Stumptown adventures

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Leslie and Erika, The Atrox is all over the Flick Stumptown photo pool. The little stuffed Atrox is adorable.

I have ceased to function

'Twas a fine weekend, all told.

Friday night Kim came over, but she started feeling ill so I left her on the couch to recuperate while I droppped in at Danny and Katherine's housewarming party. They're in a duplex, and that place is NICE. Also, their dog is adorable. It was a very nice, low-key time. I wound up staying later than I meant to, since it looked like the party was wrapping up and then a few of us got into yet another discussion. But I came home to find Kim dead asleep on the couch, the Arrested Development DVD menu playing over and over. Aw.

The next day I went and got Kim some stuff from the store, and we spent the afternoon finishing off the second season of Arrested. FACT: Franklin = comedy gold. Early in the evening Kim had to drag herself off to a meeting with Jenni and Heath about their super-cool project, so I was left by myself. Frank picked me up and we had dinner at Baja Fresh, and also ran into John Ross there, so we all ate together. Neighborhood! Frank and I headed home and watched BSG and then were at a bit of a loss at what to do next. Then Paul showed up, bearing a belated birthday gift: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (think X-Men Legends, only with the entire Marvel universe), so we played that on into the night. That game is great. You fight MODOK! And before you fight him he subjects you to a science trivia quiz! I'm not even kidding! Suffice to say, I played a bit more of the game on Sunday, both before and after the softball game. Kim even played with me once she woke up on Sunday. I've managed to unlock Dr. Strange, Blade, and Ghost Rider as playable characters. It is a delightful nerd experience.

There was also the big softball game on Sunday, and even though at first we weren't sure we'd have enough people, it turned out fine. We just had to have a member of the batting team play catcher. The first game was pretty evenly matched, even though my team (with Doug as captain) ultimately trounced John's crew. The second game was much more unbalanced, since Kenneth picked players to win, and Kevin picked players who weren't quite such monsters on the field. It was still a good time, even though I ran myself ragged in the outfield. I did well at bat, too. I think I was only out once, and even that time I got an RBI. I even hit one home run, even though there were no runners on base at the time. But it was cool because, y'know, HOME RUN. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I hope we do this pretty regularly. Big thanks to Aimee for organizing the field and everything.

Of course today I am almost immobile. I give my legs commands and they do other things. And I have sweet bruises on both my legs. Fortunately the hand I thought I jammed yesterday during a rather embarassing collapse at home plate seems to be doing fine now. Small favors.

Stand by for ACTION!

REX DART, ESKIMO SPY!



Have a good weekend.

The dead walk

Last night Meredith and the Bunnies hosted an at-long-last screening of Zombie High at the Derby. Despite passing by it more times than I can count (it was on the direct route from Glendale to Hollywood), I had never actually been, and it was very nice indeed. The party took place in the back room and was VERY well-attended. Pretty much everyone from the Zombie High shoot was there, and I hadn't seen those kids in forever. The moment I arrived Asa gave me crap for wearing my Flash T-shirt under my jacket, which I hadn't actually done in months and months, so I told him to suck it, and maybe go harass Paul, who wears that astronaut T-shirt under a jacket like every other day. But later it was pointed out to me that the last time I wore that outfit was at the Zombie High cast party, so it basically looked like I just had one set of clothes. Classy!

ANYWAY, Zombie High turned out really well, I thought, especially considering how much they had to cut out to get it down to a reasonable, half-hour length. The performances were great all around, but I think Alexandra rocked it the hardest. She's great. The Bunnies also showed their new reel, which had quite a few additions since their last one, including a bit from that Firefox spec ad I was in. Their business has grown by leaps and bounds, and that's incredibly cool.

I was also reminded how completely shitty I am at small talk with people I don't know very well. I like all those kids from ZH, but almost all my conversations with them ended with me kind of looking down at the ground and shuffling off. It's not that I hate you folks! I'm just shy and awkward! Clearly I should have drank more.

