I just read a pretty great NY Times Op-ed about Halo 3, video games, and art. This was pretty great to read this in the mainstream press. It almost makes up for all the “easy stories” that very same publication and others like it continue to run about how Halo 3 is the new “big thing” that “all” the “rage” with the “kids” these days.  Hell, there’s very few articles this well written and concise in the enthusiast press. I’m glad somebody besides me is thinking about such things, and I’m glad that NY Times is printing it (or in the very least, e-printing it).

Posted by nick on 28 Sep 2007 at 05:03 pm

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Same with Bela Lugosi.

In high school, some of my friends wore a lot of black clothing, applied thick black eyeliner, dyed their hair black… basically lots of black. We called them, and they called themselves, goth. I’m sure 75% of them had never heard Bauhaus or Love and Rockets, just as I’m sure there are some bitter 35-year-olds out there who have spent the past ten years explaining that Marilyn Manson isn’t goth music. I have some good news for them. Spark up a clove cigarette and celebrate, because nobody gives a shit about goths anymore!

So did millions of angst-ridden teenagers disappear? No, they just stopped coopting one minor music movement and started coopting another: emo. It’s pretty difficult to wander through pop culture without tripping over a new book or sensationalist news report that references emo. And they all put emo in the same place goth used to fill: sad teenager in makeup, possibly prone to self-injury.

I would never call myself emo, mainly because I have an ounce of self-respect, but I listened to the occasional emo band and still love Rites of Spring, so I feel fully justified in my outrage. I won’t go over the history of emo’s rise in popularity, but the first time I remember it being brought to national attention was in a 2002 Time Magazine article defining emo in terms of vintage sports tees and Dashboard Confessional. Now, teens don’t think Dashboard Confessional is emo, not because he’s just some singer-songwriter putz that has nothing to do with hardcore, but because he doesn’t wear enough makeup.

I guess this is the first time youth culture has made me feel really old and out of touch, but at least the goths are getting a break, and Lord knows they need one.

Posted by Mat on 27 Sep 2007 at 05:06 pm

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Okay, obviously my hopes of a comprehensive weekly update have flown completely off the rails. Sorry about that. I’ll still be writing about comics here, just not everything I buy, and not in as timely a fashion as I would like. I do have some good stuff planned, though, so please pay attention. Right now, though, let’s look at a couple of books I bought last week.

THE FLASH #232
By Mark Waid and Daniel Acuna.

So here’s the second issue in the sudden FLASH revamp, in which Flash and his kids battle shambling fanged vaginas with tentacles. This is a pretty fun book, despite the possible demonizing of the sacred lady business. Acuna’s painted artwork was immediately off-putting, but I’ve quickly come to appreciate his excellent facial expressions, and the motion he depicts during the Flash-y bits is high-lighted by the oddly static figures and backgrounds that comprise all of the non-superspeed scenes.   And Waid, y’know, is Waid, a solid pro who can convincingly sling out pseudo-scientific bullshit with the best of them. I’m sure the super-powered Flashlings are hated and resented by a fair number of the stereotypical emotionally stunted basement-dwellers who supposedly purchase the lion’s share of superhero comics*, but they’ve yet to be even remotely annoying yet, and are a completely welcome addition. I like when superheroes are allowed to grow and change, and say what you will about the endless confusion of DC’s continuity and the execrable state of their current constant crossover madness, but they do let their characters mature more frequently and to a greater extent than Marvel. And occasionally the growth doesn’t even feel editorially mandated, which is nice. Yeah.

CAPTAIN AMERICA #30
By Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, and Mike Perkins.

CAPTAIN AMERICA continues to hum along nicely without the man himself. I’m torn on this issue, though; it’s in no way bad, in fact it’s thoroughly enjoyable, and there are a couple of surprising moments that contribute to the on-going story. For the first time in this arc, though, it kinda feels like Brubaker is padding a little bit. It’s probably weird to suggest that a book is coasting when it reveals a surprise pregnancy and ends with one good guy shockingly shooting two others, but I definitely felt unfulfilled. The two or three major plot points that develop here probably could’ve been fit into the last issue. Perhaps jumping between four or five lead characters has finally stretched the narrative too thin? If that’s the case, well, judging by the end of this issue, Brubaker has already moved to rectify that situation. I’m sure the very minor problems I have with this issue won’t be recognizable in the eventual trade paperback, but that doesn’t make this individual installment any less dissatisfying. Epting’s erratic artwork didn’t help; while mostly fine, if a bit blase, there were a few perspective problems, like Black Widow’s eyes in one panel, and a couple shots where the Falcon and Tony Stark each looked a bit mongoloid. Oh, and speaking of Stark, Brubaker continues to write him better than anybody else at Marvel; he’s not a villain, but a well-meaning individual who’s made some hard (and often wrong) decisions to support a law that he might not personally agree with but still recognizes as the valid law of the land. He’s a flawed hero, not a villain, and Brubaker presents that more clearly than any other writer.

