My One Word Review of the Dark Knight…

Wow.

Now on to the rest of the week’s crap. I’ve fallen behind in my blogging lately thanks to work and a five month old who likes to bounce. Now that he’s asleep I can share a few items and thoughts for the week. Let’s continue with where I started… comics:

• Marvel’s Secret Invasion continues and LOTR King reviews the latest Avengers installment.
• He also reviews Thor #10. This title has been slowly getting stronger and stronger and has become one of the more interesting Marvel titles.
• The AVClub has published its comics panel.  Not a whole lot that I’d read, but it’s still worth browsing.

Moving on to television, a few interesting things…

• The AVClub reviews one of the most underrated televisions shows of all time… TV Funhouse
• Electricity & Lust reviews Generation Kill. I’ve been really enjoying this HBO mini-series. Also, check out his new movie blog here.

In technology/Web 2.0 stuff, I found a new website I want to try, Fluther. Apparently the collective will answer your questions. I just wonder how you know if they’re right or not?

In words and the such, more good stuff from One-Story.

Finally, I’m also starting a new project for myself. As I find myself in airports from time to time, I thought I’d start a blog that covers travel. You can find it here, but I haven’t really posted anything yet.

Weekly Roundup

I’m too tired to come up with an interesting title this week.  We saw Tom Petty last night and after standing on concrete for two hours (and stayig up late) I’m wiped out.  I don’t want to move off the couch.  so let’s begin…

In comics, beyond the pile I always have (which my local comic book guy said was a sign of my problem), Secret Invasion 4 came out this week and the cross over keeps getting better and better. Usually with a Marvel summer cross over I can figure that things will be the same at the end but with this one, I’m not sure. It’s really quite good. Some other thoughts on comics this week include:

• The Invincible Super Blog highlights some interesting comics.
• LOTRKing reviews Hellboy II. If it’s as good as some of the Hellboy universe books have been lately, it should rock.
• One book I’m looking forward to reading is Captain America White.

In movies, the AVClub has finally recognized the greatest achievement in film history… Roadhouse.

• They also discuss The Wackness.

In music, Electricity & Lust has released a list of their favorite albums since the year of their birth. I might have to try that. Check it out here. I agree with a good number of the choices.

• Plain or Pan? has some incredible Rolling Stones recordings on his blog…

In books, the Times highlighted The Size of the World, by Joan Silber. It looks worth picking up, but I’m a sucker for short fiction.

In television, I’ve TiVo’d the first installment of HBO’s Generation Kill, I’m lookign forward to it.

That’s it for now. I’ll write more once I recover.

Where’s Your Burpcloth?

That’s the big question in my house for the 15th straight week as Sean continues to resemble Linda Blair. This week I’ve actually put a decent dent in my giant stack of comics, watched some Battlestar Galactica, and continued to listen to the new Jakob Dylan album while also listening to the new Mudhoney album (I wrote a tiny bit about it here). So before the baby spits up all over me again, let’s begin…

In comics this week there are a few good things to note…

• LOTRKing gives us a Marvel year in review. Or at least the year so far. I half agree with his X-Men synopsis but can’t argue with the rest of his article. He also digs back into the archives and reviews Fantastic Four #124 from 1972.
• The AVClub features a lengthy comics panel
• Electricity & Lust pointed me towards Peter Travers’ review of The Dark Knight and it sounds quite amazing.
• Zach Smith had a cool free comic called Satan P.I. on his website (it showed up in my reader) but the link has been disabled. When it comes back I’ll link to it, it’s really sharp and fun!

Finally in comics, I believe the comics world is off in Chicago (or about to return). I know the guys at my local shop, Ultimate Comics (as seen in the new Marvel book 1985) are there. I’ve also found the Invinsible Superblog.

In television, thanks to Cinematically Correct for posting the preview of the new season of 24. The question is, will they sucker me in again?

In books and other misc. words, a few things I noticed this week…

• David Guterson, the author of Snow Falling on Cedars has published The Other. The Times reviews it here as well.
• One-Story posted some interesting stuff this week. Their intern released a quite interesting list of his top-10 stories. This was in response to a top ten list published by EW which spurred a discussion here.
• The Times talks about a new e-book reader.

Electricity & Lust has two interesting posts this week. Their Diggin post talks about the New Hold Steady (among other stuff), and they provide the usual great mix of links per usual. Many weeks they help me keep up on stuff in ten minutes instead of searching for hours. I’d add them to my RSS if I were you.

