State of the Union

I’m putting off watching SUPERNATURAL for this, so it’d better rock.

9:06: He makes his entrance. Let’s see how long it takes to get to the front.

9:08: God, his hair has gotten so gray.

9:09: Three minutes.

9:10: Good Christ, what the hëll has happened to Boehner’s skin? I mean, I know it was darker, but standing next to Biden, he looks like he’s turning into Pinocchio.

9:11: Which is driving the GOP nuts, of course.

9:13: Now if only they’d prosecuted the people who wrongfully sent those brave men and women overseas. You know: his predecessors.

9:15: Will we approach the world fearful and reactive? Depends if we watch Fox News.

9:15: If we get sorted into fractions, I want to be in Gryffindor.

9:18: Eleven million new jobs. Too bad Kath is still unemployed.

9:19: Finish college and go into huge debt because of student loans.

9:20: “Which you guys have tried to take away from them 53 times and still counting.”

9:21: Well, it’s terrible news to the GOP…

9:25: They’re applauding everyone playing by the same set of rules? Isn’t that kind of self-evident?

9:26: I notice Biden stopped standing. Maybe he felt stupid because he was standing and Boehner was sitting. Jesus, Boehner’s not even clapping. What a douche.

9:28: I take it back. Biden was standing. But not Boehner. Still not even clapping.

9:29: Was it always like this? Did the opposing party always sit on their hands no matter what the president said?

9:31: Pay nothing for community college? Well, you get what you pay for, I guess.

9:32: Or you could follow the West Wing plan and make college tuition tax deductible.

9:34: Boehner finally stood.

9:39: Since I have diabetes, I’m certainly all for curing it. I miss chocolate.

9:40: We launched a space craft? Did I miss something? Well, at least Boehner stood for the astronaut.

9:41: I wish he’d stop talking about bipartisanship. There is no bipartisanship. They can’t even all agree to applaud for him, much less pass laws.

9:43: I don’t think Boehner could look more constipated if he tried.

9:44: Right. The first response is to send in drones. Military is the second response.

9:44: We stand united with France except when we don’t show up for their march.

9:47: So he just warned Putin to stay the hëll out of the Ukraine.

9:48: That’s the quote so far: “When something you’ve been trying for 50 years doesn’t work, it’s time to try something new.”

9:51: By all means, respect our kids’ privacy, so they can blab everything about every aspect of their lives on the internet.

9:53: I wonder what percentage of the people in there still don’t believe in climate change.

9:56: Interesting. In his talk on values, the one thing no one applauded for was not condemning all Muslims.

9:57: Dude, you’ve been there for six years and you always talk about shutting down Gitmo. No one is being fooled by this point.

10:01: Nice that he’s behind gay marriage now considering Joe Biden had to push him into it.

10:03: It’s a wonderful vision. Too bad that tomorrow we’ll be right back to the usual BS.

10:07: “I know ’cause I won both of them.” Nice.

10:09: Yes we are.

Very good speech, I thought. Too bad the pundits will explain how much it sucked and how it was filled with self serving lies.

Spam emails of the Marvel and DC Universes

digresssmlOriginally published April 19, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1483

My e-mail box is constantly being cluttered with useless material designed either to try and sell you something or else separate gullible people from their money. And it occurs to me that in the universes of comic books, probably the same thing happens. And it might well look something like this:

What Creators owe Fans/What Publishers Owe Creators

digresssmlOriginally published April 12, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1482

James B. of San Diego wrote in to “Oh So” to comment on my opinion that all creators owe their fans is their very best work, to which he said that I was “…absolutely right. Technically speaking, of course. Technically, all a creator does owe his fans is his very best work. Just as, technically speaking, all a publisher, say—oh, I dunno—Archie Comics, owes to any creator would be the agreed-upon amounts due under the contract or agreement said creator was working under, right?”

Now James raises an interesting point. However, he took my sentiment totally out of context to accomplish it.

The Wicked Witch Still Has It

So playing at our local movie theater was “The Wizard of Oz” courtesy of TCM. We went to the 2 PM showing.

Featuring an intro and outro by Robert Osborn, it’s always fun to spend a couple of hours with Dorothy and company. But here’s the thing I found most interesting.

Kids were freaking terrified of the witch.

It was remarkably evident that for quite a few viewers, this was the first time they were seeing the movie, and I heard genuine sobbing and whimpers of absolute terror as the witch threatened and menaced Dorothy. When she flipped over the hour glass several kids came close to screaming, managing to choke it off at the last second.

I found that absolutely amazing. With the level of scary things kids are confronted with these days, ranging from TV shows to video games to films to, hëll, the news: Margaret Hamilton in green makeup was still able to reduce kids to tears seventy five years later. Ten years of “Wicked” hasn’t made a dent in the sheer terror that that woman could summon.

I think she’d be thrilled.

That and I STILL think Glinda is a psycho. Why not tell Dorothy the shoes would take her home? “She wouldn’t have believe me. She had to find out for herself.” YES SHE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED YOU, YOU ÃSSHØLÊ.

Jesus.

PAD

The Captain Marvel Price Challenge

digresssmlOriginally published March 29, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1480

AN OPEN LETTER TO BILL JEMAS AND JOE QUESADA:

Well, I gotta tell you guys: Reading that Captain Marvel was going up in price to $2.75, along with other critical favorites/fan snubs Spider-Girl and Black Panther, just gave me a warm, squishy feeling in the pit of my stomach; and that’s a considerable amount of pit.

I know, I know, I could have just called you and discussed this privately. But on the suggestion of a fan, you raised the prices without calling and discussing it with me. So I’m just going to follow your lead and air my thoughts on the matter publicly. And hey, Joe, when you challenged Todd McFarlane, you didn’t do it in a friendly phone call or a telegram. You did it on the Internet. So if Marvel’s leaders have opened the door to handling publishing affairs publicly, then I’m going to follow that lead right through the same door. And yes, at the end of this letter, there will be a challenge, so keep reading.