Bloggers: Use caution | News.blog | CNET News.com: "AUSTIN, Texas--Laina Dawes and Elaine Liner are pretty sure they were fired for blogging. It's not 100 percent certain, of course, because no one ever told them so officially, but the evidence seems solid."

Just another example of why I don't talk about work on my blog.

LifeStraw : Home: "Recognizing the importance of safe water in
our daily lives and the billions of people who
are still without access to these basic human
rights, LifeStraw was developed as a practical
response to the urgency, and confirm our commitment
to achieving the MDGs."

Sometimes there are things more worth pointing out than comic books.

As with yesterday, I'm not complaining about Infinite Crisis in an "I can't believe it's not better, I'm so shocked it's crap because I had such high expectations sort of way." But what I forgot to mention was that the most recent issue ends with the Superboy of Earth Prime (really, it makes sense if you read comics that were published TWENTY YEARS AGO and not mentioned again until now) showing up wearing the Anti-Monitor's costume.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?

Because now the series has the potential to genuinely surprise me. Because if it doesn't turn out that Superboy of Earth Prime (again, twenty years ago it made sense) is possessed by the Anti-Monitor somehow, I really will be caught off guard. Because this is a story from Geoff Johns, hailed as a fantastic writer for rehabillitating Green Lantern Hal Jordan with a handy "The Devil (or Yellow Fear Alien; same thing) made me do it" excuse. So, y'know, why not go for the old possession thing again?

SERIOUSLY?!?!?

Having said all that, I do want to point out that I'm not saying that all Marvel and DC superhero titles are crap. Or even not of interest to me, which is a more honest evaluation. I'm expecting to keep enjoying Legion of Super-Heroes and Birds of Prey as much as I ever did, because they were good without relying on the crutch of retelling stories from the past, or bringing back old characters just for nostalgia purposes. I'm expecting good things of Hawkgirl because Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin developed their own voices as storytellers decades ago, and proved back then that, even when working on company-owned characters like Thor, Blackhawk and The Shadow, their own voices would come shining through. And they told stories that, again, didn't rely on bringing back the past.

And Marvel? Nextwave is still great; a superhero comic that doesn't waste time being anything else than a big, action-packed, explody thing. She-Hulk? Brings back lots of stuff for the sake of nostalgia, true, but manages to tell interesting, funny stories with it, rather than, say, sticking in eight pages of lousy (but gorgeous) Captain Carrot story in the middle of an issue of Teen Titans without capturing any of the spirit of the original Captain Carrot series. Plus, Paul Smith is going to start drawing She-Hulk. (And Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man doesn't really count as a superhero book, does it?)

Beyond that, and the Dini and Morrison-scripted Batman books I mentioned yesterday, it's tough for me to imagine a new Marvel or DC series that would make me want to buy it. DC is announcing one new series after another these days, starring characters I used to love, by creators I used to like, and none of them interest me in the slightest. And I'm going to lay a chunk of the blame squarely at the feet of Infinite Crisis, for so clearly defining for me what I'm not enjoying about the comics these days.

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "Mirrormask director Dave McKean will direct Varjak Paw, a big-screen adaptation of the kung-fu cat series by S.F. Said for the Jim Henson Co., according to The Hollywood Reporter. McKean, an illustrator turned director and frequent Neil Gaiman collaborator, will also pen the screenplay with Said.
"

Loved the first book--illustrated by Dave McKean--so excited to read this. (Haven't read the second book yet.)

A couple of months ago, when I talked about ordering Infinite Crisis, I said up front that I was going into this with my eyes open. Being written by Geoff "Why come up with a new idea when you can just revisit a plot from 25 years ago?" Johns, who produced the silly mess, Green Lantern: Rebored, I expected it to be a lame story, and I only decided to buy it so I could be surprised by the story as I read it, instead of stumbling across spoilers on the Internet. But I said at the time that if I bought it knowing, in advance, that it would be crap, I wouldn't complain.

And I'm not going to complain, but isn't it astonishing how truly lousy it is? How everything in it completely depends on the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, how it brings absolutely no new or original ideas to the table, and at the same time completely fails to understand the point of the original? I swear, after five issues of this, and the constant reminders that we are currently smack dab in the middle of the "Hey, remember this guy?" era of comics, I can't imagine what it would take to get me to add a new DC or Marvel superhero comic to my list (a list that has seen a whole slew of DC and Marvel superhero comics taken off it in the past couple of months).

Actually, I do know what it would take: Grant Morrison and Paul Dini writing the two Batman comics, because I'm planning on getting those. But otherwise, unless it's being done by creators who have proven for a long, long time that they're capable of producing more than crap (and here, I guess I'm really only talking about Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin on Hawkgirl) if it's a superhero comic from the Big Two, I'm just not interested any more.

Year of Superman

Maybe it's because the Superman movies and TV shows have actually tended to be better than the comics, but I'm looking forward to the new movie, and nice new DVDs of the older ones...

Tod Goldberg: Letters To Parade: The Dumbest Question Of 2006: "Just wanted to make sure y'all saw that. Peter Jones, who is coming straight outta New York, which would indicate a world view larger and more varied than your common genital crab, but which, sadly is equal to or less than said genital crab, has some questions about Ang Lee and homosexuals that he just can't figure out:Brokeback Mountain's Ang Lee is the favorite to win an Oscar for Best Director [And win he did.]. How did a Chinese person gain such an understanding of homosexual American cowboys?This question represents the perfect storm of fucktardedness and therefore I'm compelled to believe that when Ed Klein and his Evil Elves of Fucktardery came across it (or created it) they deemed it the one question that would ruin my day. So much stupidity in one question! So much bias! So much jingoism!

I won't point out the obvious here...oh, fuck it, I will...Ang Lee didn't conceive of the story, the characters, the butt sex, the cowboys (or, as is being argued on Parade.com, sheepherders...really, I'm not making this up...), E. Annie Proulx did, and then Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana adapted them for the screen. But let's just pretend we're Peter Jones and that we're total fucktards incapable of understanding how a Chinese person could think up such things. Here are some ideas:

1. Ang Lee also directed the Civil War film Ride With The Devil (based on a great novel by Daniel Woodrell, incidentally), which is pretty surprising because Ang Lee isn't a Civil War vet and, in fact, lived part of his life in Pinko China, and, I'm fairly certain, never once listened to a 38 Special album and thought about how cool it would be to grow up in the old South, where he would have been lynched. At any rate, the pop singer Jewel co-starred in Ride with the Devil and her longtime beau is cowboy Ty Murray. Perhaps one drunken night on the range turned into a sexual bacchanal. Perhaps Ty rode Ang like a bucking steer. Perhaps Ang woke one morning with a longing for the feel of a rawhide saddle and the touch and feel of a man. Perhaps he read the fucking short story."

EZ Streets - Brilliant But Cancelled - We Agree!

I loved EZ Streets when it was on, so this is a definite purchase, although the fact that they're only putting out a couple of episodes is irksome. (Sayonara, final seasons of Pete & Pete, Once & Again, and probably the rest of Gargoyles.) And it would be disappointing to not get the whole series.

