So...how's it going?

Having a good new year so far?

This is my first post here of the year 2011. I really hate that I don't update this blog as often as I once did, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Life in the Meat World is hectic and often frustrating, and I often have trouble getting myself in the proper mental place to write. I do still post stuff all over the place at odd times, just not here...and while it's possible that I'm spreading myself too thin, often it's just quicker and easier to post in those places. And those places are:

Twitter, of course. I'm always blathering on about something there. I hope you'll follow me in case I accidentally say something profound in 140 characters or less.

I've been posting mostly images of this and that on my Tumblr blog, called I Come Tumbl'n. That's kinda taken the place of the images I used to post here. Last night, I thought I would start a mini-feature of sorts, in which I'll post a page a day from Thriller, until I decide to stop.

Speaking of Thriller, I'm afraid I'm not going to be upgrading the venerable old website anytime soon; although I did reserve a Wordpress blog a few months ago with the idea that I might recreate it in blog form. Someday, I'll give the series and its creators a proper spotlight.

I'm on Facebook, and post a lot of links and videos there, which probably irritates my friends and family no end but I do get positive feedback as well, so feel free to friend me there if you like. I deleted my MySpace page last week, so don't look for me there.

If you miss my opinions and thoughts on recent comics and graphic novels, please check out my more-or-less weekly column over at Popdose, Confessions of a Comics Shop Junkie. Perhaps someday I'll start capsule reviewing my new comics purchases here again, but it won't be anytime soon.

I've also been invited to participate in a group blog about pop culture called Poplitiko; many, many fine writers have contributed already. I haven't put anything up there just yet, but I plan to do so as soon as I can get some coherent thoughts together. Chances are it won't be about comics; my first post will most likely be about my favorite year in music, 1974.

I still post the odd sketch on the ol' LiveJournal, as well as my DeviantArt page.

Geez, I am spread thin!

OK. How about some personal stuff! Actually, it had crossed my mind to make this blog more diary-like, but I'm not sure how much I want to do that. I din't think my personal life is all that interesting. I'm still working at the small print shop full time, though decreased business has caused the owner to cut us back to 4 days a week instead of 5...this is not a pleasing development, but we've managed to get by OK so far. Needless to say, I am considering my options and have been looking around for other jobs, but let's face it, my age is a handicap now. I've also begun to entertain thoughts of a career change for the first time in my life...but what, I can't say right now. Anyway, I still work part-time at the radio station, and right now, during basketball season, I'm getting enough hours to almost make it worth my time. That will all come to a halt in April, and I'm now considering trying to find a second part-time job to help make ends meet. Busing tables or working in a kitchen doesn't sound as bad to me now at 51 as it did, oh, 20 years ago.

Recent TV and movies I've seen and enjoyed include the Coens' True Grit and of course Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (I know, I haven't done proper movie reviews in ages). I've begun to watch the AMC series Breaking Bad on DVD, and am liking it quite a bit so far. I actually won an autographed copy of the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson...and Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him?- autographed by the director, not by Nilsson, of course. Actually, I have Harry's autograph already, obtained years ago for me by a friend at a Beatle convention. Long story. Anyway, it's fascinating, informative, and often moving- and while I can quibble with this and that and how it is or isn't presented, I recommend it highly if you haven't seen it. As far as currently airing programs go, right now I'm loving the FX series Justified, and am looking forward to the return of HBO series Boardwalk Empire and Treme.

Musically, I took money I got for Christmas and ordered a bunch of recent albums, such as the Black Keys' Brother, Tom Petty's Mojo, Band of Horses' Infinite Arms, Justin Townes Earle's Harlem River Blues, and Paul Simon's self-titled debut. Of all the new ones, I really loved that Band of Horses the most, though they were all very good. Some better than others. My music listening habits are random and varied; I'm liable to start the day in a Prince mood and wind up listening to Jethro Tull by days' end.

