Ooh. Aah.

Mike Cary pointed me to a link over at Ain't it Cool News (Link at right- if you go there, read Harry Knowles' rambling Oscar® telecast review. It's a hoot.) that, in turn, led me to the website of yet another incredibly talented illustrator, Eric Wight. Click on the sweet Buffy illo above to go to his site, and click on the portfolio button- there are character studies from a proposed Buffy animated series, some pages from an upcoming Hellboy: Weird Tales story, and a lot more. He seems to be, as they say, a talent to watch.

Those of you who are longtime readers of my ramblings may recall my turntable troubles of about two months ago. I took my dead turntable to a repairman, who did some stuff and thought he had it fixed- whereupon it lasted about two days before dying again. I took it back, and he looked it over again then let me know that the drive motor was burned out, and it would, as they say, "cost more to replace it than it would to buy a new one". That dreaded refrain. Anyway, he then proceeded to give me back the money I paid him for the previous failed repair work (!) and tell me that he had a catalogue I could look through that he thought had some turntables that he could order and sell me at his cost. So I narrowed it down to three, and you see the winner above: the Teac P-988.

Hell of a classy thing for the guy to do. Of course, it helped that I knew him from way back, but it's not like we were best friends or anything...here's his web page if you're curious.

This wouldn't be such a big deal, but since I'm older than dirt I have accumulated a couple thousand vinyl LPs that I can't afford to replace...and in some cases I just can't plain ol' can't replace because they're no longer in print and unavailable on CD. So I gots ta have a turntable and have been without one for almost two years now. I can't take it anymore!

First thing I'm gonna listen to is Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. I'm dyin' to hear that LP!

Happy Bacardi Show Birthday greetings today to everybody's favorite TV wiccan, Alyson Hannigan aka Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Also sharing her birthday is none other than Mr. R. Lee Ermey, an ex-Marine drill instructor who parlayed a memorable turn as a- that's right, you guessed it- Marine drill instructor in Stanely Kubrick's half-brilliant Full Metal Jacket into an acting career that thrives in spite of his utter inability to act. You can see him in the recent remake of Willard with Crispin Glover. The first 45 minutes of FMJ are absolutely hilarious, and the biggest reason for that is Ermey's Gunnery Sgt. Hartman. The picture above is from the jelly donut scene. "Chow is forbidden in the barracks, Private Pyle!"

Good morning. Took the weekend off from blogging, as you're no doubt aware if you're one of the few and presumably proud that read me regularly. Had a lot going on, which kept me away from the ol' iMac.

I've been watching the occasional game in the NCAA tournament, and as a Kentucky fan, so far so good. I used to be a total bracketaholic, was always in at least two tournament bracket pools, hell- I even filled out brackets for the women's tournament a couple of years there...but it got to the point where I was taking it far too seriously, and I would get extremely pissed off when the games didn't go my way (which is not becoming to grown men), so I stopped cold turkey last year, and didn't fill out a bracket, let alone enter a pool, again this year. I think it's better that way...I enjoy watching the games a lot more if I'm not in mortal terror that Winthrop is leading Iona with seconds left. Anyway, my alma mater Western Ky. got a for shit draw, and got eliminated in the first round by Illinois, too bad. Better luck next year, and I do think they'll be better next year. All I can say is go Big Blue.

I'm saddened to report that contrary to my statement the other day, the radio station that I work for part time has dropped the Dixie Chicks from their playlist. I didn't know this until Saturday, when I saw a message from the program director warning the morning DJs to stop bitching about the Chicks, in fact, to stop mentioning them all together, because it was getting out of hand and they were just picking at scabs, so to speak. Good for him, but I wish he hadn't dropped them. How disappointing...I'd expected better from them. Of course, I'm only there infrequently, so I don't have a say in the matter.