However, I figure they're just testing the waters to see if there is a market for a line of "Brilliant but Cancelled" DVD releases. (And, of course, there is: me.) And since Karen Sisco is another brilliant but cancelled Universal crime drama... yes, I'll do my part to show that there is an audience.

Don Knotts, star of 'The Andy Griffith Show,' dead at 81 - Los Angeles Times: "Don Knotts, the saucer-eyed, scarecrow-thin comic actor best known for his roles as the high-strung small-town deputy Barney Fife on the 1960s CBS series 'The Andy Griffith Show' and the leisure-suit-clad landlord Ralph Furley on ABC's '70s sitcom 'Three's Company,' has died. He was 81."

I rarely get comments posted here, but recently, I've gotten a bunch of spam comments. So I've turned on word verification to cut down on that. Sorry for any inconvenience.

index: "Angry Bond Fans Publish CraigNotBond.com website, Call for Worldwide Boycott of Casino Royale"

How completely sad is this?

index: "Angry Bond Fans Publish CraigNotBond.com website, Call for Worldwide Boycott of Casino Royale"

How completely sad is this?

So I read Rann/Thanagar War infinite Crisis Special and the first issue of Thunderbolt Jaxon today, both written by favorite-creator-since-childhood Dave Gibbons. Neither were drawn by him (he was an artist long before he became a professional writer), and neither featured characters created by him. And Thunderbolt Jaxon, reviving/revamping an old 1950s British comics hero, is so much better than the unfortunately-titled mess that is Rann/Thanagar War that I am now completely comfortable laying the blame for that series completely at the feet of DC's connect-the-continuity-dots editorial policy, and absolve Dave Gibbons of all blame.

news from me - ARCHIVES: "Testifying today before the Senate committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said, 'President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.'

Right. Washington was sending eels to spy on the British.

No wonder they didn't dare put this guy under oath."

Okay, just to get it out of the way, I have been in the hospital for a little more than the past week. I went in Friday of last week with abdominal pain, which turned out to be kidney stones. Eight days later, stones broken up by lasers, I'm back home. I don't really want to go through the whole ordeal in any detail, because it was unpleasant enough living through it for the first time. But it will probably come up here and there in the coming weeks, so I thought I'd just mention it, to get it out of the way.

I do want to say thanks to all the friends and coworkers who kept me company with phone calls, text messages, gifts of magazines, crossword puzzles, and flowers, and DVDs from the library. A special thanks to Ivan, for loaning me his personal DVD player. The hospital didn't get hardly any TV channels, and at the lowest points of my stay there (Thursday and Friday) it was really nice being able to watch a Fraggle Rock DVD rather than more endless reruns of Law & Order and Charmed on TNT.

And an extra-special thanks to Jan and Pat, literally without whom I could not have gotten through the week. Between stopping by the house to feed Penelope every day, bringing me necessary items like my phone charger and stuff, making sure there was food in the fridge for me when I got home, and making sure both me and my car got safely home from the hospital without my having to drive myself, they were a Godsend. I really hate having to ask other people to go out of their way to help me, but it's nice to know that, when an emergency strikes, I have people in my life I can rely on. (And that goes for everyone who helped me keep my sanity through this whole thing.)

The Muppet Newsflash: "Power of the Dark Crystal" Director Announced

5 teachers balk at posters for gay students / Signs mandated in San Leandro to ensure safety on campuses: "Five teachers at San Leandro High School have refused to comply with a
school district order to display a rainbow-flag poster in their classrooms that
reads, 'This is a safe place to be who you are,' because they say homosexuality
violates their religious beliefs, Principal Amy Furtado said."

Tunnel Found on Mexican Border: "LOS ANGELES, Jan. 26 -- U.S. and Mexican authorities have discovered an elaborate tunnel that stretches the length of eight football fields connecting Mexico and the United States and was apparently used for drug trafficking, authorities said Thursday."

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

Homeland Security!

Still feeling a bit like the crap, but have to go to work today for my dinosaur program. (It's not that it's not planned out, so somebody else could do it, but it would actually take too much effort to explain what needs to be done. Easier for me to just go and do it, and as long as nobody has any expectations of me doing much else besides sitting behind the desk and not falling over, I should be okay.)

Yesterday morning, I watched the first episode of Shakespeare Retold, a recent BBC series featuring--as you might imagine--modern-day retellings of Shakespeare plays. This one was Much Ado About Nothing, starring Billie Piper and Sarah Parish, set in a modern-day newsroom. I'm not as familiar with this one as I am with some of the other plays on the set (Midsummer Night's Dream, MacBeth) but it seemed to preserve the pace and feel of a Shakespeare comedy, as well as all the themes, but updated to a modern setting and modern language. Definitely looking forward to the rest.

Oh, and Penelope's vet called today to see how she was doing. Which is more than my own doctors ever do. What does that say?

Britain, UK news from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online: "VILLAGERS who protested that a new housing estate would "harm the fairies" living in their midst have forced a property company to scrap its building plans and start again."

So, been home sick two days in a row. First Penelope, then me. She's doing better, by the way. She hadn't started pooping over the weekend, even after coming home post-micro-enema, so we went back to the vet on Monday. She prescribed some medicine, which I have to give to her by filling a syringe and injecting it into her throat, then holding her until she seems to swallow, and then making sure she still doesn't spit it up after that. I discovered this morning that, on at least one occasion, I missed that last bit, finding caked bits of medicine in the living room carpet.

So, basically been watching TV and trying not to pass out, or sneeze so hard my brains come out my nose.

Watched the first episode of Eleventh Hour, the new British TV series starring Patrick Stewart. So nice to see him actually acting again; Star Trek must have been so frustrating for him. And Ashley Jensen, her from Extras, is yet another cute Scottish actress for me to have a crush on. The actual story was pretty entertaining, though the sort of thing that feels sort of slight once it's actually over. What carries it through is the mood of the direction and the quality of the acting.

And, for some reason, I thought it was going to be six hour-long episodes, but it's really only three 65-70 minute TV movies. So a short-term committment, then.

And TV is once again working to thwart my attempts to watch Veronica Mars this season. Fox has moved Bones into the Wednesday 9 pm time slot, which it now shares with Lost and Veronica Mars. I get ABC and Fox in high-definition, not so UPN. And I can only watch, or record, or whatever, two shows at the same time on my HD cable box. Since I pay for the HD service, anything on those channels gets priority over stuff on other channels, if it's something I want to watch. So Veronica Mars gets relegated to the VCR on the upstairs TV. Considering that I have a whole season's worth of unwatched Gilmore Girls on VHS that I don't have time to watch, I expect to fall behind on Mars as well...

Speaking of Mars, I'm really enjoying the new BBC show Life on Mars. While I'm certainly intrigued by the mystery of just how Sam Taylor comes to be in 1973, I'm really just enjoying the juxtaposition between 21st century policing and the 1970s. Between a fairly accessible premise and Patrick Stewart's international fame, I think there's a fairly good chance we'll see Eleventh Hour reach these shores sooner or later. I certainly hope Life on Mars turns up over here as well, although with a less-portable, more-Britain-centric concept, it's probably a more comfortable fit for something like BBC America than anywhere else...