By the end of the night Kim and I were pretty much dead on our feet, and Laurel was nice enough to give us a ride to and from the Derby. When we got home we pretty much just collapsed into bed and were soon joined by Odin and Inky. Kitty cuddle-fest-a-go-go. Or something.

Comics whose art varies wildly in quality

There's a new Atrox comic, drawn by yours truly, over at The Lair.

At the other end of the quality art spectrum, Seven Soldiers #1 came out at long sweet last, and did not disappoint. It has some of the most stunning art I've seen in some time, with JH Williams III taking his cues from the artists on each of the seven miniseries. And the story is CRAZY. It's part infodump, part newspaper, part storybook, and part balls-to-the-wall superhero comic. There's even a Seven Soldiers-themed crossword puzzle smack dab in the middle of it. It is AWESOME.

And now I'll stop hassling you about it.

Little Children

I told you about this movie ages ago, remember?

Anyway, I finally saw it. Very good film. Very faithful adaptation of the wonderful novel. The narration takes some getting used to, but makes up for it down the line. And the two plots never quite get in synch, tonally. But still, good movie. Well worth your time. Oh, and on the shallow end of the critical pool, Kate Winslet's naked like crazy in it.

Home alone

Since Emory and Leslie are gone, it's jut me and the kitties. It's very weird being in the house by myself, knowing that they won't be back anytime soon. After all, normally at least one of them is almost always home pretty much all the time.

After the business of the weekend, I opted to take it easy last night and catch up on some television, specifically the last two eps of Battlestar. As with many of BSG's two-parters, the first part felt like filler, and the second part rocked ass more or less non-stop. I also caught NBC's Monday night line-up, and Heroes continues to impress (Hiro is SO PSYCHED about waffles!) and Studio 60 continues to merrily go down the tubes. I tried to catch last week's Mars but I fell asleep halfway through. Weevil/Keith team-up = AWESOME.

Dead to the world

Between the apartment cleaning, the party, and Knott's Scary Farm, this weekend WORE ME OUT.

Of course this should be obvious to everyone, since I conked out so early at the party. Although the whiskey probably helped. And I was up too late last night so I'm exhausted, and I think the Ghostrider at Knott's gave me some sort of permanent neck injury.

But it was a fine weekend indeed. The apartment is cleaner than it's probably ever been. The Prestige is a fine entertainment, if perhaps a bit too long. I liked it better than The Illusionist, certainly. And Knott's was a good time, even though we never did get into the Grudge maze. Lots of monsters tried to spook Kim, since she looks like an easy mark, but she's an old hat at this and I don't think I saw her jump even once. Aimee was not so stoic and immediately picked up a hanger-on like two secons after we walked in the park. Don't show them weakness, Aimee! It's what they want! I think the highlight of the evening was when two monsters scared each other in one of the mazes. Good times.

I just spilled water all over myself. I'm pretty out of it, you guys.

Wiiiiiiiiildstorm!

It's my birthday, so that means I can talk about whatever I want, like comic books none of you have read!

The first issues of the relaunched WildCats and The Authority came out this week, both penned by Grant Morrison and drawn by Jim Lee and Gene Ha, respectively.

WildCats was meant to be out a month ago, but since Lee has only managed to scribble FOUR issues of All Star Batman in, oh let's see here, OVER A YEAR, then I think we should all be grateful that it's only as late as this. Even then, the art doesn't look nearly as polished as it does on ASB, but it's certainly pretty enough. I found this issue a mite disappointing, because save for the "a Spartan robot in every home" bit, nothing about this seemed particularly innovative or fresh, y'know, like how Morrison usually works. This really read like a WildCats enthusiasts' continutity porn; WildCats as written by Geoff Johns. Spartan and Voodoo are back in the sack! Grifter shoots some Daemonites! Hell, the villains are Kaizen Gamorra and Helspont, and I think those are the only two Wildstorm villains to have survived more than one storyline. There's nothing really WRONG with it, I suppose, but I guess I just expected a little extra kick. Really, Jog put it best: " It's WildCats, and they're superheroes. See you in two months, maybe!"

