BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of September 17

HUMAN TARGET 2
So far, so good as Milligan avoids the trap I had feared, choosing to explore a new direction for our "hero", rather than going once again to the lost-in-the-identity-of-someone-else well that I had hoped he would avoid. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone that's overly sensitive about the events of 9-11, but otherwise, this is a smart extrapolation of a real-life premise that I'm sure has a lot of basis in truth. Javier Pulido's art looks a little bit rushed this time out, and I'm wondering if he's ever done a monthly title before...but believe me, I'm nitpicking. He's still excellent and more than good enough to overcome the hamfisted hues of Lee Loughridge. A

SMAX THE ADVENTURER 2
More Groucho Marx meets Robert E. Howard, as we delve deeper into the backstory of the big blue Top Tener Jeff Smax, aka "Mr. Dragonslayer". Smax was not one of my favorite characters in the original series, but this is clever and interesting (pretty much par for the course for Alan Moore) and well drawn by Zander Cannon, especially the really bizarre looking dragon we encounter. Amusing Frazetta swipe on the cover, too. A

LUCIFER 42
Beatrice, the coat check girl from Lux (the Morningstar's piano bar), who has gone unseen for quite some time now gets a partial spotlight in this issue, which also deals with the reprocussions of Lucifer's actions two months back. We're also introduced (if they've appeared before, I don't recall them) to two giants who decide to assume the vacant position of ruler of creation, and they seem to have done their homework, which makes them a surprisingly credible threat, despite the fact that one of them reminds me of Billy Crystal's Monsters, Inc. character. As always, Ryan Kelly and Peter Gross do a capable, if a little inconsistent this time around, job. A-

CINNAMON: EL CICLO 2
Well, even though if you kinda squint your eyes you'll think you're reading 100 Bullets, this is not bad in its own right. Not the most original thing I've ever read, but this Cinnamon character is charismatic enough to be interesting, and the upcoming conflict between this daughter of a murdered sheriff and the daughter of one of his murderers looks to be worth following...and I have a sneaking suspicion that it might take an unexpected turn or two before it's over. I hope. A-

DAREDEVIL 52
Out of the 23 pages, only 8 actually advance the script, so once again we're treated to more of the backstory of David Mack's Echo character, which is useful, I suppose, if you didn't read her first appearance a couple of years ago. In fact, if not for those 8 pages I would have sworn I was re-reading last issue. So while it's all very well illustrated in Mack's Bill Sinkiewicz-influenced style, it's not very cost effective...so I dock this issue a notch and hope for closer to a 50-50 mix next time. B+

ULTIMATE SIX 1
Here we have an impulse buy. I really like the Ultimates book, and this is definitely cut from the same cloth, albeit with the Ultimates acting a bit more fascisistic than I remember from their own title. I suppose if we have to have superheroes, then I like them presented this way: terse, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, with a self-aware, sarcastic sense of humor. Of course, this is anaethema to many who have their hero-identification crosses to bear, so I'm sure there will be as much bitching about this as there is about the Ultimates proper. Bendis sets the tone from the beginning with his usual snappy dialogue, Joe Quesada turns in a nice art job on the first few pages, and Trevor Hairsine does his best Bryan Hitch impersonation for the remainder (and gets away with it more often as not), with Danny (Johnny B does not know who the hell you are) Miki holding it all together on inks. Nicely done, and if not for the inconsistent art I would have given it an A-. B+

B.P.R.D.: NIGHT TRAIN
I have to admit that I was a wee bit disappointed that this wasn't Abe Sapiens, Liz Sherman, Hellboy, and co. sitting around getting drunk on cheap wine...instead, it's more Liz and Roger the Homonoculus (with another appearance by Lobster Johnson, who's nowhere near as interesting to me as he seems to be to everyone else) as they get mixed up with (you guessed it) ghostly Nazis, this time riding a (yep) ghost train. Even so, it had my interest for about 3/4 of the book, until the creators seemed to run out of pages and charged full speed ahead to the end. Typical hit-and-miss Geoff Johns, and OK art by Scott Kolins, whose work I hated on Legion years ago, but apparently he's had a stylistic epiphany of some sort since. I like it a lot better now. B

THE FILTH 13
OK. Bill Sherman, Big Sunny D and Sean Collins have weighed in on this already, and they've managed to sum this up quite nicely, confirming the suspicions that I had about the general thrust of this difficult-to-like limited series. Look, for the record, I like Grant Morrison's work. I was right there, digging on his Doom Patrol and its magnificent spinoff Flex Mentallo, one of my all time favorite comics series. Marvel Boy. The Invisibles. Even a trade or two of his New X-Men. I think there are few, if any writers who have as much sheer imagination as Morrison, let alone the ability to challenge his readers. However, as with his Invisibles, I think that he has ultimately failed to get his ideas across because he has deliberately chosen to cloak and obscure them with overwhelming visual and verbal clutter, which would seem to be at cross purposes with the enlightenment he seems to hope to bring to his reader. But he apparently doesn't know how to do it any other way...when waxing all metaphysical on us, I don't think he could write a linear story if he wanted to. These convoluted "unreality vs. reality" and "common man striving to find that small spark of the divine within while dealing with the mundanity of the world in which he lives" notions were the heart of Invisibles, (especially) Flex, and the Filth, and only on Flex was he able to state his case clearly. Whenever I've finished something like this, I'm always reminded of Robert Christgau's review of John Lennon & Yoko Ono's Some Time in New York City, in which he states:

...But if agitprop is one thing and wrong-headed agitprop another, agitprop that doesn't reach its intended audience is hardly a thing at all.

And isn't agitprop of another sort what Morrison's trying to do, this time on a perceptual level rather than a social level like John & Yoko in 1972?

All right, that's all. I think I'll definitely have to re-read this at some point; after all, it took me a couple of readings to get to the bottom of Flex Mentallo as well. And I'll also mention that Chris Weston, with inker Gary Erskine, often turned in some stellar work during the course of this series, no more so than on this issue's touching last page. The coloring was magnificent throughout. A lot of what The Filth was trying to say may have evaded me, but I'll give DC a lot of credit for putting it out. I wish more floppy pamphlets, or trade paperbacks for that matter (and that may be where The Filth coheres) would be as challenging as this one has been. This issue: B. Entire series: C+

Note: The Filth review has been edited a bit to help clear up some fuzzy thinking on my part. Mercy buckets, Big Sunny D!

Apparently a lot of interesting musicians met their respective makers in the month of September as well...in addition to Marc Bolan's death a couple of days ago, along with (more recently) Warren Zevon and Johnny Cash, yesterday was also the anniversary of the untimely death of Jimi Hendrix, and today marks the day that country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons began his long dirt nap as well.

Multitudinous BSBdG action today! From left to right: Holy typecasting! Adam West, 73; One of the redoubtable agents of U.N.C.L.E., David "Ilya Kuryakin" McCallum, 70; and Lol Creme, 56, musician and video director, formerly of 10cc and Godley + Creme, currently affiliated with the Art of Noise.

I see where Peter Bagge's playing around in Marvel's sandbox again, this time with The Incorrigable Hulk. I wasn't going to pick this up, since I regard his previous efforts The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man and Sweatshop as well-intentioned failures. But the splash is pretty damned funny, so I'm beginning to think about getting it.

Which makes me wonder- if I take this job in Nebraska, I don't think there are any comics shops for miles around Sidney. Too far to drive every week, I'm afraid...I have two alternatives, it seems- either get my current comics shop to ship my books to me every week, or enlist a subscriber service like Mile High Comics or Midtown Comics. That's an attractive idea, since they'll be bagged and boarded and I'd get a discount, which I don't get now. But I'm afraid that I wouldn't get my books until at least a week after they come out on Wednesday, and I'd be perpetually a week behind, which would play hell with my reviewing efforts. Have any of you out there got any experience with comics subscriber services like these, and can you advise me?

On a related note, I picked up everything I had previously listed yesterday plus BPRD: Night Train which I had overlooked on the Diamond list, and, believe it or not, Ultimate Six 1. And of course you know that I will review them ASAP.

I've also added a couple of new links at right: recent commenter of note Dave Fiore's Motime Like The Present, and pop culture sites Metafilter and Scrubbles. Click on the links and check them out, o my brothers and sisters!

Prepare yourselves, puny humans, it's time for another edition of



How d'ya like the new logo? The Mondo Vinyl-O is a semi-regular feature in which I write about ten long-playing vinyl 33 and 1/3 RPM record albums that I have listened in the interval since the last MV-O. This is a direct result of obtaining a new turntable several months ago after not having one for a couple of years. I've been spending a lot of time getting re-acquainted with a lot of music that I don't own or is unavailable on compact disc, and I decided to pass my impressions on to you. Don't you feel fortunate? Anyway, time to lock 'n load!