Adventures of Pete & Pete, The - Season 3 cancelled?!

First Once & Again season 3, and now this... Sigh...

NEWSARAMA - DAN DIDIO ON PAUL DINI & RAGS MORALES ON DETECTIVE: "Part of Paul's own agenda on the series is to go in and tell single-issue mystery stories. Every issue is a standalone mystery. There may be an overarching story that runs underneath everything, but every issue has a beginning, middle, and end of a detective mystery. That's something that we haven't seen in a while, and it takes someone of real talent and ability to be able to pull that off on a monthly basis."

And it's entirely possible that DC may have found what it takes to get me to buy Detective Comics again...

CBS, Warner to form new network - Yahoo! News: "CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBSA - news) and Time Warner
Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX - news) Warner Brothers on Tuesday said they will close
their respective UPN and WB television networks and jointly
launch a new network in fall 2006."

Today's Snapple fact: A male kangaroo is called a Boomer.

She's home! And the very first thing she did was go to the bathroom!

So Patrick Stewart's new British TV series, Eleventh Hour, premiered in the UK the other day. Haven't seen the first episode yet; been busy acquiring the fourth season of Spooks, since A&E won't be showing it until the summer. But I'm looking forward to it, partly because it's written by Stephen Gallagher, and partly because it costars the Scottish chick from Extras.

(But where are torrents for the new season of Sea of Souls? I needs me some Dawn Steele!)

And just how distracted am I by this Penelope business? I forgot to post today's Snapple fact. Something about how much more vitamin C strawberries have than oranges.

Sorry.

Okay, so this afternoon, Penelope's vet told me that she had pooped twice, so hopefully the micro-enema will do its job. (Notice how I'm throwing around terms like "micro-enema" as if I have the slightest idea of what, exactly, that means.) She'll still be there overnight, so the house still feels very empty. Hopefully, she'll be home tomorrow, though.

So Penelope is indeed all backed up right now. The vet is going to give her a micro-enema, and keep her overnight to see how she does.

And I hate this, and I'm very upset and worried. Without her, the house feels completely empty. Glad I don't have to work tomorrow, because I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep well tonight.

(And yes, she is just a cat. It's not like we stay up late discussing Proust over a nice bottle of red. But through all the changes I've been through in the past 8 years, from jobs and locations and schools and friends and relationships, even apartments and houses, she has been the one thing that's been constant. So if you think I'm overreacting, you can just keep that to yourself.)

Vet sez Penelope feels "gassy" but she's x-raying her to be safe.

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Not happy 2 b @ the vet @ all. That makes 2 of us.

Latest Penelope update:

She ate the entire can of Fancy Feast tuna, but it's all still inside her. So, I'm calling the vet as soon as they open.

Wired News: How to Foil Search Engine Snoops

So, yes, I will be posting updates on Penelope's condition over the next few days, until I know she is in the clear.

As the photo in the previous entry indicates (assuming Blogger posted it), she did eat some food when I got home. Her bowl of dry food appeared untouched, but I bought some canned food on the way home, to try to grease up her innards a bit. (Normally she doesn't get canned food.) She devoured about half a little can of Fancy Feast Tuna, and will hopefully eat some more later tonight.

When I checked her box, there was some poop to be found. Not the three days worth you'd expect, but at least something. So I'm a little less freaked. Which still leaves me plenty freaked.

The current plan: If she doesn't resume normal service overnight--I'll check her box in the morning--I'm calling the vet first thing. Ideally, the vet will say she can wait until Saturday to see her, because I don't want to call in to work with a sick cat. But, whatever it takes...

Still not eating her dry food but at least she has some appetite for the canned. And there was some poop in the box. Not entirely comfortable but I feel a bit better.

 

My cat's eating and pooping habits have been off the past few days.  I'm very worried that she may be sick, and that's pretty much consuming all my thoughts right now...

 

Hopefully, it's nothing.  But if I get home and discover that regular service has not been resumed, I'm calling the vet tomorrow.

What restaurant doesn't have normal sized ketchup?

Today's Snapple fact:

IN 1926, the first outdoor mini-golf courses were build on rooftops in NYC.

NEWSARAMA - TRANSFORMERS: EVOLUTIONS

Okay, so I have, like, zero interest in Transformers. But the idea of Chuck Dixon and Ted McKeever doing what appears to be a Transformers in the Old West comic has my attention, even if I still won't actually buy it.

Been using yesterday and today to try to get caught up on TV from last week. (And yes, I recognize that if I'm having trouble finding the time to watch it all, I probably should just try to watch less. Thank you. The current backup actually results in my not feeling a whole lot like watching TV last week, so stuff got recorded but not watched.)

Anyway, as previously mentioned, the first episode of Hustle on AMC was pretty nifty. Of course, they premiered it with two episodes, so there's a second one already waiting for me. Don't know if AMC picked up the first two existing seasons, or just the first one, but the first two seasons are out on DVD in the UK, so either way, I'm set. If the quality holds up.

Just finished the "Casting Special" pre-season premiere of Beauty and the Geek. Some of you may remember that I went into this show last year with some pretty serious misgivings, swayed only by a positive review in TV Guide that said it basically was a lot better than the commercials made it seem. They were right. Here's hoping the second season maintains that same level of genuineness. Certainly in the casting of the geeks, they seem to have gone to the more extreme end of the spectrum, perhaps in hopes of even more good-TV Richard moments. We'll see... The season proper premiered on Thursday night, but I haven't seen that yet.

Saturday morning saw the premiere of Cartoon Network's new block, featuring new episodes of favorite show Life and Times of Juniper Lee and new superhero series Ben 10. Cartoon Network previewed Ben 10 just after Christmas, and it's a good kids' superhero series. Easily up there with Juniper Lee and Kim Possible. Check it out.

Just happened to notice a big full-page ad for the first Fiends of the Eastern Front novel, Operation Vampyr, written by Dave Bishop, based on the classic 2000AD series about Russian vampires on the Eastern Front during WWII. And part of the ad reads:

"Black Flame's first novel in a bloody new trilogy, Fiends of the Eastern Front: Operation Vampyr features historically accurate battles and all-out bloodsucking action!"

Well, historically accurate battles apart, one assumes, from the vampires.

And really, Russian vampires during WWII is a pretty neat sounding concept for a story. If you're starting with that, is it really going to be that much more of a selling point if the battles are historically accurate?

Mostly Muppet Dot Com

Check out this short film.

Truth, Justin and the American Way - HOSTED BY SPEAKEASY.NET

New comic I'm looking forward to...

Hustle on AMC - The Official USA Website | The Con is On!

Neither American nor a movie, AMC picks up the BBC TV series from the producers of Spooks/MI-5 and Life on Mars. Just watched the first episode, and thought it was great, though I am predisposed to liking con artist stories. Like I needed more TV to watch...

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "NBC has green-lighted Seeing Red, a drama pilot from writer-producer Graham Yost about an eccentric, brilliant cop who talks to dead victims who help him solve his cases, Dark Horizons reported."

