Bond film. The way I've described it makes it sound creepier than it was, really it was just odd.
Additionally, and perhaps I'm mistaken, but she seemed to be leaned over towards my person to such a degree that there was the sense of my being leaned on. I didn't have any problem with this, it's not like she was gross or anything, and let me stop you right there and tell you that I was in fact consciously staying away from the right side. I wanted to be very sure that it wasn't possible for me to be accused of being the leaning party- the arm rest was completely all hers and everything.
These two factors combined, I imagined she was kind of lonely, and just wanted someone to watch the movie with. She laughed at all the appropriate parts of the film (re: the parts I laughed at) so I was quite happy to engage her afterwards with a "good movie, eh?" but she zipped off pretty fast.
Regardless, Skyfall itself was excellent. I'm not a big Bond afficionado, but this was clearly made with an eye to both the fans and the enormity of the franchise's history. It seems the "Hollywood Hacking" on display was egregious, but how can I know that? I'm obviously scared of computers!
Though the movie was into its second week, it was a cheap tuesday showing at the Scarborough Town Centre, so the theatre was pretty packed, and we ended up taking seats at the top row of that very front section that everyone hates to sit in. If I remember correctly we were slightly closer to the middle (just by one seat though) until our neighbors begged us to move over one for a friend of theirs. So it goes, and thus I was seated with one empty chair to my right, separating me from the aisle.
Appearing soon afterwards, a mousy little asian girl, maybe in her late teens (if I'm lucky- you'll see why soon) came and asked if she could take that lone aisle seat. We said she could. She immediately placed all her belongings, winter jacket and a bag, on the seat before leaving the auditorium. My friend to the left and I exchanged glances, commenting on the oddity of just leaving your belongings with strangers with nary a word of explanation. Perhaps she trusted in the audacity of the action. We obviously didn't go through her stuff, so how terrible a call could it have been?
During the movie itself she very often, well,what would be the word here... it was like she brushed her hair without a brush, but I don't mean she was literally combing her fingers through her hair, she had the length of her hair gathered on the one side of her face, and was continually running her left and right hand down it. It didn't seem to be a nervous action necessarily, but it was a sort of grooming habit that definitely stood out in the midst of a Bond film. The way I've described it makes it sound creepier than it was, really it was just odd.
Additionally, and perhaps I'm mistaken, but she seemed to be leaned over towards my person to such a degree that there was the sense of my being leaned on. I didn't have any problem with this, it's not like she was gross or anything, and let me stop you right there and tell you that I was in fact consciously staying away from the right side. I wanted to be very sure that it wasn't possible for me to be accused of being the leaning party- the arm rest was completely all hers and everything.
These two factors combined, I imagined she was kind of lonely, and just wanted someone to watch the movie with. She laughed at all the appropriate parts of the film (re: the parts I laughed at) so I was quite happy to engage her afterwards with a "good movie, eh?" but she zipped off pretty fast.
Regardless, Skyfall itself was excellent. I'm not a big Bond afficionado, but this was clearly made with an eye to both the fans and the enormity of the franchise's history. It seems the "Hollywood Hacking" on display was egregious, but how can I know that? I'm obviously scared of computers!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Kamen Rider Kuuga
"I will become the blue sky."
That's the last line of the ending theme to Kamen Rider Kuuga, denoting the peaceful, hopeful nature of the protagonist, Godai Yuusuke*. He's slightly goofy but overwhelmingly nice and kind. Every character (besides the evil monsters) loves him almost immediately. Is this a drawback as far as having a fully fleshed out protagonist? It would be... except he works his charms on the audience as well. I ALSO love the guy- and I'm not sure there's anyone who wouldn't.
Godai gives a thumbs up to everyone. That's how he says everything will work out okay.
*(I'm pretty sure, using western naming conventions, that Godai is the guys last name... but then why did EVERYONE refer to him as Godai? Even his sister! That seems unduly formal. But in Decade the alternate reality equivalent of Kuuga was referred to as Yuusuke by everyone. So I'm really confused about this.)
Below is a screenshot from an early episode, wait, it may be the first episode come to think of it, where he's cheering up a lost kid at the airport. Godai is a friend to the children- and everyone else.
Two examples of Godai being silly:
1) Well, this is more him being kinda simple, but it's still funny.
And, okay, at some point you should see what Kuuga actually looks like, huh?
I should maybe talk about the lack of a second Rider in this show, or the surprising development of the secondary characters, or... you know, other stuff. But I chiefly like the show because it's star makes you happy. And now I'm tired and want to hit the sack.
That's the last line of the ending theme to Kamen Rider Kuuga, denoting the peaceful, hopeful nature of the protagonist, Godai Yuusuke*. He's slightly goofy but overwhelmingly nice and kind. Every character (besides the evil monsters) loves him almost immediately. Is this a drawback as far as having a fully fleshed out protagonist? It would be... except he works his charms on the audience as well. I ALSO love the guy- and I'm not sure there's anyone who wouldn't.