*: not that I’ve ever actually met anybody that lives down to this cliche, mind you.

Posted by Garrett Martin on 25 Sep 2007 at 11:15 pm

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This just in from the Marvel Comics PR dept - “In 2008, the Marvel Universe will be consumed by Secret Invasion, the comic book event over five years in the making, written by Brian Bendis and penciled by Leinil Yu of “New Avengers” fame.” As I am a giant nerd for Bendis, Yu, The New Avengers and shape shifting alien invasions, I am more than a little pumped to check this out. Peep this preview trailer now:

Posted by ryan on 19 Sep 2007 at 01:08 pm

2 Comments »

As if the usual antics at Fox News weren’t enough, this weekend Gidget was censored during Fox’s broadcast of the Emmy’s for dropping an anti-war comment and Kathy Griffin was cut-off in the midst of actually being funny for the first time because it made baby Jesus cry. Check out the clips below:

Sally Fields on the war:

Griffin on Jesus (uncensored version):

Fox News getting all “Fair and Balanced” on the General Petraeus Congressional testimony:

Posted by ryan on 18 Sep 2007 at 12:34 pm

3 Comments »

Zing! I know Unca Gordo would have posted this if he only knew about it (or maybe he was just biding his time, crafting the perfect sentences, flipping through his thesaurus to figure out knew ways to say “ugly”). If you enjoy Go Fug Yourself (and I’m sure you do) but find it too broad in its appreciation of Fug, you really might want to hit up a blog that focuses on the biggest trend of the past decade: hideous damn shoes. Frankly, I’m fascinated by them in a way I’m fascinated by almost no other ugly fashion. The thought of booties appearing on the streets of Athens this fall gives me hives. I even felt bad about the pair of wedges I bought at Payless after seeing some girls downtown in wedges and floaty dresses (it’s a bad combination! the wedge must be combined with a more structure outfit, as it’s a highly structured shoe). Anyway, as Mr. Lamb put it during one of the last conversations we had, “Women’s fashion is in the toilet.” And these shoes really should be.

–HB

Posted by teambrown on 14 Sep 2007 at 10:52 am

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If you aren’t the pop culture obsessed TV/Web nerd that I am you might have missed this rant from a “fan” in response to people dogging on Britney Spears for her outfit and performance at the MTV Awards. Peep it now as it’s the necesarry set-up for the payoff in the next video. If you have already seen it then feel free to skip right to the next jam:

Magic, right? Anway now lay your eyes on this slice of gold from comedian Phillip Wilburn:

Ah, the confluence of retarded pop culture and deadly serious government warmongering. Only in the good old U.S. of fucking A!!!

Posted by ryan on 13 Sep 2007 at 03:08 pm

1 Comment »

Yes, I do still exist, and I apologize for the last three weeks or so of complete silence.  After some contemplation I am now more than ever ready to review some damn comics.  Or at least one damn comic, at the moment, that comic being…  

THOR #3
By J. Michael Straczynski and Oliver Coipel. 

Not content to be merely embarrassing, this new Thor series has throttled quickly towards the offensively awful.  All of Straczynski’s worst traits are apparent in THOR #3: unnecessary wordiness, suffocating pretension, extreme decompression, and the most unabashedly negative depiction of Iron Man this side of Paul Jenkins.  Just for kicks he throws in a healthy helping of hypocrisy, as this issue needlessly exploits Katrina as thoroughly as whatever politicians and celebrities the ridiculous stand-in for Heimdall alludes to.  I’m sure Straczynski was going for poignancy by bringing up a real world catastrophe, but it would’ve made more sense (both considering the book’s Marvel Universe setting and this issue’s cursory handling of Thor-related Civil War issues) to have Thor visit Stamford and deal with Iron Man there.  As it is the use of Katrina both damns all of Marvel’s heroes for not helping out while also cynically playing on the readers’ sympathies for a real-life tragedy, and that’s really not what I’m looking for in a fuckin’ Thor comic.   

