The Johnny Bacardi Show

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGERY.

Yeah, I suck. I should have reviews up by now, and I have finished all my books I got on Friday (even went and bought a back issue of Manhunter today, #6). Feareth not- I will get them posted (hopefully) tomorrow. Among the examined will be Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars, War of the Worlds: Second Wave, Death Valley #2, Loveless #4, Daredevil #82, Catwoman #52, F.Paul Wilson's The Keep #4, and others. I did do a half dozen reviews, which shall (again, hopefully- don't know when for sure) appear in my first Buzzscope review column, cleverly titled Johnny B's New Comics Revue- when (if?)it appears. I'll post them here as well, but I'd like for them to go up first there.

A few things have caught my eye as I've passively surfed the ol' Interweb lately, and here are a few of them:

Alan David Doane's frank and forthright analysis of the Speakeasy fiasco. The first Speakeasy book I bought was also, apparently, my last: Flying Friar. Rocketo looked interesting, but like many others, I didn't see it in my LCS. I may look for a trade eventually. I don't feel too much remorse over the news; of course, it's too bad and a shame they couldn't make a go of it...but these days more than ever it's survival of the fittest, and apparently Speakeasy wasn't fit enough. IMO, they failed the same way Crossgen and others have failed: they didn't give us anything we weren't already getting somewhere else. Hopefully, the creators involved will be able to find outlets for their talents elsewhere to make up the difference; they're the real victims in the whole mess.

Jason Bone drew Beowulf! Because he read my posts! If I was a little manga girl I'd go "Squeee!" Oh, wait. I just did. As Paul McCartney once sagely sang in a Wings B-side, "boom-checkit-boom-checkit-boom-checkit owwwt"!

Larry Young returns from his travels in the wilderness long enough to give us a Sermon on the Engine, about how to pitch your story idea. Oh, all right, I'll cease with the religious references, but I couldn't help myself after getting some hits for my statement of many moons ago about Mr. Young, the Patron Saint of the Comics Blogosphere. Well worth reading.

The NYCC? Well, I didn't go. Surprise, surprise, although I was asked by a couple of fine folks if I was (after all, I have been known to visit NYC upon occasion- once in the last 20 years!)planning to attend. Little problem of distance, you know. Certainly sounds like someone did some underestimating somewhere. I know, I know, I'm just an overgrown kid from the sticks, and whaddaIknow, but next years preparations, I think, should begin with scheduling a larger venue for the event. Thank you, Captain Obvious!

God, I haven't written about anything besides comics in a long time, have I? What I'm listening to right now: The Kinks Kronikles, primo late 60's-early 70's Kinks goodness; Four Guys Walk Into a Bar, the Faces box set which has too many damn versions of "Miss Judy's Farm" for my taste- fine song, but we get one studio and two live versions, and there may be a fourth one in there, I don't recall offhand; With the Beatles- finally broke down and bought this, which features most of the songs which appeared on Capitol USA's Meet the Beatles, AKA the Album Which Blew young Johnny B's Mind and Set Him on the Path to Beatlefandom (fave cuts: "All My Loving", "Not a Second Time", "Devil in Her Heart"); Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe by the Alan Parsons Project- this was the first APP effort, tres pretentious but on several cuts this anonymous studio band manages to transcend. Kinda got my nostalgia on with that one- we listened to it a lot in a cloud of marijuana haze back in the day. No, I didn't spark up the other day. Still getting a lot of mileage out of the Tim Buckley anthology- favorites emerging: "The River" (beautifully ominous/ominously beautiful), "Sweet Surrender" (lame title-amazing song) and "Happy Time" (...inside my mind, when melody finds a rhyme..."), and many others. Whatta fearless vocalist. Mott The Hoople Live, the restored, remastered, and rejuvenated 2-CD version of the fractured 1974 vinyl release. Available as an import only, but well worth the extra expenditure and you can get it used for a decent price from Amazon's sellers. Also, a CD my son recommended: Spoon's Gimme Fiction, so I can say I'm hep to what the kids are listening to these days. Not-bad pop-rock. Tick fans, no doubt. One CD I'm giving serious consideration to buying is The Best of Budgie. Several of my friends, circa 1975-76-77, had a couple of albums by the obscure British semi-prog boogie-rock trio (not the blogosphere's own Lee Barnett), and I remember a couple of cuts very well: "I Ain't No Mountain" and "I Can't See My Feelings". Gotta get that one soon. I've also had the strangest cravings for early-mid '70s bubblegum rock like Three Dog Night (Seven Separate Fools from 1972- used to have that one on 8-track, good God)and glamsters the Sweet. Too much music, too little money.

TV? Not much lately. I've been enjoying Match Game reruns again, after a bit of a hiatus in interest. Haven't been able to get interested in any series lately, nor have I had very much time to do so. Mostly my viewing consists of cartoons: Futurama, Family Guy, W.I.T.C.H., the occasional Ben 10 (Very Murakamiesque, and several of the Teen Titans voice actors do the honors there as well and Andy (Jellyfish) Sturmer did the theme song), Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited (Didja catch the new one Saturday night? Didja? Didja?) and, of course, Avatar- didn't get to see the season finale, but bet your ass I'll be getting the DVDs! Speaking of which, I've been watching the Action DVD set and laughing my bleep off, and Mrs. B got me the Dead Like Me first season DVD set as well, but it makes me sad to watch it because it got killed in its prime. And won't come back. The "30 Days of Oscar" thing on TCM makes for some fine viewing...if you haven't seen most of these films over and over and over again. I'll be happy when they go back to showing the more obscure stuff like Maisie movies.

Oops, Match Game is on now! Who the hell was/is Abby Dalton? Get a load of the hair on that blonde contestant- makes Marge Simpson look like Sinead O'Connor! Oh well, I'll wind this up by wishing each and every one of you a belated happy National Pancake Day!