NBC already has Medium and CBS has Ghost Whisperer. Doesn't ABC feel left out? Or do they have a talks-to-ghosts show I'm forgetting about?

I Have Seen Things You Wouldn't Believe

Check out my friend's pictures of her new Tucson home...

Today's Snapple fact (taken from the lid off my bottle of Snapple, obviously):

Giraffes have no vocal chords.

Sci Fi Wire -- The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel: "SCI FI Channel announced Jan. 12 that it will air the first season of the BBC's hit SF series Doctor Who, starting in March. The 13 episodes, starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler, will air as part of SCI FI Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT."

In-N-Out Lawsuit Exposes Family Rift - Los Angeles Times: "In-N-Out Burger Inc., the Irvine company known for its Double-Double and its customers' intense devotion, is embroiled in a family feud, according to a lawsuit.

Richard Boyd, In-N-Out's vice president and a board member, has accused 23-year-old heir Lynsi Martinez and others of trying to accelerate her takeover of the popular family-owned burger chain."

In-N-Out is, like, one of the only fast food restaurants I'll even consider going to any more. I certainly hope this doesn't spell the beginning of the end for them.

BBC - Doctor Who (David Tennant and Billie Piper) - News : "Billie Piper will play feisty young Victorian heroine Sally Lockhart in the BBC's adaptation of multi award-winning writer, Philip Pullman's The Ruby In The Smoke."

So I went to a Borders bookstore today, looking for the latest issue of Wolverine (all will be explained later) and because I had a coupon for 30% off a book of my choice. And they didn't have the comic book, and the store was such a mess that I couldn't find anything else. Seriously. I had ideas in mind, but I couldn't find the books.

I thought I'd see if they had any graphic novels I wanted, but the section was in absolutely no sort of order whatsoever, so any enthusiasm I might have had was sapped by having to go through the whole section just to see if they had any of the few I was looking for.

Then I thought about looking for the book I'm reading now from the library, It's Superman by Tom DeHaven, because I have a bunch of other Superman prose novels, and thought I might buy this one with the coupon. But they didn't have any of his books in the fiction section (and this is a new one), and the science fiction hardcovers were in no particular order.

And the store was such a mess, with books falling over on the ends of shelves, the comic books all mixed up and in no order, so I had to look behind each and every one to see if the one I was looking for was hiding behind another one, all that. And I just wanted to get out, because if they don't care to keep their store neat, then I don't really want to spend my money there.

Thinking about my last post, I should clarify that a lot of the problems I mentioned with the sci-fi television series formula don't actually hamper my enjoyment of the shows. TV doesn't have to be completely natural to be enjoyable for me. I think a lot of the dialogue on the acclaimed Law & Order shows sounds forced and melodramatic (and don't get me started on Veronica Mars or Joss Whedon's scripts) but that doesn't make me any less a fan.

Having said that, it's nice to see a show like Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who that proves that a show in a particular genre doesn't have to look and feel like every other show in that genre, but can instead aspire to something greater.

PvPonline.com ? Hosted By SPEAKEASY.NET : "10 reasons Gay Marriage is wrong:
1. Being gay is not natural. And as you know Americans have always rejected unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because, as you know, a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed. The sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans."

So, this past Friday night brought with it the return of new episodes to SciFi Friday. Stargate SG-1 was a little more enjoyable than I remember it being when it took its mid-season break. Maybe the new characters have all settled comfortably in my mind by now. Maybe it's just that the flaws in the formula, which had seemed so apparent as they approached the mid-season break, have been turned over and over so thoroughly in my head that they don't really bug me so much any more. Whatever. And Stargate Atlantis was pretty much as good as it's been throughout most of the season. Not counting the first half of the mid-season two-hour block, which just felt like a lame episode of Star Trek: Voyager; what's up with that?

And then there's Battlestar Galactica. How is it possible that this show is called Battlestar Galactica, spawned from the loins of the lousy 1970s version? How is it possible that this show is on SciFi? How it it possible that this is a science fiction show, even?

By that, I don't mean that science fiction shows can be good. But I mean that obviously science fiction shows, as in set on a space ship or going to other planets or whatever, so often seem made using the exact same playbook, and they all have a certain stench of cheapness about it. And it doesn't just show in the small casts or limited special effects or whatever, but in the very traditional, unimaginative camerawork, the relatively stiff acting, the humorless writing--and when there is humor, it's because someone has obviously tried very hard to put a joke in--all that. It's like most science fiction shows are afraid to deviate from the template set by Star Trek: The Next Generation almost 20 years ago. And none of it could possibly be confused, stylistically, with contemporary drama on network TV.

But then there's Galactica, which throws the rule book out the window, and dares to be compelling drama that just happens to be about spaceships and robots and stuff. And it sticks out like a sore thumb, because it doesn't have the low-budget feel that so many other shows like that have, and it isn't coy about what it is, like Lost or Invasion, with their real-world settings and focus on human drama and character over the more outre elements. (Not saying that one is better than the other, mind.)

And at the end of the day, the thing I say the most is this: thank goodness it's on.

Grey Matter

Grey's Anatomy has become one of my favorite TV shows, somehow, so this blog by the series' writers is certainly worth my attention...

Strange Horizons Columns: The Art of Entertainment, by Matthew Cheney

More praise for Rocket Science, and Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, another favorite read this year.

Bookslut | SF for Kiddies: "I don't typically fall for jacket blurbs but when I read what author Jerry Oltion had to say about Rocket Science -- "If the Hardy Boys stayed up half the night reading Astounding Magazine by flashlight, this is what they would dream after they turned out the light" -- well, I had to have this book. Just the mere possibility, of combining the boy detectives with an element of outer space science fiction was enough to pull me in before the book even arrived. Once I started,and found everything that Jay Lake was able to fit into this outstanding book, I was one very happy reader."

I just finished this book myself last week, and very much agree with the review. So now I want to check out the other books the column mentions...

Happy New Year, everybody!

Hellboy Animated

How weird is it that Tad Stones, the guy behind such Disney Afternoon classics as DuckTales, Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers, and TaleSpin is the man behind the pair of upcoming Hellboy animated DVD features (and possible TV series)? It's like finding a rare EC Comics horror story by Carl Barks.

Brian Wood - DMZ 4.04.72

As if I wasn't enjoying Brian Wood's DMZ enough as it is, he has to go and stick a panda in one issue.

Ringing in the new year with sushi.

Glows in the Dark

If I had been seriously into models when these kits were being produced, I'd probably still be seriously into models. (I probably would have worked a lot harder at painting stuff well.) As it is, I had the Monogram reissue of the Dracula model (purchased at Disneyland, I believe), and I'd read about these kids, but they always remained the stuff that dreams were made of. Still do, of course, but nice to see a web site devoted to them...

Just a quick one:

Happy holidays to everyone, from myself and Penelope.

Saw King Kong today. Despite my concerns about its length (which I've talked about before), I really enjoyed it. It does drag in places, but nowhere near as dull as Return of the King. And I'm now quite enamoured of Naomi Watts, but not enough to try to watch the Ring movies.