Watched most of the Oscar® ceremony last night...wasn't too surprised at the outcomes, except perhaps that Brody fellow getting best actor, and I'm disappointed my beloved Renee Zellweger didn't take home a statue. Oh well, at least she had a good seat. I suppose I should make the effort to see the Pianist someday, but I'm not going out of my way. It was cool to see all the Oscar® winners in the big group shot at the end, but I'm not sure how necessary that was...seemed like they were filling time and that's something that the program doesn't really need. Nice to see lots of Mira Sorvino, too, although I could stand to see more. I thought Steve Martin was often very funny. I would have been shocked and awed if Michael Moore hadn't delivered his tirade, and I was a bit surprised at the restraint shown by most of the participants– especially Barbra Streisand. I thought for a minute there something would pop out, but apparently she had decided not to give her enemies any more ammunition. Conspicuous by its absence from the clip saluting Oscar® musical tributes was Rob Lowe dancing with Snow White. I kinda liked Paul Simon's number, not enough to buy it, though, and thought the number from Chicago that Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones performed could have stood about three dozen fewer dancers.

That's all I got right now, except for a couple of Bacardi Show Birthdays...but it's early and the day promises to be slow...so stay tuned.

I suppose that I could go ahead and give my Oscar® picks for the weekend in the big five categories. Problem is, I haven't seen most of the nominated films, so mine is an uninformed opinion if there ever was one. Also, I wanted to post another picture of Renee Zellweger, and this was a good as any excuse to do so.

BEST PICTURE: Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Pianist. Of these, I've only seen Chicago and The Two Towers. I really wanted to see Gangs, but it played the worst shithole theatre in Bowling Green so I decided to wait for the DVD (July 1, by the way). Between the two I did see (and after Tequila Mockingbird's review, I wouldn't see the Hours on a dare) I enjoyed The Two Towers the most, so Two Towers it is. Of course I know damn well that Chicago will win.

In fact, the Two Towers is really getting the shaft this time out. Did all the actors, like Ian McKellen (who should just have his name retired-he's always the best actor regardless of who the other nominees are), suddenly forget their craft? Only two nominees for best makeup, one for slapping a unibrow on Salma Hayek in Frida, and no nomination for a movie that was full of great makeup effects? feh.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:Adrien Brody, Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson. I haven't seen any of the movies these fellows are nominated for, so I'll root for Day-Lewis because he has that cool moustache and top hat in Gangs. I understand Nicholson was good, too, but the very thought of seeing Kathy Bates naked will cause me to avoid that movie for a LONG time.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Chris Cooper, Ed Harris, Paul Newman, John C. Reilly, Christopher Walken. What we have here are five actors that I always usually like in films, and two which are heroes of mine, Harris and Walken. It'll probably go to Cooper, but I could never vote against Harris.

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE: Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane, Julianne Moore, Renée Zellweger. I think you know by now who gets my vote. Sigh. Again, the only movie I saw out of this group was Chicago. Kidman's usually pretty good, and I hear she's great in the Hours, fake nose and all. I'm surprised the same person that nominated Frida for that makeup award didn't nominate this flick as well.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE: Kathy Bates, Julianne Moore, Queen Latifah, Meryl Streep, Catherine Zeta-Jones. Gotta give Bates credit for being a gamer, and Latifah was a hell of a lot better than I thought she would be...but Zeta-Jones-Douglas was smokin, in more ways than one.

"ACHEIVEMENT IN DIRECTING": Rob Marshall for CHICAGO, Martin Scorsese for GANGS OF NEW YORK, Stephen Daldry for THE HOURS, Roman Polanski for THE PIANIST, Pedro Almodóvar for TALK TO HER. Seems like it will come down to Marshall and Scorcese, and Scorcese may have shot himself in the foot with that bogus campaign thing a few weeks ago, so I say Marshall. But you never know.

What the hell, I'll pick another one:
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Spirited Away, Treasure Planet. My 3 year old nephew Josh adores Spirit, but I haven't seen it. Neither have I seen Spirited Away or Treasure Planet. Ice Age bored me, and Lilo & Stitch was pretty darn good but not great...so I'll choose Spirited Away, which didn't make it to a theatre near me or you can bet your ass I would have been there to see it. From the previews I saw it looked amazing. I'll pick Spirited Away in advance.

You know, I haven't done a music today post in a while. It's been so slow at work that my "sitting and working while listening to music" time has been limited. Anyway, I've listened to the following at various times during the week:

Nick Drake-Bryter Layter (I love "Fly", "Hazey Jane I" and "Northern Sky"), Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers, (all good, but I especially love "Sway", "Bitch", and "Moonlight Mile", featuring strings by the great Paul Buckmaster) James Brown-20 All-time Greatest Hits! (make it funky!), Van Morrison-Saint Dominic's Preview (I'm really jonesing to hear Astral Weeks right now- it being Spring and all), Coldplay-A Rush of Blood to the Head, Family Stand-Moon in Scorpio (One mighty ass-kicking disc for five songs, then it peters out. But those five songs are fantastic...), Paul Westerberg-Mono/Stereo, and the Mothers of Invention-We're Only In It For the Money.

