Interesting Bits VI

Howdy Boys & Girls. It's your Uncle Bingo. Didja miss me? Well, regardless I've found some pretty interesting links for you. Some you may have seen, and at least one or two I can guarantee that you haven't.

Let's get this show on the road, shall we?

In honor of the day that most retailers plan their 4^th quarter earning projections around Black Friday! This site either has on it or has links to over 40 stores and their sales for Nov 28^th. To those of you with money, Happy shopping!

"There must be some kind of way out of here, said the joker to the thief."

Below is the promo for the second half of the fourth and final season of Battlestar: Galactica. I personally believe SciFi screwed up separating the first and second half. Battlestar has constantly lost people in the middle of their seasons, but has always managed to bring the whole thing back together and blow people away by the end. I'm sure that they will do it again this time. It just seemed an asinine move and may have cost viewers. You know, not me, but maybe some people. Decide for yourselves January 16, '09. Also, if you just feel the need to speculate your lil' asses off before then, stop by IO9. They've done a two part series on what's happened in season 4 and what may possibly happen. Check 'em out.


This little tidbit of your tax dollars at work I saw last week on Countdown:With Kieth Olbermann, unfortunately I forgot which day so no video for you, but thankfully Boing Boing was nice enough to do an article on it too.
"If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history. Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined"
• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion" COMBINED!!!!

MTV's Splash Page has a great article on Neil Gaiman stepping up to the plate to help defend this poor bastard in Iowa that local authorities are trying to throw in the pokey on obscenity charges based on his PRIVATE collection. The CBLGF is one of those really worthwhile organisations, but only if you think the First Amendment was a good idea. Give til it hurts, people!

"Gaiman’s currently supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s fight to defend Handley, who was arrested in Iowa for possession of obscene material based on his private collection, which included lolicon and yaoi manga. Lolicon focuses on the Lolita complex, where yaoi features male homosexual romance for a primarily female audience."

CNN's American Morning reported this on Monday the 24^th:"CNN’s Joe Johns and legal expert Sonny Hostin reported that President Bush may issue preemptive pardons for George Tenet, Alberto Gonzales, and Donald Rumsfeld." How I loathe this little bastard. Check out the video here at Raw Replay.

One of the two spiders recently flown up to the International Space Station have apparently taken it upon itself to go walkies. Oh yeah, and the experiment itself which had something to do with arachnid life-cycles has gone tits up as well. The spiders instead of making nice neat webs that the researchers expected have been doing MC Escher meets Kandinsky type webs. "more a tangled, disorganized-looking web than a Charlotte's Web kind of web." (via ABC News)

Trapped in a cubical all day? Maybe you're an artist who listens to more movies/TV than watches? Here's a site for you. Listentoamovie.com has 1452 movies to listen to and 284 television shows. Plus, it has a stealth button in case the boss comes by to where if you click the button it looks like a spreadsheet. My-Tee-Spiffy!

New artist that I've found named Su Blackwell. She does book cut sculptures that look absolutely amazing! Can't post one here, but please click the link...they truly are one of a kind.

Anyone out there who wishes to get me a Christmas/Solstice/Kawanzaa I've found the perfect gift for the person who was everything. Which isn't me obviously, but I'm sure I can figure out some trouble to get in with it:

A Hyperion Small Modular Nuclear Power Reactor (via Warrenellis.com)

Now, onto Grant Morrison's latest story arc that has left almost every fanboy/girl scratching their heads and saying, Huh? I'm referring of course to Batman: RIP. Oh yeah, *SPOILERS BABY*

To start off here's what Wikipedia says to sum up the storyline so far: At an unknown location, a group of international supervillains gather at the behest of the Black Glove, represented by Dr. Simon Hurt, the man responsible for the isolation chamber experiment that nearly ended Batman's career and for the creation of the three replacement Batmen. ...Meanwhile Commissioner Gordon tries to stop a Gotham newspaper from running a story on a dossier allegedly compiled by a detective hired by the parents of Martha Wayne, which contains many shocking allegations: testimony that Thomas Wayne was a drunk who addicted his wife to heroin, insinuations that Alfred Pennyworth is Bruce Wayne's true biological father, and photographs depicting an orgy involving Thomas and Martha Wayne, Alfred, and the stars of John Mayhew's noir film "The Black Glove" and the theory that Thomas Wayne may still be alive, the "murder" of the Waynes was in truth an elaborate hoax, arranged by Thomas Wayne in order to kill his unfaithful wife and fake his own death.

Got all that?