The Authority relaunch is an interesting thing. For starters, the Authority don't even appear in the first issue, although their mode of transport makes an appearance. In its heyday, The Authority was cutting-edge superheroics, pioneering the decompressed, "widescreen" all-action approach, foregoing the normal soap opera tropes for bigger and better fight scenes. Unsurprisingly, Morrison argues in this issue that those days are over. The funny thing though is that he sticks with the old decompressed format, but uses it to highlight the mundane. Instead of a splash page of a perfect superbeing smashing an enemy through a skyscraper, we get a full splash of a wife shutting the door after leaving her husband, every detail lovingly rendered by Gene Ha. The pacing might be deadly to a book that's already scheduled to come out every other month, but the Morrison/Ha combo is hard to beat. And since this book is less dense than Ha's last assignment on Top 10, it has a much better chance of staying on schedule. This first issue was right on time, which is a good sign (kind of sad to say it, but it is). Anyway, I'll be sticking with this one for now to at least glimpse the title characters, and get a better idea of what Morrison's going for.

I'm mildly let down by each of these efforts, but I'll be sticking with them for the foreseeable future. But looking at these books and his current Batman arc, it just shows what a special project Seven Soldiers has been. I'll probably bore you to tears with that next week.

EXPLODO!

I took the day off tomorrow, so I'm free like crazy in five minutes. This is the song that will be blasting as I burst out of my office riding my super-charged nitro-rocket super-cycle.

"Out of my way, I'm drunk as hell!
I'll blow your ass away just like a-ringin' a bell!
Foot's to the floor and the whiskey's flowin',
I got a porn shoot, I gotta get goin'.

You don't understand. He don't give a damn.

Jet car's rollin' all night long,
Crankin' up the jams and singin' along,
Car's full of bitches and a brand new bong!"


(12 oz Mouse has the world's best theme song)

Outrunning fireballs and other weekend activities

Friday night Kim came over and we headed to El Compadre for John's birthday party. Mmm, El Compadre is delicious. Then a few of us headed to the Arclight to catch The Marine starring WWE champ John Cena. It was NUTS. At first it's just a perfect emulation of a ridiculous 80's action movie, but when that gets old it just starts getting weird. Rock candy, folks. That's all I have to say. Anyway, John Cena outruns no less than four fireballs in this film, and does some swell wrestling moves on dudes who try to take him on. Also, he runs and runs and runs through a forest. They shot that forest-running footage and by God, they were going to use it! Anyway, thumbs up.

Saturday I spent most of the day at Paul's working on the new Atrox short. Perhaps you should go watch it. Then Paul and the others went to the Roller Derby while I stayed at home. But Mike called to see if I wanted to watch the Rifftrax of Point Break, so that's what I did. Frank showed up before the movie ended, so when it was over Mike, Trumbo, Frank and I busted out the N64 and played Mario Kart and Goldeneye late into the night. Then Mike and Frank came over to Llama School and we watched the new episodes of the Mars and The Office. I was up until like 4 AM. That's how to do a Saturday!

Sunday was spent working on the Atrox short, then the usual Wire/Adult Swim viewing shenanigans. Oh, 12 oz Mouse. "I didn't think there'd be so many harmonicas." No one could have known how many harmonicas there would be, Square.

That new fall season don't stop

Veronica Mars - A solid, if not especially miraculous beginning to the new season. I like the new additions to the cast, especially Piz, whose crush on Veronica is already extremely amusing. It should be noted that I spent half of the 2nd episode thinking "Hey, they brought Samm Levine back!" only to remember that he'd never been on the Mars before, and that I was thinking of those episodes of Undeclared.