I also took some of that Christmas money and ordered the first four volumes of Fantagraphics' Popeye comic strip reprints; while I had read several of them here and there over the years, and liked them a lot, I had never read a sustained run of them. I have to tell you, that is some inspired, wonderful, insane stuff. If you think you know Popeye from today's comics or the cartoons, know that this is a whole 'nother thing, like those comics and films cranked up to ten and dosed with something stronger than spinach. They're quite amazing and very enjoyable, and I haven't really gotten into the acknowledged peak of Elzie Segar's tenure yet. I'm also still getting and reading lots of comics; current favorites include Keith Giffen's Doom Patrol, which is selling poorly and probably won't be around much longer, damn it; Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's Sixth Gun; Jeff Parker's entertaining Thunderbolts; Aaron and Guera's Scalped; David Hine and Moritat's surprisingly good take on The Spirit; and the Hellboy books, with a number of creators including Mike Mignola and Guy Davis, are as solid as always. Invincible Iron Man. Batgirl is intermittently interesting, as is Batman, Inc. and Booster Gold. And I know I'm forgetting some, so I'll stop now.

I'll wind this up. I don't know when I'll post here again, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading!

Various and sundry.

For the Red Wolf overview, go here. Sorry about the curve. I'll try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum in the future.

Yeah, I know, it's been another week without posts here at the Show. Just can't quite seem to get into that routine for various reasons. But I have been watching, reading, and listening to a lot of stuff, and I thought "Hey, why not do one of those long posts which touch on a number of subjects!" And since I still haven't totally abandoned the notion that this is not just a comics blog, I'll just go from one thing to another and try not to lose everybody in the process. OK? Here we go.

MUSIC:

Two birthdays I totally whiffed on in the previous weeks were those of:






















RINGO STARR, who turned 69 years old back on Tuesday, July 7. How ironic is it that now, with two Beatles dead and the other survivor looking more and more haggard with every passing year, that the perpetually-ill-as-a-child and oldest of the four looks and acts as vital and lively as he did at least a decade ago? I did a favorite Ringo songs list a few years ago, and I don't think it's changed much today. In the past week, I've seen a few articles and blog posts defending Mr. Starkey's artistry, decrying how little respect he's gotten and taking pains to point out how good a drummer he really was. Thing is, I've known this for a long time, and not because I'm a drummer (I'm not) or even a Beatle fan (which of course I am, very much so)...but because it's plain as day and perfectly obvious to anyone who knows anything at all about music and drumming. I can't recall too many instances of seeing people put down or belittle Ringo's ability in print, but when I do, I automatically discount that opinion, chalking it up to plain' ol' ignorance or contrarianism. Now, ol' Ringo hasn't exactly endeared himself to people with his recent request for people not to send him stuff to autograph, citing being too busy as a reason. Hey, yeah, that's pretty cranky-sounding, but you know, as much pleasure as he's given people for over 40 years now, I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt. As always, we have no idea what he and his mates have been through. Here's Ringo's website, in case you're curious.

Also:






















Good old BRIAN WILSON (shown here in 1976, from a Rolling Stone shoot I do believe) celebrated his 67th back on June 20. I think he's one of the great genius composers of the 20th Century, but I may be a tad biased since I'm such a fan of the Beach Boys and Brian's solo work. Back in 2003, I wrote this, and I think much of it applies six years later. Here's a list of my favorite Beach Boys songs, which I might change here and there now but probably not. I got his most recent release That Lucky Old Sun back during Christmas, and found it very good- a bit uneven quality-wise, perhaps, but it always sounded committed and his band is excellent. The track "Good Kind of Love" belongs right up there with his best, featuring some wonderful chord changes and a strong melody, as well as a charming, open-hearted sentiment that makes it a winner. The concurrent documentary DVD is also well worth a look; I rented it from Netflix a while back and found it very interesting as it showed us Brian and the Wondermints working on the album, as well as playing it live in the studio.

As far as any other music stuff goes, I listen to a constant stream of tunes all week long, all month long; nothing right now is jumping up and down, begging me to hold forth about it. I did enjoy listening to Hothouse Flowers' Home the other day; while it's got a very early 90's production sound, it isn't as egregious as some records I've heard from this period and boasts many great songs.

If you follow me on Twitter, I post comments on music I listen to fairly often. No plans to resurrect the Off the Record blog; I've been considering reposting the entries here and deleting it. Problem with that is I'd lose my comments, and I have a couple I want to save. Who knows.

