First of all, have I got a TREASURE TROVE for all of you people with high speed connections. It's the Internet Film Archive, located at http://www.archive.org/movies/. It has an immense library of downloadable short films-- mostly those educational films they showed you in high school, or propaganda films from corporations, and even the Charles Keating-produced "Perversion for Profit" which is a fuckin' SCREAM.
Okay, now to reply to Chris re going to Mars versus the Moon. Frankly, I cannot agree. For one thing, most of the objections you've made to a Moon colony aren't deal-killers, and things like the construction of greenhouses and the like are a lot more feasible than they'd be on Mars.
A manned Mars trip would require fitting out a mission for more than _two years_ in space, there and back-- with no real assurance that the meager resources on Mars would enable anything like a return trip. Consider that a trip to the Moon takes only a few days-- and launching from the Moon requires even _less_ energy than launching from the Earth.
And consider how much energy is expended in simply escaping the gravity wells of the Earth and Mars
Lynn,
Thanks for the tip.
Xanadu,
All is well here, as far as I can tell, but thanks very much for your concern. Alejandro? Ray? You guys lurking? I have co-workers in the area, but they all appear to be accounted for, thank god. For those who are wondering just how bad falling scaffolding can be, here's the Chicago Tribune news story, with photo:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-020309hancock.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed
Just goes to show you - always have a will set up.
Regards,
Joseph
Alex Jay, Brian, et al: There are a number of people who are advocating a return to the moon. It seems logical, as one article in Astronomy magazine (I think) said, "it's about time to get more out of our investment in Apollo and return to the moon".
However, I vote for Mars first. There are several reasons. It may be very difficult, and right now impossible, to set up a permanent colony on the Moon. Although there appears to be water at the poles, it would be very difficult to manufacture rocket propellant from the lunar soil, which means that rocket fuel would have to be imported. The lunar environment would make the growing of crops very risky. The crops would need sunlight, which would have to be filtered due to the lack of atmosphere on the lunar surface. The moon has a two-week day-night cyle, and crop plants would need extensive genetic engineering to survive a 14 day long night. The amount of power needed to provide enough artificial light to grow crops would be astronomical. Almost all the food on the Moon would have to be imported. That is, at present, VERY expensive. Then there are solar flares. The radiation from the flares will kill every exposed organism, including crops. You can protect people, but you blot out the sun. It just isn't possible to protect plants from the sun without killing them.
The Moon is better suited for a smaller base for astronomy. The far side of the Moon is the ideal place to position both optical and radio telesopes. The optical scopes would make Hubbell look like a dime store toy.
Mars, on the other hand, has an atmosphere. The carbon dioxide can be combined with a tank full of hydrogen to manufacture methane and liquid oxygen propellant. When an expedition is launched to Mars, there will be a fully fuelled return vehicle waiting for them. The amount of mass launced to Mars is drastically reduced. Also, the atmosphere on Mars will protect crops from solar flares. The water is more plentiful, and the natural resources for sustaining a large, permanent colony are there in abundance.
It takes less DeltaV to accelerate to Mars than to the Moon. Seems strange. But, the spacecraft would be accelerating to Mars even before launch. The boost a vehicle gets from Earth's orbital velocity is considerable. You don't need to decelerate that much, either, since your speed of (I think) 70,000 mph is absolute solar system speed, but much less relative to Mars -- closer to 25,000 mph. Also, the Martian atmosphere allows the use of aerobraking, which saves a lot of fuel. Earth and the Moon are stationary relative to each other, so the rocket engines will have to do all the work to get there.
The infrastructure built to send people to Mars could be scaled down slightly to send humans to the Moon. A larger infrastructure would also make a seemingly pie-in-the sky plan more economical and possible: mining the lunar soil for Helium 3.
Where would the technology come from? Project Apollo and the space shuttle. We'd get that return on investment mentioned earlier.
Chuck
Joseph~ If you scroll to the bottom of the Snopes page, that URL is also listed.
Just an FYI,
L.
Just read about the scaffolding collapse in Chicago - I hope all the Webderlanders and their families are OK...
Xanadu,
I checked, and that URL works just fine in Mac Explorer 5 as well. Thanks!
Joseph
Xanadu,
I checked, and that URL works just fine in Mac Explorer 5 as well. Thanks!
Joseph
Joseph Finn: I split out the frame as a seperate URL - but at least in my browser (mac Navigator 6.2), the new page displays slightly incorrect coloring - here's the URL:
http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/dhmo.htm
Chuck: I am a proud creation of Momma and Papa Xanadu. $1.32, not including tax. ;)
Cindy: Upstate, NY - Livingston Co., south of Rochester. While I'm willing to look at your script - don't expect too much gold. Standing at roughly the same level of experience as you (I have no pro sales - no contest wins), I'm not sure I could provide any valuable feedback. So, given that caveat and if you still wish, feel free to send it along via email.
My Yahoo is stalling on mail-sending, so I came to browse. Saves me getting behind on this board.
P.A.: Good comeback for Lurkie-poo. *laugh* (I was guessing Eric or someone else I know who'd had flame trouble.) Though, I LIKE the name King Lurk. Call me crazy.
Alex J.: I just notepadded your list of comics. Will head for the two local comic places tomorrow to see what's what. Thanks.
and you said:
>Who'da thunk that the one person best suited to chronicle the life of the ultimate woman would have been a gay man?
I don't find that surprising, at all. (I'm naive, remember.) In terms of being male AND being emotional/creative, I think gay men (from what I've observed--hell, look at Olivier) have got the best ride of man, woman or gay.
I was in a store today, noticing beefcake. (The new Superman is a supermodel, did you know that? Yeesh. Heh.) It occurs to me: We're not getting beefcake in the media for the ladies, HELL, we're now getting beefcake..for the gay men. What say you?
Heather
Just for the hell of it, I decided to see if Snopes.com (the Urban Legends Reference Pages) had anything on the original authorship of dihydrogen monoxide, and was amused to see that a junior-high student won an Idaho science-far prize by testing people's gullibility, using a variation of that essay. I can't give you a direct link, as Snopes uses an annoying frame setup, but go to the site and search for monoxide and it'll pop right up.
Regards,
Joseph
Little Washu: The "dihydrogen monoxide" routine was a piece of humor that's circulated on the Web for a long time. Basically, all of the dangers of H2O are, in fact, accurate-- its gaseous state can burn you, if you inhale it you can die, etc. But it's just _water_. Just do a Google search on the term.
Alex: Thanks for the comment on the Penn housing program. I, for one, think it's a terrific idea, but that is _heavily_ biased by the fact that I could, and did, take advantage of it. If I wasn't able to take advantage, I'd be pretty resentful... but I was, so THERE.
But as you said, Penn's plans haven't always been terrific-- they've tended to try to buy up as much business real estate around the area, and then charge exhorbitant rates for rentals. This has tended to ensure that the only businesses that can thrive are the chain stores that can afford the rents. It'd make much better sense, overall, if Penn provided a local business-development plan to encourage others to start up in the neighborhoods, rather than trying to corner the markets. Happily, there are a lot of good local businesses (like Koch's Deli, long may it thrive), and Center City is within walking distance. Still, when people complain about the "mallification," they do have a point.
re: THE GODFATHER
Let's see, ZALUCHI,BARZINI,FORLENZA,TATTAGLIA--
Little Washu: It's just water. But if you substitute "water" for "DHO", you'll see that every statement made in the "alert", while completely accurate, is incredibly biased.
Alex J. Berman: I've read the first two SANDWALK ADVENTURES, and they're every bit as fun as you think. I look forward to the rest of them.
RICK WYATT: I knew you were making a joke, and I was yanking your chain in response. I'm glad that you are familiar with anime and it's positive creations as well as the negative.
As for 'decent stories in anime being adaptations of non-animated material', I'd agree with you there. THE TALE OF GENJI, based on the Murasaki Shikibu novel, is my favourite experience delivered in a two-dimensional format, bar none. And misogyny being common, heck yeah, you've got that right. For every GHOST IN THE SHELL there's a pile of doggie turd like LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND. Eeeeeyuuuuuuhhhhh....
Little Washu
Washu: Don't assume because I make a joke about anime that I am clueless of the medium. I didn't call it japanimation, did I? However, with notable exceptions (such as GHOST IN THE SHELL or about 6 of the episodes of COWBOY BEBOP) it's in general filled with gaping plot holes, poorly-written dialogue, and the worst sort of cheescake (if not outright misogyny) imaginable. It is undoubtedly a beautiful art form, and full of wonderful and developed characterization, but it's fundamentally flawed in my opinion.
I'm the sort that thinks that how well a story is told is the one criteria that crosses all media. In addition, most of the decent stories told in anime are adaptations of non-animated material (even if it's one of the better mangas being adapted).
I'd be happy to discuss this further in another forum; I think the topic has been already beaten to death here. This post was made purely to indicate I do have an INFORMED opinion on the subject. I felt that was necessary given the place.
Alex,
You're exactly right on the commingling on Italian and Jewish mobs, but it just seems odd that the Fifth Family is never mentioned by name in "The Godfather." Especially since the Five Families all appear to be classic Mafia, which would make it impossible for Moe Greene to actually be head (rep, sure - head, no).
Hell, hold on. I'm going to pop the DVD in right now and chcek out the boardroom scene (did you guys know that was filmed at the Federal Reserve in New York?)
Well, that wasn't very helpful. Unless Solozzo was one of the Five Families, I'm stumped.
But, I'm reminded. There's a fine book on the Jewish mob that came out a few years back, titled "Tough Jews." Really good look at the history.
Regards,
Joseph
Hello, everyone.
For the first time in a long time I had a completely sleepless night, thanks to a particularly nasty flu. I think I managed to get two and a 1/2 hours of sleep after 7:00, so I'm still feeling a little woozy.
Having a flu is hell on earth. Your entire body is shaking from cold chills, and I was curled up in an embryonic position in my bed in a desperate attempt to get warm. My head was pounding, and everything ached terribly. Even worse, on more than one occasion I had to use the bathroom...but I didn't want to get out of the bed. I was immoblizied with aches and cold spells, and the slightest movement would be sheer agony.
I took some Tylenol nighttime relief, and that DID lighten the pain a little bit...still couldn't sleep a wink. Right now I have these horrible coughs that seem to be tearing out my lungs and throat. The best cure for the flu, I've found, is a long, VERY long time in a hot shower. Makes you feel like a god.
BRAIN SIANO and XANADU: Not to be the monkey in the middle here, but I'm just discovering this 'dihydrogen monoxide' conroversy myself, thanks to your posts. Colourless, odourless, dangerous chemical? Or just water? I've checked up several sources already, and they seem to strangely conflict with one another. Will someone clear me up on this? I'd be grateful.
ALEX JAY BERMAN: Well, I guess THAT post killed the thread on female superheroes begun by Heather. Yowzers.
RICK WYATT: "The subsequent posts were fine, tongue firmly planted in cheek, with the exception that they generated further discussion of anime as an art form -- for which you should be tarred, feathered, and possibly set on fire."