Top Model - It's as if the producers decided to reward me for dumping adorable pixie Megan early on, so they're systematically removing all the girls I don't like. This week Megg, the week before, Monique. Thanks, show! With Monique gone, Melrose has settled into the villain role, although just an annoying villain, as opposed to an evil-and-possibly-mentally-deranged villain like Monique was. I actually like a good amount of the girls this go-round, including AJ, Brooke, Amanda, and Michelle. And Caridee has grown on me. Really, Brooke won my heart forever when on the Next Episode blurb she chirpily asked Janice Dickison "Why are you so bitchy?" Ha! Man, I can't stand Janice.

Studio 60 - Has now settled into a groove I will describe as "pleasant." Some nice moments here and there, but little to write home about. If I really wanted to put in the effort, I could make a significant list of this show's problems, but I don't dislike it enough to be bothered. It's a perfectly serviceable entertainment for me.

Heroes - Kicking ass and taking names. Claire gets revenge! Future Hiro! Ali Larter in her underwear! Some of our titular heroes actually meet! Claire's dad has his own superguy! Things are heating up nicely.

The Wire - I'm loving this season as expected, but there have been several instances where the writers get a bit too obvious with what they're getting at. There have been an awful lot of mirrored lines and scenes between citizens and dealers. Dear writers, when you've got Clay Davis saying the exact same thing as an eigth grader did earlier in the episode, you are being too on-the-nose. We've been with you up until this point. You don't need to start talking down to us now. Still, it's a minor niggle. The show still rules.

At long last

Only nine days away! And only eight months late!

The question remains how crazy-dense this book going to be. I mean almost every page of this brief preview is just pure info-dump, albeit awesome, illuminating infodump (a list of all seven treasures plus the origin of the Sheeda and the origin of Aurakles and knowledge of Alix's lineage!). And even the brief page of actual story is rad as hell. I mean, "Gloriana! There is ONE!"? I'm not made of stone, here, people. That's just awesome.

I really can't imagine a single comic issue that I've waited so long for, so naturally there are some high expectations. This preview does little to dash them.

Did I mention the climax to Planetary also comes out that same day? It's like Christmas.

An exercise in futility

This kind of speculation, no matter how idle, strikes me as silly. Sure, the Wild Card books are about people in the "real world" getting superpowers. Of course there's already another TV show on right now that covers the same ground (Go, 4400, go!) And in comics, there was the "New Universe" back in the 80's. Or more recently, Rising Stars, Supreme Power, and the upcoming newuniversal. Oh, and the X-Men.

You do ANY concept with superheroes, then it's already been done, trust me. No one on Heroes has an original superpower. Yes, even the guy who paints the future.

What matters is the story that's told with them, and at this point Heroes is doing just fine. Nothing particularly original, but all very solid. If you want to point out how unoriginal some of the core concepts of Heroes are, then you'll be at it all day. Best to just kick back and enjoy.

MST

I got my birthday presents from my parents yesterday, among them the 10th Mystery Science Theater 3000 volume, which contains one of my all-time favorite episodes of anything, Godzilla vs. Megalon. Emory and I cannot BELIEVE the MST guys got the rights to this movie. I mean, it's Godzilla. Emory's convinced that they'll change their mind any day now, but I don't care. Megalon is one of those MST episodes where the movie itself is about as entertaining as the quips, since it features a FOUR-WAY giant monster battle (Godzilla teaming up with newly-created super-robot Jet Jaguar) as its action climax. It's actually not the funniest episode of MST by a long shot, but I loved it dearly when I was foruteen. It also has one of the finest sketches in that show's history in the Orville Popcorn sketch, a bit I found so hilarious that I copied it to paper as a kid so I could memorize the whole thing. "Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy!" is no slouch, either.

Speaking of terrible, MST-worthy films, Emory, Paul and I watched Starcrash last night, a foreign science fiction film that features both David Hasselhoff AND Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. Unfortunately the main characters are a sexy pilot who doesn't wear much, an seemingly-omnipotent meathead who looks like the love child of Roger Daltry and a baboon, and a robot with an inexplicable and somewhat hilarious Southern accent.