The Rolling Stones-Their Satanic Majesties Request (London 1967)
The Stones' stab at psychedelia was universally panned at the beginning, but has grown in stature over the years. At the time of its release, a lot of people, John Lennon included, saw the record as being a little too imitative of Sgt. Pepper's, but I think that's a bit harsh- hell, it seems like everyone back then was trying to do music like this. There's a lot of self-indulgent screwing around on Satanic, to be sure, mostly on the meandering second part of "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)", and the dull "Gomper" which might have been better off left in the can...but there are some wonderful (and somewhat influential, I believe) songs which more than make up for it, like the resplendent "She's A Rainbow"; the eerie synth-driven "2000 Light Years From Home"; and "Citadel", which features a great riff (which Roxy Music nicked for Stranded's "Street Life") at its center. Brian Jones was the driving creative force behind a lot of this, it seems, and perhaps its poor reception was one of the things that led him farther down the slippery slope that resulted in his premature death, who knows...Mick 'n Keef abandoned psychedelia after this for the more earthy pleasures of country and blues-rock, and I'm kinda glad that they did...but this remains a fun listen. I wish I had the necessary discs so I could make my own Psychedelic Stones CD, with the '67 single "We Love You" and the earlier "Child of the Moon" added.

Tim Moore-Tim Moore (Elektra 1974)
Picked this up back in the late 70s in the cutout bin at the Emporium, where I met Bill Lloyd, who used to work there. I had never heard of Moore, and to be honest, I don't know what caused me to pick this up, even to this day...but I'm very glad I did because this is an excellent soft-pop album, reminiscent of Bob Welch-era Fleetwood Mac or James Taylor. Best of all is the marvelous opening cut, "A Fool Like Me" which overcomes pseudo-philosophical lyrics like "Cryin with the millionaire/Is like laughin' with the old street bum/Send him off to the colisseum/Promise him Kingdom Come" with a drop-dead gorgeous melody and wonderful string and vocal arrangements. Other winners include the pensive piano-and-strings ballad "Second Avenue" and the Jeff Buckley-ish "Sister Lilac". Richie Havens had a minor hit with "Aviation Man" on side two. When I got this I also picked up Moore's 1977 effort White Shadows, which was utterly unremarkable and disinclined me towards seeking out any further albums, of which there were only two or three all together. Wonder whatever happened to this guy?

Sparks-Whomp That Sucker! (RCA, 1981)
If you've been reading me for any amount of time, you've probably inferred that I have a definite weakness for whimsical smart-ass pop-rock, like Jellyfish, 10cc, or Queen...but nobody, and I mean nobody, could touch these guys in that department. Sparks were mostly a vehicle for the Brothers Mael, Ron and Russell- Ron was the deadpan keyboardist/lyricist with the Hitler moustache and Russell was the prettyboy frontman with a voice that was capable of belting or warbling, depending on what the songs called for. Whomp was very much of its time, a synth-heavy Devo-ish concoction punctuated with "Bohemian Rhapsody"-style chorus en masse vocals, produced by then-hot ex-Georgio Moroder engineer Mack, who went on to work with Queen and ELO. Which is not to say it was derivative or imitative, far from it...the Maels were too smart for that. Each song is based on some sort of humorous premise, evident in such song titles as "Tips For Teens", "I Married a Martian", and "Wacky Women". I think my favorite cut, though, is "Upstairs"- in which Ron muses on the thought process set to a surging synth-driven beat. It's catchy as hell. It's been several years since I picked up a Sparks record, even though they've released several since...after their 1984 album Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat I kinda lost interest. I've read good stuff about some of their recent albums so I might have to get one someday.

Dr. John-Desitively Bonaroo (Atco, 1974)
Dr. John, aka Mac Rebennack, had a huge hit album and song the year before with the Allen Toussaint-produced In the Right Place, so apparently both he and the record company saw no reason to deviate from that with the follow-up. Bonaroo is almost identical to its predecessor, featuring that New Orleans Seventies funk sound, except the songs just aren't as strong and there were no hits this time. In fact, Bonaroo was a fixture in cutout bins for years, as retailers bought a hell of a lot of copies that went unsold. Musically, though, this record is first rate, since the Doctor brought back his Right Place collaborators the Meters, and it's actually quite listenable...but it just pales in comparison. Favorite cut: "Mos' Scocious", with its dipsy doodle horn arrangement, and "What Comes Around (Goes Around)", a catchy soul tune.

Michael Nesmith-Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash (RCA 1973)
This was the Thinking Man's Monkee's last record for RCA, for whom he recorded a surprising six records in three years before leaving to start his own Pacific Arts company, which exists to this day. At the time, too weird for Nashville and too country for AM or FM radio programmers, Mike's RCA records are simply amazing country-rock efforts, with smart lyrics and excellent melodies, and I think it's a crime that they're so obscure. I dare say that Nesmith is the missing link between Gram Parsons and Steve Earle in the country-rock pantheon. Although every one of them has strong cuts, Stash represented a aesthetic comeback of sorts for Nez after the somewhat dull And the Hits Just Keep on Comin' and the sloppy, rambling Tantamount to Treason Vol. 1. I get a feeling of wanting to go out on a high note on this record, making me think that Nesmith knew that chart success was just not going to happen at RCA , so he just decided to record some music for himself and ta heck with what the bean counters thought. Side one is Nes originals, featuring a remake of the Monkees tune "Some of Shelley's Blues", and his honky-tonk angel song "Winonah", which is pure classic Nashville country. Side two is given to eclectic covers like Bill Monroe's "Uncle Pen" and Billy Hill's "Prairie Lullaby". I think most of Nesmith's RCA albums are available on CD these days, so if you haven't heard them do yourself a favor and seek them out.

Mike McGear-McGear (Warner Bros. 1974)
McGear is, of course, Michael McCartney, satirist brother of the cute moptop. Partially as an excuse to audition future Wings guitarist Jimmy McCullough, and partially out of the desire to help out his bro, Sir Paul produced, co-wrote, and played on this album along with Linda and Denny Laine, essentially making this sound like a Wings record with a sense of humor. Actually, it's a lot better than that- I think Mike's sharp humor brought out the best in Macca's creativity, and this is actually one of the strongest records he was involved in post-Fabs. Lol Creme and Kevin Godley show up on a couple of cuts as well, playing their then-new Gizmo, essentially a device which made guitars sound like orchestral strings. Features a great, rocked-up cover of Roxy Music's "Sea Breezes", the pretty "Simply Love You", the Sensational Alex Harvey Band via Monty Python-ish "Norton", the T.Rex satire "Givin' Grease a Ride", and the horn-driven "Have You Got Problems?", and several other strong cuts. Mike de-emphasized the family connection when this was released, and therefore this record was a flop of historic proportions. In fact, and I might be mistaken here, I seem to recall reading that this was the worst-selling record in the history of Warner Bros. Records at the time of the article. A pity, but it's available on CD so apparently somebody out there wants to hear it!

David Bowie-"Heroes" (RCA, 1978)
The second of those revered and influential Eno collaborations, "Heroes" has always been, to me, kind of a mixed bag. Just like the previous years' Low, it's divided into a song side and an instrumental side, and just like Low, it's of varying interest. Most of the instrumentals bore me, although there are some passages here and there that sound interesting. The songs on side one, though, are pretty good, especially the lurching opener "Beauty and the Beast", the melodramatic "Sons of the Silent Age", and, of course, the title cut, which most people these days know from that terrible Wallflowers cover. It's rare when one song makes picking up an entire record worthwhile, but it's true in this case- Bowie's original version of "Heroes" is such a dynamic, evocative cut that it raises the quality of the rest of this album, like a great hitter in baseball can make his team a lot better. Of course, I gotta mention that this album would be nowhere near as strong as it is without the invaluable aid of guitarist Robert Fripp, who shines throughout- especially on that title song. Compared with the strong, groundbreaking Low, and its successors Lodger and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), "Heroes" comes across as a step sideways, but it does have its charms. And even the worst track here is far superior to anything Bowie's done in the last 20 years.

Davey Johnstone-Smiling Face (Rocket/MCA, 1973)
At some point between the albums Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John's guitarist recorded this understated, but likeable folk-pop album. Filled with songs about his wife, friends and family, it's definitely a labor of love for the underrated Johnstone, whose contributions to John's best records is often overlooked. Longtime EJ producer Gus Dudgeon did the board work, Elton contributed keyboards to one cut, and Rick Wakeman (credited here as "Bakeman", either a typo or an attempt to fool Wakeman's record company) chips in with synths on "A Lark in the Morning With Mrs. McLeod", a fun medley of folk songs, but everything else here is Johnstone and the odd member of the Elton John music family past and present, like Roger Pope or Caleb Quaye. Bert Jansch of Pentangle fame also guests on a well-played track. Of special note is the title cut, a song for his son (pictured on the cover) a mandolin exercise that is absolutely charming, and the equally charming "A Lovely Day", a happy song about, well, a lovely day! Of such slight origins wonderful music is often made. I have no idea how well this record sold, I've only seen one copy in my life in a record store, the one I own. I was a pretty big Elton fan at the time, and I didn't even know it existed until many years later. An real obscure, humble little gem of an album.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer-Brain Salad Surgery (Atlantic/Manticore 1973)
Boy, this record (the first ELP album I ever heard) brings back a lot of memories. Other ELP albums have their moments, but this one in particular is one of the most original, most over-the-top, imaginative, melodic, inventive, and any other adjectives you care to name albums by anybody that I've ever heard and it blew me away when I was 14. Guess that speaks to my legendary arrested development that I still think so. And yes, it's pretentious as all get out, too, but I've never minded pretension when the music that framed it was solid. From the bombastic, but triumphant opening track "Jerusalem", a William Blake poem set to music, to the neo-classical assault "Toccata", which is a bit much at first but gets better with subsequent listens, to the lovely, albeit thin-sounding "Still...You Turn Me On", to "Benny the Bouncer", a clever little story-song reminiscent of the trio's "The Sheriff" from Trilogy to the gonzo, all-stops-out sci-fi extravaganza "Karn Evil 9", this record is a tour-de-force, with inventive arrangements and excellent lyrics by good ol' Peter Sinfield, especially on "Karn Evil 9"'s second movement. So naturally, after I discovered ELP with this record, they completely lost the plot, due to internal squabbling, megalomania, drugs, and all the usual bullshit which disrupted musicians' careers. They tried to reunite in the 90s and even more recently, but apparently they totally shot their creative wad with Surgery because subsequent records were lackluster at best and abominable at worst. One of the reasons I never embraced Punk or New Wave all that much back then was because of the utter disdain punks had for this type of music.