Oh, you poor man. I'm so sorry that you are entirely clueless of a medium that excels in the art form more than anything ever broadcasted on Western television. It's okay. It's not your fault. I don't blame you.
Little Washu
Thank you Brian, for commenting on the "DHO" story, I was hoping someone would. I agree with most of your points, (except the "lying" part DiHydrogen Oxide IS the chemical name for water no one needed to "invent" it for the purposes of the story.)
But my purpose for choosing that particular anecdote at this particular time is to make a slightly different point.
And that point is this: "Don't trust 'metasources' for your facts". It is pathetically easy to use completely truthful data, carefully presented, to arrive at any pre-determined conclusion. (Re: The "dangers" of "DHO". Nobody can dispute the facts as presented they are the truth.)
By using confusing or unclear technical terms using language the already carries a significant bias in common usage, or even by completely ignoring data that conflicts with the theory being proposed writers can make any point they wish even if it's completely at odds with "reality".
It's fine for a politically motivated publication/personage to sound the clarion call to awaken their readers to a potential danger. But I suggest, rather than using their facts, or accepting their conclusion without question the reader should actively seek out other sources especially those which are at odds with your position. It is only after you can satisfactorily answer all the points the opposition brings up that you can be confident in your POV on the subject. (By satisfactorily I mean your personal satisfaction not necessarily the world's.)
It's great to use Chomsky, or The Nation, or Limbaugh, or The National Review as a starting point for your thinking, but please use it as a springboard only come to your own conclusions. Once you're there you can defend your conclusions against all comers.
This is Frank's primary failing. He spouts "the party line", but when objections are brought up that he can't answer, he flounders he's done no independent research, and thus is blindsided by factual rebuttle. (Personally, I think Frank enjoys stirring up the hornet's nest for it's own sake - independent of his politics.)
Frank: Don't worry about NASA's plutonium giving you glow-in-the-dark zits Radon is the radioactive substance that's gonna get you. It's far more abundant, and it occurs naturally everywhere.
JAY: Though I understand your trepidation, I offer my congratulations and wish you all the very best.
GODFADDA: As for the Fifth Family being repped by a Jewish guy--well, there was a lot of Jewish and Italian commingling in the Thirties: Lepke Buchalter, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel DID run with Lucky Luciano and Al Anastasia, after all.
BRIAN: I hear a lot of Penn students complaining about "McPenntrification", and while the University has a lot to answer for where its handling of real estate is concerned (especially whoring out the school's coffers to Whartonites at the expense of the other disciplines and its screwing of many of the businesses around campus), the employee housing program was perhaps the best idea they've ever had, in my opinion.
College has become a place where bitching about Those in Power--as you're studying so that you can soon BECOME one of of Those in Power--is de rigeur.
Actually, Alex, I think I'm more on the leftish end of things than "liberal." But we're definitely both space fans, and that's one of the reasons why I decided to get back into SF in a big way. I'd spent a lot of time paying attention to politics, and while it's all very important, it does tend to make one see things in a Frank Churchish way-- technology's always tarnished by power interests, new breakthroughs are tragedies because the resources weren't used for equality or justice, even simple joys are merely means of "distraction" encouraged by the seemingly omnipotent corporate power structure. (Just so we're clear-- the right wing is _far_ worse on these things. They always are.)
Lemme give y'all an example from my own life. I may have mentioned this before, so forgive me if this is redundant. When I was working at the University of Pennsylvania, they started a program to get employees to buy houses in West Philadelphia. Low financing, big cash incentives, greater police presence, the whole lot. This was part of a massive improvement-gentrification program, which has included building a new elemantary school to be co-run by Penn, new supermarkets, new lighting, etc. I wasted no time in taking advantage of this, and now I'm a homeowner.
But West Philly is basically an academic suburb, so the politics tend to be liberal-left, with a largeish slacker-anarchist contigent. There's been a few odd groups here and there as well; there wa sa bunch of white people calling itself the Uhuru Solidarity Committee, which busied itself posting flyers about how the FBI's COINTELPRO program was waging war on the black community. (This was in 1989.) Not exactly typical, but it was there.
Well, the Penn program came under a LOT of fire from a few quarters here and there. It was suddenly cultural imperialism, "designed" to run the activist element out of town, and to impose "surburban white values on the community." (Never mind that a LOT of the community consisted of white Penn, Drexel and Temple students, and the rest were academics.) Someone worked up the broken-backed phrase "McPenntrification" to characterize the program, which gives you an idea of how imaginative the opposition was.
Now, property values have nearly doubled in the last four years. This is bad because a lot of people can't afford the rents any more. (Many are migrating further westward, which means that the _real_ black community out there will soon be complaining about all these slacker fuckheads moving in.) While this is bad even for friends of mine, it's been great for me, because my house has doubled in value, and the neighborhood's become nicer.
But the complaints from the "McPenntrification" crowd were extremely familiar to me, and they rang even more hollowly than before. I knew most of the people; I knew that their idea of authentic urban culture was rotting floorboards, bongwater spills, and crack dealers conveniently nearby. (And most of'em smoked cigs like crazy-- affected politics spouted between puffs of Helms Campaign Contributions kind of made them look even more ridiculous.)
What did these people want the world to be like? After all, wouldn't we all like to live in a neighborhood with decent housing and schooling? It's one thing to understand the injustice of NAFTA and GATT... but it's another to demand that others live in squalor in order to satisfy some half-conceived idea of urban authenticity and "the community." Christ, if we were talking about the Mississippi Delta in the 1960s, these people'd probably argue that dysentry, illiteracy, hard sharecropping labor and racial prejudice were elements of an "authentic" lifestyle that shouldn't be disrupted by the arrogance of Civil Rights activists.
It's a very cheerless outlook, overall. (Not as bad as the right-wing's paranoia over gays, blacks, women, Political Correctness, and doubts about the wonders of capitalism, however.)
You know, when I made my comments about the NEA and NASA, I kinda _knew_ that Frank'd miss the point.
Just so everyone's clear, what I wrote was:
"Personally, if I was told to cut a federal program, and the only choices I had were NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts, I'd cut the NEA in a heartbeat. But, since the choice is more wide-ranging, I'd fund'em both and a LOT more at the expense of the Pentagon."
I _thought_ this was pretty clear.
So, you want further proof that our Attorney General is the real nutcase in the government? Take a look here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html
Seriously, it's worth the download time. He wrote it all himself!
Alex,
A fine list, my friend. I just have one point of contention: as far as I can tell (and I'm a monthly reader), "Strangers in Paradise" has not gone through a reboot. Rather, it's been a "what-if" story. Future issues may prove me wrong - and hey, there's a new issue coming up on Wednesday that may solve the confusion.
Oh, and I'd add to your list "Birds of Prey." But I've blathered on enough about that comic lately.
And personally, I like that Jessica Jones doesn't have the baggafe of being the previous Spider-Woman. Leaves Bendis with more room to work.
Regards,
Joseph
Let me just second what Brian said about addressing FACTS rather than any perceived political bias.
I mean, I'm as liberal as they come, and I'm an absolute spacehound. I raged when they detected polar ice caps on the Moon and then water on Mars, because that opens up the possibility of potable water, which opens up the possibility of permanent stations, colonies, resorts--you name it. It angers me no end that we have not been back to the Moon for almost my entire thirty-year lifetime. We made it to the Moon--the friggin' MOON!--and then abandoned her like a drunken sorority girl at four a.m. after a frat party.
Brian is a liberal (it would appear). I am a liberal. We are no Frank Churches, thank you.
Playing catchup like a one-legged marathoner ...
LYNN: I didn't see David's query to Harlan as being overly personal. Rather, I saw it as one professional to another, asking after a market which the first professional, still something of a tyro, has heretofore not yet explored. Remember, David DOES record books on tape and has done radio voicing for pay ... For all we know, he may be having trouble finding out what royalties he should be getting--and this forum is a relatively quick way to get answers without the hassle of an unsolicited phone call.
I see it as something akin to if I were to ask, say, Ernest Hogan--an infrequent visitor to these climes--how much F&SF (or was it ASIMOV's?) paid for the book review columns he was (is still?) doing for them, my asking based on the fact that I might be sending that magazine or a similar one a proposal for a column. "Pay it forward," goes the saying--sappy, crappy movies aside--and the writers I know hold tightly to this maxim.
Also, I should point out that I actually prefer Scottstyle to Meatstyle: The person who now emerges from Scott's posts seems less forced; less conscious of being onstage. The Scott we now know is a more rounded, human fellow--and the love he holds in his heart for Melissa and the Meatlings just shines through. It's a better Bag of Scott we're now left holding.
P.A.: I do not now, nor have I ever, nor WILL I ever use a fake name, manufactured persona, or anonymous handle. I'd just not me. I don't know if this is because I'm a open kind of guy, or if it's feedback from my junior high days, when I was a mildly pathological liar (Oh, nothing which had consequences; I just told big, if convincing stories--"bubbe meises"--about myself to garner more attention. One day, I just asked myself if I hated myself so much that I needed to invent another Alex Berman out of whole cloth, and I came to the realization that I didn't; that I actually liked myself a lot.). Thing is, what I put out is me. My words are my own (well, except for the two "the"s and the "ergo" I borrowed from Brian Siano), and I would have no other take credit for them. Just the same, I would have no other take lumps for them, either.
Granted, I'm a man. I wholly understand why a woman might want to cloak herself in a veil of anonymity here on the Web--after all, I'm much less likely to be stalked (I have been, but that's immaterial). Then there are some embarassed by their names who use handles as a first step toward making lasting changes in what they are called; that's a little less normal to me, but hey ...
But pseudonyms just aren't me, and they just aren't for me.
(And they're not just for breakfast anymore!)
FRANK CHURCH: NASA and the NEA? Apples and pomegranates. BOTH programs should be funded to the utmost, but funding one in now way takes away from the other. There are many, many, MANY instances of porkbarrelling in the federal budget you would do far better to rail against than one which gives us discoveries, which gives us the basis for new and better consumer products, and, most importantly, which gives us KNOWLEDGE.
In addition, it should be pointed out that art by its very nature costs a lot LESS: You can do art alone in a quiet room; traversing space is somewhat more complicated. Bear in mind, I say this as both a lover of the arts as well as a lover of sciences.
And Pollit's contention, in the article you cited, that she knows no one who cares about the composition of rocks on Mars, saddens me immensely. I simply cannot imagine there being people who have no desire to find out new things, to seek after answers, to LEARN.
(Granted, my own propensity toward knowing as much as I can and my aversion to uncertainty, my inability to leave things at "I don't know"; is why my girlfriend just moved out--I am told--but I can imagine no other way to be.)
And to learn about the Moon, or Mars, or the Crab Nebula, is to learn about the Earth; to learn about our origins and our very selves. Who in their right mind would not, as was noted over the temple of Apollo at Delphi, "Know Thyself"?
HEATHER: You asked for comics with good female characters? Okay; here comes the laundry list. and this list is gonna be LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGG.