This is one of those creative endeavors where so many elements are so unfathomably wrong-headed that you have to wonder how it was even allowed to exist in the first place.  Coipel’s art is the only aspect of this book that isn’t utterly atrocious; it’s a shame such beautiful work is being done for such awful scripts.  I’ve been a Thor fan since Adventures in Babysitting, at least, so it pains me to say that I’m dropping this comic immediately.  Even the return of the Warriors Three next month can’t persuade me to stick with this miserable failure.

Posted by Garrett Martin on 13 Sep 2007 at 01:00 pm

3 Comments »

your favorite, my favorite, and definitely Ryan’s favorite Atlanta/garage/punk band, The Black Lips are hitting America with their major label debut (Vice is a major…sort of, pretending to be indie…aren’t we all pretending to be indie though?) today and i’ll admit i am pretty fucking stoked. it’s been a few years since the Agenda played the ATL and got pelted by bottles and almost started a brawl with the Lips (if by brawl you mean Ryan hitting people in the head with his guitar while the rest of us look around confused) and in that time they’ve learned the fine art of writing a good pop song. sure they’ve quit puking on stage and whipping out their dicks and trying to set stages on fire….but those are the kind of sacrifices you have to make if you want to be a success. MTV isn’t letting in any new members of their gayass little club lately, in case you hadn’t noticed and puking on the red carpet of the VMAs is probably the fastest way to get booted out of Kanye’s afterparty. all mocking and insinuations of selling out aside i am definitely anticipating this album. Let It Bloom was one of my favorite records of 2005 and last year’s “live” album was a great sort of hits package for new fans and i think the Black Lips are easily the best thing Vice Records has ever decided to put their name behind. all that said, bring back the puking and cocks and fire guys. getting banned from rock and roll clubs is way more awesome than being on MTV. hopefully you guys out sell Kanye and 50cent both.

Posted by justin on 12 Sep 2007 at 10:20 am

6 Comments »

(I am super lame. I actually wrote this over a week ago and apparently hit “save” instead of “publish.” Whoops a doodle!)

So I solved that one game tape called Bioshock. I apparently got the bad ending. I got the really bad ending. I got the OMG ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS THAT’S THE ENDING FUCK YOU KEN LEVINE ending.Don’t worry, none of them spoilarz in this here blog. But trust me, it was controller-throwingly bad.

I don’t know how much you know about the game, but in summary it’s basically about an Ayn Rand-ian utopia of scientists, artists, and intellectuals living the objectivist ideal in a city called Rapture far below the ocean… until it all goes kaputski.

Before this game I had heard of Ayn Rand and knew that she had written some super important books… or something… I had never been all that interested in reading them, and didn’t know until after all of this that it was even a philosophy book in the disguise of a novel. Ok, seriously, have you ever seen the size of Atlas Shrugged? The book makes the bible look like coffee table fodder.

After I beat the game I went to the library and checked out a copy. That’s right, I beat a video game, and it made me want to read a one-thousand-seventy-five page book with six point font. (And yes, I did type out “one-thousand-seventy-five” instead of using the numerals because it makes it look even bigger). I was all about it. I thought, if I could understand Ayn Rand and objectivism and put it in context with the game, I could figure out what (writer and lead designer) Mr. Levine rejected about objectivism, and thus figure how how to get the good ending, like some sort of philosophical strategy guide or cheat book.

Then I came to my senses and read the wikipedia entries instead.

I want to at least try to read the whole book though. True, I already have a propensity toward being interested in philosophy, and true I am a naturally curious dude, but the fact remains: I picked up a book because of a video game, and it wasn’t “a novelization of the hit game from Microsoft! Bunches of copies sold!” I picked up a thousand word tome outlining a philosophy that I would otherwise not give a second thought (and that, it seems, I’m not terribly fond of, but that’s beyond the scope of this post and probably even this blog entirely).

I realize this one game making this one kid read some heady literature he otherwise wouldn’t have read doesn’t really make up for all the people running around doing heinous things and yelling “video games made me do it,” … but it’s a start. Let’s keep doing that.

Posted by nick on 07 Sep 2007 at 05:30 pm

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