Month: February 2005

Understand: I know nothing about football. Nothing. Okay, one thing: Kathleen likes to watch the Superbowl.

So I read during the football and watch the commercials. What I’ll be doing is assessing the commercials as we go.

DIRECT TV: My God–I just watched my entire life flash before my eyes in sixty seconds. Am I that old? Did it really fly by that quickly? Lord, I’m depressed.

TOSTIDOS: That was cute. The whole bride thing.

BLOCKBUSTER: Boy, netflicks must be cutting into their business.

FORD: What a contest. Who’s more obnoxious: Bikers or owners of Ford trucks.

McDONALDS: Eh.

CHEESE: Can’at go wrong with cows.

HOUSE: I haven’t been consistent with watching it, but when I do, this is a terrific series, with an unrecognizable Hugh Laurie.

PSA: Sure. Join the team. Just don’t use steroids when you do.

6:36

FORD: Liked it better than the one for trucks. I bet there really are people insane enough to drive a convert in the snow.

6:42

BUD WEISER: trust the beer commercials. That was funny. Second favorfite to the muppets.

LENSWEAR: Don’t care.

CONSTANTINE: I hate to admit it, but I’m interested in it. Face it, we all know they should have cast Sting, but now that it’s done, I’m curious to see whether it works as a film in and of itself.

Enforced break. Got involved with feeding Caroline, followed by playtime, then jammies and then settling her down for bed. But I should be back for the rest of the commercials now.

Paul is playing the halftime show. Amazing. He still looks boyish. More “ish” than “boy,” but more boyish than I look and he’s got a few years on me.

8:33

American Airlines. Okay, not memorable.

Nissan Maxima. Okay, not great.

Chase. zzzzzzzzzzz

Cadillac. Eh. You know what I’d love to see? A Cadillac commercial in which they’re brainstorming and an ad guy says, “How about: Cadillac–the Cadillac of cars!” And they just stare at him. And the tagline is “Cadillac: No one ever says ‘The Toyota of’ anything…”

8:39

Getting real sick of the Ford convertible commercial.

8:58

Okay, the Ameriquest commercials are officially the funniest things so far. This one with the cat was even better.

Career Builder: Funny series that I’ll bet has a lot of folks thinking, “Wow, that’s just like MY work place.”

9:02

WOTW: You know, if even Spielberg thinks that aliens are coming to kill us, we can prety much pack in the last bastion of optimism.

Cialis: Up to 36 HOURS?! Who is this FOR? Men married to an entire cheerleader squad?

9:11

Honda: “It’s not just another truck.” Bad news: It’s another truck.

Verizon: Okay, I liked that a lot. The whole miniaturization thing. That was funny.

The Shield: I’d gotten out of watching it, but with Glenn Close joining the cast, I may very well take another whack at going with this series.

9:21

Miller: eh. Not the best.

Ford: Eh.

Toyota: This guy and his dog are starting to grow on me.

9:25

Toyota: Well, that’s certainly the best ad for a Hybrid I’ve ever seen.

9:31

Budweiser…zzzz

Mastercard: Okay, that was great. All the trademark guys getting together for dinner. Good thing they weren’t eating fish; wonder how Charlie would have reacted.

9:38

Budweiser: A good message and entertainingly told.

9:41

The collected superbowl: Ariel says if it has the commercials, I should buy it.

10:00

Sahara: Don’t know anything about it.

Diet Pepsi: What frightens me is that if P Diddy really DID show up in a Pepsi truck, exactly what’s depicted in the commercial would likely happen.

10:03

WOW! Okay, this isn’t about a commercial, but hëll, wow, what a touchdown.

Patriots over Eagles, 24-21. I’m almost certain that’ll be it.

PAD

You know, now I’ve really got myself wondering.

As I noted, because Schindler saved 1100 Jews, the result was 6000 Jews who would never have lived if it weren’t for his efforts.

So if 50,000 young men and women died in Vietnam, how many people does that mean, roughly, were never born over the course of the subsequent four decades?