Well, here's what Topless Robot had this to say about the story: "So in #681, Batman meets the Black Glove and it's...Thomas Wayne. His daddy.

Or he says he is. I have little doubt this will be retconned in the next six months, year tops. But for now, Wayne has announced that he hired Joe Chill to kill his wife and little Bruce and fake his own death, but that Chill couldn't go through with killing a kid. Which make Papa Wayne evil, Joe Chill the guy who saved Bruce's life, and Bruce's reasons for being Batman totally null and void. Oh, and then Batman appears to die in a helicopter with his dad, although Batman is wandering around "Final Crisis" like six months later. No one knows what's going on there.

Many Bat-fans are, of course, freaking the fuck out. They hate that this negates Batman's whole reason for being, but of course that was exactly the point. I think it's a hell of a cool idea, and it certainly takes Batman in a place he's never been before."

That's one POV. Here's another from Rich over at Comic by Comic (and I really think I'm more on his wavelength on this): And Dr Hurt...well, he may be Thomas Wayne, he may be Mangrove Pierce...but more likely he's the evil that men do. Or, y'know, the Devil, and Bruce has the darkness in side himself. And the Black Glove always wins. As Batman's hand smashes through the window of the helicopter. And nothing, but NOTHING is fully resolved. Honestly, I think we may all be figments of Grant Morrison right now...

Especially the bit about it being Grant's world and we're all just figments of his imagination. If nothing else, it is worth the read because the repercussions of this are going to go through all of the Bat-Books (Wait. How many are there now with all the cancellations?) in the foreseeable future.

Speaking of funny books, Details Magazine had something semi-complimentry to say about the lot of us (I would've included the cover, but it's of that ass clown Tom Cruise, you know the Whole reason I'm giving Valkyrie a pass):

The December “Power Issue” of Details magazine lists the Top 40 Most Influential Men Under 47.

Number 13 is the Comic Book Geek (whose age is given as 19), because of his potential to “make or break a potential blockbuster”. Here’s an excerpt, heavy on the cliché:

He lives in his parents’ basement and sometimes wears a cape—but the much-mocked comic-book geek possesses the ass studio execs must kiss to hit superhero-movie gold. Thanks to favorable early buzz, Iron Man and The Dark Knight banked more than $575 million and more than $990 million, respectively, making them the top-grossing films of 2008. It’s no coincidence the producers and casts of these smash hits made the same pit stop on the road to box-office dominance: the Comic-Con International festival in San Diego, where they schmoozed the nerdy throngs, sat on panels, debuted Joker-laden teaser trailers, and forced Robert Downey Jr. to smile and wave like a homecoming queen. There’s a reason that Zack Snyder, director of 300 and next year’s Watchmen, says each of these rabid conventiongoers is “worth 20 normal fans.”

The magazine is due on newsstands December 2.

BTW, I moved out of the basement at least two years ago!

I knew that Nosmokingintheskullcave's architect, Becca had a style that reminded me of someone. Paul Pope. Check her stuff out and tell me if I'm wrong. And if you're reading this Becca this is a total compliment from me.

And to round out this shitfully long version of Interesting Bits I give you:

The English Cast For Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo

(via AICN)

"GhibliWorld reports that Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy will produce the English vocalization of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Fankie Jonas, Noah Cyrys and Cloris Leachman.

Gake no ue no Ponyo draws from his relationship with his son, Goro to tell the tale of a five year old boy's friendship with a gold fish who wants to become a human, employing a watercolor based look inspired by time that Miyazaki spent on a rental house by sea cliff.

Speculation is abound on when the movie will hit North American treaters. GhibliWorld says that test screenings are currently being held, the final version will screen in US theaters in 2009.

ICV2 notes that there is evident that Disney may release Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea theatrically in North America in first quarter 2009. The article sites that Amazon.com is listing Viz Media’s The Art of Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea for release on March 3rd, and AAA Anime has the release of the first volume of the Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea Film Comic set for early April.

2005 when Miyazaki’s previous movie, Howl’s Moving Castle, debuted in theaters on June 10th, Viz Media released The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle on the 5th of July and The Howl’s Moving Castle Film Comic in August. In 2002 when Miyazaki’s Spirited Away premiered in theaters on September 20th, Viz Media released The Art of Spirited Away in October.

Nausicaa.net reports Fandango.com has a listing for Ponyo with a release date of July 19, 2009 (a Sunday).

Pink Tentacle's coverage of Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008 puts a Ponyo reference at the 20 spot.
20. “Ponyo, ponyo ponyo, the fish kid” (ponyo, ponyo ponyo, sakana no ko): This is a line from the theme song for anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.” Performed by Fujioka-Fujimaki (famous duo Takaaki Fujioka and Naoya Fujimaki) and eight-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, the song reached No.3 on the Oricon Weekly Charts in August.