Now, off to Napoleon Dynamite!

Shana's going away party, part deux.

BBC America - Touching Evil: "Touching Evil tracks the investigations of the Organised and Serial Crimes Unit (OSC), a crack team of special police agents. The brooding and mysterious Detective Inspector Dave Creegan (Robson Green, Wire in the Blood, Reckless, Trust) helped create this team before suffering a nearly fatal gunshot to the head. After spending over two years recovering physically and emotionally from his injury, Creegan returns to active service. "

One of my favorite British crime series, created and written by Paul "Shameless/State of Play" Abbott, with at least one episode written by Russell T. Davies. (And the basis for a lame American version produced by Bruce Willis and the Hughes Bros for USA Network. Ignore that; it was crap.)

Bush Defends Secret Spying in the U.S. - Yahoo! News: "'The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties,' Bush said. "

So this is what the president bush said in his radio address yesterday, dealing with the revelation that he has authorized secret surveillance on Americans without warrants or oversight, and the strong opposition to the Patriot Act in the Senate, thanks to the Democrats finally growing a fucking spine. And he says it's all in the name of protecting our civil liberties.

Fuckwad. Fuck him. Fuck him sideways in every orifice by rabid baboons.

(Probably just earned myself a wiretap there.)

As usual, anything I could say has been said better elsewhere, and this time, I'm going to quote Warren Ellis in the latest issue of Jack Cross, probably written more than a year ago:

CROSS: Why did you join Homeland Security?

HOMELAND SECURITY AGENT: Because we got fat. Because there are scarier people in the world than us and we should be more careful. See, it's not a global village we're in. It's a global city. And people who live in the city don't leave their doors unlocked.

CROSS: Yeah. And there was all that terrorist activity on the millennium.

AGENT: What terrorist activity?

CROSS: Exactly. You think every nutball in the world took the day off?

Intel did their job that day. Without a Department of Homeland Security. Without impacting the rights of the American people or our visitors. The world didn't sudddenly fill up with scary people on September eleventh. A race of supermen didn't suddenly fly out of a bunch of Afghan caves.

Intel blew it that day. That's all.

You can break the most sophisticated computer in the world by shoving a stick into it. That's what happened. It was the dumbest, ugliest, most low-tech attack you could think of. And it was awful, sure. We were complacent, sure. We'd turned inwards. We weren't thinking well.

But we're not supposed to be a country that instinctively hates the foreign and spies on itself. And free speech is not a terrorist activity.
---
So there you go.

Day after the holiday party.

Okay, earlier today, I was thinking I should applaud the Senate for growing a fucking spine and preventing the patriot Act (lower case deliberate) from being made permanent unconditionally. For not just being a rubber stamp for the administration.

But I'm not going to applaud. Because this is the way the system is supposed to work. And it shouldn't be so remarkable when that happens. So sad when it does, though, isn't it?

Was having an okay day, then came home to find a message from the body shop that took too long to fix my car. Apparently, they're having trouble getting paid by Titan Insurance, so they need my help, and tell me--on the message--that I need to file a claim with my insurance company so they can get paid. This would be over three months since the accident, and over one month since I got my car back, having been told that they had it in writing from Titan that they would be paying for the repairs that Desert Collision Center had done.

So either the guy at Desert Collision lied and didn't have the guarantee in writing that he said he had, or he's so bad at his job that he couldn't tell whether he had the guarantee that he was supposed to get or not. And either way, I still have this message letting me know that this is somehow my problem.

So, not in such a good mood any more.

Random Chuck Norris Fact: Top Thirty Facts

If you're so proud of your twin girls, wouldn't you want to advertise that on a safer car?

SCIFI.COM | Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

SciFi had been running commercials for this during The Triangle, and I had no idea what it was. Exccept that it looked very much like a show whose vision exceeded its budget. According to their site, it stars Alicia Witt (who I like), Kristanna Loken (from Terminator 3, who is hot), and someone I've never heard of named Benno Furmann.

Then, on Zeta Minor, I learn that a British DVD of something called Sword of Xanten is coming out, with the same cast, and is based on the Ring of the Nibelung Norse myths. So I google the title, and according to the reviews I found, it's a crappy, low-budget German/South African TV miniseries that had a theatrical release in the UK, and is crap. (Oh, I said that already, didn't I?) And that means that the really poor CGI dragon featured in the commercial doesn't look bad because it's unfinished, but because it's cheap and crappy.

So, not something to look forward to quite as much, perhaps. Although... Alicia Witt...

Finished watching the SciFi miniseries The Triangle this morning. It has received mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. Part of the problem it faced, I think, is that previous SciFi miniseries like Dune, Taken, and Battlestar Galactica have set the bar pretty high, and this doesn't quite live up to those expectations. But it's also way better than the typical made-for-SciFi movie, like Mansquito, which is probably much more representative of their output.

And the miniseries dragged in a couple of places, but I'm not sure if it could have lost a whole episode's worth of material without seeming rushed, so it's a tough call to make. (On HBO, it could have run any length it needed to, but on commercial television, they're pretty much stuck with 30-minute blocks of time...) Considering I had expected the whole thing would take place on a boat, it managed to defy my expectations just by not doing that. And I've pretty much gotten out of the habit of trying to second-guess movies and stuff, so I didn't predict the ending. It was fun, it held my attention, and Catherine Bell is still incredibly hot. (JAG on DVD next year, hopefully!) So, worth my time.

But it's no Doctor Who.

Kung Fu Monkey: BB model sheets 2

So there's ths new Blue Beetle comic coming out, written by Keith Giffen (who I've been a fan of since his work on Legion of Super-Heroes alongside Paul Levitz, who I already talked about in the previous post) and screenwriter John Rogers, who wrote the excellent Global Frequency pilot and is given credit for some crappy movies like Catwoman and American Outlaws, I think. And it's drawn by Cully Hamner, who I like. But taking a look at the costume... I don't know; it just looks completely unappealing, in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe because there's nothing particularly distinctive about it, except for the big mandibles sticking up out of the bug backpack, which just look silly?

Comics post ahead (first of a couple, probably...)

Is it already time for my next Previews order? Thanks to a mailng problem, I only just got my Previews the other day, and I already have to let my guy know what comics I want...

So, for my comics-reading friends who read this, here's the list of new series and books that caught my eye:

From Dark Horse Comics:

Hellboy: Makoma #1
Actually, this has a longer, pulpier sounding subtitle, but I don't have the catalog next to me right now. Certainly it would be easy enough to just say that I've bought every issue of Hellboy since the first one, and haven't been disappointed, so I'm not about to stop now. But this one also features art by '70s underground comics legend Richard Corben. Not too long ago, I heard some folks at my local comics store talking about his art in the then-recent Punisher: The End one-shot, and one of the staff guys described it as looking too "old-fashioned" or something. One of the other staff guys immediately told him off, and let's face it, Corben is a genuine great who shouldn't be dismissed because he doesn't draw like Jim Lee. It's weird seeing him doing mainstream superhero stuff these days (I have a Hulk miniseries by him, a Luke Cage miniseries, and the aforementioned Punisher one-shot), but it was also nice seeing some more personal-looking stuff in his recent issue of Solo from DC. The sample page from this issue of Hellboy shows that his style will fit perfectly in with the tone of this series, as well.