PAD

In a society where–horrifingly enough–polled high school students express little appreciation for the First Amendment, and see nothing wrong with the government curtailing freedom of expression, I notice that comics fans who knock the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund do so from two angles.

The first is a cavalier, “Well, they don’t win any cases.” I refer you to our latest endeavor, a case in which South Carolina customs officials embargoed comic books that lampooned George W. Bush. I am pleased to announce that, thanks to the CBLDF’s quick intervention, the books have been shaken loose from customs and are proceeding, none the worse for wear, to their proper destination. So that was a slam dunk against governmental abuse of power. More can be found on that over at www.cbldf.org.

The second knock is the false perception that the only comics which run into trouble are hard core pørņ, and why should people support the CBLDF when we “only” come to the aid of accused pornographers. To that I am now saying, Watch this space. Come Monday, we will be announcing a new case the CBLDF is going to be taking on. It is going to be a major undertaking, and it challenges laws that–if allowed to stand–would leave retailers open to obscenity prosecution for selling certain titles that are considered comics masterworks and are on the shelves of just about every serious comics collector in the country.

PAD

So word down the pipeline is that “Enterprise” is canceled.

The immediate question being bandied about is, “Is Star Trek dead?” This doesn’t surprise me. Pundits were announcing that sitcoms were dead…until “Cosby.” TV westerns, once flourishing, were pronounced dead…until “Kung Fu.” Movie westerns were also believed unable to pull in an audience…until “Unforgiven.” Hëll, “Star Trek” was pronounced dead when the original series went off the air…and then it was alive with “ST:TMP,” but that was so poorly received that it was pronounced dead again…until the second feature film. “Star Trek” has died more often than Jean Gray, and yet it rises once more like…well, like a great bird.

I don’t think “Star Trek” is dead. I think that *a* Star Trek series that never fully engaged (no pun intended) the viewership is dead. But if they build a new series, I think viewers will come right back and at least sample it.

PAD

For some reason folks keep asking me, and no, I didn’t see the State of the Union because it was my bowling night. Nor am I overly interested in watching his royal smugness for any extended period of time anyway…a sentiment I know he’d agree with. After all, he said just a couple weeks ago that if Americans are concerned with disturbing or revolting images on their TV screens, they’ve really no cause to complain because there’s an off switch. And I concur, which is why I just turn the set off when he comes on.

From what I’ve read subsequently, he glossed over Iraq, which is smart, as Bush’s List grows and grows. And I think that the business of privatizing Social Security is antithetical to the very concept. Social Security stems from a time when the country endeavored to pull together generationally, with the young paying in to support the elderly. Privatization is a nice, neutral word to cover what it really is: Every Man For Himself. It has less of a feel of trying to fix the ship of state and more a sense of abandoning a sinking vessel.

Cling to the clock and pray the country survives him.

PAD

Been working hëll bent for leather the past couple of weeks.

1) Finished the first draft of the novelization of the “Fantastic Four” film. Naturally I’m bound by confidentiality so I can’t discuss what the script is…but I can say what it isn’t, and that’s the rumored slapstick sitcom-ish treatment that had fans so up in arms. If I had to guess, I’m thinking Chiklis’ Ben Grimm is going to be the character everyone’s talking about.

2) Scripted “Soulsearchers #70.” Claypool is doing what they refer to as “Jump-On” month. It’s hard to expand reader base when readers think they have absolutely no idea of what’s gone before. So from the end of January through February, Claypool books such as “Soulsearchers” will be specifically geared toward filling in readers on what’s gone before (although the ongoing plots will still be moving forward.)

3) Finished the first draft of the screenplay for “Gene Roddenberry’s Starpoint Academy.” Granted there’s always a huuuuuge journey between the writing of a screenplay and the film actually winding up in a theater near you (or being made at all), but hey, the journey of a thousand miles is always shorter if you fly, or something like that.

4) Finished the script for “Fallen Angel #20” which is, at the moment, the last one slated. After that, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe better.

PAD