*(I'm pretty sure, using western naming conventions, that Godai is the guys last name... but then why did EVERYONE refer to him as Godai? Even his sister! That seems unduly formal. But in Decade the alternate reality equivalent of Kuuga was referred to as Yuusuke by everyone. So I'm really confused about this.)
Below is a screenshot from an early episode, wait, it may be the first episode come to think of it, where he's cheering up a lost kid at the airport. Godai is a friend to the children- and everyone else.
Two examples of Godai being silly:
1) Well, this is more him being kinda simple, but it's still funny.
2) This is Godai answering the phone, pretending to be the other guy in the car. It was incredibly funny, and totally unexpected. His face is so weird in this sequence,it's basically the oddest thing in the whole series.
And, okay, at some point you should see what Kuuga actually looks like, huh?
Marineman!
I'm trying to get through the last few episodes of Kamen Rider Kuuga right now. I started episode 47 but was a little confused. They seemed to gloss over a bit of set up to that episode, so I looked over and I saw the 46.5 episode. So that's what's currently playing in the background. It looks like it's just a REALLY long clip show (just shy of an hour!), so I'm able to concentrate on writing some blog stuff.
Right beside me is Ian Chruchill's "Marineman". It's a comic I picked up for Jordan's birthday, but only just recently got the chance to read it myself. I'm pretty sure I picked it up because I confused the creator with Mike Weiringo, an awesome artist who died a few years ago whose claim to faim was the unbridled optimism apparent in his work.
An example of Mike Weiringo's stuff.
I should probably have used a better example of Weiringo's stuff, but that's actually the cover to the first comic by him I ever owned, so I went the nostalgic route.
For comparison, here's an example of some of Churchill's most famous work, his Supergirl run:
You'll note that, though both versions of work are highly stylized, the Marineman cover is the more obviously cartoonish... and more realistic? Idealized? The Supergirl stuff has her ridiculously thin, and the women in Marineman are very curvy. For a slight contrast, while Marineman himself is obviously gigantic, with arms bigger than most peoples head, it's actually addressed in-story. He's very specifically a mutant human. So that's his excuse.
The story is cluttered with exposition. I took one look at that first page and knew I needed to be fresh to tackle this thing. I'm fairly positive that Churchill is only known for his art, and it shows with his writing here. Cliches left right and centre, the aforementioned exposition, and an abundance of tell don't show.
But on the otherhand, this work is obviously a labour of love for the man. He LOVES the ocean, and wanted to create a vehicle to instruct people about it. Not only that, but he's doing it with a character he created as a very little kid- now THAT is something I can relate to.
Among the special features at the back of the book, there's the sketches he drew when he was little- including a mini comic he made back then (it looks so much like the stuff my brothers and I drew when we were little..)- but the largest section is devoted to his "Oceanauts" interviews, interviews with various ocean related scientists (oceanographers, marine biologists, etc. etc.). Man, that was dry stuff. But only because it's not entirely to my interest. I really do appreciate the enthusiasm these guys bring to the table.
Right beside me is Ian Chruchill's "Marineman". It's a comic I picked up for Jordan's birthday, but only just recently got the chance to read it myself. I'm pretty sure I picked it up because I confused the creator with Mike Weiringo, an awesome artist who died a few years ago whose claim to faim was the unbridled optimism apparent in his work.
The cover to Marineman (obviously)
An example of Mike Weiringo's stuff.
I should probably have used a better example of Weiringo's stuff, but that's actually the cover to the first comic by him I ever owned, so I went the nostalgic route.
For comparison, here's an example of some of Churchill's most famous work, his Supergirl run:
You'll note that, though both versions of work are highly stylized, the Marineman cover is the more obviously cartoonish... and more realistic? Idealized? The Supergirl stuff has her ridiculously thin, and the women in Marineman are very curvy. For a slight contrast, while Marineman himself is obviously gigantic, with arms bigger than most peoples head, it's actually addressed in-story. He's very specifically a mutant human. So that's his excuse.
The story is cluttered with exposition. I took one look at that first page and knew I needed to be fresh to tackle this thing. I'm fairly positive that Churchill is only known for his art, and it shows with his writing here. Cliches left right and centre, the aforementioned exposition, and an abundance of tell don't show.
But on the otherhand, this work is obviously a labour of love for the man. He LOVES the ocean, and wanted to create a vehicle to instruct people about it. Not only that, but he's doing it with a character he created as a very little kid- now THAT is something I can relate to.
Among the special features at the back of the book, there's the sketches he drew when he was little- including a mini comic he made back then (it looks so much like the stuff my brothers and I drew when we were little..)- but the largest section is devoted to his "Oceanauts" interviews, interviews with various ocean related scientists (oceanographers, marine biologists, etc. etc.). Man, that was dry stuff. But only because it's not entirely to my interest. I really do appreciate the enthusiasm these guys bring to the table.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Clearly this is the future
I know I should give it a rest with the dream journal, but when I first wake up it's just the first thing that grabs me (for obvious reasons). Plus, it's a more attractive subject when the things I dream happen to be utterly INSANE.