MOVIES:

I haven't done any movie reviews in ages; probably not since I saw Dark Knight Returns. Back in January, I thought it might be interesting to keep a movie diary, writing it down every time I watch a film in its entirety (or finish watching a film I had started previously). Believe it or not, I have faithfully done this to this day! That said, I don't really want to go back and write about each of them, even though I haven't ruled out posting the list at the end of the year. Recent flicks I've seen that made an impression, though, were Up, yet another excellent Pixar effort which I enjoyed very much, despite the constant aerial action that had my acrophobia going nuts, making me twist in my seat. It also featured a couple of flashback sequences that were so moving that they could wring tears from a stone. Had me awfully misty, for sure. On a completely different note, I was tremendously entertained by the over-the-top theatricality of Repo! The Genetic Opera, a musical about a bleak future in which mass organ failure has led to the creation of a market for organ transplants and a company which makes the possible- for a price- and if you can't pay, they send the black-hazmat-suited Repo Man after you to get the organs back. Forcibly. As in cut them out of you in the alley. It's an obvious attempt to create a cult-movie like Rocky Horror, with a noteworthy cast: Anthony Stewart (Giles from Buffy) Head, singing again; Alexa Vega of Spy Kids, veteran actor Paul (Mira's dad) Sorvino, celebrity scourge Paris Hilton (whose newly transplanted face falls off at one point), and Sarah Brightman as well as Skinny Puppy's "Ogre". One of the co-writers, Terrance Zdunich, makes an impression as a shady whitefaced character named Grave Robber; he gets one of the best songs, an ode to an addictive drug which makes the surgeries less painful called Zydrate. He reminds me a bit of Joel Grey's master of ceremonies in Cabaret. The visuals are very much in that NiN/Marilyn Manson video/Tim Burton aesthetic style, and the whole thing gets across via its sheer chutzpah. Its director helmed a couple of the Saw flicks, which of course I am determined to miss at all costs. Reviews were awful, but I wound up kinda digging it.

TV:

Not much of note right now; Earlier this year I had gotten interested in NBC's low-rated Kings, a thougthful reimagining of the Biblical story of David and King Saul. which featured a typically outstanding turn by Ian McShane. When ratings were poor, they put the show on hiatus and aired them late last month and early July, on Saturday nights when no one watches. I'm sorry to say that I missed the most recent episode myself, but will look to see it on Hulu as soon as possible. I think there are a couple more left before it's gone for good- I might consider getting the DVD set so I can watch it in its entirety. Also, at about the same time Kings initially aired, I developed an attraction to Joss Whedon's latest, Dollhouse. After a tentative start, I think it really got in gear towards the end and thankfully has been renewed for another season; the limitations of the concept itself, the adjustable morality brought to bear, and the limitations on the acting ability of star Eliza Dushku give me pause, but it works in spite of everything. TNT's Leverage is another show I watched intermittently earlier this year; it's new season premiere is coming up soon. Another show I like quite a lot is HBO's Entourage; its new season premieres tonight.

And finally, COMICS.

The writer John Ostrander, whose run in the 90s and early Aughts on The Spectre is, in my opinion, one of the best things to come from DC in that period, has been battling glaucoma- and needs help with the expenses that insurance won't pay for. We've all been there, I know. The Hero Initiative is trying to help; go here for more information and if you can I hope you can join in.

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern? OK, sure. I liked him in Smokin' Aces, even though he was probably the most restrained member of the diverse cast. I might be more worked up about it if I was a GL fan, but I've never been listed in that number.

Go here for a couple of great Powerhouse Pepper stories by Basil Wolverton. You won't regret it.

Go here for an amusing Little Lulu satire by Howard Cruse. We don't see much Cruse these days, and that's a shame.

Tom Spurgeon has been killing it with his Sunday interviews lately; today's is with Peter Bagge, and is well worth your time as always.



Anyway, that's about it. I'm slowly but surely reading Clifford Meth's collection of short stories Billboards, but it takes me forever to read prose novels these days (I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon for going on three years now) so I'm way behind on getting it done so I can review it as promised. I will finish it eventually, and I'll be sure to let you all know what I think.

As always, more later, hopefully sooner rather than. And as always, thanks for your patience.

Odds and ends:

Sometimes I think I should enable titles here; since I've started using Google Reader to read everyone's blogs (well, not everyone, but you know what I mean) it does make one's posts stand out a little bit more. Still, after five (almost six!) years, I'm kinda "what's the point" about it.

Holy gosh, I haven't posted here since Wednesday! I was doing better there for a while, but real life has been very busy lately and I haven't really had anything particularly pertinent to say about anything anyway. As always, I appreciate those who hang with me.

