News that makes me numb
Aug 17Story the first: Third-season changes in store for Lost.
Season two cranked things up enough at the end to grab me again, but this show has become for me a slow deterioration from the first season’s effortless brilliance. Maybe it’s one of those cases where nothing could ever have kept the creepy momentum going forward, save the kind of complete creative reinvention that is anathema to TV. But since I get the sense more and more that they don’t know where they’re going and they’ve never known, fuck it–if they don’t really give a shit, why should I?
Story the second: Fantastic Four 2 (or just “Number Two,” referencing a biological human function that seems commensurate with the quality level the film will eventually offer to its audience) has a new title, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Boy, that first movie was a cesspool of failed potential, percolating promise, and wasted money, weren’t it, though? So I’m super shrugged about the sequel. It does strike me as VERY odd to imagine any actor portraying the Silver Surfer…maybe the first comics character where I can’t easily imagine someone actually wearing makeup and playing the role. Maybe CG? Even so, still strange.
Man, maybe it’s summer or distractions or gas. But nothing on the movie or teevee front is really greasing my chops lately from a geek perspective. It’s all about the comics, comics, comics. And reality TV, glimpsed in fits and starts, when I’m not cradling a baby or trying to communicate with my wife for ten minutes before or after cradling a baby.
Meh, I say. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!
Civil War Delayed; The Internet Kerplodinates
Aug 16If you’re a geek with a brain pan, you’ve already heard–Civil War, the mega crossover event Marvel is currently issuing upon the universe at large, will be late. Like six weeks late. Many things. Maybe most, or all things. BIG books here: Civil War itself, Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four.
Lots of fun coverage of this, slicing and dicing the news and creating some fun Julienne fries from the wreckage:
Retailer and blogginator Brian Hibbs on why this is, to use his terminology, “fucked up.”
Blog @ Newsarama rounds up some fun message board ephemera covering the topic.
Comments from artist Steve McNiven and Bryan Hitch on the delays. Hint: McNiven cowboys up and takes the hit.
And on Newsarama’s boards, a personal favorite: A swipe from Joe Quesada’s boards where Tom Brevoort calls Dan Slott out on lateness, which it’s worth noting he hasn’t yet done for Steve McNiven. Maybe he will. I doubt it.
May I now unpack?
Trackzero.
Aug 15It’s been idle for awhile, but I’m working to dust off Track Zero again. I’m poised to upload a new episode and I just took a moment to move my 99p Challenge archive onto the Track Zero site – if you’re not familiar with the 99p Challenge, but are on the lookout for a half hour of comedy to listen to on your iPod, you should check it out. (I’d forgotten I had a link to the BBCs Hyperdrive website, which has the hilarious Lallakiss battle anthem. “Rap in the middle! This is the rap in the middle!”)
WikiWikiWhack: Hyperdrive, 99p Challenge
I'm your homeboy, Chrisss
Aug 15I refuse to explain. You can either jump right in cold, or you can listen to this example I tried on my pal Taylor… then jump right in cold.
P.S. I tried the phone method, and Taylor got the call. This was a surprise, as I thought it might only be a US thing.
Cracked v2.0
Aug 15
So, after dying a slow, painful death, my favorite Mad Magazine alternative – Cracked – went away – well, Florida. And it never technically died, but it may as well have. When was the last time you saw Cracked in the supermarket?
BUT. Now it’s back! Rather than go head to head with Mad again, the magazine is now what I would describe as one part Daily Show, one part The Onion, and just a touch of Mcsweeney’s. In fact, the premiere issue, that just hit stands, features a cover parody of Steve Carrell’s 40 Year Old Virgin poster, and a head-to-head feature article between Rob Courdry and Ed Helms. And, just to be shameless, they completely lifted Mcsweeney’s journal of a Cobra Recruit, represented as a Cobra recruitment pamphlet – which, to be fair, is pretty funny, and comes off almost as a prequel to the Mcsweeney’s piece.
I’ve got to give it a thumbs up. I’m not exactly the target demographic (which seems to be somewhere between 17-27 year old males… The Daily Show demographic), but I had a laugh. One article was on them trying to convince the Army that it could solve their quota woes by recruiting civil war re-enactment societies… and then pay them a bird-dog fee. Another outlined why Tom Cruise was douchebag of the year (or Douchbag of the Year, I guess) – and as their advertising points out, as far as their lawyers are concerned, Tom Cruise is not gay.
Don’t know that I’m going to keep buying it, but it’s something to watch.
[update] Another, more serious banner ad says that writers from The Daily Show, SNL, Stella, MST3K, and Chapell’s Show are contributors to the magazine. So, no duh it feels the way it does. That’s it, I’m picking this magazine up for awhile – a test run, if you will.