Todd Rundgren-Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (Bearsville 1971)
Todd's second proper solo record, the one before Something/Anything and "Hello It's Me" made him, briefly, a star. It's an unassuming (well, as unassuming as Todd could be, anyway) little pop record, where Rundgren works out his Carole King and Laura Nyro obsessions...which is not to say it's all piano ballads- there are several rockers here as well, mostly Badfinger-style power pop (unsurprisingly, Todd produced Badfinger not long after this) with former Nazz members and studio musos. It's a fine record, but Todd hadn't really come into his own just yet. The highlights for me are the doe-eyed ballads "Long Time, Long Way to Go" and "Be Nice to Me", along with the smartaleck country song "The Range War" and the genuinely moving "Wailing Wall". He went on to do more accomplished music, but this is a solid album.

That's it! I try to limit it to ten (which takes me all morning to write), but there were twice as many records that I listened to in this period. Maybe they'll pop up in future Vinyl-O's. Sounds like a breakfast cereal, dunnit? I still intend to do a solo Beatles someday down the line, so stay tuned.

Antipopper recently made some interesting observations after watching the DVD of the first season of Twin Peaks. I would have never made the connection between the odd Americana slant of late 60s Beach Boys music and Peaks, but AP did, and it makes a lot of sense. I had totally forgotten that Van Dyke Parks had a role as Leo's lawyer.

I watched, and was utterly engrossed in, the first season of Twin Peaks. But for reasons which escape me right now I missed the first two episodes of the second season, and I figured that I would never be able to figure out what the heck was going on, so I didn't watch again. And sure enough, right after I made that decision, ratings fell hard and fast and the show was cancelled not long after. I've always felt partially responsible for the death of that show...

And finally, in order to justify my membership in the Team Comics Bloggers club, here's what I'll be getting tomorrow according to the new Diamond shipping list:

CINNAMON: EL CICLO #2
FILTH #13
HUMAN TARGET #2
LUCIFER #42
SMAX #2
DAREDEVIL #52

A mercifully light week, although if they get in copies of Superman: Red Son 3 I'll pick that up too. I can't tell you how glad I am that The Filth is winding up. I gave up trying to figure out that frigging book a long time ago, and I can state unequivically that I'm sure this issue won't make anything any clearer. My comics shop didn't get in a copy of Scott Morse's The Barefoot Serpent last week, not that I could have afforded it anyway...but I'd still like to pick it up someday.

The distinguished Mr. Sean T. Collins expresses disbelief upon reading that I didn't like the film Velvet Goldmine. Straight out of Bizarro World, me will now not explain why me liked that movie. Bear in mind that I haven't seen it since my initial viewing in 1999.

For those of you that don't know, Velvet Goldmine was for David Bowie (and to a lesser extent, Iggy Pop) what Citizen Kane was for William Randolph Hearst, a thinly veiled biopic. It was released in 1998, and starred Jonathan Rhys-Davis as "Brian Slade", a mysterious Bowie-like figure and Ewan McGregor as Curt Wild, a Iggy-type. Kane-style, new Bat-guy Christian Bale played a reporter who tried to find out what happened to Slade, who had retreated from the public eye in the 1980s.

Glitter Rock, or Glam Rock if you will, was a short-lived phenomenon that rose up as a reaction to the music scene in the late 60s, which was full of earnest hippie types who played bluesy rock. Glam brought a sense of theatricality, imagination, flamboyance, and yes, a gay sensibility to what was perceived as the stodgy music environment, and as a lad of 12 who was just beginning to discover music magazines and different artists, I was instantly attracted not necessarily to the androgynous aspects but just the sheer visual panache and musical cleverness of artists like Bowie, Marc Bolan, and Roxy Music. Of course, Glam never really caught on in the US, most likely because it was just too weird and different for mainstream tastes at the time. But I loved it, and was sad to see artists like Bolan fade away. Heck, many of my favorite albums and musicians remain those of this period.

So when I heard that a new movie was coming out, and it was going to be about the Glitter days and specifically Bowie (I also seem to remember that it began as a biopic with La David's participation, but Bowie pulled out of the project), I was very excited. And of course, when the film hit theatres the knuckleheaded conservative area movie house operators wouldn't show it because it was vaguely controversial. So I had to wait another year to rent the video, which I did on the day it was released. Perhaps because I had built up so much anticipation (feel free to pause between the ci- and the -pa), after I watched it I was hugely disappointed...even angry. If one is to go by the general impression that this film leaves, then one will think that all the Glam Rock genre was about was sex, drugs and decadence, and getting a boner when you saw Bowie/Slade wearing eye shadow and silk pants. Now don't get me wrong- I may be a Kentucky boy, but I'm not naive. I know that all sorts of sexual and chemical shenanigans went down, and was indeed a huge part of that whole decade, not only the Glam era...but there was the music. The imaginative, clever, wonderfully played (in most cases) music. In Goldmine, the music was incidental, of secondary interest to visualizing that tired old question of "did Bowie really sleep with Iggy and Jagger?". I just think director Todd Haynes and his scriptwriter(s) completely missed the forest for the trees. The performances were OK, but neither Rhys-Davis or McGregor had half the charisma of their real-life analogues. Marc Bolan, who was just as instrumental in the rise and fall of Glam as Bowie, was given very short shrift, and the scene at the end that was supposed to depict Marc was amateur-hour all the way. Of course you know that pissed me off, too. Insofar as the soundtrack went, there were several apt choices, but again Bolan got the shaft- choosing the obscure, slight ditty "Diamond Meadows", from the equally obscure first proper T.Rex album, more popular in Britain but almost unknown in the colonies, was just all kinds of wrong. I know, licensing issues may have made that necessary. But still.

I will say one thing- the film looked good. Visually, it was first rate, like Haynes' other films have been. But I think he totally underestimated and misunderstood the movement he was trying to depict, and just created a trashy, condescending cross between Stardust and Citizen Kane, and that's something nobody wanted to see...especially me. I felt like he was cynically looking down on me, and others, who embraced Glitter wholeheartedly in the 70s. And that, Sean, is why I didn't like Velvet Goldmine.

Today marks the 26th anniversary of the automobile crash death of Marc Bolan, which leads me to my next post...

BSBdGs today go out to über-sexy (the Word of the Day-Über) Jennifer Tilly, 42 today. Don't know what else to say...she makes bad movies better, and good movies even more so!

Received an invitation the other day to an exhibit featuring my friend from Western Kentucky University, the über-talented artist Neli Ousounova, who is now attending East Tennessee State in order to get her Masters. I doubt I'll be able to attend, because that's a fairly long way away and I don't have a lot of cash for road trips right now...but I thought I'd post an example of one of her paintings, which she attached to the email, and let all of you know about it in case you might be in the neighborhood. Besides, I said I'd post Neli's work any chance I got, and I'm as good as my word. In this case, anyway.

When and where:
The Reece Museum - East Tennessee State University, on Thursday,Sept 18th, 2003. The opening reception is at 5-7.

Preliminary ramblings:

Well, thanks to the Giants' kicker, I finished this weekend at 9-7. Still, not too bad but not as good as last week's 11-4. Overall I'm 20-11 after two weeks, for you mathematically challenged out there. Like me.

Once again, my Blogger template is all fucked up, as Mojo Nixon would say...I'm not seeing my archives links, I'm missing the grey border at extreme right, and my blogger button is gone. I have deleted nothing, do you hear, nothing! I look at my template code and everything seems to be where it's supposed to be, so all I can assume is that it's another of those periodical Blogger glitches that come and go, usually, in a couple of days. I'll be glad when I get a job, because I'm seriously considering finding a webhost and publishing with Movable Type or one of those other Blogger alternatives. I'd like to come up with a new look for the page anyway. Yeah, yeah, I know I've said it before.

OK, on with the Show.

Only time for a couple of musical observations.

When I was at the radio station this afternoon, preparing to voice track Tuesday, I listened to what was being played at that moment. First, the Beatles' "Norwiegan Wood", then Sweet Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", then Olivia Newton-John's "A Little More Love". It kicked my ass! Of course, you know I love the Beatletune, but to hear it followed by one of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs of all time, then one of about four Livvie songs that I like (and I don't care what anyone says) made my eclectic little inner child jump up and down. I don't pick the music that gets played, but sometimes it does closely resemble the kind of show I would do live...

