February 29, 2008

I stepped out of the athletic facility and into the magical land of Narnia last night. It was a full-blown blizzard. I also got a text message from my brother letting me know that there were people hanging out in a bar near Brooklyn. It didn't seem so bad, so I texted back "ok" and walked on. By the time I got to Frederick Douglas Blvd. I changed my mind. The snow had steadily been coming down harder and harder. Not only that, a bus was no where to be found. I texted him again with a "thanks but no thanks". The trip downtown was going to be long to begin with. The snow and late hour just made it worse.

In honor of the weather, let's give a call to frequent guest-poster Creed Bratton. Because he talks about pretty much whatever the hell he wants to.

Creed Thoughts by Creed Bratton:

So guess who didn’t watch the Academy Awards last weekend? Me. I was too busy selling my TV for a case of hand towels. The story’s way too long and my arthritis has been acting up so I’m not going to write about it here. Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of hand towels now and I’m only a little bit upset that I missed the Oscars. Doesn’t matter, though. I’ve got my own awards to give out. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you The First Annual Bratton Awards, chosen by me. For the record, nobody’s getting a gold statue or anything. If I had gold statues lying around, I’d melt them down and sell them for cashola. On to the awards!

The Fatso Award goes to…

Fatso. In accounting. This one was a no-brainer. That dude is heavy. I don’t want to make him mad though, because I eat a lot his M&Ms when he leaves for the day. If you’re reading this, Fatso, I’m talking about the other Fatso in accounting. The one with all the hair. Not you.

The Katharine Ross Award goes to…

The Receptionist girl – Penny! She’s everything that Katharine Ross was in The Graduate. I don’t really remember much about the movie, but I do know that she was a foxy lady and so is the receptionist girl. Plus, she has a hot mom.

The Black Guy Award goes to…

Nobody. I wanted to give it to Stan, but he really cheesed me off today when we were both in the kitchen and he took the last Sleepytime tea bag without even asking me if I wanted it, so I disqualified him. I guess I could give it to the security guard downstairs, but that guy’s kind of a jerk, too. There’s always next year, black guys.

The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to…

My shoes. I’ve had them since 1987. That’s a lifetime for a pair of shoes. The soles wore through in the mid-nineties, but I just duct-taped the hell out of them and they’ve been fine ever since. Thanks a lot, shoes!

Look, my arthritis just flared up real bad again, so I’m calling it quits. Check back next year for The Second Annual Bratton Awards. I think I’ll start calling them The Creedos.

Pics: Welcome to the magical land of Narnia and the forest of eternal winter.

February 28, 2008

After a long long night of a fruitless quarrel with eBay customer service I passed out in disgust. How hard is it to explain that you are who you say you are? It's all about identity and protection. On one end you have the large corporation not listening to the human being, and on the other hand you have the human being not listening to the corporation.

Kind of like...

Marvel Civil War: Iron Man Review

This was a good one. Iron Man is the perceived enemy in the Civil War conflict. He takes up the cause of the government under pressure of losing his lucrative defense contracts that have made him so wealthy. Not that he's greedy, but his money does support most of the major super hero teams like the Avengers. So no money, no Avengers. In the real world security costs a lot of money.

Morally ambiguous protagonists have always been fascinating. The idea of moral ambiguity allows you to idolize characters like Darth Vader or any of Frank Miller's characters and not feel like a total jerk. And that's who Iron Man is, the pseudo-hero who always walks the line between doing what he wants, and doing what's right.

In Marvel's Civil War, he's doing just that. Walking the fine line. But like all heroes, he falls down and crosses over to the dark-side. And it costs him his oldest friend's life. He's then left to pick up the pieces and rebuild his confidence and moral compass. Just in time for a feature debut this spring...

Pics: Marvel Civil War: Iron Man.

February 27, 2008

Marvel Civil War: The Amazing Spiderman Review

I have a little more familiarity with the Spiderman character. The Amazing Spiderman monthly title follows a present-day "grown-up" Spiderman. He's working under Tony Stark aka Iron Man, and he and his family (Mary Jane/Aunt May) all live in the main Stark Industries Headquarters. I say this for anyone who doesn't read comics books, because in some instances characters have multiple titles (and not all of them take place inside the same timeline).

The Spiderman character is definitely more of an everyman character than the other Marvel Superheroes. He's just trying to live his life doing the right thing. He doesn't have any mystical or arcane powers. Just his wits and a few physcial abilities. That's part of what makes it easier to relate to Spiderman, he's much more in-touch with reality. He can't just teleport or fly away from his problems, and he can't incinerate his problems with a mere thought.

Enough background. On to the review...

The Spiderman Civil War TPB picks up where Peter Parker has just revealed his identity to the world on live TV. The story carries on through the consequences of revealing his identity and his split with Tony Stark/Iron Man. He goes on to swap sides in the Civil War, joining up with Captain America et Al.

My impressions were good. The artwork was of course great. I'd say even better than the usual monthly titles, but hey it's a Marvel Universe EVENT. You'd expect nothing less than the best artwork for something that big. The story was good, Spiderman returns to his roots and his original costume (he had been wearing an "Iron Man" edition Spiderman costume). It's almost like Spiderman is returning to the things that made him great, before the big team-ups and the big toys. Just plain heroism.

Of course that's all well and good, but the Marvel Universe has other plans for Spiderman's life (as it usually does). Aunt May gets shot, and the TPB fades to black...

Very suspensful, even more so because I don't even know where the story goes from there. Hopefully I'll find out soon. My eyes are still burning.