(Granted, half my comics reading is superheroics, but most of these are drawn (sorry) from the other half)
To start off, there's WONDER WOMAN. Currently, the series is better than perhaps it's ever been--even better than the Wm. Messner-Loebs-Mike Deodato run; even better than the George Perez run. Never before has Diana been so well-defined; so much a HUMAN person as well as an immortal. Blame for the series' current excellence can be laid squarely at the feet of writer/artist Phil Jimenez, who draws in a realistic, detail-crammed style much like Perez', but whose writing about who people are deep down is what is really driving the book. There has been terror, war, death (of a character who's been around for sixty years!), love, frivolousness, betrayal--and it all smacks of REALITY. Worth a look, as a slide out of pure sooperheroes toward the land of story for story's sake.
Who'da thunk that the one person best suited to chronicle the life of the ultimate woman would have been a gay man?
(And Diana's supposed to lose her virginity in an upcoming issue, for you perverts out there ...)
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ALIAS by current wunderkind Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos is a book about someone who used to be a hero. No, really. Served with the Avengers and everything. Strong. Real strong. Hung with Captain America and all that. Gave it up. Became a private detective. Jessica Jones (it was originally supposed to be Jessica Drew, the Seventies Spider-Woman, but that was nixed by higher-ups) doesn't care about the superhero lifestyle--then why does every case she's been taking lately have to deal with people who wear their underwear outside their clothes? Written in Bendis' trademark staccato, Mamet-like style--and the first of Marvel Comics' adult-themed MAX line--this is a good departure from the norm while still in Capeland.
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(A similar book from Marvel is the upcoming DEADLINE, by Marvel exec-turned-writer Bill Rosemann and artist Guy Davis. It's about a reporter in New York, home of more superheroes than you could shake the Wand of Watoomb at. Still a young reporter, this woman keeps getting stuck covering the "capes." Whom she hates, thinking them elitist little children, using the world as their sandbox. Looks good, but the similarities may hurt it.)
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Similar but different is Bendis' (and Michael Avon Oeming's) POWERS, about two cops who have to work in a precinct (and a world) where superheroes and superheroics are an accepted norm. One is, of course, a spunky woman. At turns funny, exciting, and touching, it's just a great read. And Warren Ellis (playing Warren Ellis) gets horrbly something'ed in issue seven.
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And the last batch of similarity rings in on Alan Moore's and Gene Ha's aforementioned TOP TEN: It's the story of a police precinct in a world where EVERYONE's a superhero. Filled with comics in-jokes yet still riveting as a police procedural, it's well worth your time.
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PROMETHEA is another of Moore's "America's Best Comics Line" (pencilled by artist J.H. Williams) and it's a ... hm. It's the story of ... hm. Okay. It's a reworking of the Eternal Hero(ine) With Many People Behind the Mask motif, it's a sidelong glance at a culturally-shocked culture not too far from our own, it's Wonder Woman/Mary Marvel crossed with a peek behind the magic curtain of reality, an eaxmination of mythology, Kabala, Tarot, Magick, the act of writing and its consequences, Hell, and marketing ... oh, hell; just read it and enjoy.
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But that's enough superheroics for now.
I truly cannot say enough good things about Jason Lutes' BERLIN. It's a small book chronicling several intertwining characters and stories in 1928-29 Weimar-era Berlin. The reasearch--photo reference, history, et cetera--Lutes has done on this book is amazing, and the character development keeps pace. His previous book JAR OF FOOLS may have been a great study of emotional involvements and downwardly spiralling lives, but BERLIN is his masterpiece. With issue nine coming out soon, it's only a third done--and the first eight were just collected in TPB--so there's time to jump on now.
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Then there are woman-friendly books like Terry Moore (a guy)'s STRANGERS IN PARADISE. SiP is hard to categorize--it's the story of Francine, a woman getting over a mildly abusive relationship and still not quite sure of herself; Katchoo, her best friend, who is deeply in love with her; and David, who is also deeply in love with Francine (or, at times, Katchoo--while I think the series is great, I've never gotten caught up on it). All the main characters are heartbreakingly REAL, yet have secrets they hold deep inside. The troika (and the cast of supporting characters) have gone through a LOT of changes since the title began, and there have been a lot of twists and turns--in fact, Moore just did a controversial quasi-reboot of the series to "give the fans what they want", but it's still engrossing as all hell.
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Gary Spencer Millidge's STRANGEHAVEN is just that--strange. But great. Trying to get away from the doldrums and failures of his life, a British teacher takes a drive down a highway he doesn't know; his car breaks down in the quaint village of Strangehaven.
Where everyone is endearingly weird: The lovely girl with a crush on him and some odd family ties, the neighborhood hippie who maintains he's an alien, the woman who runs the odd little herb store, the outgoing priest with a different way of looking at things, the mermaid, the quasi-Illuminati-crossed-with-the-KKK Knights ... It's very British and very different--and also very absorbing; the place and its characters--and trust me; they're ALL characters--suck you in. I guess an easy precis would be THE PRISONER meets PEYTON PLACE meets TWIN PEAKS.
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One of the best books I've read in a while is biologist Jay Hosler's CLAN APIS. It's the story of a honey bee, from birth to death. Only slightly anthropomorphized in terms of art but very much so in terms of dialogue, it's a book that is extremely educational as well as being at times funny and at times touching: You WILL learn all about the life of a bee and a beehive. But you'll also care about the characters. This is a book that I know I will give to my child when he or she starts reading in earnest. And yet it's a book that I, a reasonably well-read thirty-year-old, loved. You can see stuff by Hosler at: http://www.jayhosler.com/Cartoonist.html
His latest book is called THE SANDWALK ADVENTURES: The first two issues are out now, but I have not been able to get a hold of them (damnit); I'll have to read it in trade paperback. It's an ... INTERESTING concept--here; let me give you Hosler's synopsis:
"The Sandwalk Adventures documents the conversation between Mr.
Charles Darwin of Down, Kent and Mara, a follicle mite living in his left eyebrow. Though there are may strange aspects of their relationship, perhaps none are stranger than Mara's belief that Mr. Darwin is a deity! It will take some convicing to shake Mara of this belief. Can Mr.Darwin convince her that he didn't create life and all the species of the world. He sure hopes so.
Fortunately, he has at his disposal a most elegant explantion for how species are formed. It is called Natural selection and Mr. Darwin is somewhat of an expert on the topic. Join this unlikely duo as they go around and around Mr. Darwin's thinking path, the Sandwalk, looking for understanding and adventure."
Now does that sound fun or what?
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(Damn. This post is long as hell. Apologies to those of you uninterested in comic books.
If any reading this want to hire me to do articles on comics, though, feel free ...)
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More stuff: Andi Watson (also a guy)'s SKELETON KEY is the story of a high schooler in ... um. Saskatchewan? Manitoba? (I forget and the book's in the other room with a sleeping ex-girlfriend [yes; that one, Heather.]) whose life is changed when she befriends a girl who is actually a Japanese fox-spirot. Adventures follow, yes; but real life also intrudes as she has to decide whether to go off to Toronto to college as her parents expect, leaving her impressionable and somewhat confus/ed/ing friend behind? And what does she do about her ex? It's a very "chick-friendly" book, but like Slinky, it's fun for a girl or a boy.
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A great mad humor book is Gail Simone's and Lea Hernandez' KILLER PRINCESSES. It's over-the-top humor about three schoolgirls who are covertly hitmen; their entire prep school is a front, you see. Imagine the PowerPuff Girls ten years later with lots and lots of armament and bad tempers. The book is funny as hell--and Gail and Lea are occasional visitors to Webderlander Paul T. Riddell's Healing Power of Obnoxiousness forum, so we know they're good eggs. Gail used to be the Humor columnist for comicbookresources.com, and Lea has received acclaim for her "Texas steampunk manga" books CATHEDRAL CHILD and RUMBLE GIRLS. All of those come highly recommended.
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Sam Kieth, creator of The Maxx (which was pretty faithfully translated into the MTV cartoon of the same name) has recently been doing books that are very psychologically in-depth and woman-oriented. The first of these, ZERO GIRL, has been collected into a trade paperback, and the second, FOUR WOMEN, just finished up, so that TPB will soon be along.
ZERO GIRL is about a misfit girl on the edge of getting out of high school--she keeps getting beat up by the clique-y girls, she has a mad crush on the school's guidance counselor, her feet exude a LOT of weird and magical sweat whenever she gets nervous or scared, she believes that squares are after her and that circles are her friend.
And she's right.
As weird as THE MAXX but more solidly rooted in the way actual characters behave, ZERO GIRL is a very good and funky read.
FOUR WOMEN, however, is strictly magic-free and very psychological in nature--in fact, it is set up by the fact that one of the four women of the book's title is relating the story to her psychologist! This framing device serves the story very well, as the narrating character is slowly forced to come to terms with what happened and to stop omitting important details. The story? Four friends of differing backgrounds, attitudes, and lifestyles, driving back from a big formal affair-type thing, break down. And the first people to stop for them are two guys who have something less than the most Samaritan of intentions. The women have to lock themselves into the car and hope. This doesn't work, and the day/night turns violent.
But the REAL story is how each woman copes with what is goiing on and how the narrator is drawn out into telling the WHOLE tale. Gripping stuff.
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J. Michael Straczynski, craetor of Babylon 5, of course, has gotten into comics writing in a big way recently: He's currently writing (and doing wonders on) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, but it's his creator-owned stuff I want to bring up.
RISING STARS, done with a rotating supply of artists, is the story of roughly 112 kids who were all granted superpowers of one form or another in the womb when a comet/energy ball thing buzzed the town of Pederson, Illinois. These kids, by virtue of being in Mommy's belly at the time of the comet, come to be called Specials--some heroic, some famous, some bad, some just ambivalent. Straczynski ably extrapolates what a real-world government would do if afced with this sort of possibility, and has jumped ahead in time a couple times in the series so that he can show what happens to these Specials from womb to tomb. Strong men; strong women; a powerful (ouch) book.
His MIDNIGHT NATION is the one you really want to read, though. David (can't think of his last name), an L.A. cop left by his wife, suddenly finds (after investigating a freaky rash of homicides by a new gang called "Walkers" who don't really even seem human) that no one notices him any longer. He, like many others, has passed over into a parallel world where the forgotten people, the nonentities no longer clinging to our reality, the Eleanor Rigbys, dwell. How'd he get there when he has an ex-wife who still loves him? Well, someone stole his soul. And now he has to walk from L.A. to New York City to get it back.
His guide is a coldly beautiful woman named Laurel. A mystery woman, who offers help but not pity. David learns that she has guided many on this path to the soul's redemption, and that none have actually succeeded in regaining their soul; they have become demonic Walkers themselves.
And each previous traveller has killed Laurel.
Every time. Just as David is fated to do.
Even as he feels his soulless self sinking, as he grows more like the Walkers who try to prey on them, David realizes something--something more important than the stubbornness that makes him believe he will be the first to succeed:
He has fallen in love with Laurel.
Both series are coming to an end soon, and are WELL worth reading.