I watched a broadcast of the Mountain Stages show on PBS Saturday Night; it was a best-of the previous year featuring several different artists, including Billy Joe Shaver, who sang a great song that I cannot remember the title of to save my life. Did any of you out there see this show and/or know what this song's called?

I also wish I could find a good version of Ramblin' Jack Elliott singing "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".

Finally, I've been listening to Sparklehorse's Good Morning Spider CD a lot lately. I did the same thing last time I was depressed and unemployed three years ago. Guess it's my official "Broke and Down in the Dumps" soundtrack.

Good lord, the game's on. I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff, like Chuckie Barris used to say.

And me am not going to explain why me loved Velvet Goldmine.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and bat-fans all over...I give you the new big screen Batman, Christian Bale. I've seen several films in which he's starred like Velvet Goldmine (which I hated), Reign of Fire, and Shaft, but he never made much of an impression on me one way or another. He needs to bulk up and has a bland onscreen demeanor, so I'm a little apprehensive. But after Bat-nippled armor and Bat-credit cards, anything will be an improvement. And for the record, I didn't think George Clooney was all that bad as Bruce/Bats...it wasn't his fault that the film in which he played the role was a stinking pit of putrescence from Hellywood.

Had a decent football weekend, even though for a while there I was considering changing the title from "Fearless Pigskin Prognostications" to "Fearful...". Anyway, I'm standing at 9-6 with only tonight's G-men vs. Tunaboys contest to go.

My Falcons apparently forgot that a pro football game has four quarters, and rolled over and spread 'em for the Skinnies. Man, I have never liked the 'Skins, and the Falcons should be ashamed for letting Spurrier come in with his ragtag bunch and letting them beat them down at home. Typical Falcons football team...two steps back for every one step forward, and they always find a way to make unlikely heroes out of every green rookie or second-year or has-been on every opponent. Latest example: Patrick Ramsey, who has been remarkably unimpressive in the two seasons he's been in the League...but boy, he looked like the second coming of Joe Montana yesterday. Not that I got to see the game, mind you...the jackholes at the Louisville and Nashville Fox stations I get would rather show TV movies and the like until the 3 PM game. Sigh. I should have my head examined for picking Detroit at Green Bay. Same goes for Cleveland at Baltimore. Just you wait, Tim Couch will be back under center there in no time. And even though I kinda like Tampa Bay, and had picked them to win, I still found myself rooting for Carolina who came in and dictated the game to the stunned-looking Bucs. Of course, both teams are in Atlanta's division, and I do not look forward to the home-and-homes with either. Tennessee didn't perform as well as I expected, either, but you gotta credit Indy's D...they look for real this year.

This concludes the periodical sports post.

Had lunch with the Political Correspondent Friday. As you may or may not recall, the JBSPC had recently attended Wizard World Chicago, and he brought along some of the sketches and prints he had obtained, one of which was a printout of a piece by one Leanne Buckley, a young lady hailing from Kentucky who is a member of Wisconsin-based Studio Ronin. I thought the piece was excellent, albeit sadly not represented on her Studio Ronin web page. Her work kinda reminds me a bit of Tommy Lee Edwards crossed with Jim Mahfood and Dan Brereton via David Mack as realized by John Van Fleet. Or something like that. She should be doing comic book covers NOW.

BSBdG's are in order today for the luminous Fay Wray, an incredible 96 years old today. Most remember her as the screamer par excellence in the original King Kong, but she actually made several fine films in not only the Thirties but for several decades thereafter.

Here's a nice 1998 interview. You'll recognize the picture I stole right away. Quid pro quo, baby. Yeah.

Time once again for

Johnny B's Fearless Pigskin Prognostications!

Teams I see winning tomorrow: Miami, Tennessee, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Seattle, New England, Oakland, Denver, Minnesota, and the New York football Giants.

For entertainment purposes only. Bet at your own risk. The Show acknowledges no liability if money is lost betting by these predictions.

Week one record: 10-4.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of September 10

LEAGUE of EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN v2 6
I was somewhat disappointed in this after my first reading...it's methodical and workmanlike and far from the cathartic finale which one would expect from such a epic-in-scope tale. What redeems this for me is the deepening Moore's done to the Mr. Hyde character, transforming him from a sarcastic, brutish engine of destruction to a more sympathetic sarcastic, brutish engine of destruction by insinuating that the Jekyll side of him has perhaps reasserted itself a bit. Turnabout's fair play, I suppose. Another triumph for Mr. Moore and his collaborator Kevin O'Neill, and if the sequel didn't hit many of the high notes its predecessor did, at least it hit some other, equally nice ones. A

GOTHAM CENTRAL 11
Enjoyable catch-your-breath issue which focuses on the quirky, cute girl whose job it is to turn on the Bat-signal. The idea that someone not affiliated with the GCPD has to turn on the signal for legal reasons is smart and nicely done, and this is pretty well drawn by fill-in guy Brian Hurtt, who's no Michael Lark but will do in a pinch. Don't get me started about the coloring. A-

JLA 86
Combine Joe Kelly's sharpest scripting in quite some time with typically great art by Mahnke and Nguyen, and you get one of the most enjoyable mainstream spandex books I've read in a long time. Kelly's set up a credible menace- a little over-familiar perhaps (Martians again? Sigh.), but he's taken pains to make sure it's different enough to be interesting. Unless Joe totally botches the ending, he's come up with a real winner this time out, and hopefully his detractors will lay off for a little while. A-

JSA 52
Another inbetween-er type issue, in which we get several character-interaction interludes and setups for forthcoming storylines...and thankfully no fighting until the very end, when we get re-introduced to Johns' revamped Crimson Avenger, who's interesting enough, I suppose. This title's always been best when it's doing character stuff, and minimizing the grand cosmic throwdowns. Well, to me, anyway. A-

FABLES 17
If Buckingham and Leialoha had taken pains to make sure that their figures' facial expressions matched the goings on they depict, then this would have been a lot better...but as it is, this is pretty darn good. Some plotlines get resolved, some are launched, and so it goes. Clever and involving, but as always I wish the art was better. A-

H-E-R-O 8
A bit slight- but this storyline, featuring a crew of Jackass-style video makers who use the Hero dial to create superheroes who they then film doing dangerous stunts, is fun enough and the art reminds me a lot of the Mahnke/Nguyen team. B+

1602 2
I'm trying real hard to appreciate this, really I am, but I'm having a hard time because this glorified What If? is not only more of the same old Marvel self-mythologizing, but Neil Gaiman is being as pretentious as only he can be in writing it. Neil, when you had the Endless and all those mythological characters spouting this florid dialogue, it worked because they were, well, mythological characters and archetypes. We come to expect it and it sounds natural. When you do it here it fails miserably because these are simply reimagined Marvel comic book superheroes, hardly myths despite what Stan and Joe Q want us to believe. Andy Kubert is trying real hard to draw real purty-like, but it's just beyond his capabilities. It's blurry, not especially well staged, and reminds me in places of John Buscema at his Weirdworld-era worst. C

The Man in Black is gone.

I clicked back on my homepage, and what do I see but another noteworthy death! I'm scared to go back there! Anyway, the great Johnny Cash has indeed died this morning. I've recounted the story before, but I've got to relate it again: chances are I wouldn't be the music fan I am today if not for Cash's "Ring of Fire", one of the first records I ever owned. My Dad was a league bowler, you see, when I was 4 or 5 and he would take me along sometimes. I would always wander over to the bowling alley jukebox and ask him to play songs for me, and I asked him to play "Ring" so much that I guess he figured he'd save money if he bought me the 45. Of course, over the years I kinda lost interest in Cash...his TV show was pretty cool, but wasn't on all that long, and as a teen and young man I just wasn't all that much of a country music fan. And let's face it, by the end of the 70s he was perceived as being irrelevant and a relic of bygone days, which made his Rick Rubin-enabled comeback albums all that much sweeter. I picked up his Essential Johnny Cash a few months ago, and have listened to it a lot lately. It's going in the CD player right now, as a matter of fact.

Anyway, he's reunited with wife June now, let's hope, and his legend will grow. Hopefully, there's a big jam session going on right now with Elvis, Carl Perkins, Sam Phillips, and John. And I hope this is it for noteworthy deaths for a while.

Extra: The Louisville Courier-Journal's Jeffrey Lee Puckett weighs in on Cash and his life.

BSBdGs go out today to Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato Muldaur, 60. Most people remember her with varying degrees of affection for her one and only hit record "Midnight at the Oasis", but the rest of that record (her self-titled 1973 solo debut) made me a huge fan, and I loved her subsequent Warners releases, Waitress in the Donut Shop and especially 1976's wonderful Sweet Harmony. Unfortunately her next two WB albums tried to be a bit more contemporary in their sound and focus but failed to be interesting...so I wrote Maria off as another casualty of that unholy trio Punk, New Wave and Disco and moved on. Thing is, Maria did too, and far from fading away has had a very successful (aesthetically, if not always financially) career, releasing a score of blues, jazz, gospel, and children's song records on a couple of indie labels, most of which I haven't heard. But I think that's gonna change one of these days.

Surprised to read about the death of John Ritter yesterday. I never was really a fan of the show most people associate with him, Three's Company, but he really opened my eyes with his excellent performance in Sling Blade.