While I'm going on and on about me, did you know I had a Flickr account? Well, now you do. Believe me, it won't be as impressive as those by the likes of Kevin Church, Katie West or Zoetica Ebb, but recently I've had access to a good camera and have been moved to take a shot or three, and thought it would be a good place to put them. I am no photographer, and have no pretense towards being one, but many of these shots will be of a more personal nature (i.e., me, things and places around me and stuff that informs my personal life) so if you're curious, then by all means check it out. And leave a fricking comment, whydoncha- no one has done so yet. I won't get mad.

The Flickr account isn't in the sidebar yet; actually, lots of things aren't, and that's just sheer laziness on my part. I used to simply go in and edit the template, and in some ways that was quicker, but when I changed to this look, I started using the new tables or whatever you call them, and hate to mix and match. The new way of adding links is not all that much more difficult, but for some reason I kinda procrastinate about adding stuff using it, and that's why my link list is so incomplete. So honest, it's not because I don't like you if your link isn't included at right, it's just because I'm a lazy bastard. Chances are I follow you on Reader, and one of these days I'll get around to completing (or at least updating) the list. I hope.

It seems like much of the stuff I could be using for blog fodder, I'm posting on Twitter instead. I will do some linky stuff shortly; if you follow me on Twitter, some of this will be familiar (I hope) but bear with, please. If you're on that highly addictive messaging service, and you don't follow me, well please feel free to do so- I need all the followers I can get if I'm going to rule the world someday.

OK, since at odd times in the last five plus years this has, much of the time, been a TV/Movies/Music/Comics/Sports (not necessarily in that order) blog, here's a little about each:

Last night was the big two-hour grande finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and all things considered it was an appropriate sendoff to a series which has been often frustrating, but more often wonderfully imaginative and sometimes moving, in spite of everything. Of course, none of it turned out like I thought it would, which just further proves that I'm not so smart. While Nickelodeon, on the one hand, has seemed to do everything in its power to dumb the show down and drive away viewers via its scheduling, at least they did air the show in the first place, and I suppose they should get credit for that even though it seems like they never really understood what made it special in the first place, preferring the more conventional likes of Spongebob Squarepants and The Fairly OddParents, lively and entertaining cartoons but neither possessing or requiring the amount of depth and attention that Avatar needed. Nick just never really seemed to like the show, as if they were confused and intimidated by the attention it got from many critics and fans outside the preteen and tweenage demographic that is their purview. Anyway, last night's episode resolved many longstanding plot threads, but maddeningly left many dangling, even creating a couple of new ones. I have it on good authority that one reason was because "they didn't get the originally planned, full four seasons" and why? "...the film that canned the series early. Timing and all that.". This motion picture, set to be made by none other than that Happening guy M. Night Shyamalan, is to be a live action version, which would seem to be counter-intuitive to the appeal of the concept, at least as I relate to it, but you never know. MNS has a lot to prove after the lackluster box office of his previous film, and that may motivate him to excel- if he's got it in him. His last attempt at full-blown fantasy, The Lady in the Water, was a bizarre disaster. I will say this- it's going to be a little strange to not be anticipating the next episode; it's an odd feeling to know that the Nick series is now done. In a strange sort of way, I almost hope they don't show reruns all that much; it just won't seem fitting, somehow, to see the "Sozin's Comet" episodes come on on a Thursday afternoon, out of order with no buildup or context to speak of. I get the same feeling from seeing reruns of Justice League Unlimited, more on that later.