Friday Five in the hizzouse!

1. If you had the chance to meet someone you've never met, from the past or present, who would it be?

There are at least a dozen people I could name. Right now, I think it would be William Blake. Ask me tomorrow and it will probably be someone else. Definitely someone who has made a big impression on me, for sure.

2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be?

It might be interesting to live in the 18th century, when things were so different, a simpler, more agrarian lifestyle was prevalent and some significant things were happening in the world. But then again, health care was nonexistent, and that's a tremendous downside.

3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be?

For several years I wanted to move to Alaska, because it had less people per capita than any state in the US...but this winter has cured me of that, plus I'm not as antisocial as I used to be so now I'm inclined to say Hawaii. I'd open a print shop there. How many can there be in Hawaii? I wouldn't mind giving Japan a chance, too.

4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be?

Fafhrd the Barbarian, of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. Those fellows lived large.

5. If you had to live with having someone else's face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be?

Well, it would look funny on my body, but I'd say Tom Cruise. Whether or not you think he's much of an actor, you gotta admit he's a handsome sumbitch.

I told you I'd find some more info about Venus on the web...click on the panels above to go to an issue-by-issue review of, believe it or not, Marvel's 70's reprint comic Weird Wonder Tales where they reprinted three classic Venus stories. I gotta see if I can find those books. On page three of the article the splash page of a story entitled "The Cartoonist's Calamity" is displayed; it's the Venus story I'm most familiar with. There was also another one about the haunted 13th floor of a skyscraper, but I forget where I read that one, damn it.

Click on the image to find YOUR Cyborg name.

My little feature on the Sub-Mariner (and by proxy, Bill Everett) below prompted me to think "Boy, wouldn't it be neat to have a nice pinup picture of Everett's Venus character in the picture area at the right side of my page?"...so I went to my usual sources: Google and Altavista's search engines- and came up with jack. Most of the covers I found with her image just didn't lend themselves to pinups. Here's a cover gallery at the Great Comics Database. Also, here's a pretty cool site with many scans of Marvel/Atlas/Timely comics covers from the 50's-70s. Venus is one of the titles which feature scans, but you'll have to click around a bit.

Anyway, I've always been a bit fascinated with the character, due to reading reprints of her adventures in the 70s Marvel reprint book Weird Wonder Tales. These featured the work of the more refined Everett style, whereas the picture above and the cover to #1 shown in another one of the links I'll provide you shortly are done in his earlier, less accomplished style. And of course, there was her great appearance (bondage cover and all) in the comic I wrote about yesterday. She's made infrequent appearances in Marvel Comics since, most recently (and notably) in the Avengers Forever multi issue time-hopping free-for-all.

Until I can come up with something better (and I intend to keep looking), here's two links to pages that profile the Goddess of Love, from a "Females of the Golden Age" site, from whence I stoled the early Everett illo above, and another by one J.J. Nevins.

She's got it, baby, she's got it.

Just so you won't think I'm blathering about trivial and inconsequential things while grave events which affect us all are going on, here's an interesting Newsday column by one Leonard Levy.

Here's one from the Washington Post which asks "By Whose Authority?".

And courtesy of Yahoo!, Here's a summary of key developments in Bush's Jihad so far.

You know what worries me about all this? Now that Bushy has had his war, and to hell with what anyone else thinks- either go with me or get the hell out of the way and I'll be back to deal with you later- what's he gonna do for an encore? And who's gonna finally stand up to this pipsqueak bully and his cronies? Just wondering.

I also see where they've taken a poll which finds that 76% of the people surveyed support the war. Well, as they say, duh! What good does it do to protest now? It's a fait accompli! Might as well "support" it. Like someone in Washington's gonna say "Oh, my God, wait- Billy Bob Cooterman in Bugfuck, Tennessee doesn't approve of our war! We've got to shut this thing down STAT!". Personally, the best way to protest now, it seems to me, is at the polls in '04...assuming Bush and his cabal doesn't find a way around that little formality (again)...