Apparently next Friday is Talk Like a Pirate Day. I think I'll try to go around talking like Jack Sparrow...unless I'm in Nebraska. Something tells me that won't play over there.

Found over at Stupid Evil Bastard's.

While on the subject, the Political Correspondent sent me this link to a Flash presentation which provides a 9-11 timeline and asks some pertinent questions.

Also, he sends along this statement from September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.

It's a little muggy out this morning, but otherwise it promises to be a nice sunny early September day, just like the day two years ago which we all will never forget.

Myself, I heard the news accounts on the radio driving on the interstate (to the job I no longer have), and at the time nobody was sure what was happening. Arriving at work, a couple of people already had the video feeds going on their computers, and by the time I sat down at mine to do my usual internet stuff before beginning my work day, the other tower had been hit, and the terrible news was everywhere. We all had stuff to do, and we did it, but the events in New York were on everyone's minds. To be honest, I live almost a thousand miles away from New York City, so the events didn't affect me directly, so I simply got on with my life and only periodically checked in with the news on radio or TV. Which is not to say I didn't sympathize or feel horror or outrage; it was just happening far away and I didn't know anyone there then, so all I could do was live my life and hope for the best.

Two years later, I'd like to think we're a little wiser for the experience, but I don't know. Terrible tragedies bring out the best in many, but sometimes the worst as well. I looked around the blogisphereiverse to see if I could find anything about the two year anniversary to pass on to my readers, and I found myself liking Tom Tomorrow's piece here.

Found at Sugar n' Spicy via Scrubbles: the Esquire Cover Gallery. We printed Esquire at Donnelley's for many years, and it was one of the few magazines we printed that I actually enjoyed reading. The above was the cover for the month I was born. Wish I could read those predictions for the Sixties!

Sugar 'n Spicy has also jumped on the Pants Press bandwagon, God bless 'er. S 'n S always features the best links to interesting art from a number of periods, and I recommend it highly.

Dirk Deppey, here's a suggestion: go ahead and sign up to Bitpass, using the three dollar option, and check out not only Scott McCloud's opus but Pants Press's Wary Tales.

I noticed that I had several referrals from the Spanish-language comics blog La Carcel De Papel, so I clicked on a link and discovered that he has created a button for every webpage that he has links for, including mine! Ain't it cool? I'd been thinking about doing this very thing for a long time, but as with so many things just hadn't gotten around to it. Of course, I won't use it since it's his, but I just wanted to show you guys.

Gracias, Señor!

A few things I've noted around the old Blogospheriverse that I'd like to comment on:

First, in response to Dirk Deppey's new op/ed piece on the direct market, I'll make it short and sweet: survival of the fittest. That's what it's all about. If comics shop retailers, and the people who make the decisions that affect them, can't come up with a way to compete, then they should go under. For what it's worth, I've felt this way for several years now about Major League Baseball teams.


Eve Tushnet has written reviews of several comics she's read lately, and I think she underrates Human Target and Top 10 a bit. But I understand, because as a relative novice (I think) to comics history, she's coming from a whole different perspective than I am on these titles. And this is both a blessing and a curse for mainstream floppies these days; the very thing- in this case prior knowledge of the character, in the Target's case, and appreciation for comics cliches and canon in the case of Top 10, delights comics junkies and completely goes over the head of those less versed in floppy history. She also weighs in on V for Vendetta, which I've been hearing nothing but praise about for decades now and still haven't read. When DC first published it over here in the 80s I wasn't too impressed with the artwork so I passed. Still, I'm thinking I really should track a collection down someday and read it.

Forager23 has mad love for the great Karloff/Lugosi film The Black Cat, a longtime top ten movie of mine. He also clarifies his position on Art vs. art, and I think he makes a good point.

Alan David Doane was kind enough to point out my JLA/Avengers review over at his place, and I return the favor: here's his, written with Chris Allen.

Everybody's talking about the upcoming Peanuts collections that Fantagraphics will be publishing soon; as someone who was of that age to love Peanuts when it was being published, and grew older with it, it's a good thing. Peanuts, along with Pogo, were arguably the two most important newspaper comics strips ever published, and it's good to know that they'll be available in this format. That being said, I probably won't buy because I'm sure it will be very expensive...and to be honest I'm a bit bored by the strip. I don't read the reprints now in the daily paper, and it got so bad toward the end that I sorta lost a lot of enthusiasm for it.

I sincerely wish someone would set commenter extraordinaire Shawn Fumo up with a blog. I'd read it every day!

Also, I'm considering signing up for the Comics Journal MessBoard...seems like a lot of interesting stuff gets posted there. I've always kinda worried about being in over my head among the regulars, but hey, I've never let that stop me before!

I've written before about how much I loved monster movies as a little kid. My parents, thank God, were open-minded enough to trust me to know the difference between make-believe and reality. I was assisted, of course, by reading such invaluable magazines as Famous Monsters of Filmland, which often showed pictures of Karloff and the like sitting in the makeup chair, or Ray Harryhausen bending over a tiny Ymir figure, which just kinda took away the illusion for me. And the Nashville and Louisville TV stations were my enablers. I got my monster movie fix at first from the Big Show, Channel 5 Nashville, showing classic horror flicks from the 30s-60s almost every weekday afternoon, then Channel 4's Creature Features with the great Sir Cecil Creape, and Louisville's Fright Night on Channel 41 and the Late Show on Channel 32 in the 70s. Also, I read the Monster Times faithfully in my teenage years, where I also learned that there was a sub-genre of horror movie, the gore film. I was curious about these (mostly) low-budget wonders, and managed to catch many of the seminal films at the local drive-in, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left. Three big turning points, as I became a young man: first, the 1982 publication of Michael Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, a mother lode listing of obscurities both good, bad, and good-bad; second, the rise of VHS, enabling me to indulge my new gorehound instincts, especially through the auspices of Sinister Cinema; and third, R.R. Donnelley, the printing company where I worked for 15 years, printed the gorehound's bible Fangoria magazine for several months, piquing my interest and leading me to collect it for a year or two. Heck, sometimes I was the only one that would work on it- we had several people that refused to strip it or plate it! Anyway, eventually my interest waned as the years went by, as horror films became more and more formulaic and unimaginative...but I've never lost my interest in low budget horror obscurities (mostly, I must admit, 50s sci-fi and giant-monster films) from the 20s through the 70s.

Rob Zombie's childhood was similar to mine, I think, in this respect anyway. Zombie has made a career out of working drive-in double feature roadshow spookhouse imagery and fright film sound clips into his music, album packaging and stage image, and he made, a couple of years ago, a movie of his own. Its theatrical release was delayed for a long while, and it's just now been released on DVD. This film is titled House of 1000 Corpses, and I had the opportunity to watch it last night. I wish I could tell you that it's freakishly good fun and a blast to watch, but I can't. Sure, it's bursting at the seams with nightmarish gore imagery, horrible depraved creatures and screaming people...but it somehow manages to be completly derivative and totally unoriginal, and is extremely dull because of it. Zombie tries to be Herschell G. Lewis, T.V. Mikels, Ray Dennis Steckler, Al Adamson, and Andy Milligan all at the same time, and it just becomes too much after a while. There's not a single thing you haven't already seen in this film, if you've seen the likes of (to name but a few) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Shriek of the Mutilated, Two Thousand Maniacs!, Bloodsucking Freaks aka The Incredible Torture Show, The Corpse Grinders, or (just to pull one more out of my ear) The Ghastly Ones. Such blatant unimaginitivity is extremely disappointing, because Zombie obviously has good intentions...but apparently is just too determined to wear his influences on his sleeve. He tries to liven up the procedings by using a number of MTV video-ish visual tricks, but it just adds to the disjointed nature of the proceedings. Hopefully next time (if he gets a second chance) he'll be a little less inclined to give us a Cliffs Notes version of the gore films he loves and obviously knows and more interested in coming up with something fresh.

The film's not a complete disaster, though- these less-than-fresh goings on are convincingly staged and the gore effects- while nothing elaborate- are good, plus there are a couple of attention-getting performances by veteran Z-movie actor Sid Haig as a braying cross between Steven King's Pennywise, Foghorn Leghorn and Zippy the Pinhead, and Shary Moon, in her film debut, coming across as a psychotic Kate Hudson type who lip-syncs Helen Kane singing "I Wanna Be Loved By You" in a demented stage show put on by her nutjob family. She's pretty sexy walking around with her ass cheeks hanging out of what seems to be a pair of bellbottomed pajamas. Karen Black, who has "I coulda been a big star" written all over her face and her collagen-swelled lips, has a role as the matriarch of the family. She can take consolation, I suppose, that such luminaries as Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and Orson Welles also starred in low budget horror films at the end of their careers.

If you are disposed to like this sort of thing, and are curious, check out House of 1000 Corpses. You won't be disappointed if you don't expect much.

Absolutely the last Warren Zevon posting of the week.

Bill Sherman has listed five great Zevon songs that aren't "Werewolves of London", and while it's a great list I can't resist making my own. And it goes like this:

Desperadoes Under the Eaves from Warren Zevon
A song of 70s El Lay disaffection, it features a great melody and one of WZ's best lyrics:

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill

It ends hilariously with closing harmonies by several LA luminaries, including arranger Carl Wilson, humming as if to emulate an air conditioner.