In an oddly specific turn, I was up at York University during a War of the Worlds style alien invasion. There was no fighting back, this wasn't Starship Troopers (I should really watch that, too) and I knew that was the case. Since, in my mind, any invasion will work its way east and south from York- I never did too much exploring north and west of that area, so in this story those directions are total wastelands, and therefore the only safe place to go. My strategy was, as it always is, if EVERYONE is going one way, escaping back towards 'civilization', then that was the one way I wasn't going to go.
I took Jordan and we began something of a death march north of steeles. The surroundings immediately became that of the barren north pole (okay, more like the south pole since we could walk everywhere, but whatever). Empty. White. Cold. Wind. There was every reason to think we would die on this journey. But then we found our escape. A brightly coloured bridge/portal, which, the more I think about it while I'm awake, I can only call the bifrost bridge. We crossed it and we were immediately transported to a leafy green sanctuary. Temperate, lovely, and from which we could see out into the whole world.
I was suddenly back with other people, which is just how dream logic goes, I don't have any reason for it to have happened, and we're preparing to evacuate back to the bifrost that I've told them about. We have a small cluster of humanity hidden away at the top of the world, at the center of which is a giant apple tree. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Yggdrasil the world tree? (probably spelled Yggdrasil wrong, well can you blame me?)
I'm playing a card game at this outpost at the end of the world. I'm trying to let this one friend of mine win, but he seems to be blatantly cheating, so we have to call him out on it. Before we can really do something about it, the real show begins outside. It starts raining apples! We exit our cheap motel like headquarters (of course I'm not going to imagine having a tent to stay in) to watch the show. At the top of the hill I look out onto the world as a wave of red as far as I can see falls and crushes everything. I assumed we'd have a similar problem here, but we only had a sprinkling of apples.
I move closer to the tree, and look up at the sky. There's a planet! It explodes into glittery incandescence. I assume it's a trick of the light, but the person who's standing beside me says the planet is gone. Understandably, the crowd of people I'm with are exclaiming about how this is the end of the universe. The apples, sprouting small hummingbird wings, start flying around. It isn't exactly evidence of galactic stability.
A spaceship careens through the sky and crashes into the cliff/steep hill beside our now roofless motel headquarters. I know, this really is a pretty crazy dream. I assume any inhabitants of the ship died in the crash, but there were three passengers and they were fine. They looked human enough, accept for the overly large eyes, the dark pupils taking up a disturbingly extra amount of space in them, as well as a sort of uniformly whiteish blue haircolour. Two guys and a girl aliens from Venus.
They speak english, the one replies to something I said with an "oh, snap" and I have to explain to this teacher that was communicating with them that 'snap' is actually a colloquial term that we have today. I excitedly tell her that these three are evidence of a sort of "lexigraphical convergence". But it was more likely, now that I think on it in the cold light of day, that they learned our language after the fact with radio broadcasts or something.
It hardly mattered. When most of the surviving humans moved out of sight of me, one of the venusians attacked me. He's trying to choke me, and I've got him pushed away with my feet... and then, in an embarrassing turn, I get saved by a character from an off the air tv show, the identity of which I'll let slip into obscurity rather than outline it here.
While I was distracted with my own attack (because, obviously!) the other two aliens start attacking everyone else, screaming at people and generally causing psychic trauma to everyone. I picked up the one alien to throw at the last (yes, I'm apparently just this strong) to disrupt their attack, but this is where I wake up.
So, how do you like that? Little flying apples at the end of the world? That's quite a trick, isn't it?
In an oddly specific turn, I was up at York University during a War of the Worlds style alien invasion. There was no fighting back, this wasn't Starship Troopers (I should really watch that, too) and I knew that was the case. Since, in my mind, any invasion will work its way east and south from York- I never did too much exploring north and west of that area, so in this story those directions are total wastelands, and therefore the only safe place to go. My strategy was, as it always is, if EVERYONE is going one way, escaping back towards 'civilization', then that was the one way I wasn't going to go.
I took Jordan and we began something of a death march north of steeles. The surroundings immediately became that of the barren north pole (okay, more like the south pole since we could walk everywhere, but whatever). Empty. White. Cold. Wind. There was every reason to think we would die on this journey. But then we found our escape. A brightly coloured bridge/portal, which, the more I think about it while I'm awake, I can only call the bifrost bridge. We crossed it and we were immediately transported to a leafy green sanctuary. Temperate, lovely, and from which we could see out into the whole world.
I was suddenly back with other people, which is just how dream logic goes, I don't have any reason for it to have happened, and we're preparing to evacuate back to the bifrost that I've told them about. We have a small cluster of humanity hidden away at the top of the world, at the center of which is a giant apple tree. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? Yggdrasil the world tree? (probably spelled Yggdrasil wrong, well can you blame me?)