And there's another recent Straczynski creation (with artist par excellence Michael Zulli): DELICATE CREATURES is a large hardcover comic; a fairy story with a twist. I don't really know how I might explain it except to say it's the kind of bedtime story a Charles de Lint crossed witha Neil Gaiman would tell.
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Let me just wrap this all up with one last book (as you all breathe fervent sighs of relief).
This is a book that may or may not return--and I hope to hell it will.
James A. Owen wrote and drew a twelve-issue series called STARCHILD which was--in a word--brilliant. Drawn in a labor-intensive pen-and-ink style resembling woodcuts and drawing on all sorts of Faerie mythology, the story was about a village at the crossroads of the world. Every hundred years, storytellers gather together here. One is chosen to wear the Mantle. He blindfolds himself, puts on the Mantle, and tells the Story. And, in doing so, remakes the world.
There's a LOT of stuff in this book. The Wild Hunt, Rip Van Winkle, Old Tom, Titania and Oberon, Neil Gaiman in a cameo role (Gaiman later supplied the introduction for one of the books as well as a story that Owen illustrated), and lots, lots more. And it's brilliantly done.
After the first twelve-issue arc, Owen restarted the series in several ways: A four-issue miniseries of self-contained stories called STARCHILD: CROSSROADS, a supposedly ongoing series called STARCHILD: MYTHOPOLIS telling the tale of what happens when books are outlawed (the fourteen-issue series only went four issues, numbered zero through three, then things fell apart), and two in a series of illustrated short stories in chapbooks with stories Owen wrote called TALES FROM THE TWOPENNY INN.
All amazingly well done.
Owen himself seems to have dropped off the edge of the world; when I exchanged several e-mails with him a year and a half ago, he said that he was doing a lot of freelance design work but that he'd be relaunching the book again. Now, however, his Coppervale Press website is no longer there--even when I checked it on web.archive.org 's Wayback Machine, it shows its last update as having been September of 2000, and the old e-mail address bounces.
Still, it's DEFINITELY worth serching out--and there ARE copies of the collections for sale on the web in various places ...
Damn, I hope he's okay.
Damn, I hope he comes out with new stuff soon..
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Anyway. This enough for you, Heather?
You can get more information on women IN comics and women MAKING comics at http:www.friends-lulu.org
Okay--this post is done. The sad thing is that I've only read up to Thursday, so I'll probably pollute the board with MORE of my mindrops ...
(Geez. Thirty-five hundred words. If I don't do some REAL writing after this, I'll be pissed.)
Oh, dear Christ, don't tell me that someone's trying that tired tale about "dihydrogen monoxide" again.
First of all, it began as a pretty basic geek joke; come up with a techy sounding name for water, list all of the dangers of water in a way that sounds like the dangers of a toxic chemical. It had circulated for years, and about three or four years ago, some kid in Oregon decided to use it as the lazy solution to a science project assignment. He went around his neighborhood and asked neighbors to sign a petition calling for the banning of "dihydrogan monoxide." He got something like fifty signatures, and claimed that his "experiment" demonstrated that people get scared when told about environmental dangers. Of course, people tend to circulate this story to "prove" that the environmental movement is just a bunch of hysterical Chicken Littles running around, scared of nothing.
But let's look at this story under the cold light of reason. First of all, the kid deserves no credit; he simply recycled a gag he'd read about on the Net, so there's no originality to the project. Second, all ht demonstrated is that most people don't bother with strict chemical names; after all, how many people spend their time working up arcane and scary euphemisms for "water?" (It's a bit like ridiculing people for not knowing pi to ten decimal places, or knowing metric conversiona.)
And as far as _science_ goes, well, it's not science. The experiment requires _lying_ to people-- giving water a chemical name, and providing only a list of its dangers in such a way as to _encourage_ fear. Even _dangerous_ chemicals are given more fairness-- the chemical industry is quick to explain the benefits of things like dioxin and PCBs-- but in this kid's experiment, water had no benefits or everyday uses. If that kid went around with the same list of dangers, and _called_ it water, he wouldn't have gotten a single name on the petition. All he demonstrated is the power of public relations-- if he's got a career, it's not as a scientist, but as a marketing executive.
And the most important point is this. Many of the chemicals that we receive warnings about _do_ have severe dangers attached to them. The story, as presented, tells us that environmentalists are raising alarms about safe substances-- so, we're expected to reason, the fact that people can be hoodwinked into banning water means that dioxin is vindicated as a safe chemical.
Todd Cassell writes:
"Brian, the reason I attack Frankieboy's sources as liberal is because they come from extreme left-wing 'journals' that will shade any facts to get their way, and purposely ignore the big picture. Now, before the saliva froths from your lips, let me state right now that I would make this comment about any extreme right-wing citings.....and, in both cases, I would accept the citings IF and only IF there are other citings that agree with what is being states from REPUTABLE SOURCES.....not opinionists like the God Chomsky or the other God Limbaugh."
First of all, Todd, the comment about sources that will "shade any facts to get their way" would apply to just about all of the major right-wing journals-- given their behavior during the Clinton scandals, as outlined even by insiders like David Brock. So you've pretty much ruled out anything to the right of the _Times_. (Of course, there's not a source in the world that hasn't screwed up or slanted a story.)
This may encourage you to consider what you mean by "reputable sources." The reputation of a source and its actual performance are not necessarily related; I'm sure you've heard that even reputable papers like the _Washington Post_ have been known to run fraudulent stories (usually snookered by a reporter, and NOT as a conscious decision). The _New Republic_ has a strong reputation, but it's run some genuinely awful stuff (a cover story promoting the quasi-scientific views of Charles Murray's _The Bell Curve_, for example.) And many papers can be wildly schizophrenic; the _Wall Street Journal_'s reporting is generally regarded as among the world's finest, but its editorials page is abysmal.
And frankly, there's no comparison between Chomsky and Limbaugh; Chomsky's got a very strong record of documenting his claims. You may not agree with his analyses, but as a reporter of facts, he's far more reliable than the blowhard Limbaugh.
"If The Nation says NASA is going to kill us......then I sure would like to see The New York Times confirm this before I take it as a legitimate example. Frankieboy's sources are always the same. The sky is always falling because the big bad corporations are in business only to build weapons and destroy all human rights."
Frank's analysis aside, there are stories that are well-documented, and which don't make the mainstream news sources. That's what Project Censored is about-- they try to bring attention to stories with potentially large public impact, and which have not been reported in the mainstream media.
Jim,
You are amazing, and fast! (a line that would leave you in a quandary if said to you by your bed partner....amazing? Cool. Fast? Yipes)
I'm losing it....gotta get some sleep. Going into the big city tomorrow to catch the matinee of The Crucible on Broadway and I don't want to doze.
Thanks so much! -TODD
Jay,
Congratulations on the new kid and the impending wedding. Sorry to hear about the ve-hicle. Hope it didn't hurt too much. Cars can be real money vampires. And, they're not as cuddly as a small child.
Xanadu,
Were you built by Charles Foster Kane? Is your cost so great, no one can say? Just curious.
Heather,
Concerning the moose question: It comes from the opening titles of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. If you've seen it, rent it and watch the titles closely, at the bottom. If you haven't, then RUN, don't walk to rent it. Steal it, whatever you have to do. The opening titles will have you on the floor. You'll be experiencing it for the first time, you lucky lady. Then, rent EXCALIBUR, and wonder how the Monty Python people came out with the parody years BEFORE the movie being parodied. Believe it, or not!
Chuck
Popping in VERY briefly...
TODD: That is the final line from DOUBLE INDEMNITY, by James M. Cain. (And I submit that Cain was Hemingway's equal in every area save literary reputation--though with the recent downgrading of Hemingway's legacy, that opinion is changing. The posthumous appearance of crappy novels that Hemingway shelved when he was alive can't be helping matters...)
XANADU-
Your words are golden.
Yes, I gave Greenlight a shot.
No biscuit.
You lighting suggestion sounds inspired! Cost is EVERYTHING. Whether you have a few thousand bucks or millions-- that's what it boils down to.
I learned that from watching PGL on HBO... the part about the millions I mean.
The best thing about making our own films is that we don't have to have anyone who doesn't have any ability to write-- to create, telling us what we have to do in our films.
We get the blame when we fuck up-- but then wouldn't we if we were being dictated to by some upper echelon suit?
Living in the middle of nowhere presents a special sort of challenge when it comes to casting. I comfort/delude myself recalling what Alfred Hitchcock said about his actors-- something like, " I like my actors to have two eyes and a nose-- preferably one on either side."
I thank GOD for cheap film and patient (if uninitiated) actors. I'm still learning-- it makes me work harder. I shoot lots and lots of film and work it until I get precisely what I'm looking for.
Where are you, Xanadu-- what part of the country?
I have a Sony VX-2000. It is my favorite possession. For editing I use Premiere 6.0 on a Sony Vaio computer.
What you said,
"Good filmmaking is like lean writing, less is more 1 line is better than a monologue, and a look is better than 1 line. Trust your actors to improvise or reword, but always make them read the line as written at least once"
Well SAID! BRILLIANTLY and PERFECTLY PUT!
I also identify exactly with your sentiment regarding falling in love with a moment or scene that you can't cut it-- I had to become ruthless with my writing so I'm pretty inured to the pain of self amputation.
I'm going to send a screenplay off to the Austin Film Festival. Right now I'm giving it one last tweaking before I ship it out.
I wish you were inclined to take a look at it and tell me what you think. Outside opinions can be worth their weight in gold.
Did you ever take any courses through the UCLA extension program?
I went to see BLACKHAWK DOWN tonight-- that Ridley Scott is so amazing. What I wouldn't give to be able to follow him around to watch and listen for a couple of hundred years. The LOOK of that film was such a marvel. The horror of combat was right in your face, undiluted.
What a movie that is. Who else has been nominated???
I thought Moulin Rouge was a root canal gone awry.
Again, thank you so much for your advice I knew you'd know something I needed to learn. There is so much I don't know and I want to learn EVERYTHING!
>
Cindy
<
OK, I've got a brain twister for you guys....those of you who have shown great literary powers for classic novels and movies. Our local paper has an annual movie trivia contest.....an extremely difficult contest. They base the difficulty on the fact that in this day and age of internet research, most trivia contests are very easy to complete. Thus, hellishly difficult questions.
I'm having trouble on a couple (out of 74...I'm doing great, though it's taken long periods of net time to do so), but this one is right up the alley of you well-read folks. What do you think:
"The closing line of this classic American novel, filmed once as a feature and once as a TV movie, reads simply 'The moon." Name the book."
I'll give you a hint....it ain't Hemingway.
HELP!!!!
-TODD
First of all, has anyone else here seen _Monster's Ball_? I thought it was incredible. Every performance was flawless, including Puffy Combs'. If you can manage to, go see it. How did Moulin Rouge get nominated for Best Picture and not this?
Rick: Duh, of course you're right. I guess by 'impunity' I meant, no one could hold you accountable for your words. My feeling is this place don't need nobody startin' no flame wars on purpose, ya know? If you assume an alias with the express intention of using it to start trouble, no doubt trouble will start. That's all I'm saying and I'm ready to shut up about it now.