Jungle Work from Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School
Nobody could mock and celebrate simultaneously like our boy. A tale of mercenary soldiers, with some audacious rhymes and more humming against some heavy metal gutar.

Lear jet S.W.A.T. team
On a midnight run
With the M16
And the Ingram gun

Mohammad's Radio (live) from Stand in the Fire
One of the best cuts from his criminally unavailable 1981 live record. This had already been recorded on his debut, and Linda Ronstadt took a shot at it as well if I recall correctly, but this is the best version in my opinion. WZ's earlier attempt was fine, but just a little stiff and fussy; no chance of that here as Zevon is in full gonzo mode and his band falls right in step. The result is more of an in-your-face version and is much more resonant because of it.

Charlie's Medicine from The Envoy
A great story-song about the unfortunate title character and a drug deal gone bad, with acoustic verses and rocking, dissonant choruses. Like Stand in the Fire, I fail to see why this album's not in print.

Poisonous Lookalike from Mutineer
I was determined not to name more than one song from each record, and there are several on this one that I'd like to name, like "Similar to Rain", "The Vast Indifference of Heaven", and "Monkey Wash Donkey Rinse"...but I think this song of betrayal and bad feelings is possibly the best, with a devastatingly correct guitar solo towards the end.

Well, that's another list. Feel free to make one of your own, I'm sure it will be just as good. There are a lot of great WZ songs to choose from!

BSBdGs go out today to Penny pretty herself, Angela Cartwright, 51 today. Dear God, I feel old. Anywho, Angela is best known as Penny Robinson on Lost in Space, hence the above pun. Click on her name to go to her official website, which features a ton of photos of Angela present and past. She also was one of the singing Von Trapp family in The Sound of Music, and the little kid on The Danny Thomas Show.

Here's a cool picture of Angela meeting the Beatles.

Been thinking about Nick Drake this morning, which caused me to put on his glum masterpiece Pink Moon. While I won't go into a long discussion of the record, I'd like to note that I believe that the piano break in the title song is one of the loveliest things I've ever heard. Didn't really care to hear it used in a VW commercial, though, although it did make a lot of folks aware of Nick's music that wouldn't have been ordinarily.

This in turn led me to realize that I still haven't seen the documentary A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, which I need to add to my list of films I want to see before I die.

I also love Robyn Hitchcock's song "I Saw Nick Drake". Typically odd Hitchcock lyrics, but a haunting melody.

The above portrait of Mr. Drake was done a couple of years ago by a struggling artist, whom I've become quite close to over the years and has a terrible self-confidence problem. He is quite capable of much better if his head and heart would only allow it.

Random stuff from hither and yon:

Thanks to Tampa Bay's alarmingly easy win over Philly last night (it will get better, Theresa, trust me), I finished week one at 10-4. More fearless predictions on Saturday.

The amazing Vera Brosgol has got her new version of her Tourniquet website online now. Go check it out, especially the "art" section. I envy those young ladies (and that Bill Mudron fella, too) of the Pants Press so much. They are good.

Speaking of Pants Press, if you've got three bucks to spend 50¢ (unless you're already a Bitpass subscriber), then you can read their group effort Wary Tales online. I'm still deciding whether or not to drop three dollars. I'm sure it would be worth it...

Looking at the Diamond shipping list for tomorrow, I spy with my little eye that I'll have the following waiting for my shrinking dollar:

FABLES #17
GOTHAM CENTRAL #11
HERO #8
JLA #86
JSA #52
LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN VOL II #6
1602 #2

I also see where HAWAIIAN DICK VOL 1: BYRD OF PARADISE, the collected Hawaiian Dick mini-series, is coming out. A great chance for all of you who didn't pick this up several months ago to get in on a great, fun book.

One thing that's been troubling me- I don't think there are any comics shops anywhere near Sidney, Nebraska! I can't frigging drive to Denver or Omaha or Lincoln or Cheyenne every week for my comics! I'm considering a subscriber service, like Mile High...but only if I can get my books weekly, so I can continue to read and review them in timely fashion. Of course, I'm still waiting for the call from Cabela's HR secretary to let me know when they can fly me out. I don't know about you, but I hate to wait for the phone to ring.

I have got a huge stack of LPs sitting on the speaker, which means I'm overdue in writing a Vinyl-O. I'll try to get that done this week sometime. I know I said that the next one would be a special solo Beatles edition, but that will have to wait. Many of the records in the pile are from the all-day Zevon marathon tribute I had yesterday.

Went to see Horse Cave Theatre's version of Les Liasons Dangereuses last week, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Very witty script, and the actors pulled it off nicely. None of my kids were in it, but one of my daughter's buddies had a small part. Got my ticket courtesy of my baby girl, who is House Manager right now. My son has just been named Master Carpenter, after the firing of the first MC who apparently was a real asshole. I'm a proud papa. Back to Les Liasons, seeing this has caused me to want to see one of the recent filmed versions...I'm aware of Dangerous Liasons, and Valmont, so it will be one of those.

OK, that's all the rambling I'll do for now. Maybe more later.

More on Warren Zevon:

A nice obit by Louisville Courier-Journal music writer Jeffrey Lee Puckett.

Rolling Stone chips in with a group of past interviews and articles.

Also, I caught David Letterman's tribute on his show last night, and it was nice. Paul's band played Zevon songs before and after commercial breaks, and then at the end they reran his last performance from his October 2002 appearance, in which he sang "Mutineer", one of my fave WZ songs. I'll tell ya, I got a little misty there at the end.

Hooray for the Louisville Courier-Journal; they carried yesterday's notorious Doonesbury strip, and even wrote an editorial about it.

Oh, a note to Neilalien:

Thanks for the info on the Wand of Watoomb! I read that indeed-classic Spidey/Doc Strange team up oh so many years ago when I was a squirt, but had forgotten about it. I was thinking that particular object (one of the JLA/Avengers quest items) was Tiboro's wand.

One of my favorite late-60s comics was the Thomas/Colan issue of Doc in which he battled Tiboro. Colan was just out of his mind drawing that stuff!

A personal note:

The job hunt has gotten interesting. I finally got my call from Cabela's on Saturday afternoon (!), and it looks like they're going to be flying me out either the weekend of the 18th or the 25th for an interview and an opportunity to get the lay of the land, so to speak.

Wow. Nebraska. I don't suppose any of you out there are from the Cornhusker State, are you? I hope they have cable and DSL out there, that's all I know.

Going into tonight's action, I'm 9-4 in my NFL predictions. I should have known that Buffalo would be looking to kick some ass, and I should have known better than to pick Cincinnati, but all in all, not bad.

I thought the Cleveland Browns looked pretty good in their orange pants, and Atlanta's new unis don't look all that bad, but geez Louise- who the heck decided that the Bengals should wear all black on a 80 plus degree day? I'm not saying that's why they lost, but it couldn't have helped.

Warren Zevon has passed on. Knowing it was inevitable doesn't make it any easier to accept.

I was actually kinda late to pick up on Zevon; I was aware that he was a singer/songwriter out of L.A., one of the people in Jackson Browne's orbit, and I was not a Browne fan. I thought "Werewolves of London" was kinda neat, I liked his should-have-been-bigger single "A Certain Girl", and I liked the songs that Linda Ronstadt covered, but for some reason I was disinclined to buy until Creem magazine and Robert Christgau praised the heck out of his 1980 live set Stand in the Fire. A raucous, sloppy, fun concert LP, it made me a Zevon fan. I went out and picked up Excitable Boy, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School (with "A Certain Girl"), and not long after, his next release The Envoy. Touring on that album, I caught him in concert at the Louisville Palace, and remember it as a great, energetic show. Still into his self-destructive rockstar period, he was loose but certainly gave the crowd its money's worth. After a five year hiatus in which stopped drinking for good, he returned with some excellent records, beginning with Sentimental Hygeine and later Mr. Bad Example, Mutineer, and Life'll Kill Ya, with only the muddled 1989 William Gibson-influenced concept record Transverse City failing to be consistently interesting.

Favorite Zevon album: Actually, I like them all (except City) more or less equally. I tend to listen a lot to the 1996 anthology I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, which has most of the highlights of WZ's career covered, except, inexplicably, "A Certain Girl".

Most underrated: 1995's spare Mutineer, which uses its odd instrumentation and naked, openhearted sentiment to good effect on some of WZ's strongest post 1970s songs.

Requiescat in pace, Mr. Zevon. That's all she wrote.

Photography by Mark Silver.

Let's get the BSBdG party started today for Miss Alecia Moore, aka Pink, all of 24 today. Her M!ssundaztood CD was one of the more pleasant surprises of 2001-02.

Also, today would have been the 71st birthday of Virginia Patterson Hensley, better known to the world as the great Patsy Cline. Further evidence that great musicians should not fly in small planes.

Not having a good day, prediction-wise, and a slightly better day fantasy football-wise...and my Falcons can't seem to get out of their own way against the Tunaboys. Sigh.

But THIS picked up my spirits a bit! Found at Antipopper.

Chris, you should read this. If you don't already know.

Saw a movie last night that was the best film I've seen in many a moon: 1974's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, starring Walter Matthau (in a startling yellow necktie) and Robert Shaw and shown in wonderful widescreen on TCM last night.