I'm playing a card game at this outpost at the end of the world. I'm trying to let this one friend of mine win, but he seems to be blatantly cheating, so we have to call him out on it. Before we can really do something about it, the real show begins outside. It starts raining apples! We exit our cheap motel like headquarters (of course I'm not going to imagine having a tent to stay in) to watch the show. At the top of the hill I look out onto the world as a wave of red as far as I can see falls and crushes everything. I assumed we'd have a similar problem here, but we only had a sprinkling of apples.
I move closer to the tree, and look up at the sky. There's a planet! It explodes into glittery incandescence. I assume it's a trick of the light, but the person who's standing beside me says the planet is gone. Understandably, the crowd of people I'm with are exclaiming about how this is the end of the universe. The apples, sprouting small hummingbird wings, start flying around. It isn't exactly evidence of galactic stability.
A spaceship careens through the sky and crashes into the cliff/steep hill beside our now roofless motel headquarters. I know, this really is a pretty crazy dream. I assume any inhabitants of the ship died in the crash, but there were three passengers and they were fine. They looked human enough, accept for the overly large eyes, the dark pupils taking up a disturbingly extra amount of space in them, as well as a sort of uniformly whiteish blue haircolour. Two guys and a girl aliens from Venus.
They speak english, the one replies to something I said with an "oh, snap" and I have to explain to this teacher that was communicating with them that 'snap' is actually a colloquial term that we have today. I excitedly tell her that these three are evidence of a sort of "lexigraphical convergence". But it was more likely, now that I think on it in the cold light of day, that they learned our language after the fact with radio broadcasts or something.
It hardly mattered. When most of the surviving humans moved out of sight of me, one of the venusians attacked me. He's trying to choke me, and I've got him pushed away with my feet... and then, in an embarrassing turn, I get saved by a character from an off the air tv show, the identity of which I'll let slip into obscurity rather than outline it here.
While I was distracted with my own attack (because, obviously!) the other two aliens start attacking everyone else, screaming at people and generally causing psychic trauma to everyone. I picked up the one alien to throw at the last (yes, I'm apparently just this strong) to disrupt their attack, but this is where I wake up.
So, how do you like that? Little flying apples at the end of the world? That's quite a trick, isn't it?
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Short dream, not as good as the last one I did
Well, that took forever to get a connection. All I wanted to do was quickly tell you about this dream I had. It was all about this neanderthal man that had been found, and although we people studying him were skittish, especially when we accidentally let the guy outside, he was all sorts of sweet and gentle, and eager to help with our research. It was only at the end, when this one researcher, a sort of Susan Sarandon type, was feeling brave, and generous, and comfortable enough that she sort of gave a nuzzle/peck on the cheek to the neanderthal guy, that this other researcher feels a pang of jealousy.
Unfortunately, this jealousy is picked up by the neanderthal through scent, and throws him into a self protective berserker rage, that ends with the researcher bloodied and wailing for help (I got the impression that his tongue had been ripped out).
I then immediately dreamt the criticisms to that story. "Oh, that plot twist came out of nowhere/it wasn't properly set up/it all seems a rather pat ending."
Yes, those criticisms are all basically the same thing- whatever.
Anyways, I need to try and get back to sleep, you'll hear more from me soon.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Follow up to the Gone/Wind reading
I was talking about this with a friend a month ago- I go through phases of doing stuff. This is hardly a surprise, probably most people are like this in one way or another, unless their lives are so regimented that nothing ever changes for them... which is kind of cool and lucky. Those people are, I think, exceptionally hard working, but often a little on the wound up side of things.
When I had brought this up, I was in a big reading phase. Good thing too, since I was getting through Gone with the Wind, and at 1000 pages I would've had a rough time getting through it if I wasn't in "tearing through pages" mode.
But I haven't been in a reading mode since. For the past week I've done one of three things: go to the gym, watch episodes of Veronica Mars, konk out asleep what with the gym doings.
That's not to say I haven't been up to other stuff, visiting friends, seeing movies, all the usual stuff I like to write here about (not that I have been writing here- not in that mode, and I've gotta get into it now, it's that time), but yeah. Just those three things.
I finally have to return Gone with the Wind today. I've been done it for a month, but I was late returning it originally, and so had it renewed when I was basically done. It's just been sitting beside my bed ever since, with me too lazy to take it back. To be fair, it's a doorstopper of a novel, maybe it's just too heavy?
Oh, but one other thing about my mode business- though this past week has been all gym stuff, the week before I was sick... probably because of hitting the gym the week before that. So that's why I haven't been fighting the urge to drop off to sleep. I'm trying to be REALLY careful not to get sick again. So far so good.
Just to update you on that book: Margaret Mitchell, born in 1900, is the author, and seems to have never written another novel. Fair enough, when it's as successful as it was, it's a tough act to follow. Plus it's already the size of three largish novels, so take it easy. I may be forgetting some critical piece of info though. Wikipedia. Okay, so she had a novel she wrote as a teen (400 pages, naturally) get published in 1994 when it was found (remember, or rather, so you know, she died in 1949) and she had a novellete which I bet was still ridiculously long, and articles written for The Atlanta Journal.