Concrete: Killer Smile Trade Paperback
At one point, I had all the issues of Concrete, including all his short-story appearances. And it's always been a favorite series, so the opportunity to have them all in a format I can keep on my bookshelf is one I can't pass up. Paul Chadwick's art is always gorgeous, and his writing has an emotional depth that so few comics even attempt. So, no, I won't be content until I have the whole library.

From DC Comics

Batman: Year One Hundred #1
I've talked before about how the regular Batman books just weren't doing it for me, so I decided to give them up in favor of the miniseries. That's been a mixed bag as well: I'm loving Batman and the Monstermen, Long Day's Journey into Knight isn't really making any sort of impression, and I've been disappointed by Gotham County Line. I had high hopes for that last one, because I really like the writer and artist, but it just feels like they're not trying, perhaps because it's Batman and not something they have a stake in.

So why, then, take a chance on this new miniseries by Paul Pope, a highly idiosyncratic creator? Because even when he's doing stories with DC superheroes (as seen in his issue of Solo and stories in Batman Chronicles), they still feel like Paul Pope stories, that's why. And so I have the same expectations here.

Rann-Thanagar War Infinite Crisis Special and Infinite Crisis Secret Files 2006
I'm going to lump these two together to save time. I've expounded at length about my love-hate relationship with Infinite Crisis and everything related to it, so I won't go over all that again. But while I'm not so completely sold on the series to be willing to buy every crossover and tie-in issue of comics I wouldn't otherwise ordinarily read, I am enjoying it enough to buy the one-shot comics that "enhance" the story. (Particularly after seeing how reading some of the OMAC Project crossover stories would have enhanced my enjoyment by allowing me to read key plot points that weren't shown in the actual story... But there I go again.) Plus, the Secret Files book is written by veteran writer (and writer of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths) Marv Wolfman, and that's enough to get my attention right there. (Although not enough to get me to buy the issues of Teen Titans he's co-writing with non-writer Geoff Johns. Presumably there, he's contributing ideas that aren't 100% reliant on previously published stories by other writers.)

But, really, I want this to be the last time I buy a comic called "Rann-Thanagar War." You hear me, DC?

Showcase Presents House of Mystery Vol 1 Trade Paperback
Loving the Showcase format of 500 or so pages of old comics in black and white. And I love the tone of the 70s DC horror comics. They're not quite as hard-edged as the ECs, maybe a little more influenced by 30s and 40s pulp writers. And the art is great. Sold.

JSA #82
Yes, planning on buying six issues of JSA. Because Geoff Johns isn't non-writing it for six months. Instead, we get a six-issue fill in story by Paul Levitz, drawn by George Perez and Rags Morales, featuring the Gentleman Ghost. When I was a kid, Levitz's Legion of Super-Heroes was one of my absolute favorite books (along with Wolfman & Perez's New Teen Titans), and he's been away from writing for too long. (He's also President of DC Comics, so he's busy.) Perez is a longtime favorite artist, and Morales is a new favorite. And I've always liked the Gentleman Ghost character, ever since he was used so well by Tony Isabella in his Shadow War of Hawkman miniseries and follow-up series. Plus, since it's not non-written by Johns means there's a better-than-average chance that the story won't be entirely dependent on tying together old plot points from 20 year old comics, without actually bringing anything new to the story, just the illusion of something new. (You are now seeing the "hate" side of the love/hate relationship with Infinite Crisis. Sorry.)

Of course, this story does apparently tie-in to Infinite Crisis, but all the other factors make it something I want to read, so I'm not just getting it because I feel forced to read a crossover story.

Warlord #1
There's a whole other entry percolating in the back of my brain about this, but it boils down to some highly mixed feelings: I love the original Mike Grell series, and am not entirely comfortable with the idea of anyone else redoing it. But I like the character and concept enough that I can't entirely turn my back on it, either. So I'm going to try it out.

Elfquest: The Grand Quest Vol 13 Trade Paperback
By this point, we're well into Elfquest stories I never read the first time around. Thank you, DC.

American Way #1
I really enjoyed John Ridley's superhero novel, Those Who Hunt in Darkness, which is apparently in the works as a pilot for a SciFi TV series. And while that didn't interest me enough to pick up his work on established Wildstorm characters like the Authority or (God help us) Warblade, I am definitely picking up another creator-owned superhero story from him, this time in comics form.

Thunderbolt Jaxon #1
No history with these old British IPC characters that Wildstorm is reviving in the slow-to-appear, plotted-by-Alan-Moore Albion miniseries. But this one sounds kind of neat, and it's written by Dave Gibbons (and not company-dictated plot-wise like Rann-Thanagar War) and drawn by John Higgins, so I want to read it.

From Image Comics:

Rocketo Vol 1 Journey to the Hidden Sea Trade Paperback
I've seen sample pages of Rocketo and read interviews with the creator (animator Frank Espinosa, I think) that make it sound like a cool Flash-Gordon-y sci-fi adventure series with really nice art. But I had missed the first few issues. So here's my chance to get caught up. (I've read mixed reviews about the story, but do I really need to explain how I feel about comic book web site reviews? Where "confusing" is just shorthand for "couldn't bother to pay attention as I read?" Didn't think so.)

From Marvel Comics:

Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius: Everybody Loves Franklin
I read the first one-shot by Chris Eliopolous (whose work on Desperate Times I always liked and BGSU alum Mark Sumerak. And, as expected from the two of them, it's cute and funny. And very entertaining, and well worth the cover price. And since that's pretty much what I want from a comic, when presented with a second one-shot, there's not really a reason to pass it up, is there?

Oh, added a couple of Marvel titles from last month at the last minute:

Nextwave
Generally, Warren Ellis's Marvel superhero stuff hasn't really excited me the way his creator-owned stuff has, so I've not made it a priority. And that's why I skipped Nextwave on the first pass, figuring I'd buy it when it's collected. But thinking about what he's said about it, and looking at the ads and preview art and everything, I just couldn't get it out of my head. And he and I seem sympatico on so many things that if he's saying that he's writing the sort of superhero comic he'd want to read, I have to suspect it may be the the sort of one I'd want to read, as well.

But what really sold it for me were the two promotional images, one with the tagline, "Saving the world by blowing things up," and the other reading, "Good. Bad. Monkey. Nextwave doesn't know the difference." And that suggests sort of the freewheeling, anarchic action tone I want from a Marvel superhero comic right now. Because--in that specific subgenre--I want less people sitting around and talking and more people blowing stuff up. So I decided to get the comic as a monthly after all.