Everything about this film is razor sharp, from the direction to the script to the excellent performances by all the leads. The music score, by David Shire, is all early 70s jazz-funk dissonance and grabbed me at the opening credits. In all fairness, the film looks very dated- everything from fashions to cars to slang is very 1974, and I would imagine this film would be particularly jarring for New York City residents- but that ceases to be a distraction about five minutes in. Shaw in particular is very good as the British mercenary who masterminds the subway car heist, coolly working crossword puzzles while he waits for the ransom money. I honestly haven't seen many films besides this and Jaws that feature Shaw, maybe I should attempt to remedy that. Matthau is Matthau, grumbling and kvetching around, but his character has a no-nonsense, capable side that manifests itself more and more as the film goes on. In spite of the tense subject matter, there was a lot of humor including a long gag with Matthau conductiong a tour of the subway control center for a group from the Tokyo subway system, who he presumes can't speak English; and Jerry Stiller is on hand to provide several funny one liners. The subway car hijackers are code-named "Mr. Blue", "Mr. Green", and so on, and you guessed it- this is the film Quentin Tarantino borrowed from when he made Reservoir Dogs.

Speaking of the NYC perspective, here's a nice review of Pelham I found at the Village Voice's website. She nicely sums up the film and the City it depicts that no longer exists in a lot of ways.

If you haven't seen this, then go out and rent it. It's one hell of a good film.

Time to go watch some football...

Uh well-a-hell-a-hella BSBdG's go out to, up there in rock and roll heaven, the great Buddy Holly, who would have been 67 today if not for that ill-fated plane trip.

Rave on.

Johnny B's Fearless NFL Predictions!

Stupid me forgot to predict Thursday's season opener between the Skinnies and the Jets. I was gonna take the Redskins, I swear. Anyway, I'll just open the season short one game. OK...here goes, and as always bet at your own risk. The Show waives any and all responsibility for any losses incurred by its recommendations.

Winners tomorrow: Atlanta, Tampa Bay (sorry, Theresa), Pittsburgh, Miami, NY Giants, Indianapolis, Cincinnati (that's right), Detroit, Carolina, New England (I think Buffalo's gonna be fine, but Bledsoe is Belichick's bitch), Kansas City, Green Bay, Seattle, San Fransisco, and Tennessee.

BEST OF THE WEEK

COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of September 4

DAREDEVIL 51
I wasn't sure whether to bag 'n board this or put it on my coffee table. It's an artistic tour-de-force for David Mack, in his Bill Sinkiewicz-influenced collage and mixed media style, and if you look real hard he even tells a story which serves to re-introduce us to his Echo, his sort-of Native American answer to Elektra who is deaf to Matt Murdock's blind and is able to copy the most intricate movements and inflections, making her a difficult opponent in a fight among other things. As a story on its own terms it's a bit slight, taking the entire issue to re-acquaint us with Echo's background and motivation...necessary, I suppose, but fortunately the paintings are worth the price of admission to this particular cultural experience. A

CATWOMAN 22
Part dust-up between Batman and Slam Bradley, and part Pulp Fiction inspired diner heist caper which is a little contrived but still fun. The fight between one of the original tenants of Detective Comics and his more famous successor is a hoot and very well drawn. Lame duck artist Cam Stewart does an excellent Mazzuchelli-style Batman, for sure, and I'll miss him, and this book, when he's gone after #25. One of three comics I bought that were colored by Lee Loughridge, whose eye-hurting hues make me wish someone would take away his computer. Please. A-

BAD GIRLS 2
Don't get me wrong, if this was an hour long Disney Channel Original Movie starring Raven Symone or Hillary Duff or someone like that I wouldn't watch. But the stars of this particular floppy pamphlet show are, to me, cover guy Darwyn Cooke and interior artists Christine Norrie and Jason Bone. Norrie, on her own last issue, was just fine...but Bone's DeCarlo-inspired (Dan, not Mike) finishes take it to the next level, to borrow a sports cliché. Steve Vance doesn't have much of an original plot or an ear for teenager's dialogue for that matter, but this is well written enough to maintain my interest while I'm gazing at the pretty pictures. Norrie and Bone are so good that they even overcome the typically ugly Loughridge color job. A-

FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE 3
Oops, bump in the road this time out. The first two issues of FKATJL were a delight, and even though this one still has its fair share of bwah-ha-ha it also features the return of Geoff Johns' far-fetched Roulette character and her House, in which she traps unsuspecting superheroes and coerces them to battle to the death using comic-book mind control technology. What appears to be hundreds of thousands of supervillians, lowlifes and criminal scum attend these events, and are all supposed to adhere to some sort of "honor system" in which they willingly agree not to discuss this with anyone, lest angry good guys bust in and shut it down. Yeah right. I didn't care for this silliness in the JSA, and I don't care for it here. Still, on its own terms, it's still well written and drawn, and perhaps this will all be resolved to my liking. Guess who colored this. B+

JLA/AVENGERS 1
At least 20 years in the making, and it shows. It's a cornucopia of super-hero comics cliches, derivative of all the big epic multi-issue multi-dimensional spandex throwdowns of yore from Crisis on Infinite Earths and Zero Hour to Flash of Two Worlds and Squadron Supreme to Secret Wars to any of Jim Starlin's Infinity opuses to....well, you get the picture. Of course, DC monsters and villains appear on Marvel's Earth and vice versa, and of course the heroes of the respective worlds don't trust each other and threaten each other- you just know the inevitable scrap will be coming soon, after which they'll realize that they are both on the sides of the angels and unite to have some sort of confusing hyper-galactic climactic battle with one or more of the numerous candidates for the Ultimate Evil Bad Guy of the piece. It's also a video-game-ish quest story- the super-teams are instructed to search out arcane artifacts from both comics' universes. It was fun for about thirty seconds remembering what and where each item came from. As I keep saying, Busiek, when he's writing Astro City, is clever and interesting but turn him loose on mainstream superheroics and he becomes a hack of the first order. For his part, George Perez draws his ass off, filling every fragmented panel with closeups of superheroes with mouths agape, or flying rubble, or Kirby dots, or speed lines or electrical energy, or something, creating a very claustrophobic experience. Even when he draws giant creatures, they fill the tiny panels and add to the overstuffed feeling. It's obvious Perez has worked very hard, but geez, I wish he didn't feel compelled to bowl us over in every one-quarter-inch sized square or rectangle on his pages. This would have been a stone gas in 1975, even 1985- but in 2003 it just looks quaint. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the fanboy community will embrace this unreservedly. And yes, I know, I bought it too. I think it would be fun for someone to buy this for Gary Groth as a birthday present. C+

MADMAN KING SIZE SUPER GROOVY SPECIAL 1
I bet 15 year old Mike Allred would have loved JLA/Avengers. I've been reading his Madman book since day one...everything he does is a homage or tribute or something to his early comic book reading days, reflected through his deadpan quirky sensibilities. His illustration style, even, serves this purpose- to me it's always looked like early-to-mid 60's Kirby inked by Chic Stone or Mickey Demeo. It was fun and different, especially at first, but as the years have gone by- through his Red Rocket 7, Atomics, and his lifeless work on X-Statix- it's become painfully obvious that he doesn't have anything else to offer. So what we get here is a Madman story that reads just like every Madman story of the last ten years, and three turns by indie cartoonists, two that are odd for oddness' sake and one especially disappointing story by Nick Derington which slavishly copies Allred's "style", and the sinking feeling one gets when one thinks of what else one could have bought with their $6.95. Goodbye, "Doc", thanks for the memories. C+

STARTLING STORIES: THE THING-NIGHT FALLS ON YANCY STREET 4
Evan, Evan, Evan. What the hell do you think you're doing? We already know from that notorious issue of Dork! that you're not just a joke writer. So I suppose in a bid to be taken more seriously, you've given us one of the most unlikeable miniseries of recent memory and finished it up with a final issue full of death, betrayal, gloom and depression. Sigh. Well done, I suppose, in its own right but it's just difficult to read because of all the sturm und drang and soap operatics of Wagnerian proportion. I hope Dorkin's got this out of his system and goes on to play to his strengths in the future. Dean Haspiel does a great job of illustrating these dire goings-on...but I just don't think superheroics are his strong point. C-

ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL 5
Oh, boy. In this issue the shark was officially jumped. I don't know what to blame more: the disjointed script or the confusing visuals that are supposed to help the beleaguered reader navigate these events but just further add to the confusion. Maybe editorial interference is to blame, who knows...but I'm a veteran of comics with unconventional, non-linear narratives, and this has me scratching my head. This started out promisingly, and may finish strong, but right now all I can do is throw up my hands and hope for the best. C-

A couple of musical comments, apropos of nothing:

I've been listening to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band a lot lately, for some reason...and the two songs I'm getting the biggest charge from are McCartney's "Fixing A Hole" and Harrison's "Within You Without You". Of course, I've grooved on these songs, and all the others in varying degrees, for many years...but "Hole", especially, is one of the lower profile cuts on that landmark album, so it's odd that it's jumping out at me right now. While listening to it, from its prissy harpsichordish intro to it's jazzy, shuffling tempo and it's wonderful harmonies, two things came to mind: one, I'll bet if you asked him Brian Wilson would cite this as one of his favorite tracks...and two, the actual sound and arrangement of the song presages many of the cuts from McCartney's 1971 solo record Ram. "Hole" could have fit on Ram quite nicely. Hell, it would have raised the quality of that uneven record, no doubt. Harrison's mystical opus always gives me a charge in the instrumental middle section, where tablas drone and percussion is percussed and the sitar chimes while swirling strings dart in and around, intricately carrying the melody in front of all the Eastern trappings. One of the finest moments, in my opinion, on that album.