Rhett Butler was generally awesome, I pointed out on my facebook page how there's a scene that is almost word for word the exchange between Han Solo and Princess Leia in Empire Strikes Back, so dollars to donuts the scene is kept in the movie version and Lucas totally ripped it off.
However, as the book progresses it becomes clear that Scarlett and Rhett are both terrible, horrible people. I like to refer to the whole thing as "Pride and Prejudice EXTREME", where the main characters never get over their issues and get to be sad forever.
I'm tired, and it's been a month since I was all up in this business. That's good for now. More posts to follow soon, since I have to catch up.
When I had brought this up, I was in a big reading phase. Good thing too, since I was getting through Gone with the Wind, and at 1000 pages I would've had a rough time getting through it if I wasn't in "tearing through pages" mode.
But I haven't been in a reading mode since. For the past week I've done one of three things: go to the gym, watch episodes of Veronica Mars, konk out asleep what with the gym doings.
That's not to say I haven't been up to other stuff, visiting friends, seeing movies, all the usual stuff I like to write here about (not that I have been writing here- not in that mode, and I've gotta get into it now, it's that time), but yeah. Just those three things.
I finally have to return Gone with the Wind today. I've been done it for a month, but I was late returning it originally, and so had it renewed when I was basically done. It's just been sitting beside my bed ever since, with me too lazy to take it back. To be fair, it's a doorstopper of a novel, maybe it's just too heavy?
Oh, but one other thing about my mode business- though this past week has been all gym stuff, the week before I was sick... probably because of hitting the gym the week before that. So that's why I haven't been fighting the urge to drop off to sleep. I'm trying to be REALLY careful not to get sick again. So far so good.
Just to update you on that book: Margaret Mitchell, born in 1900, is the author, and seems to have never written another novel. Fair enough, when it's as successful as it was, it's a tough act to follow. Plus it's already the size of three largish novels, so take it easy. I may be forgetting some critical piece of info though. Wikipedia. Okay, so she had a novel she wrote as a teen (400 pages, naturally) get published in 1994 when it was found (remember, or rather, so you know, she died in 1949) and she had a novellete which I bet was still ridiculously long, and articles written for The Atlanta Journal.
Rhett Butler was generally awesome, I pointed out on my facebook page how there's a scene that is almost word for word the exchange between Han Solo and Princess Leia in Empire Strikes Back, so dollars to donuts the scene is kept in the movie version and Lucas totally ripped it off.
However, as the book progresses it becomes clear that Scarlett and Rhett are both terrible, horrible people. I like to refer to the whole thing as "Pride and Prejudice EXTREME", where the main characters never get over their issues and get to be sad forever.
I'm tired, and it's been a month since I was all up in this business. That's good for now. More posts to follow soon, since I have to catch up.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Six paragraphs in and I just got it.. it's a cross between Quantum Leap and Sliders!!!
So I seem to have discovered a new show! It was on some obscure chanel in the upper-hundreds (which made it rather difficult to track down what it was called after I'd thoughtlessly changed the station). After a lot of narrowing down, I've determined that it's name was something like "The City between Cities", although more appropriate would have been "The World Between Worlds".
The premise is there's this scientist who was working on a device to, obviously, cross over to another parallel earth, and each episode would revolve around him taking someone over to that other earth so they could learn an important lesson about themselves. You get to see the machine in the opening credits, it's a convoluted looking series of tubes and straps that you would lay face down in, when the machine is activated there was steam everywhere, I think it was powered by a sort of built up charge of ambient heat. However, after the main character/scientist guy used it once, after that he could just transport between the worlds using a series of what sounded like mumbo-jumbo, but was probably some Indian dialect, or chinese or something, to suggest that the process was a mix between science and astral projection or something. I guess, come to think of it, that it'd be just like how John Carter gets to Mars in that book/movie.
The main character/scientist looked a lot like Scott Bakula... in fact the whole show in general seemed to be a bit of a Quantum Leap rip-off. Fine by me!
I got to see the end of one episode, and then I think the beginning of that same episode later (good old mountain time!) as well as part of another two episodes. I'll relate what happens in each.
The first thing I saw was the scientist giving a dog to this one guy who was scared of animals. It was revealed that he had used to love them, in fact this dog was an alternate universe version of his own old dog, one that hadn't died when he was a kid. But he wasn't just scared because his dog had died, that wouldn't have quite made sense. It sounds like his dog actually killed his aunt before dying (I guess the dog would've been put down after doing that...) and that's what traumatized the guy. Makes sense. But our scientist main character stresses to the guy that his dog was sick (I'm guessing rabies, right?) and so it wasn't the dogs fault. The guy seems to accept this, is glad to have "his" dog back, and the scientist lays a hand on both this guy and the dog, says his incantation, and they all pop back into their home dimension. End of episode.
