Walking on the Moon

Man, what a long day.

Lots to do, and a bad landing light started a chain of events that’s keeping me from meeting a buddy in Vegas tomorrow.

And Bruce Campbell’s still living my perfect life.

• Will Eisner’s The Spirit #4 and #6
  • Still good to the last drop.  And it is Eisner’s Spirit, not really Cook, Bone, and Stewart’s.  They’re doing a remarkable job channeling Eisner and delivering all the ingredients in a singular genre – Spirit stories.  Even the visual tropes are Eisner, updated for the 21st century – #4 is really sharp in this regard, both the Spirit and Ebony and the Spirit and Dolan have a scenes where the dialog works because of the visual.  A great book; if you found the Spirit reprints off-putting because of the 40’s trappings and stereotypes, give this a try.
  • Sig Fodder: “I mean we have to draw the line.  No dairy, peanut free, donuts make you fat … fine.  But the coffee – all I’m asking is that my coffee taste like coffee, not some new age banana split for fitness freaks.” — Dolan with his finger on the pulse of the key to police work, #6
• Captain America #26
  • Brubaker seems to be trying to hold his story together with the storm of Civil War boiling all around him.  It’s heavy going at places, but though the deck’s pitching some, it remains enjoyable.  Bucky’s resolve at the end of the issue is the first wrong note for that character, and that worries me.  I’ll stick around a while yet.
  • Sig Fodder: “… some of his science is not science if you get my meaning” — Arnim Zola on Victor Von Doom (the attribution alone makes me a little tingly.)
• Batman and the Mad Monk
  • This is the second of Matt Wagner’s excellent retellings of Golden Age Batman storylines in the framework of Miller’s Batman: Year One.  If you’re a comics fan from the 80’s (like me) that’s an irresistable package.  Even if you’re not, this is great stuff.  Wagner’s plotting is clear and strong, and he’s got a really good feel for Batman.  He communicates Batman’s obsession without making him inhuman and builds up a vary plausible world about him.  It’s an joy for long underwear fans everywhere.

Wellington Grey has pointed out the fantastic dangers of wireless routers. Fortunately I’ve de-fanged mine by running Linux on it.

Here is exactly how I imagined the perfect life in 1985. It doesn’t surprise me that Bruce Campbell is living it.

Sad though it is to say, on further reflection, it may actually be Wil Wheaton who’s living my perfect life.

While I’m busy telling jokes no one will get, I should mention that my old 8th grade swim team were all certainly sad to hear about the damage to the Cutty Sark.

Warren Ellis has a link to an animation of one of my favorite Spider Jerusalem rants.

Get psyched for Tron!

There are about 4 people in the world that joke is intended for, but it is the 25th anniversary of Tron.

A few words about The Johnstown Flood are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

I recently had occasion to explain The Gong Show to a younger colleague and I got to thinking about it.  It really was a beautiful thing in ways that aren’t readily apparent from the many clips on Youtube. And there’s some great stuff on Youtube:

• Gene Gene the Dancing Machine
• One of the many censor-baiting acts
• Pie abuse
• and just weirdness

But the real delight of the Gong Show can’t be captured on Youtube.  Cool as it is, Youtube is a place where you go looking for weirdness.  The Gong Show just sort of wandered in and was weird.   It was completely out of context in a TV time full of game shows and soap operas.  Those shows took foolish things seriously;  the Gong Show was foolish, but consciously so, and never, never pretended to be anything but a goofy waste of time.  It was surprisingly sensible in its way.

Still, the contrast was jarring.  You’d be bopping around the wasteland of noontime TV looking for something to watch while you gulped down some snack and there it was.  In fact, you could miss it if you weren’t paying attention; it was camouflaged as a game show, and a hokey one at that.  But eventually you’d notice something off – what was that prize total? did that judge take her top off? – and realize that there was something seriously, delightfully wrong with these people.

Not only was the show bizarre, but it had it’s own set of off-kilter in-jokes.  Why was there a rack full of hats there?  What’re they throwing at that Gene guy?  Nothing was ever explained, it just was.  It was easily as confusing as the real world, but a ton more fun.  Finding it was like finding the Phantom Tollbooth.

I first saw it because my friend LJ described it to me and I didn’t believe such a show could exist.  Later I had the pleasure of showing it to others.  It was the kind of thing that you wanted to share, partially to be sure it wasn’t a mirage.  If they see it too, maybe it’s really there.

It’s not there anymore, of course.  But I still meet people who were on that same highway with me.

I just finished The Penelopiad over in Bell, Book and Candle.