I haven't seen Spiderman Vs Every Villain or Fantastic Four: Surf's Up. I really enjoyed PotC: Long Acronym and 28 Sober Weeks Later (with Sandra Bullock) but really, my favourite current summer blockbuster is Order of the Stick !! This is really one incredibly compelling mega-adventure. I think they he should get together with the Shaun of the Dead boys (re-watched last nite... BRILLIANT !!) and do the third D&D movie as a completely tongue-of-fire in cheek fantasy story, full of insider jokes. June 21 07

I left customer feedback at Sideshow last night. I just got this reply:

"Thank you for your recent submission of your comments to our site. We appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts with us and have passed them on to the appropriate department for further review in consideration of our future products.

Our product is not produced to make a political or social statement but is fashioned after entertainment properties currently in the market place. We suggest that if you do find the Mary Jane product offensive that you refrain from viewing that web page.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance."

Last week, there was a lesson to be learned. Marmy had decided she needed lessons in the DC Universe, the number of MegaCrossovers, in particular. Kent, the man with the massive wall of graphic novels, rose to the occasion and offered to be the tutor. I accompanied for sake of company and amusement. She came away with probably more questions then she had answered but also with a stack of collected crossover stories from about 5 different DC "we destroya da universe to put it back togedder" stories.

After reading a few issues of the garish 80s "Crisis on the Infinite Earths" (pink sky? oh its explained) she realized that there were gaps between issues. That's because its a MegaCROSSOVER series. Sure, there might be a dozen or so main comics but almost every other DC title of the year was affected. So, I says to myself, I imagine someone out there has collected the entire mass comic collection on BitTorrent. Did they? Yah and a few Gigs later it was downloaded. Me so bad, me love the interweb.

P.S. The most recent crossover is 9gigs in it's entirety. March 19 07

This Superman article is by a Matt Rossi, the name of a guy who I used to read religiously. He was one of the people that seemed to be the reason that the web/blogs were created -- so much was coming out of his head: superhero ponderings, alternate histories, disturbing explanations of odd bits of reality, etc. I wonder if this was him and if so, what he is up to lately. March 29 06

For about a decade, I have been known as the "guy with the pins on his bag" amongst my friends. Though I have expired many many bags (starting with those canvas ones from surplus shops) I have more or less hung onto the pins. Recently, say the last 4 years or so, it has taken off so just about every event I go to adds one and many friends have also produced a few to promote their personalities. My Psycho pin is falling apart and it is the second of it's kind. Graig recently gave me my first toast related one. And I still giggle when I think about the little old lady smiling and tapping my arm after she read the "All grown up and still fascinated with boobies" pin, given by Joe. People have complimented me on the bag, for whatever reason, and have suggested places to buy them. But I don't go looking for the pins; I take them when I run into them. I also do not mourn the loss of one, remembering with some embarrassment the night I got all mopey depressed because I lost the Invisibles pin. I found it, lost it again, bought another and have since lost that. Segue? Oh, as I scrolled down through this weblog, I saw these Mosley Meets Wilcox David Bowie plates and thought they were pins. And THAT gives me a spectacular idea for the photoblogging world. January 20 06

The whole thing that makes the DC World animations so great is that they obviously they take themselves just seriously enough, knowing that 40somethings are watching but their audience is kids. They are cartoony but heroic. But with Ultimate Avengers, why do I just cringe? Obviously inspired by the Ultimate Universe over at Marvel, they are doing an animated movie. But weren't The Avengers already called The Ultimates? I fear that while Marvel does much better at the Hollywood blockbuster end of things, trying their hand at animation might just get pretty bad. Just look at the previous X-Men cartoons, which were sooooo standard saturday morning schmaltz. (via Gushie) January 16 06

So it's been about a week away from the keyboard. We had a guest in the guest slash computer room and while I did have access to the media slash J's computer, I do my blogging from here.

A few things on the go. Turned 38 the week past and I feel old. Maybe it's the trucker belly that is uncomfortable to sleep on, maybe it's the almost-40 and in neutral (workwise) and maybe it is because I actually am. I collected my usual fair of popculture from friends and J -- finally I can watch Jeremiah Johnson in it's entirety instead of just a few minutes here and there when it runs on A&E on sundays. And it's appropriate that I am watching Band of Brothers considering the time of the year.

Speaking of gifts, on the day in question J and I did our dinner at our favourite mexican resto here at Yonge & Eg (Mariachi just south of Eg) and on the walk there I was wondering if something was up. We had sent out emails to the usual crowd and everyone, including the guest, replied that they had other plans. Every plan sounded plausible but the coincidence was amazing. So of course they were all at the resto when we arrived. Cards were passed, beer was imbibed and I ate far too much. I paid for it the rest of the night. Oh, and cake was eaten -- Dufflet cake, gawdamn heavenly cake! Thanks for coming folks!! And after all these years J still knows how to make me grin in appreciation.

The week with the guest (p.s. since when am I so anonymous? it was the geeky ent by the way) was a way-stressful week at work. I know, I know people who know me never hear me stop but things were grandly stressful. The largest seasonal sale of The Store's year was happening -- we were down at least half a dozen bodies with inexperienced occasionals taking up the slack, managers calling in sick and customer tensions at an all time high. There is a point in stress where you no longer get annoyed or angry or upset but feel tired all the time. That was me, burnt and exhausted but not due to overt hours. Sure I worked a day-off and some extra hours here and there but really it was the environment and seeing all the people who were on day 11 of a no-break stretch. It's over now so the lack of bodies is balanced by a normal 100% customer ratio.

Pop culture is still being absorbed at a high speed downloaded rate. Watched the new D&D movie the other night in all it's badly acted, horribly scripted, tons of in-jokes glory. Still, it was strangely better than the hollywood first movie. On the weekend the rest of the gang giggled at MST3K while I fell asleep. On Monday, gKent and I went to see MirrorMask and I fell asleep a couple of times. Too much imagery turned a switch in my brain. Will have to see it again with J and any other Gaiman slash McKean fans who want to come. My current loo-read is an atomic age Green Latern paperback digest that gKent gave me -- lots of weak stories, silly villains and less than a stellar understanding of science; I love old comics. And I haven't rolled a ball all week. November 03 05

So Nathan Fillian, better known to me as Capt. Malcom Reynolds of the Serenity was at Warp 1, the comic shop I spent alot of time at in Edmonton. He was buying an issue of the recently released Serenity comic for his mom. They tried to charge him more than face value for the book. Now he wants the browncoats (think trekkies but fans of Firefly) to boycott the place.

I don't remember much about the staff but the "anime chick" (would come to work in cos-play regalia) and a few who were decent but I do remember the boss/owner as having quite the asshole rep. I imagine he is not the only shop doing so; the Grey Region here in TO always has popular comics bagged and "re-priced" according to saleability. July 29 05