I'm glad I got to see the beginning to this episode, just so that it made sense why being afraid of animals was a big problem for this guy. How was he in any contact with them at all? Well, it looks like on their world (their home dimension can't be ours either, since we don't have this practice) he's a sort of race car driver, and it's tradition for their to be a sort of back-end to the racers following the cars- a bunch of horses following after. If their are multiple horses it might make sense that it's actually a whole separate race, that they just happen one after the other on that world. Car race- go! then horses- go! Then maybe they release the hounds, why not? So the guy would always be so wary of those horses getting out of the block that all the other racers would have a huge lead on him, and when the horses were caught up to again going around the track, this driver would again be slowed down to a large degree taking that extra time to go even further than everyone else around the horses. The announcer said this was a practice that they only really had at that stadium, but that the remainder of the racing season was going to be taking place at that stadium, so if this guy didn't get over his fear his career would be ruined.
I didn't see at all how the main scientist got involved or why. Maybe he wanted to bet on this guy? That doesn't seem like his character, but I'm just guessing.
From the other two snippets of episodes I saw (it's possible that they were the beginning and ending to another single episode, I could see the one going in that direction) this important story element was gotten across: gravity and or physics worked differently on the other earth (also, it's winter on the base earth and summer on the other earth- the heat on the other earth makes it easier to gather power to make the jump back. Though it's also easier as it's more of a snapback than a pushing forward. It's the rubber band effect. Regardless, ambient heat seems to allow the process, and the whole thing can be sped up on the main earth because they have a device collecting power for the jumps, but on the other earth they have to rely on their own bodies I guess. Meaning they may be trapped until they gather enough heat energy or something.). That was a long bit of parentheses. Right, gravity and physics. So people transferring over to the other earth are inordinately stronger than they would ordinarily seem to be. This is mostly used for transportation, which makes sense from a story perspective: you don't want to spend every 15 minutes of an episode getting the main characters some car SOMEHOW. This way they can just super leap anywhere they want to go.
In fact they could leap to such an absurd degree that it's actually easier to find someplace by leaping than by using a map. That doesn't make sense. But regardless we got to see how this other world is set up, since presumably most of the adventures would take place in a particular section of that world. We got to see that this city was spread out over a series of islands clustered east of the north american continent. I imagine now that the idea is New York and Maine states, in this reality, aren't attached to the mainland. That's what it looked like to me anyways. Oh, but, don't quote me on Maine, that's just a guess.
The McDonald's all serve hotdogs and bags of chips (not burgers and fries), the automatic doors open and close slightly faster than on our world (get used to that rythm or get hilariously squashed), and it's socially acceptable for men to be wearing high-heeled shoes. Those may be all the main differences that I noticed.
So in this other episode I got to see the scientist go to this other world with two people, a guy and girl (again, they didn't have to sit in the device at all, the scientist just grabbed their arms, said his unintelligible phrase, and boom, there they were) and leap around to do some exploring. The girl ends up feeling sick from the teleport process, so the guy jumps around frantically searching for a hospital to bring her to, not knowing where to go since the scientist left them for some other quick business. I guess he's got business on this other world, I don't know. Makes sense if he's there all the time. It's during this sequence that we get to see the McDonald's and everything. Soon the scientist shows up and tells the guy that he's already brought the girl to a hospital.
That's all I saw of that, BUT if I assume that the other thing I saw was part of the same episode, then it looks like the guy is taught a process to be ultra strong (even beyond what happens normally from being on this world.. this lends credence to the idea that they are only travelling as a sort of avatars that can have whatever "programmed" strength. Maybe I was wrong about them taking the dog back with them in that previous episode...). It somehow works by leaping high into the air and concentrating, as his muscle mass undergoes a sharp increase. When he returns to the surface he immediately attacks the scientist (since the girl is nowhere to be seen, she may have taken a turn for the worse, that would explain everything anyways). The scientist takes advantage of his greater familiarity with the world and the abilities he's gotten used to, and is mostly able to outmanouever and outfight this guy- however the guy does eventually land a punch that sends the scientist literally flying, crashing through trees and whatnot. It was pretty spectacular, and definitely gave a good incentive to not get hit again.
The fight goes on, cool as it was, there wasn't much story to it. The scientist, with his greater speed and agility, not hampered by the excess strength, won the day. The guy was done, exhausted, and finally the scientist held the guys shoulder, said the phrase, and that was the end.
For the sake of narrative sense, let's say the girl had died, explaining why the guy was upset, and why she wasn't there for the return trip. Alternatively, this may have just been another episode.
So I suppose this show was more a mix of Quantum Leap, Sliders, and all the John Carter adventures. That's a pretty impressive mix- what hasn't John Carter inspired?
Finally, my big reveal... I didn't actually see this show on some late night chanel, I haven't had cable in over a year. This was all a dream I just had. However, I DID actually dream that I was watching it on tv, with cable, and had tried to search out the show with the guide thing that tv's have nowadays.
But what's great about that is that it means I get to be the creator/writer of all this stuff, just now! Awesome!