'Cause I guess in _Godfather_,I'd be Sonny, all het up and crazy to defend some illusory point of honor, rushing off to get my ass shot to bits in the toll booth. So, since this is a fantasy board, I'll just take a minute and say, yeah, maybe a truce is better than Buonasera making me look nice for my mother.
Eric: Peace, man, and, uh, welcome back. Can I call you Eric? "King Lurk" just gives me a pain in the ass. I promise if I need to insult you, I'll use your pseudonym.
Bermanator
re: Wonder Woman
I have seen a few episodes of the JLA recently, and she is played a little woodenly as far as character development, but they all seem sort of overly-serious in a sort of Marvel-ish air. The last episode I saw had Queen H. kick her off the island for good, which left me wondering exactly how many times poor WW has been booted off her homeland for forever?
I did, however, think it was a distinct improvement over the last cartoon incarnation of the JLA, in which she was constantly being kidnapped by some outer-space villian that wanted her as his bride, causing the rest of the team to perpetually hurtle out into space to rescue her.
As for the dearth of other heroines, I remember one Marvel book I had called something like "Here Come the Superheroines!" which was a collection of a bunch of different ones--Sue Storm, the Cat, the Black Widow, the Canary, Sheena, etc. They certainly weren't as popular as the guy's heroes, but on the other hand, they didn't have any good role models like "Millie the Model" to emulate...
It's regrettable to hear Harlan's name mentioned in Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen's, AOL/Time Warner's revisionist Time Machine. A lurid condoning of the nuking of Hiroshima & Nagasaki in fantasy dress.
I said: I don't think the thought ever occured to me. (David, as well.)
You went: Whaddafuck? (or words to that effect.)
It would NEVER have occured to me (nor you) to hide behind an alias.
Does that help?
H
David: Tell me about West Africa.
Why did you pick that place, for starters? Did you stay with anyone you knew? (And I take it, you went by yourself, right?) And did you set your own pace or have some tour guide company racing you from city to city? I've always liked the idea of just moving some place and visiting it, like a tourist, while I was there. Vacations sound so frenetic. You end up needing a vacation from the vacation.
Do they speak French there or am I thinking of somewhere else?
Did you make any friends you still make contact with, at times? Did you write about your experiences for the paper? And.. while I think of it, would you ever get INTO travel writing?
Answer any or all of these questions. This will NOT be part of your final grade.
Turn your paper over NOW.
Oh come on, Jay, yer making that up.
You've got the mechanic's engine parts and the your baby mixed up, don't you?
Congrats to you.
I have a younger brother--eleven months; Xanadu, I'm 45--who is a mechanic. He's somehow managed to be an anomaly from the stories I've been told about mechanics. He's upfront, honest and would sometimes fix a neighbour's car for nothing more than a case of beer. Now, HE found his muse early. I envy that, in a way.
I think about him, sometimes, not often. His world is so much different from mine. But at least he, and my older brother (I'll give him that, not much more--we were sibling rivals.) all come from the same stock.
I guess that's ANOTHER reason why I have such a wide-eyed view of men. I grew up with three very honest ones. No bullshit, at least not in the woman department.
H
le Xanadu (masculin):
Let us agree to disagree. I don't think ANY question is naive. I don't think any question is dumb. (Believe me, when it comes to some jobs I've had, my use of naive/dumb questions have saved someone's bacon/stress level. I've seemed to lead the life of a problem solver/negotiator. Not sure why that happened--probably because there was no women's pro league, at the time. Oh well.)
I'm trying to break that cycle. Become more SELF-focused rather than OTHER/problem solving focused. The writing will be my ticket out of this, I think.
Sometimes, it just depends on one's experiences as to the questions one asks. (Or, in this case, the mere interest in starting SOMEWHERE with a conversation.)
(I also assume you are a bunch of know-it-alls. No question is beyond your ken.)
I can ask vague questions, in the hope it sparks a more agreeable, functional one.
And... something tells me you, as some others I've encountered, worry about what questions you ask.
It might be a guy thing. I don't know. Males, perhaps, have been inculcated with the impression that every time they open their mouths, complete wholly formed ideas -- NOT questions, note -- must come out of them. Otherwise, be the dark, silent male.
Or, perhaps, I'm still recalling that guy I knew. He wasn't a quiet sort, by any stretch--we had ONE of those in our software developer's office; he was painfully quiet and once, when I said to him, "Just be YOURSELF." He said, "I don't know what that is."
I think he was serious.
I think, perhaps, this is another reason why guys don't see other guys as close friends--citing "having a wife" as being a more intimate experience. Which confuses me.
Lane change...
I've wandered the halls of this university lately and wondered what it would have been like to go to school for four years: to be wonderfully sequestered and focused on one subject matter. (I've obviously pondering taking creative writing or film but right now I feel--especially with all the horror stories you all have been giving me--that going to school, for me, would be simply another annoying life experience.)
I've had enough of those, thank you; I hope not to peruse any more ACTIVELY. *grin*
But still, to be wonderfully sequestered, coddled even, while one focuses on one's mindfood..what a wonderful taste sensation.
Can't say I recall HAVING such a one.
Heather
Oooooh. That almost hurt to watch, sorry Heather.
"Xanadu" comes from the poem by Coleridge:
"In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan,
a stately pleasure dome decree.
Where Alph, the sacred river ran,
in caverns measureless to man,
down to a sunless sea..."
There's more, but my memory fails. You can look it up.
It also helped that at the time, many of the codes and protections on the software were exactly six bytes long - thus, I could easily sign my cracks "Xanadu". On three initial High Score board for video games, I was Xan. (No relation to Hanoi)
The ONJ picture came later - in 1980.
Finder: Forgive me.
I read a post of Xanadu's (Let's never MIND that every time I see that word I think of Olivia Newton John *laugh*) and for some reason Xanadu's mention of wives and daughters and whatnot got me screwed up for some reason..
Oh, hell, I think it still has more to do with the fact that I see the moniker 'Xanadu' and think of that stupid Gene Kelly movie.
I wasn't around or paying much attention to sexes when I read the early postings. I knew Xanadu had been here a while.
And..WHEN I read that most recent mention of Xanadu's family..I went off on a "gay" line of thinking.
Sorry, about that, Finder. Sorry about that, Xanadu.
What does Xanadu mean, in reference to your hacking days? (That was my RECENT tipoff. I read Xanadu's post about creating 95% of the computer rules at school and thought, "How odd. A woman doing computer stuff, to that extent, in 1980."
Gawd, aren't there ANY women on this forum? (Yes, yes, yes.. I know there's Lynn and Cindy and few others...)
Well then: A Toast to Jay!
(Empties drink, steps up to the chalk line drawn on the floor by Lynn, and tosses the glass into the virtual fireplace. - Because it's virtual, the glass flys through and lands somewhere in the Ralph Ellison forum next door.)
(Belatedly) Fore!
Lynn -
Unexpected? Yes. Startling? oh you betcha. Horrifying? Second only to when my first son made himself known to my ex and me. This is the second time precautions failed, but...
DAMN I'M EXCITED. We're both very happy, stressed and exhausted. All this in 48 hours... I just dropped $1300 into a van worth $2000 blue book after the brakes, master cylander, transmission seal and a blown tire. Paid with a smile so I can keep going to work, taking my girlf...er, fiance to work and her kids to school. My second, her third...we've got a nice brood here.
We're in the process of working out the details prior to making the big announcement. So, this is a WEBDERLAND EXCLUSIVE.
Sorry, Lynn, my brain lenses seemed to be a little fuzzy. I reread your post and YOU were suggesting a connection between the advent of Melissa and the absence of Meatty goodness. My bad.
Also -- Hm...brain doing very strange things; must be this sour cream and onion potato chip I'm inhaling -- XANADU used the word "forthright" and she was referring to HERSELF.
Oh, never mind. I'm on crack or something. Sorry.
H
Lynn: I hadn't read your comment on Meat's voice yet but it's curious, I was THINKING that--his voice DID change somewhat with the advent of a name change...
or.. was that with the advent of Melissa?
This suddenly suggests the USUAL thinking behind spouses on the same line/forum as each other. I remember how we goaded Rob to get his girlfriend online. Suddenly.. I'm considering how, in a subtle way, it could have changed the 'scene' for Rob.
Also, how interesting.. you used the word 'forthright' to describe Scott. So did I. (And I hadn't read your post yet.) Hm.
What are YOUR thoughts on how having YOUR spouse on this forum would affect your tone? (I ask that of anyone, actually...)
---------
New subject: Would having your spouse follow you online (after a fair period of time), change the way you communicate/express yourself on the forum?
P.S. David:
Someone found it amazing you said something funny. (It was in reference to mooses biting your sister, of which I have no clue what is going on--but that's okay!)
Does that surprise you? I guess it surprised ME a little. Do you see yourself as capable of being funny?
JAY! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I totally missed your post earlier! And this is a good thing, yes?
L.
Speaking of Harlan on teevee: This Sunday night, 9pm EST, TNN network, Harlan's appearance on The Conspiracy Zone where he debates Roswell.
Roswell. Frank Church, may we please have your take on Roswell? I need to know how a REAL conspiracy rings your chimes!
-TODD
Cindy: Greenlight No. HBO No, Basic Cable only.
Tech is building slowly I have a small, cheap, 1CCD Sony TRV-8 miniDVcamera, (with access to a 3CCD TRV-900 when Finder is visiting.) Audio is camera only but that is a spring/early summer upgrade. Lighting gotta love the Wal-mart Double 500 watt halogen worklight.
Editing equipment iMac DV SE 500mhz G3, with Final Cut Pro. (Lusting after FCP 3, but I cannot afford the upgrade yet). Output is miniDV, VHS, and (hopefully) VideoCD.
Things I've learned about Filmaking with DV (Filmaking in a Paragraph): Control the environment, especially sound. Record plenty of ambient sound during quiet times, (to correct the times you didn't control the sound). Lighting, lighting, lighting. MiniDV tape is cheap shoot plenty of extra footage scene leaders and footers should be twice as long as you think you might need. Good filmmaking is like lean writing, less is more 1 line is better than a monologue, and a look is better than 1 line. Trust your actors to improvise or reword, but always make them read the line as written at least once. Using your friends and family as actors is fun but for the good stuff, hire, or at least use people dedicated to to project, and willing to sacrifice personal comforts for it. After the script, editing is the most important function in filmaking. You can always take out 5 more seconds from a scene you think is cut perfectly. Those 5 seconds lost will make the scene even better. Never fall so in love with a moment or scene that you can't cut it when you need to. Enjoy most of the fun of amateur filmmaking is the process, not neccesarily the product.
Your mileage may vary.
And yourself?
The following is what I received when I inquired as to why the John Shirley audio book "Demons" as read by Harlan wasn't appearing under Fantastic Audio at the Audio Universe web site:
"Demons" is at the duplicator now. It should be available by the end of
March.
Christopher Reed
Director, Fulfillment Ops.
Audio Literature
WWW.AudioUniverse.Com
Yes, I guess we have to live with the Moe Greene theory, although he was supposedly a tribute to Bugsy Siegel.
