I Want EVE

Okay, let's get one thing straight.

I did not get misty eyed watching WALL-E. I did not get choked up. That time when my eyes did water? It was cat dander in my eyes. Really.

Are we clear? Now let's talk about how much I want my own EVE. Setting aside that she looks like H.E.R.B.I.E. done right, she's everything I've always wanted in a robot woman. She is:

--short tempered

--quick on the draw with a laser pistol

--sounds cute when she giggles

--can float

If I can't have my hoverboard I should be able to have my own EVE. Or has all hope died?

Give Me Your Aural Prozac!

My co-conspirator and sensei over here is asking the entire Interweb to send him their favourite hurting songs, the songs that rip out your heart each and every single time.(I agree most heartily with his Blue Rodeo selection--the video is perfect Southwestern Ontario Gothic at its best.)

In order to maintain balance in the 'verse, I'll ask what song always cheers you up no matter the day, no matter the month, no matter the direness of the times. Post 'Anon' so all your dark secrets shall remain safe.

Here, then, are my two favourite aural doses of Aural Prozac:




And --this one. (Embedding disallowed because of its curative powers.)

Peace

The First Rule About Christmas Eve..

...is for me to hope all of you are safe, with those you love, and perhaps a little addled by something wet.

Me? I'll be spending my evening with this here film below, because it's a tradition, and I'm all about tradition. That's what they call me: Tradition Twist.

How I Hope To Spend My Christmas Vacation

A little of this...



A smidgen of that...



And a whole lot of this!

Emo Wednesday!

Now if you love emo as much as I do, then this is the vidya for you. How can any male reader (because that's all we get here, outside of Butch)resist this song about some stupid girl who broke a brother's heart, and then totally got all slutty with this other yuppie looking guy right in front of him. Didn't she realize he was trying to look all lonely, aloof, drinking his problems away like some young Hemingway? Because you know he's a writer. He looks sensitive and stuff. Damn her eyes!

Because we've all been there. We've all lost some dream girl who looked so damn hot, who could melt us simply by smiling, winking, or eating a cheese sandwich, with the loss tearing us right down to our souls. Our souls, man. Sure, maybe we couldn't really hold a conversation with her, and maybe we had nothing really in common other than we loved staring at her and she loved being stared at, but still, there was something there.

And so this song just hits every note of that exclusively male pain. The borrowing of the Pixies quiet/loud/quiet song construction doesn't hurt, either. And that girl? Kinda cute. I'm not sure if I'd go all emo over her after the inevitable breakup, but I'd probably listen to The The for an afternoon. A rainy afternoon. Which I would wait to happen before I decided to feel the pain of her going, because that's how we emo dudes roll.

She'll Always Be My Supergirl

Kara Zor-El, who was revealed in 1984 to be Supergirl, turned 45 today.

I sent Kara an email congratulating her. I included a little Flash of an exploding planet, because I thought it looked kinda cool. Hopefully, she'll like it, too. Her birthday also led to me think of my relationship over the years with her.



Back when I first met her, she was lacking in self confidence, and spent far too much time hanging out with her cousin. That guy was a total douche. He's go around dressing like Kara, simply because they were related. Weird. He neverliked me, and kept trying to keep me away from her. Like the time he told me his friend Mon-El wanted to see me, that he was really into Doctor Who, and all I had to go was go to this bar called 'The Phantom Zone' or something. Believe me, it was no bar. It was like Arva, only more gray.



Later, in the Seventies, we got into Journey and E.L.O. together, and would spend long afternoons listening to albums up at her cousin's place. (Kara lived with him for awhile. It was a family thing that I didn't ask about.) She got into wearing a headband at this time, since she was so totally into Abba for awhile. I never let her forget that.


Then, one day we had this really awesome game of Ultimate Frisbee and kind of wrecked her cousin's rec-room. She was so tired afterwards that she fell asleep drinking her Strawberry Quik, which was kind of a thing with us. I left her on the couch and raced to catch the late bus from Westminster Secondary out to Delaware, so I don't know what happened when Kal got home. I didn't see Kara for a bit after that, so I guess she got grounded big time.

After high school, we kinda went our separate ways for awhile. I ran into her once at the New Yorker Repertory Theatre at a midnight showing of Eraserhead.



She looked really different, like she was trying to fit in with the sort of crowd who didn't listen to Journey anymore, and wouldn't be caught dead playing Dungeons and Dragons. We didn't talk long. Her friends were waitingimpatiently behind her, so we promised to phone each other. The whole keep in touch thing. You know how that goes.