Daughters of the Dragon
Ordinarily, I'd wait for this to be collected, because it's a Marvel miniseries. But the more interviews I've read lately with Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey about it, and the more sample pages I've seen, the more I wanted to read it. It looks like a fun, high-energy story about a couple of normal-people bounty hunters in the Marvel universe. And Palmiotti and Grey have proven that they've got that down-on-their-luck, wrong-side-of-the-tracks characters who have led hard lives but still have their sense of humor voice down cold. And, as time passed, I felt like if Marvel was finally going to publish a comic I found myself getting excited about, I should demonstrate approval by buying the thing as it came out.

Marvel Romance Trade Paperback
Call me a girl, but I like romance comics. This month, Marvel has four "romance" one-shots focusing on romances within the superheroes and supervillains of their superhero universe. And I just don't care, because if every freaking issue of Spider-Man touches on Peter Parker's marriage with Mary Jane, then what's so special about a one-shot comic that does exactly the same thing? Superhero comics have already internalized the romance element as part of their subplotting structure, so I can't get excited about four issues that bring that to the fore. Similarly, I'm not interested in Marvel's miniseries of rescripted old romance comics, because it would be every bit as easy to rewrite an issue of Spider-Man to make it seem silly. Or Watchmen, for that matter.

But this book collects the genuine article, and allows some of comics' great artists to tell stories about normal people, without costumes, masks, or action sequences. The plots may seem corny and dated--I don't know, haven't read them before, but some Romance comics hold up better than others--but I'd still rather read the genuine article than some bastardized version of the format.

Essential Moon Knight Vol 1 trade paperback
500 pages of Moon Knight stories for a reasonable price, including work by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz. I've always been interested in the Moon Knight character, and now I can read the early stories I never had a chance to. It's just such a cool costume, plus the multiple-secret-identies schtick he's got going on. Plus, Bill Sienkiewicz, doing the work that put him on the map.

From Archaia Press
Mouse Guard #1
Sold on the strength of the preview pages.

Okay, not sure of the publisher of this one, but...

McCandless & Company Crime Scenes Trade Paperback
I read a one-shot in this series I don't know how long ago. This is a longer graphic novel drawn by Gene Gonzales, who isn't a big name, but whose work I know and like. The first one-shot was just fine, and I like private eye comics, so I'll continue to support this one. As long as it comes out, because it seems like they're better at soliciting issues of this comic than actually putting them out...

From Dynamite Entertainment

Painkiller Jane #1
Not interested because of last night's SciFi movie, which I haven't watched yet. And I don't think I actually read any of her previous appearances. But I'm getting this, partly because it marks Lee Moder's return to comics art, and partly because it's written by Jimmy Palmiotti, whose praises I sang above. Now that I'm a bigger fan of his, I feel like I ought to get his creator-owned work, even more so than his company-owned stuff.

From Scholastic Graphix, whose web site I don't feel like looking up right now...

Bone Vol 3 Eyes of the Storm Color Edition
It's not like I have the entire Bone series in paperback already--I'm missing a couple of books--and these look so nice in color...

From IDW Publishing (Again, just tired of looking up web sites...)

Spike vs Dracula #1
I like Spike, from the Angel TV series just fine, and this is written by Peter David, who I also like just fine. So... There you go. (Although, as I type this, if any of this month's purchases feel like an obligation rather than something that excites me...)

You know what? I think I just may have talked myself out of buying this... At least I'm having second thoughts now...

Supermarket #1
No question about this one, though, since it's a new miniseries by Brian Wood.

From Moonstone Press:

Pat Novak for Hire Graphic Novel
A fairly inexpensive private eye one-shot in black and white, written by great writer (and frequent visitor to my library) Steven Grant and drawn by fantastic artist Tom Mandrake. Sold.

From Oni Press

Gray Horses Graphic Novel
I tend to like Oni's graphic novels quite a bit, at least the quieter, character-driven ones, which this seems to be. And... Well, it's just an impulse purchase, really.

Queen & Country Declassified Vol 2 trade paperback
Less than ten dollars, written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Rick Burchett, I've been waiting for this one. I may no longer be particularly impressed by Rucka's superhero work--although I may end up buying his new Checkmate series from DC--but his work on this series, which is completely his creation, never fails to please.

From Papercutz:
Zorro Vol 3
I liked the first book. Haven't read the second one yet, but again, three comics worth of stories, under ten bucks.

From Rebellion:

Judge Dredd Compete Case Files Vol 2
Take what I said two months ago about Volume 1 (love Dredd, looking forward to reading all these early stories in order, yadda yadda) and apply it here as well.

Caballistics Inc Vol 1 Going Underground Trade Paperback
Caballistics Inc is probably my favorite new 2000AD series of recent vintage, so I look forward to rereading those stories in a more convenient, permanent collection.

And that's it.

Yes, I changed my Blog design. I was tired of the huge amount of space showing up at the top of the page every time I looked at it, and the only way I could figure out how to get rid of it was to change the template. Lazy me, I just wanted to use one of Blogger's premade templates, and sadly, they didn't have one with cats on it any more. Still need to go back in and add links to friends' blogs, obviously. But this looks a little nicer, I think.

Although I now see that blogger has flagged my blog as a potential "spam blog," so now I have to enter a word verification when I post. Hope this isn't a permanent thing...

Beautiful Atrocities: BEAUTIFUL ATROCITIES COMPLETE GUIDE TO JENNIFERS: "Jennifer was the most popular girls' name in the 1970s, which explains why we're now up to our ass in Jennifers. If, like me, you have trouble telling them apart, here's a handy guide."

Vicious Imagery: The Old Order Changeth: " I've been contracted to write a six-part FIENDS OF THE EASTERN FRONT strip for the Meg, with Colin MacNeil attached as artist. "

Fiends of the Eastern Front would be the classic 2000AD strip about Russian vampires killing Nazis in WWII. A great concept, with great art by Carlos Ezquerra, and so-so scripting by Gerry Finley-Day, heavily rewritten by Alan Grant. Dave Bishop isn't the most spectacular writer working for 2000AD/Judge Dredd Megazine, but I usually enjoy his work, plus he's a heck of a nice guy. And Colin MacNeil is just fine as an artist. So this ought to be fun.

BOOKSTEVE'S LIBRARY: Barnaby

Another forgotten classic, which I read (one of the Dover reprint books, plus a couple of the Del Reys) in my childhood... That there are a million Garfield books in print, and not one Barnaby book, is a crime against humanity, I say.

Voice Of God Revealed To Be Cheney On Intercom | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Menu from my new favorite restaurant.

My Doctor Who Christmas scratch art.

The first (and most likely last) Captain Cosmic Web Page

This was just a weird, surprising discovery: a page about the local kid's sci-fi TV show I used to watch growing up...

No cat pictures today (yet) but last night, I received the graphic novel adaptation of Mark Gatiss' fantastic Vesuvius Club, a comic novel about a gay Edwardian secret agent. A graphic novel, published with little to no fanfare, as far as I can tell, by Simon & Schuster UK. Who saw that coming?

Portrait of relaxation.

Because it's all about her.

Not feeling a great deal like writing right now, but don't forget, tomorrow at 10:00 pm (at least out here), USA is running the Dead Zone Christmas episode, featuring the return of Close to Home's Jennifer Finnigan as a female psychic. The first episode with her character was a lot of fun, and I'm liking her in Close to Home. And that's not even mentioning that Dead Zone is probably one of my favorite shows anyway. And I'm a sucker for Christmas episodes.

