Hello.
I was at a state car and truck auction all today- bought a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup for my son, who is kinda hard on vehicles (he's had three, and he's only 21)...we'll see how "ram tough" they are now! He's gonna be paying for it, in case you were wondering how I was gonna pull that bit off. Plus I haven't been feeling well the last few days, and haven't felt like concentrating long enough to write anything legible...so that's my lame attempt at justifying my lack of content over the last couple of days. I'll try to do more better tomorrow.
Finished 8-6 in football predictions over the weekend, making my record 66-35, .653.
Comics on my pull list tomorrow, according to the new Diamond shipping list:
AVENGERS JLA #2 Yeah, yeah, I know...it's got to get better, right?
CINNAMON: EL CICLO #3
HELLBLAZER #189
PLANETARY #17
SLEEPER #10
Mostly good stuff, and a well-deserved break for my dwindling bank account.
Thinking pretty hard about going to see Eels on Saturday night in Nashville, at a venue to which I've never been...if I have any money and feel like it after yet another (property) auction with which I've agreed to help Saturday morning. Rhonda, they're gonna be in Louisville this Friday night. In other musical newsicals, against my better judgement I bid on a Posies CD, the one critics generally agree is their best, Frosting on the Beater on eBay and paid a staggering $3.25 for it- shipping and everything! If it hadn't been so cheap I wouldn't have done it. Of course, I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for, so stay tuned...
Just got finished watching Boris Karloff play another evil Oriental type in the 1930s flick West of Shanghai...not especially PC, but still a fun adventure yarn with Boris hamming it up and helping a very logic-defying script. He was much better, and the film was a lot livelier (albeit even less PC- offensive, even) in The Mask of Fu Manchu, which I watched a few nights ago. Man, what a totally nutball adventure yarn, so over the top- especially for the Thirties! I think that Doug Moench, Jim Starlin and Paul Gulacy must have viewed this before they did Master of Kung Fu for Marvel in the 70s. I'm really enjoying all the old Karloff films they've been airing on TCM lately, many of which I haven't seen before like The Walking Dead, a Twilight Zone-ish tale of a wronged man who is executed but is brought back to life and extracts revenge on the gangsters who framed him. Directed by Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz, no less!
Whenever I see those 30s films, dealing with adventure and danger and high-concept thrills in remote (usually Oriental) spots, it makes me wish someone had the wherewithal to make a Doc Savage film in this vein, full of adventure and fun, located in Tibet or Mongolia and in heated battle with John Sunlight or some other suitably megamanaical villain, but not played with smirky condescension and lowbrow camp hijinks like the horrible 1975 Doc movie was. Hell, film it in black and white, and get Roy Wood to write the score. I know, I know...what? When I first started reading the paperback reprints of the old Doc Savage pulp novels, I was also listening to the first two Electric Light Orchestra LPs and Roy's own solo Boulders a lot. I still think of Doc whenever I hear No Answer's Woody instrumental "First Movement (Jumpin' Biz)".
Speaking of movies, don't miss a day of Sean (Barnabas) Collins' 13 days of Halloween, in which he writes about some of his favorite horror films, and does a darn fine job of it too. I had written some of my impressions on his first three choices, but I wasn't happy with what I wrote so I deleted it. Maybe I was hasty- I've already had someone ask me what happened to it! I didn't think anybody had time to see it... Perhaps I'll rewrite later.
OK, that's all the damage I'm gonna do for now. Got a lot to keep me busy tomorrow as well, so I don't know how much I'll be able to post but you never know.
Oyasumi Nasai, ya'll.
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