Let me just say that if you don't like Hayao Miyazaki then you just don't like Anime. This man is rightfully referred to as the "Godfather of Anime." I LOVE that he let's no more than 10 % of CGI in his films. I am kinda worried that Pixar director John Lasseter isn't involved in this one of his English adaptation, but I'll be there regardless. Here's a list of Miyazaki-san's works:

• Kaze no tani no Naushika (1984)aka Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986) aka Castle in the Sky
• Tonari no Totoro (1988) aka My Neighbor Totoro
• Majo no takkyûbin (1989) aka Kiki's Delivery Service
• Kurenai no buta (1992) aka Porco Rosso
• Mononoke-hime (1997) aka Princess Mononoke
• Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) aka Miyazaki's Spirited Away
• Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004) aka Howl's Moving Castle
• Gake no ue no Ponyo (2008) aka Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

This man is a living genius.

Whoops. I promised a link you probably hadn't seen, huh? Okay, how about getting this for that special someone/gimp in your life?

Latex Vac-Bed bondage restraint

This Latex Vac-Bed is a bondage restraint that connects to a household vacuum cleaner. It immobilizes the individual between two layers of 14 gauge latex rubber by sucking out the air between the "sheets." It's $640. From JT's Stockroom: To use the Vac-Bed, place your bondage partner inside and check to see that they can breathe safely thru the breathing hole. (We recommend using a hollow gag so that there is no chance of the breathing hole slipping and restricting the flow of air.) Close the zipper that runs along the side of the Vac-Bed, and make sure that your bondage buddy is comfortable before attaching the vacuum cleaner to the connector at the bottom. The 1½” PVC connector will fit most household vacuum cleaners. (via Boing Boing)

I Love Awards Season

Did you really dig The Dark Knight's score? Maybe you want to listen to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button's score? Well, Warner Brothers has put them both online for your consideration.

Check 'em out here.

Interesting Bits V

Well, I'm back again...why do I hear Dwight Yokum in my head when I type this? I really dislike most country music. Que la stima.

Presently, I'm rereading Simon R Green's Nightside series again to review for Bitten by Books.com. They aren't up yet, but Something From the Nightside and Angels of Light and Darkness are done and waiting to be posted. Trying to rip through the other 6 before Jan. 6 ^th when his new one comes out, Just Another Judgement Day (The Nightside, Book 9). Love this series, it combines John Constantine with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I highly recommend checking them out if you never have. They're short books and the whole series paints an interesting larger picture.

Warner Brother's beginning its push for the Oscars. They took out an ad for what I consider the surest lock. Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor.

The others in the category are: Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt, John Malkovich in Changeling, Ralph Fiennes in Duchess, John Malkovich and Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading and Robert Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder. I think their major disadvantage is that they're still breathing.

Will Smith and Stephen Spielburg after announcing last week that they plan to remake the brillant Korean film Oldboy say it will not be a remake of that, but of the graphic source manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Which...ummmm..if I'm not mistaken was the source material for Oldboy. Oh, and one more crucial difference is that their's will be called Old Boy. Wow. The differences are truly astounding....

Den of the Geek have updated their 84 Comic Books properties being made into movies with the addition of Deadpool. Apparently Ryan Reynolds is so bitichin in Wolverine: Origins as Wade Wilson, Merc of the week that they're already talking about a spinoff. Or would that be a spin-spinoff?

Also in really shitty film news, Lucas, Spielberg & Harrison Ford are talking about Indy V. Since people were stupid enough to go and see the heavy handed, too long & nonsensical Indy IV. Someone stop these people....please.

45 years of Doctor Who and BBC is releasing how the character was created and the rocky road it took to become the classic it is.

I just got news that I can start reviewing paranormal comics for BBB. Which pretty much opens up the entire Vertigo line from DC Comics. Woo Hoo!

That's it for now...Please go back to your regularly scheduled Feed Reader.

FREE Set of the Twilight Series in Hardback

Want to find out what all the hubbub is about? Then please check out this site: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=2341 for a chance to win a FREE set of the Twilight series in hardbound!!!

This is the site I've been reviewing books for, and I love it. If fantasy or Horror is your thing then you should set your feed readers to http://bittenbybooks.com

Oh yeah, and my reviews are under Sun and Heir. I have two up now. One for Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton and Living With the Dead by Kelley Anderson.

Check 'em out, if you please.

Haven't Been About....