Moe was Jewish, and I thought the Five Families were all Italian. I think this was one of those editing errors: Puzo was basing his phrase on the existing "five families" of New York, but he never bothered to name the fifth. Coppolla didn't either in his adaptation.
I was a geek enough to go to some of the Godfather fan sites, and the problem has been discussed, and seems to be unresolved.
Lurk,
The Fifth Family, as far as I can tell, is the one headed (or represented by) Moe Greene. It's a little vague to me too, unless Moe Greene somehow became a Sicilian name (hah), but that was the impression I had, especially since he is killed along with all the others in the Baptism Massacre.
Regards,
Joseph
Xanadu,
Did you enter anything in Project Greenlight? Did you watch the series on HBO?
You mentioned that you're also making films. What sort of camera are you using and what type of audio and editing equipment? I always like to ask these questions as I also belong to the school you mentioned earlier. I believe that if we can talk to others and determine what works and what should be avoided it will take us all less time and wasted effort.
:)
Cindy
Saw "The Time Machine" this afternoon and although there isn't
a cameo proper, there is one Harlan Ellison moment, that I
won't spoil.
Mr. Finn, maybe you can answer the question that no-one else can answer. It was always "the five families" and the Corleones (they being separate: Hagen once said "the five families will rise against us, etc)
Who's the fifth? Barzini, Tattaglia, Cuneo, Stracci, and....?Yes, I've watched it way too many times myself
--King Lurk
Well, obviously Rick has to be Don Emilio Barzini. After all, who else would be the head of the Five Families. I just hope he's careful when a cop tickets his car. Personally, I'll be Tom Hagen, the guy with all the info and the measured responses. Also, he doesn't get offed.
Yes, I did get the box set for Christmas and have been watching more "Godfather" than is healthy. Why do you ask?
Regards,
Joseph
Leaning back into her sun chair, Lynn pulls her shades down and watches Lurk's solid volley fly, unfettered and free over the net, into Berman's court.
The crowd waits, breathless with anticipation.
...
Guys, we are like the Middle East. Let's go for a complete truce on this whole flame war-alias business. In other words, let's just forget about who said what to whom, let's start again, and let's talk about important things, like nasty chemical shit in the water, or if Dick Cheney is really Noam Chomsky in a bodysuit, or when HE is showing up on TV again (would someone get on him about that?), etc.
Vito Corleone impersonation starting here: placing my hand on my chest, I say on the souls of my grandchildren, I will not be the one to break the peace we make here today.
So, who's going to play Barzini and who gets to be Tattaglia? (I know, they all got wasted later by the Corleone Jr., but my son is only fourteen, and he doesn't read sci-fi).
King Lurk, who's real name is Eric Martin, but who prefers to go by King Lurk, because of reasons stated before, and because this is a fantasy board, and it helps the gestalt of the whole experience to assume an alias.
I guess I don't understand the notion of "starting flame wars with impunity." What, if you do it using your real name people will call you up? Ruin your credit? Firebomb your house? Martinize your den?
One of the beauties of anonymity is you CAN give yourself a blank slate - and the implication this is due to cowardice is an unwarrented one. If your supposition is that someone here is posting "reasonable" posts under a real name, then switching to a pseudonym whenever they want to attack someone -- well, I don't really care as long as the pseudonym follows the rules. There's really no stopping it if someone wants to do it.
As for Lurk, my comments go to your post of Monday, March 4 2002 10:56:12 where you suggested Washu's name was indicative of a lack of maturity, and your followup response to Washu on Monday, March 4 2002 13:0:32 implying he was naοve and/or thin-skinned for taking offense. If this was, indeed, purely a joke, then it was a poor one, and suggestive of the same qualities it decries.
The subsequent posts were fine, tongue firmly planted in cheek, with the exception that they generated further discussion of anime as an art form -- for which you should be tarred, feathered, and possibly set on fire.
Funny thing, names. I have a very distinct memory of my grandparents taking me to eat breakfast at Sambo's after church on Sundays. I can remember the pancakes, and sipping coffee milk out of thick chipped mugs. I remember sitting on my grandfather's lap, his arms around me, reading the story of Sambo off the back of the menu. This was in Galveston, and I remember going down to the water's edge after eating breakfast, getting yelled at not to mess up my patent leather shoes. To this day, I loathe and despise patent leather anything.
Strange the way memories resurface at the oddest times.
L.
XANADU: Your last post was scary as hell. Just when I thought I could at last drink water in Canada with a clear mind...
Is there any resources on the net or otherwise where I can check this dirty little secret out?
Little Washu
All right, everybody, I just looked up 'sambo'. Yeah. Oops.
Is my face red?
Little Washu
Hey, Rick. Thanks a lot, but, uh...
...who's Little Black Sambo?
Little Washu
>Prolonged exposure to it's solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.<
Are you sure you're not talking about Miller Lite?
Speaking of Harlan's audio work(as David did yesterday), I came across an interview by Kimberly Hundley for "Today's Librarian" at http://www.todayslibrarian.com/articles/1a1feat1.html
Not trying to argue with you, Rick, but just wish to clarify: it is not the use of a pseudonym with which I have issue. Not at all. It is the blatant switch from real name to pseudonym for the stated purpose of starting flame wars with impunity that I think is cowardly. I thought that admission might trouble you as well, considering.
Ah, whatever.
I think I'll go take a breath now.
Bermanator
>The same goes for you, Lurk - it's dιclassι to needle someone merely because their choice of handle isn't as hip as yours. <
Well, my handle is hardly hip. And Little Washu got the joke, even though others didn't.
BERMAN: Commenting on someone's anonymity with regards to a discussion is okay, but attacking them purely for using a pseudonym here is not. People are allowed to use pseudonyms here. If they weren't I would put more validation in.
The same goes for you, Lurk - it's dιclassι to needle someone merely because their choice of handle isn't as hip as yours. As long as Little Washu doesn't start calling himself Little Black Sambo, I don't have a problem.
Finally, the rancor between the three aforementioned is tiring and unecessary. Please take a deep breath, release, and try to let it go.
As far as topics go, I could give a good goddamn what is discussed here as long as you maintain a modicum of courtesy. Often it's the stuff that starts out amazingly stupid that generates the more interesting discussions, since people have a tendency to be stuffed shirts when talking about "important" matters.
That's not to say all topics are to be followed up, all questions to be answered. No one here is entitled to demand a response - this is an open forum and your comments will be addressed only if people take an interest in doing so. Consider it evolution in action.
Todd: Sources? On a story this wide ranging? I suspect, because of the world-wide global conspiracy involved, that any scientist would simply start laughing out loud at the proposal, simply to avoid any further direct questioning...
Xanadu:
Cite your souces! One from the left, one from the right and two from the middle.
I'll print up the t-shirts.
-TODD
I'm with ya, Frank, about the whole NASA-disaster-waiting-to-happen thread, but I was just alerted to an even scarier danger. And what terrifies me is the complete disregard most major news medias have shown in reaction to the story.
-----------------------------------
Subject: Warning -- Dihydrogen Oxide !
Dihydrogen Oxide (DHO) is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people each year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHO, but the dangers of Dihydrogen Oxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to it's solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.
Not only is DHO dangerous to humans it is also extremely hazardous to the environment. It is a major component of acid rain, it contributes to the greenhouse effect, and is a common cause of erosion of our natural landscape.
Worldwide contamination by DHO is reaching epidemic proportions. Quantities of the chemical have been found in almost every stream, lake and reservoir in the U.S. today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in the Antarctic. So far governments and environmental watchdogs have been indifferent to the problem.
Despite the danger DHO is widely used as an industrial solvent and coolant, in nuclear power stations, as a fire retardant, as an additive in certain junk foods and other food products, and in a wide variety of other uses. Companies routinely dump DHO into rivers and oceans, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal.
The U.S. government (In fact no government) has refused to ban the production, distribution or use of this damaging chemical due to its 'importance to the economic life of the nation'.
In fact the U.S. Navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHO, and designing multi-billion-dollar devices to control and use it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly complicated underground distribution network. Many store huge quantities for
later use.
Act now to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical.
-------
This is an outrage! We must warn the world! WHo's with me, people?!!
David made a very interesting point about the 'freedom' he has not being tied to maintaining the big bucks salary. As someone who makes in the range of double what he reported, he makes a good point.....but only up to a point.
The point being, if you want to travel a lot or do things that would prevent you from holding a steady 9-5er, than his freedom is a plus.....but I'm not like that. My 'freedom' comes from the comfort of being able to combine my salary with my wife's, and know that if I really really really want something bad, and I can probably get it and be a well-satisfied person. Of course, I don't want the kind of things that I could never afford, so that makes it easier......but my happiness....my freedom....comes from enjoying my life with the little lady, having a wonderful home, buying her what she wants and throwing away money on the crap I want, going to whatever movies or plays or vacations we want, enjoying myself in Atlantic City without having to worry that I lost a sawbuck. Though this 'freedom' has it's enemies, such as the evil company that is dumping me in 7 weeks....it also has it's heroes, such as the 45 weeks of pay I get to decide how to change my life bigtime.
Freedom is in the eye of the beholder. David's is a very good point, but I enjoy mine just as well.
-TODD
I meant 162,836.
Oh, I'm pulling your leg. I don't make that much, I work in schools. Who cares how much I make.
--King Lurk
>Your turn, KL.<
$62,386
Good morning, all! And a little mention that we now have the nominees in the Harvey awards for excellence in comics:
http://news.wizardworld.com/Comics/CB030802-Harveys.asp
In particular, I was pleased to see that the team on "100 Bullets" is being recognized for their fabulous work (oh, those covers...). Also, and this ties in to the discussion of contemporary heroines, the cover artist for the fine "Birds of Prey" has been nominated.
Did you folks know, by the way, that Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise) is taking over "Birds" this summer? Seeing as he already writes some of the best female characters in comics, I'm fascinated to see what he can do with the title (which is already one of my favorites).
Regards,
Joseph
P.S. Oh, if you haven't tried a comic titled "Slow News Day," give it a look. Really good non-superpower book.
Brian, the reason I attack Frankieboy's sources as liberal is because they come from extreme left-wing 'journals' that will shade any facts to get their way, and purposely ignore the big picture. Now, before the saliva froths from your lips, let me state right now that I would make this comment about any extreme right-wing citings.....and, in both cases, I would accept the citings IF and only IF there are other citings that agree with what is being states from REPUTABLE SOURCES.....not opinionists like the God Chomsky or the other God Limbaugh.
Of course, this answer could lead to our popular "but the news media leans this way or that way anyway" and thus my argument would be refuted over the fact that nothing is 100% reputable if you want to dig and dig and dig and the wound, but that's not my point.
If The Nation says NASA is going to kill us......then I sure would like to see The New York Times confirm this before I take it as a legitimate example. Frankieboy's sources are always the same. The sky is always falling because the big bad corporations are in business only to build weapons and destroy all human rights.
-TODD
Konnichi wa, folks!
HEATHER: "I realize you are reading _some_ books that are for school, so I understand your delineation here."