And finally, George Carlin died a week ago. I’ve posted a few thoughts from others below, but my favorite was when Howard Stern asked Gilbert Gottfried if he had any bad stories about George Carlin and he did. Apparently George told Gilbert to get the hell away from him and to leave him alone once.

• Cinematically Correct mentions it here.
• The AVClub here.
• The New York Times here.

You Maniacs, you blew it up! Damn you! God Damn you all to hell!!

Sorry, the baby went a little crazy today thus the title. Lots of screaming, yelling, crying, blotchy face, etc. So now that things have quieted down, here are some of the items I noticed this week.

I’ve got to start with television this week.  Of course the only thing worth mentioning is LOST.  Holy shit was it something else! Two hours of twists and turns and a plot that is racing towards… well something! I think the big surprise is that Jacob turned out to be the Dharma Initiative Organutang! Who would have thought that? Well it’s not true. We got more questions than answers again, but to be honest I don’t care. As usual, I’ll let other people share their thoughts…

• Cinematically Correct will be depressed for the summer.
• LOTRKing has plenty of spoilers here in case you’ve got it on TiVo.

Also in television, the AVClub tries to decide just what is the worst sitcom of all time?? My initial reaction includes Small Wonder as mentioned in the article, It’s a Living (I’ve actually stayed in that hotel, it’s a dump), Will & Grace likely the one I hate the most, and My Mother the Car, which while horrible is, in a strange way, quite amazing.

In Bob Dylan (yes I’m treating Bob as a category), I saw two things this week:

• An AVClub critic has never listened to Bob Dylan! I find it interesting though that he considers being 34 middle aged. God I hope not!
• The Times writes about Dylan as an artist.

And to mop up the week in links, books, comics, etc Electricity & Lust, everyone’s favorite (or at least mine) clearing house of links points out some really cool stuff including an interview with Jeffrey Tambor and the new trailer to the film adaptation of Choke. Also, some clips are on YouTube, check them out here while they last.

In other books to movies news, the Times also covered the filming of the movie version of The Road. I’m sure it will be the feel good movie of the year!

In books, the Times highlights the the best travel books so far this year.

In comics two things:

• A new book about Jack Kirby is reviewed today.
• The AVClub has a great, and I mean great looking slew of items in its comics panel.  Lots of Iron Man stuff.

Finally, One-Story has an intern. Apparently they’ve also started a Facebook page. Personally, I’d much prefer to see them on Twitter. I don’t have time or energy for that social networking page nonsense.

Happy Memorial Day

A horribly busy week followed by a three-day weekend means that my post this week will short and sweet.  Plus, Sean (the comic book geek in training) is next to me and kicking me in the ribs while I type.  I’m currently awaiting the new Black Angels album to come in the mail, but Amazon.com’s shipping is slow.  I’m starting to think they hold up super saver shipping to encourage people to pay more.  Again I ask my readers to let me know if there are any quality indy record stores out there with a good web pressence. 

First, let’s start with comics. i thought it was going to be a light comics week but then my pile grew yet again with all kinds of good stuff. Some day I’ll be sharing my thoughts on comics’ arcs from a year earlier, confusing everyone. In the meantime some place to check out include:

• Local writer Zach Smith writes that Dark Horse is reprinting a very cool series called Gantz. The idea, the art, it all looks very cool and I’ll have to check it out when it’s released.
• LOTRKing writes about the latest Captain America, Mighty Avengers, and Fantastic Four. Watch out, he provides pretty good plot details so read this after you’ve read the issues.
• After some vacation and delays, the AVClub has posted its biweekly comics panel.

In music, a few things to note:

• Mudhoney of all bands is getting some love. Their early work is being reissued, and they have a new album, The Lucky Ones coming out. It’s nice to see the best band who never got noticed by the public finally get some notice.
• Tom Petty has gotten back together with Mudcrutch. I’ve heard some of it on Sirius and it’s not half bad.

In fiction, the New York Times remembered Ian Flemming, and One-Story has released issue #103.

Finally, who says that video games have no redeeming social value, suck up too much time and make kids fat?!? Now we have the Wii Fit.   Oh yeah, and I guess a few big movies have come out but something keeps stopping me from being able to go. Have a great weekend everyone!