Month: July 2003

If you have a newsstand that carries “The Wall Street Journal,” hie over there to read the page one article (yes, page one) about Harlan’s endeavors against AOL and his Kick Internet Piracy Crusade. After which I suggest you bop over to www.harlanellison.com and click on the icon that will tell you how to contribute to his endeavors. If you felt any anger over the kind of mindset that had no problem stealing the latest “Harry Potter” novel and posting it on the net, then you’ll want to support this cause.

PAD

For those who still don’t understand why the Iraqis are shooting at us, and base all their support of Bush’s policies on the Ends-Justifies-the-Means philosophy (Saddam was bad, therefore what we did was good), and don’t comprehend why the world doesn’t love us, I offer the following recollection:

I spent several weeks of my life in Romania in connection with some movies I wrote that were filmed there. And whenever I went anywhere with whatever Romanian guide was assigned to me, the guide would always bring up Ceausescu. Ceausescu was the Romanian dictator from the mid-60s through to the late 80s, finally overthrown by his people in fierce battle in 1989 and subsequently executed. Wherever we would go, guides would say, “And this was a palace Ceausescu was building before we overthrew him.” “And this was where Ceausescu’s favorites were housed before we overthrew him.” The fact that they had taken charge of their lives and tossed out a parasite–a parasite the U.S. had supported until the mid 1980s, by the way–was a source of great national pride.

The Iraqis have no national pride. They’re the United States’ bìŧçh. To seize control of your destiny engenders pride. To have someone do it for you and then not leave causes frustration, self-loathing, and anger directed at your intended liberators. And outside of the country, it’s seen as presumptuous and arrogant.

Get it now?

PAD

Although she’s emerging more regularly, Pandora still seems to like spending time in the cat carrier (now renamed Pandora’s Box.) Her haunches are protected that way. Our regular vet thinks it was another cat who attacked her and only managed to get one fang into her. The problem is that fluid is building underneath the wound and it’s not draining properly. If fluid continues to leak, I’ll have to bring her in on Thursday and he’ll sedate her and essentially put another hole lower down in the wound so that the fluid will be able to get out of there.

PAD

Overall, I liked the debut of the new “Titans” series. Basically it’s aimed at 7 to 10 year olds, so older viewers tuning in expecting to see JLA are going to be disappointed…or, at the very least, will have to reorient their thinking.

The basic thrust of the series is surprisingly consistent to the mandates I was given when I did preliminary development work on the series many moons ago before it was handed off to others. The notion was that the kids bicker, have difficulties operating individually, but as a team they pull it all together and are unstoppable. That’s the pilot in a nutshell. Nor did they want to launch with an exposition-heavy origin episode.

Very, VERY heavy anime influence, right down to switching to super-deformed versions of the characters when they’re particularly petulant.

Overall a strong launch for the target audience.

PAD

Ain’t it Cool News ran a review of “Fallen Angel,” and it was an unqualified rave. So that was nice.

I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t entirely sure readers would “let” me write something different from what I’m known for. That there would be resistence to it. But that doesn’t seem to be the case thus far.

PAD

My cat, Pandora, slunk in this evening and I found that something had bit her on the haunches. She’d already torn away a chunk of her fur trying to scratch at it. I immediately got the number of a 24 hour animal hospital and brought her over there. Ahead of us was a cat who had used up at least three of his nine lives when he decided that chewing on a power cord would be a spiffy idea and essentially killed himself (the only thing bringing him back being his owner’s massaging his chest).

Pandora got her backside shaved and there’s a nasty single puncture wound. I’m left wondering what would have left a sole puncture, since most animals you’ll run into–with the exception of Bucky from “Get Fuzzy”–have more than one fighting tooth. The doctor pumped her up with antibiotics and a pain killer, and put a collar around her that she initially had off in about ten seconds. We put it back on her and since then the pain killer kicked in and now she’s just lying there. She hasn’t even emerged from the cat carrier even though the door’s been sitting open for half an hour.

I’ll bring her to her regular vet Monday.

PAD

Word is already circulating that Marvel’s presence at the San Diego con is non-existent. I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Understand, this is purely speculation on my part; I’ve no inside information. But if you’ve ever been to SD, you know the DC booth is a thing of beauty. About three times bigger than my first apartment, with monitors and a logo you can see from Pasadena. If Marvel shows up with about what they can afford–a 3 x 6 table–immediately the reaction is gonna be, “Keee-rist, did you see the pathetic display Marvel has compared to DC’s?” Especially considering the repeated contempt with which Marvel has referred to its crosstown rival. It may well be the reasoning was that if they couldn’t afford to do it right, better not to do it at all. My understanding is that Marvel has some small presence as part of the Wizard display.

If I’m right, Marvel may well have the right idea. Better to do nothing than do something half-assed. Still…it’s kind of sad.

PAD