Could you explain your statement a little more? I'm confused whether you're suggesting that school-assigned books are usually not of good qaulity, or that school-assigned books only offer what I said about 'gray areas', or...well, just be more specific on what you were trying to say.
Now, superheroines. This has already been addressed to death, but the first lady who naturally springs to mind is, of course, Wonder Woman. And then there's...um...there's...ah...
You have a good point.
There's definately more solo superheroines out there, but the fact that you have to SEARCH for them is more than enough evidence to show that colourful costumes and superpowers are a mostly male gig, yesterday AND today.
I ran through Marvel with a fine tooth comb, and almost every other 'superpowered' woman is either a villian, a spin-off (Spider-Girl) or a part of a team (X-Men, Avengers). DC's line-up isn't much better, with ONE solo superheroine who ranks alongside Superman and Batman in popularity, but the rest are kind of unmemorable. How many people still recall who 'Power-Girl' was?
The less said about Image Comics the better.
So, I'd have to agree with you that any beyond-the-ordinary woman in comics is well capable of punching several holes through titanium steel, but in the intellectual department they can't comprehend the concept of turning a doorknob.
Heck, even the men sometimes have it just as bad. That's another dilemma in mainstream comics: everyone has to look so puuuuuuuuuurrrrtyyyyyyyyy that you'd think you were in a humongous store of mannequins. I'm not saying that everyone in comic books should look like President Nixon on a bad day, it's just that my eyes are beginning to be burned out of their sockets with all the gleaming pearl-white teeth and sparkling hair.
As for Simon Templar, I'll try to check him out, thanks for the recommendation. He sounds like an intriguing fellow.
JAY SMITH: Have to disagree with you there on Ultimate Spider-Man. I don't have much to add on what others have already said. IMHO, the entire series has been excruciating, with it's oh-so-hip attitude and mentality. If I hear one more 'like' or 'whatevah', I will firebomb every last nest where these cocky, arrogant teenage cockroaches gather to breed. I can't exactly put a finger on what I find wrong with ULTIMATE, except the word...obnoxious. And so far, NO ONE has offered a decent explanation on what that just plain stupid 'Hulk Goblin' was all about.
That's it on comics from...
Little Washu
Brian,
You said:
"Address the FACTS, children."
That's exactly what we've been trying to do. Frank's sources (only one of which actually worked) presented no hard facts. Just a point of view. I personally don't care where the information comes from, so long as hard evidence to support the claim is presented. Right or left (personally, I'm a centrist) makes no difference in this regard.
-Andrew
P.S. Would you mind turning off the snide tone? It grates a bit. -AR
Heather:
I've read your post four times, at least, and I still can't figure out what it is you think never occurred to either of us before.
When I was in college, I made it my goal to be as honest and open with other people as I possibly could be. I even handed over my journal to a young woman of slight acqaintance -- not someone I was particularly desirous of bedding, I might add; just a friend who expressed curiousity -- for her to read at her leisure.
But it was a project doomed to failure. Very instructive, though. I am a bit wiser now. Still more honest and open than the average person, but aware of the sheer impossibility of communicating with others sans masks -- even face to face and in the flesh -- and conscious of secrets that are better kept safe.
Your turn, KL.
King Lurk wrote:
> Ok, Dave, lay it on us. Your adjusted gross for 2001 would
> be fine. If you'd like, you could post your 1040 on your
> site (I'd recommend blocking out the SS number).
My adjusted gross for 2001 is somewhere around $35,000 or $36,000. I can get the exact figure from home, if you like. Uh, actually, $45,000 if you add in the $10,000 advance for my book. That was a big anomaly on the radar this year. Full-time employment as a news reporter aside (and THAT was a low paying position!), I've never made more than $600 in a year for my writing before.
Much more interesting, I think, is that this is quite a bit more than I've ever made in any previous year of my life: I did not gross more than $20,000 before the age of 30, I believe, and have been drawing more than $30,000 for no more than the past four years. (I turn 43 in a couple weeks.)
Despite the obsession of many Americans with the supposed "freedom" that lots of money brings, I found I was able to be a lot more flexible and autonomous on a much smaller income than my peers from high school and college. When I decided to take off to West Africa for three months at the age of 30, several people remarked "oh, I wish I could do that," as if I had won the lottery or something -- as if it were some wonderful thing that had happened to me, rather than something I planned for and caused to occur.
But a number of people said the same thing when I told them, up to the age of 28, that I did not drive. As if they hadn't been making choices all along.
As for my 1040, I don't believe that is something very many people would be interested in studying -- not like film reviews, or essays about Greece and West Africa, or an account of my experiences on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" -- so there's not much point in putting it on my Web site. And it's not been filled out yet, anyway.
One thing's really striking about the reaction to Frank Church's comments re NASA. He's posted a few links to support his claims-- and several people have denounced the sites as "left-wing paranoia" and the like.
Now, if you're going to rebut Frank's claims, then you're bound to address the actual _evidence_. Simply dismissing his sources because of a perceived political bias just isn't intellectually defensible-- it's exactly the same thing Frank does when he dismisses "mainstream" or "elite opinion." You have to address the facts.
Let me provide two wonderful examples of what _not_ to do. There's this book out titled _The Skeptical Environmentalist_ by Bjorn Lundborg, and it purports to demonstrate through serious research that the environmentalist movement is promoting hysterical lies. It's received a lot of promotion, ranging from appearances on _Politically Incorrect_ to seminars of the American Enterprise institute, and needless to say, it's found an appreciative audience among those who dislike the environmentalist movement.
Now, several reviews of the book have faulted it for sloppy science, mischaracterization of environmentalist claims, poor use of statistics, and the like. Some have appeared in the green press, while others have appeared in such prestigious journals as _Nature_ and _Science_. But the book's loyalists have no trouble addressing these problems-- they simply dismiss the sources as being politically biased, examples of "political correctness," promoting hidden left-wing agendas, and the like.
Or, speaking from personal experience. I did a piece for _Skeptic_ about how science journalism and publication is compromised by public relations and corporate interests. It was a pretty big article, drawing from a wide range of sources. One of the letters I got was from some crank who said the he "couldn't help noticing" that some of the sources I'd cited were from the left-wing, like _The Nation_. Therefore, he announced, he did not have to read anything of mine because it was all left-wing propaganda. He'd apparently missed the fact that most of my sources were from places like _The New England Journal of Medicine_ and _JAMA_, as well as mainstream news sources like the AP wire and the _New York Times_.
So while Frank can be an embarassment to us lefties when he denounces mainstream journalism and "elite opinion," in that robotic prose of his, a lot of the rest of you (yes, I AM looking at you, Mr. Cassell) are just as robotic and brainless when you dismiss the source for whatever bias you think it has.
Address the FACTS, children.
David - Thanks for the link to Ellison's voicework. Wow. That's quite a bit.
I quite admire the passion and talent that goes into his readings. Books for the Blind are important stock for me. I like to pick up good work and give them as gifts.
Yesterday... picked up a nail crossing the Harvey Taylor bridge. Blew out rear driver tire. Mechanic who left some parts laying inside my engine compartment set up a brakes failure last night coming home from work. The shop is treating me very, very well this morning. Oh, yeah... my girlfriend is going to have my baby. We're shocked, frightened and very, very excited.
What a day.
Comics:
Heather: Compliation volumes of *Love and Rockets* by Los Bros. Hernandez might supply some well-written female comix characters; the work of Peter Bagge and Dan Clowes (he of *Ghost World*, the movie version of which has been oft referenced around here of late) is also often very nourishing.
Jon
>Lurk: I'll take that as an admission. A cowardly one, but enough said.<
P.A., what is your deal? I use an alias so that when people like you call me names, like you just did, it's less painful.
I don't really care who knows my "real name." Secrecy is not the issue here. Dealing with people like you is.
Got it? Good. Now go find something else to talk about.
Lurk: I'll take that as an admission. A cowardly one, but enough said.
Bermanator
Yup... Heather might enjoy Transmet more than the others. The JLA lasso thing is just another lame gimmick, but I HAVE heard better-than-usual riffs off the new writer on WW. If you're digging it, I'll have to check it out.
As for revisions - you're absolutely right. I WAS referring to the X-Men alternate universe/Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return/Ultimates line/Marvel Knights relaunches. How many Nick Furys are there floating around in the MU right now?
So I pose the question - what's better, revising a character or replacing them? Recreate Hal Jordan or bring in Kyle Rayner?
Jay
>Well, personally, I find all the slinking around the topic of one's income absurd. It's not as if it involves some sort of social disease. I never had any problem talking about mine, <
Ok, Dave, lay it on us. Your adjusted gross for 2001 would be fine. If you'd like, you could post your 1040 on your site (I'd recommend blocking out the SS number).
King Lurk
>NASA is mainly in the business of being a front for missle defense. <
Frankie, you had me, then you lost me. Even if this was true, so what? The USA does need a missile defense, sad but true. That's the price we pay for history. We ain't that fun little agrarian colony we were back when Jefferson was banging his slaves.
If you don't want to live in the empire, move to Sweden. They have tons of fun there, living on the edge, as it were...
>I don't want to put words in your mouth, but are you saying that you've ditched your real name so that you can be unpleasant here with impunity?<
P.A., just let it go. Next topic.
Jay,
I'd add in Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" (Easily available i trade paperback, the 1st of which is "Back on the Street") for seriously messed up heroes.
As for universe revisions, you're slightly overboard on Marvel. Their last reboot was about four years ago, and one of the nice things about the Joe Quesada editorship so far is the lack of needless revisions (the ultimate line, for instance, is sort of an Elseworlds concept - meant to have it's own continuity).
I agree with you on the whole Wonder Woman thing, except to say that the current writer, Phil Jimenez is starting to do some nice stuff with the character (the broken lasso, by the way, is in the JLA comic).
Regards,
Joseph
Heather: I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I just didn't realize it until college, when I cleaned my room at home and collected the small hill (I was going to say mountain, but that would've been hyperbole) of material for filing.
Screenwriting arrived in college. Filmmaking started, officially, 5/27/00, with the filming of "Waiting for the Pizza Guy" - a short made to suport one visual gag, but has since blossomed into a trilogy to be filmed this year. No schooling was involved, except the school of hard knocks. Which also means I never get the shiny diploma or an official degree - I am strictly amateur.
You didn't miss my announcement of being gay. I'm not. With the serious amount of gender bending fun that occured on the board, I simply never corrected you (or anyone else) concerning my gender. My apologies if this causes a major paradigm shift in your head, but I am completely secure in the (man)'hood.
Re: "naive questions" - By way of explanation of my position, let me start by saying - I don't really subscribe to the philosophy that there is no such thing as a dumb question. Which means, that yes, I do evaluate questions placed before me for their merits. Age of the questioner is also a factor. Eg: A four year old can get away with "why do we eat?", a forteen year old cannot. It also helps if I have some measure of the questioner - so I can formulate a response that is appropriate.
As I stated previously - I have no handle on you. I seem to remember you mentioning an age in the 40's. Yet you sometimes ask questions that are SO simplistic, for which the answers are discovered early in life, and are the same to every person (except perhaps, sociopaths), that I wonder.