Cats in Sinks - for all your cat and bathroom needs

Genius idea, this...

Okay, so I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today, and thought it was a lot of fun, although it has some flaws. Going to write something more complete tomorrow, but I still haven't seen last night's Desperate Housewives or Gray's Anatomy yet, plus it's the final episode of Viva Blackpool in about ten minutes... And I just got my Doctor Who DVD boxed set today, of the first series of the new show.

But, speaking of David Tennant and Harry Potter... Isn't he afraid of being typecast as the actor that other actors turn into?

GateWorld - News: Cooper: Ori take Stargate to a new level

Yeah, but it's still been kinda dull this year, hasn't it?

Gormania: Max Allan Collins (no post last night; keyboard fritzed

Been a longtime fan of Max Allan Collins, and while most of his recent output has been CSI novels that I'm not interested in reading (don't watch the shows for free; won't pay to read the books), any time he does something new on his own is worthy of note.

Standing watch.

Just read this at Warren Ellis' The Engine:

Subject: Claypool Comics' Crisis


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact David Seidman, Claypool Comics marketing director
davidseidman@earthlink.net / 310-652-4369


CLAYPOOL IN CRISIS
Independent Publisher Reaches Out to Readers and Retailers

Diamond Comics Distributors has told Claypool Comics of plans to cancel the Claypool titles DEADBEATS and SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY, starting with the issues shipping in April, unless Claypool can push their sales up. That move would wipe out much of Claypool’s line.

This news comes as Claypool is in the middle of a group of special issues. SOULSEARCHERS #76 and ELVIRA #153 (shipping in January) and DEADBEATS #76 (shipping in February) are “Jump In” issues written and drawn especially for new readers. Last year, when Claypool inaugurated the “Jump In” issues, they sold very well.

Claypool has asked retailers to order an extra copy of each “Jump In” issue. In addition, Claypool has asked readers to buy Claypool titles now and request that the retailers order the “Jump In” issues. The cover of SOULSEARCHERS’ “Jump In” issue is on the Web at http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/ss76.gif , while http://www.claypoolcomics.com/uploads/db76.gif houses DEADBEATS’ cover.

Claypool is backing up its requests with point-of-sale cards that retailers can put on their counters or use as bag stuffers. The cards tell readers about the issues and include a spot to check off which issues they’d like to buy.

DEADBEATS, by Marvel veterans Richard Howell and Ricardo Villagran, is a punk vampire soap opera that should appeal to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 30 Days of Night. SOULSEARCHERS, written and co-created by Peter David, is a super-hero satire featuring a group of supernatural investigators, featuring art by Joe Staton and covers by JSA Classified: Power Girl’s Amanda Conner.

Claypool editor Richard Howell says, “Claypool Comics has always had a dedicated base of fans, most of whom are literate and educated people whose needs aren’t always met by the current comics marketplace. A retailer who puts our comics on the shelves will most likely find that they continue to sell month after month. The consistency of our sales is undisputable, and we have every indication that if our books got more exposure, they’d sell strongly for many, many more retailers. Claypool Comics are and always have been a labor of love -- love of comics, that is. We’re committed to good comics, and that makes our readers committed to us. Any retailer who wants to profit from that dedication and goodwill is enthusiastically invited along for the ride.”

Claypool, which has published comics steadily since 1993, is known as “the publisher of hidden treasures” -- but it doesn’t WANT to hide them!

***

I've been a fan of Claypool's comics since they started. I did drift away, and now only buy Soulsearchers & Co, although with this news, I may start getting Elvira and Deadbeats again. Soulsearchers is a hilarious satire of the supernatural investigator genre (along with anything else that writer Peter David feels like lampooning that month), and while it's always had nice art, adding one of my favorite artists, Joe Staton, was just icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. Deadbeats is this weird vampire soap opera thing, almost like the original Dark Shadows TV series (writer/artist Richard Howell is a huge DS fan), and I always liked it, just not as much as Soulsearchers. And Elvira is just good fun. In these days of fans whining when Marvel or DC cancels some superhero book or another that's really just like every other superhero book only ever so slightly different, it'd be a shame if people weren't more up in arms over this than they get over, say, Spider-Girl or Runaways.

NEWSARAMA - GREG RUCKA TALKS SUPERGIRL: "One hint Rucka said of his first arc is that the "world tour" aspect of Kara on Earth will be sidelined for a while. "Jeph will have wrapped up the world tour of the DCU and introduced Kara to everyone by the time I get on," Rucka said. "I'm not looking at doing a bunch of crossovers and seeing who's going to be guest-starring this issue. That's just not the direction I'm interested in taking her. I've got nothing against doing that kind of arc, but we've got other things we want to sort out with her first. Once those things are sorted, we'll worry about other things. Once we nail down who she is, we'll worry about who she's meeting.""

Considering it was the focus on the guest stars over establishing Supergirl as a character in her own right in her own book was what was making me lean towards dropping the Supergirl comic as written by Jeph Loeb, this news from new series writer Greg Rucka is enough to make me want to stick with the book when he takes over... at least for a little while.

Warrenellis.com TV SCUM: Have Some Dead TV With Your Dead Buzzard: "It also came out tonight that THRESHOLD has been cancelled, presumably effective immediately, after a reportedly catastrophic ratings drop following its move to a new timeslot."

If this is true, I should probably be disappointed, but of the three new sci-fi network shows (this and the renewed-not-canceled Surface and Invasion) Threshold was probably my least favorite, story-wise. I'm just sad that another Carla Gugino TV vehicle will be gone from the screen. Plus, JAG's Catherine Bell was supposed to be joining the series as a recurring guest star. If future episodes had featured the two of them fighting the alien invasion by stripping down to their underwear and jello wrestling, I'd probably be more broken-hearted, but as it is... No, not so much.

In not-really-related news, TV Guide gave a "jeer" this week to the Fox network for pulling the perennially low-rated Arrested Development off the air without giving audiences a chance to find it. The show was in it's third dismally-rated season; anyone looking for it would have found it by now. Whiners.

on your nerve: Vin Diesel

"Alias," AKA Canceled - Yahoo! News: "Bristow went
down Wednesday, with ABC confirming what the Nielsen ratings had been saying all season: Alias is done.

The Emmy-winning
action-spy series that made a brand-name star of Jennifer Garner will air its final episode in May, the network said."

I should feel a stronger sense of disappointment about this, but if I'm completely honest, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I had been in earlier seasons. So best it go before it completely wore out its welcome for me.

GateWorld - News: Claudia Black joins SG-1 cast : "Claudia Black has sauntered her way into the hearts of many Stargate fans this year, playing the sexy thief Vala Mal Doran in eight episodes of SG-1's ninth season. Now Black is set to join the long-running series as a full-time cast member."

Hopefully, this will help pull the show out of the doldrums it's currently in. Her appearances at the beginning of the season were like a breath of fresh air, and she's been sorely missed (by me, at least...)