But I did run into her again, just last month. It had been--what? Fifteen years? We didn't mention our last meeting all those years ago. We had a coffee, and had a really good talk. She talked about how she had found some of her family, how she had a cat now,(she calls him 'Speedy', which is the sort of dorky thing Kara would do--remember the Abba headband?) and was really taking control of her life.



And she looked great, like she hadn't aged a day.

Came home tonight to find she'd added me to her Top Friends on Facebook. Kinda made my day, to be honest.

Weekend Update

--Don't know why CTV is no longer showing Clone Wars. I gave up on them and watched the Paul Dini episode online, and it was enjoyable, as in very.

--The CBC cut the final episode of Doctor Who by around twenty minutes. Even though I felt the episode was bloated, the cuts the CBC showed didn't help.The final scenes of the Doctor looking devastated inside the TARDIS were cut, making the CBC ending seem like the chop job it was. And so ends Doctor Who's run on the CBC. It won't be back. We're on our own finding the Christmas special, The Next Doctor.

--Pulp magazines are dying. I went downtown today to the News Depot and bought copies of Analog, Asimov's, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Did what I could. As well, the family that runs the place now is awesome and deserves your custom. The place--and pulps--are gems. Help them, if you can.

--Started playing FABLE II. I'm loving this game so far. Spent half an hour blacksmithing. And I have a dog! I named him after the dog that accompanied me in my teen years--Gannon--and ran around in fields with him for a very, very long time.



--Went to two comic book stores today. Both owners complained of a downturn in business.

--I'm trying to find this game so I can have Vulcan Ninja buy it for me for Christmas. This is an itch I cannot scratch, and I must have it.



--And I'll just leave this here. I miss dogs.

If Vulcan Ninja Were An Anime Character

Yep, pretty close.

I Do What I Do To Fight Back The Evil Inside Me

Jim Dandy, even though he seems to not love Sky Captain as much as I do, his post did get me thinking about my other favourite pulp film--1994's The Shadow.

Okay, I can't hear Alec Baldwin now and not think of 30 Rock, which leads me to be lost in forty two minutes of Tina Fey fantasies every time--



--and seeing Alec's paunchy gut isn't a highpoint of any day, and hearing Alec do the Shadow voice (is he speaking down a tin can? Is he? He is, isn't he?), I still adore this film.

Mock away. I am strong. I have mastered the Black Shadow.

Because Sometimes...

...it takes dedication to be a geek.

Oh, That Veronica!

Keep Feeling Fascination

Audiosurf looks too cool. In the now future, instead of sending mixed tapes to your beloved, you could buy them Audiosurf, and see if they really loved you by getting high score online on your favourite song.

Because if a woman would do that for you, she's the one, suckah.

Holy CoWinkyDink, Batman!

Finished reading Batman: R.I.P.


I've also recently finished reading Heart of Hush, the story running parallel in Detective Comics.


Noticed a few interesting things:

-Both main villains have names that begin with 'H'. (Hurt, Hush)

-Both villains have ties to Bruce Wayne's past.

-Both villains are modified to look exactly like Bruce Wayne.

-Both final confrontations involve helicopters.

-Both villains both shout 'Not this way!' during said confrontation.

-Batman removes his cape while leaping onto the helicopter in both stories.

-Alfred is injured in both stories.

-Both final confrontations involve Nightwing coming to Batman's rescue.

Ever hear two songs that use the same bass line? That's how R.I.P. and Heart of Hush felt to me.

The only real difference? Heart of Hush was better as a story, was perhaps more inviting to new readers, and had one hell of an epilogue. R.I.P. succeeds more as a cryptic document geeks worldwide can now blog about, poking and prodding at it, hunting down the back issues each little narrative nod hints at, but unfortunately only really cranked up the drama and adrenaline in the final issue. A new reader picking this up would be lost within two pages.

Both are great stories, but for entirely different reasons. And are recommended for any dork who grew up idolizing a man who runs around dressed (badly) as a bat.

That Rare Thing, The Found Great Song

It's rare that it happens these days. You're going about your day, and you hear a song that makes you stop and simply listen.

You head home, trying not to forget the band name. You search on YouTube, wondering if the band has enough money for a video.

Then you find that they do, and suddenly, Tuesday isn't a write-off.

When Exactly Did It Happen?

When did I become Frederick from Hannah and Her Sisters?