Again, as I stated earlier - you bewilder me.
This is not judgment, or an attempt to constrain your questing spirit, or anything other than a report from my POV. An explanation of why I don't answer many of your queries.
You and I clearly are not at the same point in our life's journey, nor do I think we are on the same road. This is a good thing. It creates a diversity of opinion and thought that is welcome. But, (and it is a big but), I'm not sure I'll EVER be able to answer many of your questions. And I'm not sure my answers would even work for you.
Feel free to keep trying, but I reserve the right to remain quiet.
Heather - Actually, there's a file with a law enforcement agency in an unnamed Northeastern state that would beg to differ with you in regards to "The Finder" not being my alias... In any event, for me, it's both: yeah, it's a nickname I picked up in college. But to an extent, it has become an alias, a persona I slip in to when I'm on the trail of something or someone. I'm me when I'm in polite society. I'm The Finder when I'm tapping my network of shadowy operatives, electronic back alleys, law enforcement connections and 'Information Sources Not For The General Public'. It's a Lamont Cranston/Kent Allard/Shadow kind of thing.
And though it wasn't directed at me, because I DO know Xanadu fairly well: I must have missed a turn and am now watching the Road Runner speed off at Mach 2 as I plummet towards the desert cacti below - or I missed a serious leap in logic, Heather - but I know for a 110% fact that Xanadu isn't gay. I've known him for 16 years, roomed with him in college, was Best Man at his wedding, have known his wife for at least 11 years, and have been oft-amused by the antics of his child, who thought my short film "Multiversal" was the best live-action cartoon of 2001 (and was the first person to ever point out that "Unca Doug" was that guy acting funny on the TV). Gay? Ah - no. Complete other side of the pendulum swing, in fact. Some days, he and the wife are so sickly sweet with each other that you'd want to fall on the floor convulsing in the syrup.
And just how you came up with your deduction from ANYTHING he posted here is befuddling. Especially when he mentions the missus.
Unless by 'gay' you mean 'insidiously gleeful and carefree', which he can sometimes be to an aggravating extent, but that's a bunch of stories for another time...
Xan - you've been outed, and you were never even in! It's like that time in Des Moines all over again, I tells ya!
Re: Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman has not been handled very well in modern times. Diana's portrayal in "Crisis" was about the same as the rest of her handling - big icon drawn pretty, killed for effect, and brought back in some other manifestation. I don't follow the book much. I know it has an awesome Adam Hughes cover every month that calls attention to it. But from the gimmicks I've seen used recently - she lost the title of Wonder Woman, fought Artemis to get it back, shortly after she died, was resurrected, died again, came back again, went on a journey to the afterword (died?), lost her crown again, then her magic lasso broke causing "Truth" to break down throughout the DC Universe...etc. - Yeah, sounds like a title I want to follow. I don't know if you've seen her in the Cartoon Network "Justice League" cartoon, but she's Superman with breasts, bracelets and catchphrases. She flies, she has super strength, she is pure and has no character flaw. Kinda dull.
The big universes - Marvel and DC - suffer from a shelf life about the same as a loaf of bread. After so long and so many writers, they lose a sense of continuity. Heroes can't grow and mature beyond five years realistically, so it becomes progressively harder to work stories into the history. After five years, all the old stories are told (how many times have we been treated to a revision of Spiderman's origin and his first meeting with the Green Goblin?) so the comic book universe is only viable for so long before it's time to bring in a new crew and start it over for the new reader base.
Marvel has revamped its universe at LEAST four times in the last four years. DC does it like every five. After "Crisis" and "Zero Hour" there was this "Hypertime" explanation that all alternative dimensions existed in the DC Universe, giving writers access to all the characters and timelines created in the "Elseworlds" label.
On the subject of flawless Superheroes - not all heroes are perfect. In fact, the best ones aren't. Spiderman and Green Lantern, for example, struggle with doing what's right for everyone. Sometimes he fails and screws up. Daredevil has relgious issues. Green Arrow is a womanizer and a selfish blowhard. Batman is obsessive-compulsive. They HAVE to have self conflict, or they don't work. Sure, punching out badguys in brightly-colored tights is great, but it wouldn't support an industry fed mostly by adult males. Good example - Hal Jordan goes nuts after his hometown is destroyed and wipes out the Green Lantern Corps. His story of madness, self-destruction, genocide and ultimate redemption is a great DC story that took YEARS to tell. "Knightfall" which examines what truly makes Batman a hero rather than a violent vigilante, is another. Ultimate Spiderman is probably the best version of Spiderman barring Lee and Kirby's first run. Any of those stories, Heather, are good examples.
For seriously screwed up heroes - try "The Authority". Alan Moore's "Top Ten" is a wildly inventive series about superheroes as is Warren Ellis' "Planetary"
Strangely enough, I was recently reminded of my childhood idolization of Wonder Woman--the Golden Age version, not the TV version. I remember reading everything about her as a kid, and then realized that I didn't know anything about what happened to her since then. I read a new comic of hers.
It was barely identifiable as the same character.
Same outfit, same dark hair, but all the background and characterization had changed. So I asked around and was told that everything was different since the DC "Crisis on Infinite Earths" series, when she died and was later revitalized in her own series. I read the "Crisis" series but she had virtually no part in it, outside of her vaporization.
The whole thing was rather unsatisfying, like coming back to your old neighborhood to visit a friend, only to find that not only were they were nothing like what you had remembered, but that they had reinvented themselves to the point of negating everything you had thought you knew about them.
So on the issue of females in comics, I think the old WW was pretty good as far as women in comics could be expected, but I have no idea what she's about now.
Excelsior.
Heather - Heroines I have read...
"Birds of Prey" is a great book. It follows Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance as a pair of heroes on cloak and dagger missions with some great wit, sex appeal and action. It guest stars many of the major second-tier heroines in the DC Universe like Huntress, Spoiler, Catwoman, etc. as well-draughted characters. Marvel's Black Widow has a good book, too. "Ghost" was a good book by Dark Horse in its first series. Back issues are available.
Goodnight Frank!
Oh, and the Titan IV is a product of Lockheed-Martin, with a 95% success rate (quite good, considering how many have been launched).
Oh, and Frank, there is such a thing as ground control in interplanetary exploration. Overrides, thrusters, safety measures, you know - what scientists and engineers use. Something your sources fail to take into account.
As for ridiculing your sources, three of the links were dead. The one I did look at hardly qualified as reputable. You know how we mention here on the board that people are entitled to a qualified opinion? Same goes for sources - we're quite open to reasonable sources. Doesn't mean we're going to listen to a source that doesn't understand the basic concepts on space navigation.
As for Project Censored, my personal opinion is that while they bring attention to many ignored (not supressed) news stories, they occassionally give too much credence to one-sided stories. Censored is especially bad with hard science stories, not giving the stories a proper vetting by people with the background to check the merits of the stories. A fine example is their Cassini-Hyugens story, where they repeat the old (and false) canard that solar energy is a viable power source for the mission:
http://www.projectcensored.org/stories/c1997.htm#1
You know what? It's five years later, and such solar panels don't exist - and probably won't for quite a while.
Well, it's been a pleasure having you as a guest on Science Jeopardy, Frank. Sorry you didn't win anything, but here's an Endeavour patch for your take-home prize.
Joseph
P.S. Space exploration a small part, indeed. That old chestnut's been prowling around since 1969.
Scott: I have a question for you.
What brought you to this site, in the first place? Have you been on other forums before?
This is more an observation, as I've listened to some people comment on your style -- someone found it immature. I find it charming; I think their opinion has changed since that time, but it never occured to me to think of your style as 'immature'..
I call it forthright; "Little Princish" if you need a label. Call me foolish.
I wonder (as I assume you had real-life friends BEFORE you got here and will continue to do so) if it has more to do with a sense of control for you. I mean that in a very MINOR sense, as I think Xanadu is right: we are limited on this forum by how well we can put ourselves across, in writing, yet I can't take your view on this.
I agree with David Loftus. He once mentioned how much more authentic one could BE, online, writing, talking back and forth. Some people have issues dealing with others face to face. (I don't think I have an issue with it, nor does David, but it does help those who need it.)
I think it simply depends on what one needs at any given moment.
Your life is sounding busy. I think that's a more profound rationalization. But (and I don't point hard at you; this simply reminds me of previous people encounters)...
I've dealt very deeply with a few people on the net. At some point in time, at some conjuncture, the connection was severed.
We apply less importance to people that aren't in front of us. I find this odd. (What is the thinking in a book? Someone else's. You put a lot of stock in THAT, don't you? Why not online people?)
That amazes me, in a sense. But then, that might simply have more to do with how I deal with people. I think I'm more like David--outfront and wondering what everyone else is talking about as to hiding behind anything.
I don't think the thought ever occured to me. (David, as well.)
Just my babble.
Heather
Scott/Finder...
It's different. Both of what you called monikers are your NICKNAMES. They aren't aliases. Scott, I thought you'd said you'd picked up this nick as a kid. It simply (always) bothered me as, although cute, it had an implied self-deprecating quality.
I had this friend. His favorite phrase was, "I suck." He was referring to himself. On the one hand, it saved anyone else beating him to the "punch me" punch; on the other hand, it was an annoying male attribute that I found immature--it was HIS way of explaining/rationalizing doing/saying whatever stupid thing he wanted.
Actually, HE had a friend, who I lived with, him and his girlfriend, before moving out here, who said the same damn thing.
He was a little immature too.
(No, *laugh* I ain't talking about YOU, Scott. It just 'reminded me' of that.)
P.S. Xanadu...
Could you rewind tape a bit and explain to me just how deeply involved you've been in film and writing and whatever? Good luck with what you're working on--I'll comment more later--but I did not know this about you. Did you attend school for this?
Also, I guess I must have missed you mentioning before that you were gay. Cool! Did you have a lot of issues with it? (Again, your choice of levels of reply/mood you are in, etc.)
Also, there's a big difference between answering someone's question and simply point-scoring it. To say a question is naive or whatever suggests you're more interested in judging it, then pondering it--to whatever extent you are able.
I can't answer all the questions I ask. But I don't judge them good, bad or indifferent.
I used to get this one guy where I worked, in a print shop, who would say to me (an equivalent of your "that seems a naive question") with
What do you need to know THAT for?
Little Washu, you said:
>Y'see, in novels you can't really have such a thing as a 'hero'. She/he has got to have faults; he/she's got to have screwed up on more than one occasion; he/she has had to have made one GIGANTIC mistake in her/his lifetime that sheds a shadow over her/his'good' deeds, and which the 'villian' could bring into light and confront him/her with. The term 'gray area' can't be more true than in literature.
I realize you are reading _some_ books that are for school, so I understand your delineation here.
Could you try some Simon Templar? I wouldn't say he was an extremely COMPLEX character but he was, to an extent, a good guy. (Remember, Charteris was from the 30s, I think. You're still talking good guy/bad guy, black and white worlds, somewhat; perhaps, in the realm of your comix definition.) I