It's occurred to me that I haven't posted a favorte comic book cover in quite some time...so here's one: Sub-Mariner 57, 1973, by the great Bill Everett. This was from his short-lived comeback to the character he had created in the 40s. He did a couple more issues before his death, but I think this was the best one. Everett had such a graceful style, and he could draw some of the most beautiful women ever. Dig that extremely cool signature under the shark! For a synopsis of this book, go here to a pretty thorough New Warriors site.

80s mix CD 3 is now complete. The tracklist:

Peter Wolf-Lights Out
Toni Basil-Mickey
Hall & Oates-You Make My Dreams Come True
Swing Out Sister-Breakout
Billy Joel-Allentown
George Harrison-When We Was Fab
The B-52’s-Roam
Culture Club- Miss Me Blind
Tears For Fears-Sowing The Seeds of Love
Blondie-Rapture
Janet Jackson-Nasty
Joe Jackson-Breaking Us In Two
Wall of Voodoo-Mexican Radio
George Clinton-Atomic Dog
Biz Markie-Just a Friend
Cyndi Lauper-True Colors
Madness-One Step Beyond

My first 80s Beatlesong makes its debut on this disc...I've got tracks in mind for John and Paul, but I haven't ripped the mp3s yet. Again, remember I tried to go for songs I liked, and not necessarily the most well-known or obvious choice. My only criteria is that whatever I put on should be a hit (well, top 100 anyway) single or video played in fairly high rotation on MTV in the 80s. Hence my selection of True Colors instead of Girls Just Want To Have Fun or She Bop for Cyndi Lauper, Sowing the Seeds for Tears For Fears instead of their multitude of hits from that decade ("Head Over Heels" almost made the cut, thanks to its brilliant use in Donnie Darko) or Rapture instead of Heart of Glass for Blondie. As always, comments are encouraged and appreciated. Even those that might say "Who gives a damn, anyway?".

A little something to think about, courtesy of Warren Ellis:

Imagine being in one of those houses. With your family. You never got to dissent. This war's got nothing to do with you. You can hear the sound of the world's big dog scratching and booming outside your door, and you never did anything wrong but to be born there.

The rest can be found here.

BEST OF THE WEEK

Time now for
COMICS REVIEWS!
What I bought and what I thought, week of March 19

1. LUCIFER 36: As always, a wonderful blend of mythology, religion, character study, and high adventure. Along with the usual interiors by Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly, we get several pages of usual fill-in guy Dean Ormston, and they're both in fine form. Page 2 by Ormston is one of the creepiest single pages I've seen in a mainstream comic book. A

2. SLEEPER 3: After a tentative beginning, Ed Brubaker is getting up to speed and this is the best issue yet. Some of the back-and-forth between Holden and Miss Misery is priceless, and Ed's little conspiracy theory he introduces has more than a little resonance in these troubled times. Sean Phillips's excellent art is not done any favors by murky, ugly coloring. A-

3. THE TRUTH: RED, WHITE and BLACK 5: Not limiting himself to racial prejudice and bigotry in the American armed forces, Robert Morales introduces the Holocaust into the mix and succeeds admirably (and horribly). Didn't see the last page coming. Kyle Baker's art is no less sloppy than at the beginning, but I think I've grown accustomed to it so it didn't bother me as much as it has before. A-

Haven't heard from the Bacardi Show Political Correspondent for a day or so, but auxiliary contributor Mike Cary has stepped up and provided me with this, from Newsweek, which I found interesting and wished to share with all of youse.

This, on the other hand, I found all by myself.

Despite my notorious attraction to female violinists (or girl fiddlers, if you prefer), I've never really been a Dixie Chicks fan. While they're certainly more interesting than the average mainstream country artist, they're still mainstream country artists, all anti-intellectual and slickly produced. I hear an occasional song that sounds nice, but I just don't really get much of a charge out of that sort of music. I really liked their duet show a month or two ago with James Taylor, especially on "Wide Open Spaces"..but that was mostly due to Taylor, I'm afraid.