Damn real life for intruding on my blogging! The good news is my first reviews for Bitten By Blood are now live. Please let me know what you think of them. They were my first two, but I promise I'm getting better.

Here's the links: Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K Hamilton and Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

By the by, no, I didn't get enough positive reinforcement as a child and will always take a pat on the back for a good job.

Thanks.

"The World Will Look Up and Shout, Save Us!"

and I'll whisper, "No."

UFC 91

Randy "The Natural" Couture takes on Brock Lesnar tomorrow night for the Heavyweight championship. Here's his thought on being nicknamed "Captain America".

Interesting Bits III

From the world of the interwebs today....

First off, let me send a big Thank You to the lovely Becca for designing my new title picture. If you haven't seen her pages, give 'em a look. Well worth your time.


Neil Gaiman finally talks about his upcoming 2 issue run Batman @ Newsarama. Is it too much to hope that this holds a candle to Alan Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?


Both Newsarama and IO9 have posted how Zombie movies are prevalent when Republicans are in office, but Vampire movies come out in force when the Dems are in charge.


I just thought this shirt kinda rocked. Chainsaw Bunny is available from Assault Shirts for $19.99.


If you dig animation then Amazon.com has a great deal going. The Disney/Pixar Ultimate edition has 14 discs for $109. The titles include : Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Cars, and Ratatouille. Aside from Cars and Ratatouille, all the movies come in two-disc special editions.


If you don't have HBO or haven't been watching Trueblood, the recap for this weeks episode can be found here at IO9. And yes, it did have the prerequisit naked woman in it.


Also, out this Wednesday:
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA KINGDOM COME SPECIAL: SUPERMAN #1

A FULL Alex Ross book. Now, I don't care if you haven't been following the way too long JSA's "One Nation Under Gog," storyline. It's a FULL book by Alex Ross!!! No one, and I mean NO ONE does Superman like Alex Ross.


Sorry I haven't been blogging as much. This week I started reviewing books for Bittenbybooks.com. I'll post here when any of my reviews go up. I just completed one on Kelley Armstrong's 9^th book in the Women of the Otherworld series Living With the Dead that's not up yet. I do recommend it for fans of this genre. I'm in the midst of finishing up a review on Laurell K Hamilton's the 7^th book in here Meredith Gentry series, Swallowing Darkness. Also, recommended.


That's all for now. On a final note, if you want to protest Prop Hate no matter where you live, please check out this site. Join the Impact.

Nerd-Tastic Baby!

You've probably seen this elsewhere, but I think it's great! And yes. John Williams is the man

Interesting Bits of the Day II

This is my (hopefully) weekly post on things I found of interest while sifting through the minutia of the interwebs....


It appears that all wasn't sweetness and light between the McCain and Palin camps during their recent failed attempt at the nation's highest office. In today's LA Times article it appears what some news outlets are calling "Fashiongate," (gods the American media is witty, isn't it?) was one of the main sticking points. A RNC lawyer was told to go to Alaska and inventory the clothes still in her possession and then to retrieve them. These clothes, reportedly in excess of $150,000 shot Palin's image of a Good Ol' Girl Hockey Mom in the ass.
"Fox News reported Wednesday that Palin's lack of knowledge on some topics also strained relations. Carl Cameron reported that campaign sources told him Palin had resisted coaching before her faltering Katie Couric interviews; did not understand that Africa was a continent rather than a country; and could not name the three nations that are part of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- the United States, Canada and Mexico."
Not to mention she couldn't get the really tough question right. My personal favourite that she missed of 4 separate tries interspersed between several months, "What does a Vice President do, Gov Palin?"
If this lady (I use this term in it's loosest sense) makes herself the senior senator from Alaska lots of people are going to be most unhappy. Not to mention John McCain.


Also in election news, Jon Stewart had Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on The Daily Show last night. To say it was uncomfortable is putting it mildly. Uncomfortable, but funny as hell.



Now, on to the lighter side of the webs. Via Den of the Geek the writer of the article handicaps the "Who Will Replace David Tennant on Dr. Who?" The contenders run the gambit from front runners David Morrissey (5/2 odds) & (my favourite) Paterson Joseph to long shots Wanted's James McAvoy & Hugh Grant . The article goes on to mention the pros and cons of these 4 and 9 others. Although Tennant told BBC Breakfast on the 3^rd that he doesn't know what he's going to do: ‘I had a meeting with Steven (Moffat)and that was difficult because I love his writing,’ he went on to state that, ‘Now I know some of his ideas I was tempted to change my mind. Who knows what might happen in the future? The door isn't necessarily closed forever.’ So, this may all be academic.

