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?"
Friday, November 30, 2012
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.
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