Other TV shows I've been spending some time on include The Middle Man, which is still enjoyable in fits and starts but the arch tone wears me out after a while. It wants to be a hip, quirky and lighthearted adventure story, and sometimes gets pretty close, but often it just tries too hard. Venture Bros. is still going strong, showing remarkable depth and complexity while remaining as absurd and fun as ever; if you're not watching this show, you really should be. Netflix or rent the first two seasons on DVD, and you can even get caught up with season three via adultswim.com. My NCIS viewing remains consistent, even though it's not really must-see TV anymore. Should be interesting to see what happens with the cast; looks like they're trying to break them up but that seems like a remarkably bad idea. I still watch the occasional Justice League Unlimited episode on Cartoon Network; while they seem to be perpetually stuck in episodes from late in the penultimate and the final season, many of those are highly watchable and have their share of classic moments, such as the Flash's super-speed dismantling of the Braniac-possessed Luthor, and Batman dodging one of Darkseid's Omega beams. I'm pretty much caught up with previous seasons of HBO's Entourage; new episodes begin in September. It's not exactly essential, but it has a great cast with good chemistry, and is often very funny. I started out watching AMC's Mad Men, and was quite enamored of it, but missed something like the third and fourth episodes, figured I'd be lost and decided to catch up via DVD in time for the season 2 premiere. Uh...didn't happen. There's still time, although I think the second season begins this week or next. I also kinda got interested in HBO's Big Love, about a polygamist and his attempts to live a normal (well, relatively speaking) life in the monogamous world, as well as the various situations that arise within his sect. It's got a good cast, too, with Bill Paxton as the lead and Harry Dean Stanton, Chloe Sevigny, and others in supporting roles. I rented the first DVD of season one, but never could really get the time to sit and watch it so I sent it back so I could get further down my Netflix queue. I'll get back to it someday. It's got a really nice intro, which features the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows"- you can see it right here. Anything else? Hm. Dirt's second season was a strike-truncated disappointment, and then it got canned, too bad. I find myself watching reruns of Two and a Half Men in the afternoons sometimes; it's surprisingly funny and nasty in equal measures, with a cast of pros playing the material well. The CW Saturday morning Spider-Man series overcame a tentative beginning to become a surprisingly good watch; the script is often witty and is often fast-paced and fun. I think that's it. Almost worthy of Tom the Dog, huh!

Movies? I've seen a few lately. Iron Man, Hellboy II of course; and I also caught a showing of WALL-E a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't as nuts for WALL-E as many were; it was entertaining and very well animated (I expect no less from Pixar) but I found myself second-guessing the science and logistics constantly. For example, the film expects me to believe that the former residents of Planet Earth, having evolved into still-somewhat-human blobs, could immediately begin to walk, and survive the turmoil on the ship in the movie's resolution, as well as rebuild their planet- I didn't think these people even had much in the way of bone in their legs, especially enough to support all the weight they had put on! And one tiny plant is enough to convince the ship that Earth is habitual again? What about the obviously-still-depleted ozone layer? The winds that were still coming up at regular intervals? Sure, we got a look at some more greenery as the film wound down, but color me skeptical. I've yet to go see Dark Knight; everybody and their uncle is praising it to high heaven, but I wasn't all that enamored of Batman Begins, not enough to drop six bucks towards seeing its sequel, no matter how good Heath Ledger may or may not be. I also viewed the new Watchmen trailer online; it's very impressive although it does kinda look like all the other recent comic-book based films lately; the Billy Corgan music was somewhat disconcerting as well. Just a little too 90's for a property that's still associated with the 80's in my mind. I think Ozymandias looks like a dork in that black domino mask; IIRC he spent most of the comics (which I haven't read in ages) without it. Yeah, I'm nitpicking. Recent Netflix rentals include Michael Clayton, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Black Snake Moan, Crank, and the Aqua Teen movie- the first was very good but marred somewhat by a contrived ending, the second was marvelous, the third was ludicrous but kept my attention, the fourth entertaining, and the last became too much to take after a while- 15 minute doses of absurdity can be fun; two hours of same was just too much, and I bailed on it. I plan on doing a proper movie post soon; stay tuned.

Comics? The usual suspects that I've been enjoying, and I hope you've been reading my reviews to know what I'm talking about. One which really grabbed me was Hellboy: The Crooked Man #1, the first chapter of what promises to be another excellent miniseries. Set in Appalachia in 1958, and dealing with witches and hillbillies, it shows Hellboy as almost peripheral to the events displaying a detachment that Ron Perlman couldn't begin to portray. Richard Corben is on art, and he's excellent; people forget, I think, that he was first and foremost a horror artist back in the day who used to sign his work "Gore". I'm a sucker for that backwoods supernatural stuff anyway; this reminded me a lot of Manly Wade Wellman's excellent tales of Silver John, aka John the Balladeer, who encountered various ghosts, witches, and demonic creatures as he wandered the hills with only a silver-stringed guitar and a little bit of experience in dealing with such matters. I don't know if any collections are available, but if so I give them my highest recommendation. Ah! Here's one- a bit pricey, but worth it I think if you can afford it. Also, thanks to Bully, I've been reading Blake Bell's new bio of Steve Ditko- fascinating stuff, and it reproduces a LOT of great art at a bigger-than-normal size...and the effect is somewhat breathtaking, especially if you revere Ditko's 60's work as much as I do. Of course, I'll write more about these, and the other comics I haven't reviewed yet, later this week. On a related note, here's info about some mighty sweet art books by a number of talented artists- here's a couple of samples:



Yep, that's Darwyn Cooke and Cam Stewart! Each of them has their own collection available. I really would like to get a copy of Stewart's The Apocalypstix, but I thought I was still on Oni's comp list so I didn't preorder. I haven't received anything from Oni in months now, so I guess that's no longer the case, and as a result I'm going to have to find a copy somewhere. Such is life.