Man oh man, was this movie something. In the very least, it provides a sterling example of why editing is important to the storytelling process. None of the action sequences make a single lick of sense. Characters get killed more than once, people who were indoors magically appear outside, and it's all impossible to follow. One spaceship battle seems honestly slapped together from several unrelated takes. "We've got six incoming!" "I got three of them!" "Here come two more!" "I just got the last one!" "We did it!" That is not an exaggeration.

But it did give us two fine quotes for use around the house:

"Mah seatbelt is stuck!" - Southern robot. He sounds like Yosemite Sam. Also, this line is awkwardly ADRed and adds absolutely nothing. For those who know what I'm talking about, think "Watch out for snakes!"

"I've never been there. (absuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurdly long pause) What's it like?" - slinky heroine. The longer the pause, the better.

This is definitely one John, Mike, and/or Feeney need to see.

Taking stock

The Atrox will be one year old this weekend.

In September this blog had its two-year anniversary. I admit I did not think it would last that long.

A week from tomorrow I turn 27.

At this point in my life I've been a college graduate for a longer period of time than college itself.

It's all kind of weird.

New!

Atrox comic!

Stand-up comedy adventures

On my way home from work yesterday Frank called to see if I wanted to go with him to see Martha do some stand-up at the Comedy Union. Danny and Katherine were going to be there, and I hadn't seen them since their wedding, plus Martha is genuinely funny, so I figured why not.

We got there on time, and I immediately realized that I had been to the Comedy Union before, way back when, to see Mike do stand-up. I was right at the front of the stage at a table with Sam, Danny, and Katherine, but no comics picked on me the entire night. Apparently no one had any Harry Potter material prepared. Thumbs up!

Martha was hysterical, as she has proven herself to be in the past, and several of the other comedians were really funny to, which was a nice change of pace from other stand-up shows that I've been to in the past. This one woman told a story about performing stand-up on Playboy TV that just KILLED. It was fantastic.

But of course not all of them were that funny. And I developed a new stand-up act last night in order to honor a position I've seen several stand-ups take. Here's my new, guaranteed awesome stand-up act!

Please welcome to the stage JEFF STONE!

"Hey, everybody! How y'all doing tonight? That's great, that's awesome. Hey, I'm so edgey and funny, you guys don't even know. I'm just so tired of this 'politically correct' stuff. It's like we can't make racist jokes anymore! Well tonight I'm breaking down the walls! I'm taking back our comedy! Black people steal stuff, am I right? 'Oooh' you say. Yeah, you're all uptight white people. It's not that my realiance on broad racial stereotypes is stupefyingly lazy! It's that you all are just a bunch of stuffed shirts! Huh? If I say that Mexicans are lazy and you don't laugh, that's on you, not me! It's our poltically correct culture that has totally brainwashed you guys! Well I'm ending all of that tonight! Tonight you WILL laugh at my jokes about how swishy gays are! Because you're the problem, not my shitty material! I'm the next brilliant, edgey comedian and you don't even know it! Have I mentioned how persecuted the straight white male is these days?"

Or something like that. I'm going to take that bit to the stage! And I guarantee that on the night I perform it at least one other comedian will do more or less the exact same bit except earnest! It's just sort of exasperating. Comics, I'm sorry the climate of the nation has changed so that nobody laughs at your tired race material anymore. Sorry you might have to actually do something original. Suck it up. (If you replaced the word "race" with "sex" in the previous paragraph, this could also serve as an open letter to the creators of The Man Show.)

ANYWAY, on our way out of the comedy club this woman who had also been at the show told me I loooked exactly like her son. She told Frank and me that her son had moved to Ohio with a girl and they hoped to open up a big anime/hentai store out there. Yes, she really did say "anime/hentai". I was momentarily tempted to ask her if she knew what hentai was (she wasn't super-old, but she had silver hair), but then I realized that it would be awkward no matter what answer she gave me. So Frank and I went on our merry way.