Also, I like the Pharrell Williams song "Frontin". Nice old-school R&B. But is there a law in hip-hop land that states that P. Diddy and Jay-Z have to be on everything?

Here's what I'll have waiting for me at the ol' comics shop tomorrow, according to the Diamond shipping list-

ARKHAM ASYLUM LIVING HELL #5
BAD GIRLS #2
CATWOMAN #22
FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE #3
DAREDEVIL #51
JLA AVENGERS #1

Here's where it gets confusing. I didn't get Superman: Red Son last week...it's not on my pull list, and I somehow overlooked it on the rack- assuming my shop even got enough copies. If it's there, I'll get it. Also, I'm not sure if I've signed up for the Madman Super Groovy King Size Special 1, but I'll certainly get that too (it's pricey, though, at $6.95) if it's not reprints. I looked at previews for the new Bad Girls, with new inker Jason Bone (a fave of mine), and it looks sweet. Story? We'll see. I'm not signed up for the long-awaited JLA/Avengers wingding, because I'm just not all that excited by the creative team and am kinda in a "bored with spandex" phase...but my curiosity might get the best of me.

Of course you know I'll review whatever I buy...that's a threat and a promise.

The great Manga-or-not discussion continues. Forager has been the most recent contributor.

I don't really have anything new to add, but it has occurred to me that perhaps the American comics companies should also look into getting their product back onto newsstands and spinner racks. (Crotchety old man voice here) "Why, back in my day that's where we bought our comics, over at the Minit Mart or Jr. Foods store fresh off the spinner, or at Hallmark stores on their magazine rack! We didn't have any of those fancy-schmancy "specialty stores" until the early 80s!" I'm sure there are a thousand and one reasons why comics have disappeared from non-specialty outlets, and I'm sure 999 of them are valid, but a lot more people go into toy stores and and convieniece stores than "real" bookstores. Perhaps that's another avenue to explore-getting the distributors to carry and offer comics once again.

Just a thought.

And now, the semi-monthly Sports Post!

The NFL season, as you may be aware, kicks off tomorrow night. For some strange reason, most likely because I'm still in the running in my "money" fantasy baseball league (2nd place, 3 points up, 11 out of first), and my White Sox are still in first place in their division despite their best efforts to the contrary, I'm still closely following baseball so it seems a bit distracting to me right now. I just can't get used to the idea that Summer's almost over and football season is here! Also dampening my enthusiasm a bit is the fact that the venerable Glasgow Fantasy Football League, which I founded in 1990 and was the longest running fantasy football team to anyone's knowledge in the area, finally ran out of steam this year. Still, I love dat ol' NFL football and God's least favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons, so here are my preseason Fearless Predictions. Bet at your own risk.

In order of finish:
NFC East: Philadelphia (11-5), NY Giants (9-7), Washington (7-9), Dallas (4-12).
NFC North: Green Bay (by default, this is a terrible division) (9-7), Minnesota (8-8), Detroit (6-10), Chicago (5-11).
NFC South: Tampa Bay (12-4), Atlanta (9-7), Carolina (7-9), New Orleans (6-10).
NFC West: St. Louis (11-5), Seattle (9-7), San Fransisco (8-8), Arizona (3-13).

AFC East: Miami (10-6), New England (10-6), NY Jets (7-9), Buffalo (6-10).
AFC North: Pittsburgh (11-5), Cleveland (9-7), Baltimore (8-8), Cincinnati (6-10).
AFC South: Indianapolis (12-4), Tennessee (11-5), Houston (5-11), Jacksonville (3-13).
AFC West: Oakland (11-5), Denver (9-7), San Diego (7-9), Kansas City (7-9).

Playoff wild cards, NFC: Atlanta, Seattle. Sorry, G-Men.
Playoff wild cards, AFC: Tennessee, New England.

AFC champion: Indianapolis, over Oakland.
NFC champion: Tampa Bay, over St. Louis.

Super Bowl: Tampa Bay 20, Indianapolis 14. Tony Dungy gets no satisfaction.

Clip 'n save, kiddies. I fully expect to read this four months from now with total embarrassment.

Scott McCloud came up with a "24-hour comic" challenge, and Jen Wang has answered with a slice-of-life story Let's In. It's pretty darn good, especially when you consider she did the whole thing, 21 pages, in 26 hours. I couldn't do 21 pages in 26 years.

Well, Neil Young's On The Beach, in my opinion his best album, is finally available on CD. Of course, I can't afford to pick it up just yet, but I have seen copies and WB/Reprise did a swell job of reproducing the original album cover art. The back cover, with song titles written in the original Rick Griffin calligraphy, also looks great.

Seeing this caused me to wonder what was going on at the "Release On The Beach" petition webpage, which I signed so long ago and used to link to in my message board signatures. You can find out by going here and not only seeing pictures of the packaging but getting a review by the site originator, Colin Young. No relation, I assume.

Now where the hell is Time Fades Away, Neil?

My comics shop (The Great Escape, Bowling Green, KY- hereafter referred to as TGE) had a big sale all week last week, culminating in a 25% off of everything inside and up to 75% off stuff outside in a sidewalk sale, so I decided to go pick up a couple of things I had been waiting to purchase for a while now.

Now usually I'm not much of a toy buyer. Some of the figures available these days are kinda cool, but I'm barely able to maintain my floppy pamphlet habit let alone pick up every action figure or statue or shot glass or what have you that piques my interest. However, when TGE does their periodical sidewalk sale thingy they usually put out a pretty good lot of toys at 3/4 off, and that's when they get me. For four bucks each, I picked up the recent DC Direct figures of the Planetary cast: Elijah Snow, Jakita Walker and the Drummer. They're pretty nice looking, as these things go...and you gotta admit that there probably won't be too many more of them.

After going inside, I snagged the hardcover edition of The Art of Nick Cardy that they've had on sale for several months now, and I got an additional 25% off of the sale price. Sweet. Anyway, it's a very nicely done career overview slash interview collection, with lots and lots of great Cardy covers and interior art reproduced within, some in color. Cardy, as principal artist on Aquaman, Teen Titans, and most notably (to me, anyway) Bat Lash used his excellent design abilities to create some of the most innovative art to be found in mainstream comics in the Sixties and early Seventies. He also did a lot of illustration work for movie posters and promotional materials, something which I wasn't aware of.

Finally, I picked up the new softcover edition of Human Target: Final Cut by Peter Milligan and Javier Pulido, the events of which have served as a prologue of sorts to the current ongoing series...or maybe it should be said that the current ongoing is a continuation of the TPB. Whatever. Anyway, it's a (for the most part) cleverly written and beautifully illustrated action thriller with Milligan once again furiously working the one handle he has on the Human target character: Chris Chance has imitated others for so long and so well that he has a tendency to lose his own identity in that of those he imitates. Valid and smart, but I'm tellin' ya that this conceit will get real old real fast by issue 10 or 11 of the ongoing. I think, though, that Milligan is a smart enough writer to realize this and will come up with another direction, eventually. I hope. Pulido, perhaps responding to the enlarged format, has beefed up his often minimal style here; there are several scenes and figure drawings that are nicely detailed. And bojemoi, this man can lay out a story. He's quickly becoming a huge favorite of mine. So otherwise, this is a fast-paced kidnapping/action story, like recent films Ransom and Along Came a Spider, except this one's set in Hollywood and features a ton of internal angst by the lead. About the only thing that really bugged me was the out-of-the-blue appearance, at the end, of a character that was only seen once or twice for the first 3/4 of the book- and I'm not sure was ever mentioned by name- who's given a key role. But everything else was very well done so I can overlook it. Human Target: Final Cut is well worth picking up, even if you don't get 25% off.

I haven't written about Rufus Wainwright very much, if at all, mostly because while I liked his self-titled debut album, especially two or three songs, I didn't like it enough to get the follow-up Poses. Apparently it did pretty well without me, though, because according to an interview in the NY Times (found at EveTushnet's), he went on a real old-school binge of bad fun afterwards and has gone through rehab, with a new album's worth of experiences to relate. Click on the link above to read the article, which was doubly interesting to me not only because (despite my failure to pick up Poses) I think Rufus is an artist worthy of attention, but it also mentions his parents Loudon Wainwright III (another one of my "I really need to get something by" musicians) and Kate McGarrigle of McGarrigle Sisters fame, whose first two records are (in my own humble opinion, of course) straight up masterpieces.

So go! Read! And stay away from that crystal meth stuff...it's bad, believe me.

We'll open festivities today with one from the Political Correspondent:

THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY

In celebration of the working person's holiday, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has announced the Bush Administration's plan to end the 60-year-old law which requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime.

Of course, I'd be more concerned if I actually had a job that required me to work a 40 hour week. For the rest of the article go here.