Uh, with many thanks to, again, Quantum Leap, Sliders, and the John Carter series of novels, even though I'd only seen the big budget Disney movie.
The premise is there's this scientist who was working on a device to, obviously, cross over to another parallel earth, and each episode would revolve around him taking someone over to that other earth so they could learn an important lesson about themselves. You get to see the machine in the opening credits, it's a convoluted looking series of tubes and straps that you would lay face down in, when the machine is activated there was steam everywhere, I think it was powered by a sort of built up charge of ambient heat. However, after the main character/scientist guy used it once, after that he could just transport between the worlds using a series of what sounded like mumbo-jumbo, but was probably some Indian dialect, or chinese or something, to suggest that the process was a mix between science and astral projection or something. I guess, come to think of it, that it'd be just like how John Carter gets to Mars in that book/movie.
The main character/scientist looked a lot like Scott Bakula... in fact the whole show in general seemed to be a bit of a Quantum Leap rip-off. Fine by me!
I got to see the end of one episode, and then I think the beginning of that same episode later (good old mountain time!) as well as part of another two episodes. I'll relate what happens in each.
The first thing I saw was the scientist giving a dog to this one guy who was scared of animals. It was revealed that he had used to love them, in fact this dog was an alternate universe version of his own old dog, one that hadn't died when he was a kid. But he wasn't just scared because his dog had died, that wouldn't have quite made sense. It sounds like his dog actually killed his aunt before dying (I guess the dog would've been put down after doing that...) and that's what traumatized the guy. Makes sense. But our scientist main character stresses to the guy that his dog was sick (I'm guessing rabies, right?) and so it wasn't the dogs fault. The guy seems to accept this, is glad to have "his" dog back, and the scientist lays a hand on both this guy and the dog, says his incantation, and they all pop back into their home dimension. End of episode.
I'm glad I got to see the beginning to this episode, just so that it made sense why being afraid of animals was a big problem for this guy. How was he in any contact with them at all? Well, it looks like on their world (their home dimension can't be ours either, since we don't have this practice) he's a sort of race car driver, and it's tradition for their to be a sort of back-end to the racers following the cars- a bunch of horses following after. If their are multiple horses it might make sense that it's actually a whole separate race, that they just happen one after the other on that world. Car race- go! then horses- go! Then maybe they release the hounds, why not? So the guy would always be so wary of those horses getting out of the block that all the other racers would have a huge lead on him, and when the horses were caught up to again going around the track, this driver would again be slowed down to a large degree taking that extra time to go even further than everyone else around the horses. The announcer said this was a practice that they only really had at that stadium, but that the remainder of the racing season was going to be taking place at that stadium, so if this guy didn't get over his fear his career would be ruined.
I didn't see at all how the main scientist got involved or why. Maybe he wanted to bet on this guy? That doesn't seem like his character, but I'm just guessing.
From the other two snippets of episodes I saw (it's possible that they were the beginning and ending to another single episode, I could see the one going in that direction) this important story element was gotten across: gravity and or physics worked differently on the other earth (also, it's winter on the base earth and summer on the other earth- the heat on the other earth makes it easier to gather power to make the jump back. Though it's also easier as it's more of a snapback than a pushing forward. It's the rubber band effect. Regardless, ambient heat seems to allow the process, and the whole thing can be sped up on the main earth because they have a device collecting power for the jumps, but on the other earth they have to rely on their own bodies I guess. Meaning they may be trapped until they gather enough heat energy or something.). That was a long bit of parentheses. Right, gravity and physics. So people transferring over to the other earth are inordinately stronger than they would ordinarily seem to be. This is mostly used for transportation, which makes sense from a story perspective: you don't want to spend every 15 minutes of an episode getting the main characters some car SOMEHOW. This way they can just super leap anywhere they want to go.
In fact they could leap to such an absurd degree that it's actually easier to find someplace by leaping than by using a map. That doesn't make sense. But regardless we got to see how this other world is set up, since presumably most of the adventures would take place in a particular section of that world. We got to see that this city was spread out over a series of islands clustered east of the north american continent. I imagine now that the idea is New York and Maine states, in this reality, aren't attached to the mainland. That's what it looked like to me anyways. Oh, but, don't quote me on Maine, that's just a guess.
The McDonald's all serve hotdogs and bags of chips (not burgers and fries), the automatic doors open and close slightly faster than on our world (get used to that rythm or get hilariously squashed), and it's socially acceptable for men to be wearing high-heeled shoes. Those may be all the main differences that I noticed.
So in this other episode I got to see the scientist go to this other world with two people, a guy and girl (again, they didn't have to sit in the device at all, the scientist just grabbed their arms, said his unintelligible phrase, and boom, there they were) and leap around to do some exploring. The girl ends up feeling sick from the teleport process, so the guy jumps around frantically searching for a hospital to bring her to, not knowing where to go since the scientist left them for some other quick business. I guess he's got business on this other world, I don't know. Makes sense if he's there all the time. It's during this sequence that we get to see the McDonald's and everything. Soon the scientist shows up and tells the guy that he's already brought the girl to a hospital.