Afterwards we hit the Cat and Fiddle with some of Frank and Martha's friends, as well as several of the comedians who performed that night, and we drank a bit and had a grand old time. The evening wound down and I was thinking about heading home when all of a sudden motherfucking WENDELL PIERCE walked into the bar. You might also know him as THE BUNK. Anyway, he walked into the bar and then right back out again, so there's no cool story there. But it was cool to see him, since he plays one of my favorite characters on my favorite show. Plus he was in Hackers. Then I went home and fell asleep!

The Idiot Box runs my life

My life is boring. TV is exciting!

Heroes - Three episodes in and I'm pretty much sold on this show. I know, I'm surprised too! Last night's episode was even written by Jeph Loeb! The dialogue is often pretty cringe-inducing, but the plot's top-notch. Some of the disparate stories work better than others, but that's to be expected. I'm totally on board with the following plot threads: Hiro, Ali Larter, Indestructible Cheerleader, and Telepathic Cop. The super-powered serial killer stuff is great. The Scientist's Son plot is interesting, but it's also where the dialogue tends to really get out of hand, clunking around all over the place. Although it does have the advantage of Nora Zehetner, who is no great shakes in the acting department, but is awfully pretty. And totally a secret villain (again). I have virtually no interest in the Flying Brothers or Precognitive Junkie (if I ever see another junkie on TV, it'll be too soon), so it's nice that their plots seem to be dovetailing. But yeah, good stuff so far. It's like The 4400 with decent prodcution values!

Studio 60 - First episode so far that hasn't seemed ridiculously self-serving for Sorkin. Some actual dimensionality for Ricky and Ron, plus Sarah Paulson didn't drive me crazy. Hopefully this show won't get totally shitcanned now that it's actually finding its feet.

Battlestar - Finally caught the premiere last night. Intense stuff, although at times so heavy-handed that at times I thought Ronald Moore might rise up from behind our couch with a baseball bat that had "metaphor!" written on it. But a strong opening, overall. Starbuck's situation was equal parts disturbing and totally awesome. And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't showing Roslin a bunch of times in the season promo sort of ruin the cliffhanger for this episode? But maybe it's a fakeout? Or maybe SciFi likes ruining things. Anyway, let's hope the quality doesn't take the sharp dips it has in the past, although Mark Verheiden is still around, so I'm not holding my breath.

Doctor Who - We're playing catch-up on this one, since it premiered a week or two ago. We caught "The Christmas Invasion," which was totally serviceable, if unremarkable. The Torchwood bit was fantastic. David Tennant is very good, but I doubt I'll end up liking him as much as Eccleston.

The Office - More Rashida Jones = happy Jeff. I am so freaking shallow. But she's funny, right? With the "Call of Duty!" bellow and the throwing of the horns? I'm pretty shallow.

So what's on Adult Swim these days?

I'll talk about Heroes after tonight's episode. Suffice to say, I did not have time to address it last week. But 'round Llama School we've started watching the Sunday night offerings of Adult Swim again on a regular basis, so let's talk about that.

12 oz Mouse - Despite my better judgement, this show fascinates me. It's the only Adult Swim short-form show that's a true serial, and often seems more concerned with its byzantine, hallucinagenic nightmare-mystery plot than in actually being funny. Oh, and that plot is most likely being completely made up on the fly. If you've seen this show and couldn't make heads or tails of it, I can hardly blame you. Its cast of characters includes a malevolent severed hand and an apparently sentient clock. And the villain is a talking shark. (Old Kentucky Shark, no less.) Anyway, I really dig the completely crap-looking design, and I especially dig the halting, staccato line-readings from Mouse and Shark ("He's rectangley. That's how you'll know him. By his rectangularness" Be sure to mark at least a one-second pause between all of those sentences). So I've totally drunk the Kool-Aid as far as this show's concerened. If you don't already hate it, you probably would if you saw it. Although it does have one of the best credit sequences in the history of television.