Music? I haven't really picked up anything new lately- mostly it's just finding old stuff that I haven't heard in ages or haven't heard at all here and there on the Interwub. Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue came out before I got interested in the Beach Boys; having made up for lost time since then (1977) it was inevitable that I would get around to it eventually, even though to be honest I wasn't crazy about the songs Dennis had on 70's Boys LPs like Carl and the Passions. Much to my surprise, it sounds nothing like those cuts at all; it's consistently tuneful and clever, and Wilson uses his croaking vocal to his advantage a la Tom Waits or hoarse Harry Nilsson circa Pussy Cats. I also have obtained XTC's Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol. 2), now eight years old- better late than never and well worth the wait, the only question being why the hell did I wait so long?!? Also, the two most recent issues from Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, Under the Skin and Say You Will; Skin is stripped-down but tuneful, Will is overlong, and suffers from being in actuality a Buckingham/Nicks album with Fleetwood and McVie as the rhythm section and Christine McVie barely present except for a few lost-in-the-mix felt-but-not-heard backing vocals, but there are some very good cuts by both singer/songwriters. Been also listening a lot to Rosebud, the self-titled debut, and only release by, a contingent of LA musicians from 1971 that came out on Reprise and featuring Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, who as a couple released the noteworthy Farewell Aldebaran a yer or so earlier. I had heard one cut on a Warner/Reprise Loss Leader, a lovely tune called "Lullabye II (Summer Carol)", previously and was very interested in hearing the rest of this hard-to-find release. Never did find it on vinyl. It's OK, if unremarkable, kinda-country-pop-rock stuff and so far the aforementioned track is the standout. I fully intend to give it time to grow on me. Otherwise, it's been a panoply of stuff; I listen to several CDs on average every day of every week.

Boy, this is a long post, huh!

Sports? Beseball season has been pretty good so far; my White Sox are hanging in there in first place, managing somehow to hold off the Twins and Tigers in the AL Central, with smoke and mirrors, seemingly, sometimes. I think they have what it takes to win that division, and even make it to the Series if they can stay focused. My beloved Atlanta Falcons are just trying to regroup and rebuild after one of the worst NFL seasons ever with a new coach, who strikes me as somewhat vanilla but if he can get this team tougher and playing smarter, then I'm all for it, and a new rookie quarterback who probably won't see action right away, plus a new feature running back who was impressive in the backup role in San Diego, but is unproven as in the feature role over the course of a season. They've lost a ton of other players on both sides of the ball, as cleaning house was the order of the day in ATL. Hate to say it, but a 6-10 season would be a minor miracle. That said, I think they'll be at least competitive- their division isn't the strongest. The University of Kentucky is gearing up for a new football season with high hopes, and of course basketball isn't far from anybody's mind in Lexington, even in September.

One more thing- by all means, check out the "Items of Interest" box in the sidebar there at right; it's where I select other blog posts that I run across in Google Reader and want to share. I think most of them will be of interest to a lot of you!

OK, now I'll wind this up and get on with the rest of my Sunday. Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far, and stay tuned for more later!

It's four AM and thanks to a combination of restless pets, falling asleep in the living room only to wake an hour later (I have difficulty going back to sleep when I'm awakened abruptly), and two movies on TCM I wanted to see, here I am.

The movies? I Bury the Living, a pretty cool 50's horror flick (with no monsters!) that starred Richard (Paladin, Have Gun Will Travel) Boone as the head of a cemetery committee. In his office at the cemetery, there's a big honkin' map (see pic above) which shows all the plots, and which features a system by which white pins are placed in plots belonging to living people, and black pins are placed in plots that are, shall we say, permanently occupied. By chance, he discovers that by placing a black pin in the plot of a living person, that person soon dies, and vice versa! Needless to say, this becomes a distressing situation, though never fear- it's not quite what it seems. Shot on a modest budget complete with day-for-night scenes, and saddled with a script that you wish was just a little sharper, it nevertheless evokes a nicely morbid mood and is very engrossing. Features Theo (Rance Mohammitz, 200 Motels, later Warner/Reprise artist) Bikel adopting a dreadful approximation of a Scottish brogue as the graveyard's caretaker. Bikel's music has never really been my cup o'tea, but I just think it's cool that he used to be on WBR, and got listed often on those $2 Loss Leaders they used to sell. Anyway, I first saw it back in 1973 or '74 on Channel 4 Nashville's Creature Features, so there's also that nice nostalgia buzz as well.