That's all I saw of that, BUT if I assume that the other thing I saw was part of the same episode, then it looks like the guy is taught a process to be ultra strong (even beyond what happens normally from being on this world.. this lends credence to the idea that they are only travelling as a sort of avatars that can have whatever "programmed" strength. Maybe I was wrong about them taking the dog back with them in that previous episode...). It somehow works by leaping high into the air and concentrating, as his muscle mass undergoes a sharp increase. When he returns to the surface he immediately attacks the scientist (since the girl is nowhere to be seen, she may have taken a turn for the worse, that would explain everything anyways). The scientist takes advantage of his greater familiarity with the world and the abilities he's gotten used to, and is mostly able to outmanouever and outfight this guy- however the guy does eventually land a punch that sends the scientist literally flying, crashing through trees and whatnot. It was pretty spectacular, and definitely gave a good incentive to not get hit again.
The fight goes on, cool as it was, there wasn't much story to it. The scientist, with his greater speed and agility, not hampered by the excess strength, won the day. The guy was done, exhausted, and finally the scientist held the guys shoulder, said the phrase, and that was the end.
For the sake of narrative sense, let's say the girl had died, explaining why the guy was upset, and why she wasn't there for the return trip. Alternatively, this may have just been another episode.
So I suppose this show was more a mix of Quantum Leap, Sliders, and all the John Carter adventures. That's a pretty impressive mix- what hasn't John Carter inspired?
Finally, my big reveal... I didn't actually see this show on some late night chanel, I haven't had cable in over a year. This was all a dream I just had. However, I DID actually dream that I was watching it on tv, with cable, and had tried to search out the show with the guide thing that tv's have nowadays.
But what's great about that is that it means I get to be the creator/writer of all this stuff, just now! Awesome!
Uh, with many thanks to, again, Quantum Leap, Sliders, and the John Carter series of novels, even though I'd only seen the big budget Disney movie.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Unsurprisingly, more Faiz before I give up
Oh, man, I forgot to mention that Faiz is also taken from the arabic and is a name meaning "successful" and "victorious". Also, Greek letters were used thematically- "Phi" appears as the symbol whenever Faiz destroys.. fine, kills, one of the orphenochs. Φ <- a="a" copied="copied" got="got" here.="here." isn="isn" nice="nice" of="of" onto="onto" p="p" part="part" phi="phi" symbol.="symbol." symbol="symbol" t="t" the="the" underline="underline">
Okay something else... unless you want me to keep talking about Faiz? That evil selfish jerk pot-stirrer Kamen Rider Kaixa (pronounced "Kaiza" I guess) is almost the REAL villain of the show. He specifically sabotages the relationship between Takumi and Kiba, which at the time seemed to be a case of sabotaging human/orphenoch relations. All because he wanted the one girl for himself. It doesn't help how much he looks like a psycho stalker.
Anywayanywayanyway. You don't want to hear about Faiz anymore.
Let's see... you know what? It's Halloween, and I'm at home trying to watch me some Ghostbusters. How about I hop on the facebook, and copy paste the super short little anecdote from the evening I've got posted there as my status? Just getting something, then I can post this entry, and call it a night:
I assigned Jordan the task of handing out candy. Eventually, he runs out.
Jordan: Oh, sorry, I just ran out of candy.
Parent: Say thank you
Kid: Thank you
Me: *Heart-broken* He didn't have to say thank you!
Looks like two more boxes of candy needed next year...
I had two boxes last year. Not enough. This year, I got three. Still not enough. It'd be fine if we ran out on the teens that shouldn't be around- but the wee ones!
Jordan quote: "I'm glad the deaf kid got some candy."
Happy Halloween, I'm out! See you next month!
Okay something else... unless you want me to keep talking about Faiz? That evil selfish jerk pot-stirrer Kamen Rider Kaixa (pronounced "Kaiza" I guess) is almost the REAL villain of the show. He specifically sabotages the relationship between Takumi and Kiba, which at the time seemed to be a case of sabotaging human/orphenoch relations. All because he wanted the one girl for himself. It doesn't help how much he looks like a psycho stalker.
Anywayanywayanyway. You don't want to hear about Faiz anymore.
Let's see... you know what? It's Halloween, and I'm at home trying to watch me some Ghostbusters. How about I hop on the facebook, and copy paste the super short little anecdote from the evening I've got posted there as my status? Just getting something, then I can post this entry, and call it a night:
I assigned Jordan the task of handing out candy. Eventually, he runs out.
Jordan: Oh, sorry, I just ran out of candy.
Parent: Say thank you
Kid: Thank you
Me: *Heart-broken* He didn't have to say thank you!
Looks like two more boxes of candy needed next year...
I had two boxes last year. Not enough. This year, I got three. Still not enough. It'd be fine if we ran out on the teens that shouldn't be around- but the wee ones!
Jordan quote: "I'm glad the deaf kid got some candy."
Happy Halloween, I'm out! See you next month!
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