Ready for Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse? Fox announced today that it will be premiering Feb 13, 2009. It seems as though Fox already has it in for the show since it's putting it on it's lowest rated night as it did with Whedon's acclaimed show Firefly. The lead in will be Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles which wouldn't be terrible if this were last January, but Terminator's ratings have dropped off by a third this season. The trailer appeared today on Sci Fi.com's Sci-Fi Wire:


Via Topless Robot:
You Don't Know the Deliciousness of the Dark Side

Finally, it appears. Kevin Smith's Batman 3 part miniseries Batman: Cacophony seems to be finally becoming a reality, or at least the first 6 pages are. Check 'em out at MySpace.

In shows I can't stop watching news:

"A fan site for Alexz Johnson has confirmed the Canadian pop singer and actress will play Saturn Girl in an upcoming episode of Smallville, written by Geoff Johns. The episode, titled “Legion,” also features Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad. The three come from a future where Clark is the greatest hero.“Legion” is scheduled to air on Nov. 27 on The CW.

Wrapping up, in comic book stores today, A Tribute to Michael Turner came out. An 80 page $8.99 comic with benefits going to The American Cancer Society and The Make-A-Wish Foundation. On June 27^th Mike Turner died of complications from chondrosarcoma a bone cancer that attacks cartilage. He was only 37 years old. Mike had already had a surgery to remove a tumor in March of 2000. It cost him 4 lbs. of bone from his right hip. Before this, besides being a comic book artist, Mike was a competion level water skiier and 3^rd level red sash martial arts instructor.

In 1995 Mike became co-creator on Top Cow Comic's Witchblade. A few months earlier in 1995 I had started managing a comic book store and selling original comic art. One of the owners, Phillip, arranged for comics legend Bernie Wrightson to come in and do a signing on Saturday. Now, Phillip was in Dallas because there was a teeny tiny convention up there that he was selling art at. He was driving back to Austin to pick up Bernie after the signing and take him up to Dallas to sit at our table and sign there for the Sunday part of the convention. This left me in charge of the signing. I had never met Bernie, nor organised a signing before, nor taken care of a "Legend's" ego. Shockingly, the signing came off without a hitch. To reward me Phillip decided to take me to Dallas with Bernie for my first convention.

We arrived at the hotel and got up at 6 AM for the show (okay Bernie got up at 11). I was underwhelmed to say the least when we got there. The convention "hall" was half the size of my high school basketball gym. Bernie was the only artist in sight and there were more dealers than fans there. We suffered through most of the day hardly making enough money to pay for our hotel rooms when Phillip tells me to take a break. I had brought along my sketch book from the previous day so that Bernie could finish the sketch he started for me. Since he had tons of time he had finished it hours earlier, and since the rumour was that there were other artist there I decided to rome around with it. While going out to have a cigarrette I happened upon this young guy by the door. He was at a folding table saying hi and smiling at people as they came in. I didn't think anyone knew he was an artist because A) he was so young (24 at the time) and B) he was wearing a name tag that said, "Hi. My name is: Mike," and C)he was so friendly. I only noticed because he seemed out of place and I saw the pens and sketchbook.

I went out to have the cigarrette first, but stopped by his table when I came back in. I asked him what he had worked on since he was only 3 years older than me, and he told me that he was the penciller on Witchblade...had I seen it? Seen it? Seen it??? I pimped that book so hard when it had come out we had to reorder it 3 times. I was completely blown away by the art in it. Was there any chance he was doing sketches?
He give me a huge smile and said, "yeah, I'm supposed to be, but you're the first guy to ask me in the 3 hours I've been here.
"I was gonna try and charge people $20 per sketch, but I'm so glad to be doing one that yours is free."
I told him that no, this was my first show, but I knew that this was how they made spare money. He wouldn't take it. We argued nicely for a few minutes before he said, "Let me do the sketch. If you like it, you can pay me."
He opens my book and since I had just bought it the week before, Bernie's sketch is the first one. "When did you meet Bernie Wrightson??"
"Yesterday when he did a signing at the store I manage. We drove up here together. He's at my table sketching and signing stuff."
Mike flipped. He was so excited. He asked if I would introduce him. It was so funny because he was so serious about it. I told him that it wasn't a problem and we went over.

After the show was over and Mike had finished my sketch (he never did take my $20) we all went to dinner. Just my boss Phillip, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Turner and me. No matter how bad the convention was I'll never forget it, and I'll never forget meeting Mike Turner. He was such a down to earth genuine person. Reading the remembrances from his friends, apparently that held true his entire life.