The second flick was new to me- I'd heard of it, but never had the opportunity to view it before. It says Dead Men Walk was made in 1943, but it looks like it could have been made 15 years earlier- everything looked cheap, creaky and dated...and this gave it a creepy mood that a bigger budget wouldn't have been able to approach. Funny how that works. Walk is pretty much a no-frills horror movie made in the waning days of the 30's horror boom- George Zucco, usually seen as a priest of the Mummy or a mad doctor or whatnot stars as twin brothers, one an upstanding doctor in a small town and the other a Satanist who is killed by his brother (for reasons unknown, it happened before the events of the film) but comes back to life as a vampire and swears vengeance on his twin, as well as his daughter. It pretty much proceeds in tried-and-true Dracula fashion after that, as Evil George, aided by hunchbacked assistant Zolar (Dwight Frye, who died not long after this as made), puts the bite on the daughter and intends to make her his thrall. There's a pretty good synopsis at the IMDb link above, including a mention of the creepy monologue at the beginning of the movie featuring the superimposed, lowlighted face of uncredited Forrest Taylor, which sets a suitably eerie tone. The rest of the movie doesn't quite live up, but it had a certain surreal atmosphere and was well worth viewing, especially if you're, oh, unable to sleep like your humble correspondent!

In other news from hither and yon, I see where Brad Delp, singer for the sporadic 70's group Boston, has died. Much to my surprise, I see where many around the Blogosphere are mourning his passing, but I won't join them. Nothing against Delp, who was a fine person I'm sure, and yes, it's sad that he died...but I could never stand that band's music, so I don't quite have the same attachment that many do. To me, it was always grotesquely slick, intermittently tuneful (yes, even catchy, but that doesn't equate good) edge-free corporate rock (in fact, one of the first of the corporate rock bands) that always served as fuel for numerous rage-filled "X can't get arrested in America or on the charts, but frigging BOSTON and the like are HUGE" diatribes. I saw Boston in 1976, part of a triple bill that also featured Manfred Mann's Earth Band (touring on "Blinded by the Light", and the main reason I was there) and pre-Steve Perry Journey, and I wish I could say that I remember it vividly but I don't, and that's only partly because of casual drug abuse. I wasn't impressed then, and it didn't get any better as that debut album and its followup became ubitiquous on radio and in my friends' record collections. So I'm sorry for the loss of the man, but I'm not inclined to mourn the memory of the group.

Back to TV, I watched two episodes of 30 Rock Thursday evening, because I'd read a lot of positive word of mouth by a lot of people whose opinions I respect. And what did I think? Well, I was disappointed. The humor was a lot broader and more farcical than I expected, often just plain ol' silly as opposed to witty or clever. I will say this, though- Alec Baldwin is indeed very good, often eliciting more chuckles by simply reacting to the insanity than contributing, and the first episode, which featured Nathan Lane as a scam-running long-lost brother, got really good when a booze-swilling and loud-mouthed Molly Shannon, of all people, joined in as one of a group of his siblings. Biggest annoyance was Tracy Morgan's "Tracy Jordan", whose eccentric character is supposed to be "wacky" or "edgy", I suppose, but just struck me as "goofy" and "irritating" and made me want to channel surf until his scenes were over. And honestly, I didn't really find many reasons to empathize, sympathize, relate to, like, or even root for, Tina Fey's Liz Lemon character- who seems to be the center around which the show revolves. Maybe I just didn't screen the right episodes, who knows, but she never seemed to have a consistent stance, an internal logic, in her portrayal- manic, petty one time, warm and approachable another, scatterbrained and silly another, and so on. And this is coming from someone who likes Dirt, where nobody is likeable. Oh well, it was enjoyable enough, and I'll probably watch it again next week, if it airs. I think it's got a hiatus coming up. We'll see.

It's now 5 AM, I'm actually yawning a little, and things seem to have settled down so I think I'll stop now and try to get some shuteye. Good morning to ye.


Cross-posted from the LJ.