Metalocalypse - Under no circumstances should this show be watched without Emory to explain all the in-jokes to you. But it's pretty funny even without the in-jokes. Last night's adoption episodes was probably the best one yet. Also, the theme song is better than most of the metal songs Emory's made me listen to over the years.

Moral Orel - It's really just a one-joke premise (Orel misconstrues some wholesome lesson and indulges in some decidedly unwholesome behavior) so I'm not sure how long this show can last, but it's a pretty funny joke, at least. And I generally approve Mr. Show alums getting a steady paycheck.

Robot Chicken - I talked about this show at some point in the past, and have little new to add. When it's on, it's really on, and when it's off, it reminds me of all those shitty issues of Wizard that kind of turned me off comics in general back in high school. Great animation, though.

Squidbillies - Less amusing than the previous season, but last night's gag where Patrick Swayze's wife was portrayed as Patrick Swayze in To Wong Foo... was just about as funny as funny can be.

The Venture Brothers - I just can't get into this show. I've seen several episodes, and nothing really does it for me. It always elicits a chuckle or two, but it's a half-hour long and I just can't work up enthusiasm for it. Even an off episode of one of the shows listed above will only try your patience for 11 minutes. I keep getting the feeling that I'm the show's taget audience (it's certainly not shy about making obscure comic book references), but I just can't bring myself to like it.

Atrox keeps comin'

Yup.

Hopefull I'll have a spot of time today to update this here blog with talk of television. Because if there's one thing you need to hear, it's what I think about Heroes. Oh, and maybe I'll also have time to talk about the newest fad around Llama School.

I admit when I am wrong

Some time ago, back when Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2 came out, I happily noted the Monkey Island reference therin, specifically "How appropriate, you fight like a cow." But when Frank read it, he maintained that Scott yelling "I am rubber, you are glue" to Wallace was a Monkey Island reference, too. I thought that was stretching a bit.

I was wrong.

The bit where the panels get smaller and smaller was something I sort of saw in a manga one time and wanted to put to my own use. If you can’t read the very last one, he’s saying “I am rubber, you are glue” which is (apart from a generic comeback) kind of a Monkey Island thing.

So there it is.

Busy, busy, busy

I am very busy at work today. Busy spending oodles of company money on reference books, that is. This is harder than it sounds, since I have to chace down many of these books to obscure, out-of-the-way websites. Shut up! It's hard!

I did indeed buy The Handmaid's Tale last night, but that will have to wait because I also purchased A Fistful of Rain, the lone Greg Rucka novel I have not yet read. I'm sure you will all be incredibly surprised that it features a damaged female lead. But since she is neither a secret agent nor a superhero, this one's a bit less of a rip-snorter than his other work. But she's a rock star, though! That's good for something.

I read much too quickly

My reading thing on the sidebar is now hopelessly out of date. I've completed Running With Scissors already and I'm just about finished re-reading The Catcher in the Rye, so if anyone has any book recommendations now's the time to speak up. I've never read The Handmaid's Tale, so perhaps now is the time.

"It's like this movie is just about looking at penises off-camera"

So said Emory about Dirty Pretty Things, a movie we watched this weekend and both enjoyed, but that did seem to feature a rather significant number of off-screen penises. But it's a good movie on the whole. While the screenplay can be a bit too on-the-nose occasionally, there's a fine lead performance by my man-crush Chiwetel Ejiofor, so that's all right.

This weekend was also the farewell party for Adam and Liz. It was a nice time, and I'll miss those crazy kids. But I'm sure they'll do quite well for themselves in Jersey.

As one married couple departs, another come in to take their place, since Danny and Katherine have moved out to LA. Now we can totally exploit Danny's technical prowess! Oh, and it'll be nice to have him around and all.

The Top Gun Rifftrax was another winner. I'm glad these are coming out so well. Afterwards Mike, Paul, Aimee, and Corinne came over to watch The Wire and stuck around for a few episode of The Mighty Boosh, a British series that's occasionally too weird for its own good but did give me the endlessly excellent quote "Are you still an erotic adventurer?" so it all evens out.