Anywho, they've caused a stir lately due to a typically broad, tactless statement made by singer Natalie Maines (who has always struck me as being a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes), criticizing Dubya and causing typically blockheaded country fans and stations (not the one I work for, thank goodness) to boycott them. Kinda like Lennon '65 all over again, except on a smaller scale. For what it's worth, there's a petition you can sign to show support for the Chicks and their free speech rights, and if you care to do so go here. I did, and here's the comment I wrote to accompany it:

Apparently it can't be said often enough: This is America, and Americans still have the right to disagree with and even express dislike for their President. While I think Natalie's statement sounded thickheaded and too broad (kinda like her public persona, actually), she still has the right to say it without fear of reprisal or backlash. Shame on the people who are striking back at the Chicks for exercising their rights as Americans.

Well, it's on.

At least Dubya didn't start his war on my birthday, like his Dad did in 1991.

Time once again for a belated This or That Tuesday Q & A session!

1. Cold frosty ski slopes or warm sandy beach? Warm sandy beach. The winter we've just had has cured me of any cold-weather living ambitions.
2. Chevy or Ford? My dad was a Chevy guy, so I say Chevy. Me, I drive an Isuzu.
3. Mac or PC? Say it loud, I'm Mac and I'm proud!
4. Dial-up or high speed internet access? High-speed, thank God. I did the dial-up thing for a while and it drove me crazy.
5. Small *family-only* wedding or large 200+ guest wedding? Small, family only I suppose. I don't like crowds and they don't like me.
6. Would you rather be the bridesmaid or the bride? (if you are a guy, substitute best man or groom) Best man, I suppose, since I'm already married and bigamy is frowned upon in our culture. Actually, if given the choice I'd decline.
7. AC/DC or ABBA? This is heresy, I know, and I'm straight– but I get more pleasure from "Dancing Queen" than I have from the entire AC/DC catalogue. Actually, I'm not a fan of either.
8. Roses or daisies? Roses. Just a romantic at heart, I suppose.
9. Trashy romance novels or classic literature? Classic literature. I'm just not the trashy romance novel type.
10. NEW! Thought-provoking question of the week...If you had to choose one...would you rather be blind or deaf? Why? That's a hell of a choice. I suppose if I had to choose one, I'd choose blindness so I could at least listen to music. I could possibly stay sane that way. It would make it pretty damn hard to read comics or watch films, though...

I've recently watched a couple of oddly similar, yet vastly different films about movies and their makers.

Last night, I stayed up way past my bedtime because I got interested in Gods and Monsters, the 1998 embellished account of the last days of Bride of Frankenstein director James Whale, portrayed by Ian McKellen in what has to be one of the finest performances my untrained eyes have ever seen. Other cast members, like Brendan Fraser and Lynn Redgrave, also acquit themselves well. Part of the appeal for me was the excellent re-creations of scenes from Bride, long a favorite film of mine, as well as well-done impersonations of Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff as you can see from the picture above. I found this film completely engrossing and often touching, even after having already seen it once before. You can go here to read reviews that synopsise the film a lot better than I can.

One of Whale's regular players was none other than Dwight Frye, whom you probably know best as Renfield in Lugosi's Dracula. He's got a website devoted to him, and if you want to check it out go here. It's very informative.

Also, a couple of nights ago, I watched Shadow of the Vampire, which is another film at least tangentally about a filmmaker– in this case the German auteur F.W. Murnau. It's based on the supposition that the actor that portrayed Count Orlock in Murnau's great Nosferatu was no actor at all but an actual vampire. I remember being hugely disappointed with this when I saw it after its release on home video; it just seemed to go in all sorts of directions at once and never seemed to settle on what it wanted to be: a biopic, a comedy, a horror film, or a indictment of how filmmaking devours the filmmaker. Adding to the disappointment was a great-on-paper cast including John Malkovich as Murnau, Willem Dafoe (creepy enough sans makeup) as "actor" Max Schreck, Eddie Izzard and Cary Elwes (I'm beginning to really appreciate how good this guy is) which, with the exception of Dafoe (who eerily recreated Schreck's ratlike Count), were not really done justice by the all-over-the-place script. This time, though, I just kicked back and watched, and I think it made a better impression on me. I laughed in a few places and was pretty caught up in the delirious ending, when everything falls apart in grisly fashion but Murnau keeps on filming no matter what. I still think Shadow was a failure, but it's an entertaining failure.

For a laugh, go look at Max Schreck's bio page on IMDb. Not only does it list a link to an agent and publicity but it also lists, as his sole TV credit, an episode of Spongebob Squarepants!