Next time for the trifecta: Marvel Comics Presents: Civil War: Iron Man

Pics: The Amazing Spiderman

February 26, 2008

I haven't made it all the way through Civil War yet, so I'll give my first impressions. Without further adieu:

Marvel Civil War: first impressions

Civil War is a collective arc running continually for the past year or so. It is similar to DC Comics Infinite Crisis in that it ties together all of Marvel's titles and characters. If you're like me and you don't read many of the great comics that are out there you'll at least remember the whole "mutant registration" kick that was introduced in the first major X-Men feature movie. This idea of profiling (like racial profiling) and right-to-privacy initally seems like an allegory to the involvement of the US goverment in the recent middle eastern conflict and it's role in domestic counter-terrorism measures.

On both sides of the Civil War conflict are friends and enemies. Primarily Captian America (Anti-registration/rebels) and Iron-Man (Pro-registration/government). The choice to cast Captain America, the most patriotic person in the country, as the rebel creates the perfect moral ambiguity to the conflict. If he's the biggest patriot, then maybe the government is being unpatriotic. There could have been no better role for Cap to play in the conflict.

Tony Stark is chosen to represent the goverment. He's super-rich and he owes most of it to defense contracts. Ergo, he is THE MAN. Throughout the conflict many heroes are persecuted as villains for declining to "register" their identities with the government, and many villains are tasked with the charge of bringing them in. Quiet an artful twist of fate.

So far, things have just started heating up, and even married couples are being split in the Civil War.

I'll give some more thoughts as things heat up.

Pics: Marvel's Civil War

February 25, 2008

Back to school, work, and everything else today. I spent most of the day catching up after my great weekend in Jersey with my cousins. Lots of good food and good company. I enjoyed it so much, I've already booked more time at the family hotel for wayward youths this coming spring break. It's not for a couple more weeks, and I'm sure I'll be ready to relax after mid-terms.

On my to-do list this week in no particular order:

1) Finish putting my computer back together (after that one little piece I need arrives).

2) Watch the DVDs I brought back from Jersey with me including: Seinfeld: Seasons 4&5, and The Simpson's Movie Ratatoille and Corpse Bride (all on blu-ray).

3) Get my meals back on track (vacation binging, you understand).

4) Catch up on homework and class readings.

5) Catch up on my book club selections and graphic novels including: Marvel Civil War, and Neil Gaiman's Collected works.

Between all the homework, required reading, and desired reading I should be pretty busy through the rest of this week. I'll be sure to post reviews of each fun selection after I finish them. Up first is Marvel Civil War book 1.

I have several other fun things planned for the rest of the week, but they're not worth mentioning until future posts. I don't want to show my entire hand while the game is still being played.

February 24, 2008

The resounding cry of "ouch!" was heard 'round the house as we all woke late in the morning. Sleeping in is so much more satifying when you're sore. It was a great Sunday morning though, and I shook it all off in short order. Cousin Wendy informed me happily that, "pancakes are ready." Needless to say, I skipped the immediate shower in favor of the pancakes. We spent the rest of the morning working out the muscle kinks and planning our departure back to New York City. After a few rounds of Rock Band and an enticing dinner offer from our aunt, the gang decided collectively to stay through dinner and head back later in the evening.

During the afternoon in the post-Rock Band cooldown, we made our way to the local junior high for some neighborhood sledding. It seems like the rest of the area had the same good idea, as it was packed with little kids and parents equipped with the latest in sledding technology. Naturally I took my camera, assured with the knowledge that kids+sleds+chaos=hilarity. It paid off, we had some great wipe-outs worthy of prime-time network television. All it needed was a Bob Sagat voice over in the background.

Chili and cornbread was on the menu for dinner. I also grabbed a caramel mousse cake at the grocery store for dessert. We had spent the whole weekend eating our faces off, it didn't make sense to stop short for our last meal.

Pics: Sledding, snowball fights, and the last supper.

February 23, 2008

Today was my first day skiing in at least 7 or eight years. It wasn't too painful. With two other exceptions everybody else in our band of ne'er do wells spent the day snowboarding. The mountain was mostly geared for boarders, but had a few decent ski runs. The freestyle terrain runs were a lot better than the ones I remember from my Colorado trips. Snowboarding has grown a lot since we had our last family ski trip.

I had forgotten about the long rental lines and occasional lift-line doldrums, but the mountain wasn't too crowded between the two major peaks we spent all day tumbling down. Joining my myself, my brother, and his girlfriend were our cousins and their friends from school. Being as we were all pretty good on the snow, nobody stuck out like a sore thumb. Being bundled up to the extent no one was clearly identifiable also helped.

Cousin Max brought along his camcorder and with he and I taking a steady stream of pictures and video we caught most of the days bloopers. Credit goes to Max for all the wipeout footage. I'm sure those of you who know him will see it on the internet in short order. Just like the rest of the world, I enjoy a good spill. I ended up steering clear of any major wipeouts, not wanting to smash my camera. I did attempt a few lesser jumps in the terrain park, but I'll be a little more daring on my next visit (the mountain is only 90 minutes away). Our uncle and aunt left mid-day, leaving my brother and I in charge of all the high school miscreants. To their credit, no one forgot to meet up for departure, and no one had to go to the emergency room. There was a little blood spilled though.

Upon our return our uncle and aunt had a smorgasbord of sushi ready for mass consumption. The three resident New Yorkers (me, Andrew, and Lindsey) were more than happy to oblige, wasting little time in inhaling the great food.

My brother has planned another visit to the mountain for this week, but with md-terms looming in the not-so-distant future, I have to stick close to home until Spring Break.

Pics: Ski-trip and sushi.