Paragraph Movie Reviews: The Baxter

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

It's not easy to come up with a clever take on the worn out genre that is the romantic comedy, but I proclaim this movie a success in that regard. Writer/director/star Michael Showalter's premise of following the jilted "other guy" from every other romcom who gets shoved aside so the destined lovers can get together in the end is a unique one with plenty of material to mine. Showalter's goofy charm is perfect to propel an off-center protagonist like Elliott Sherman and he does a good job balancing the quirky sense of comedy he and his "State" buddies generally bring to their work with a full-on send-up of what you'd expect from typical movies of this fare, tongue firmly in-cheek and overselling the dramatic moments hilariously. Fantastic supporting cast as well, particularly Justin Theroux who does brilliant over-the-top parody work as the "right guy," milking his character's oversensitive monologues and breathless admissions of love. You can see Elizabeth Banks beginning to come into her own as the amazing comedic actress she is today here, not quite fully as developed as she'd soon become, but showing signs of greatness in her more manic scenes. Michelle Williams isn't out-and-out hilarious, but she's cute, which is really all that's asked of her. Great cameo work by Peter Dinklage, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, and David Wain, who gets perhaps the funniest scene in the whole film, fill things out. My issues with "The Baxter" would be that it could maybe stand to lose at least 20 minutes or so, as the plot meanders in the middle somewhat, killing time to get us to a destination we've already caught a glimpse of. Also, as funny as most of the movie is, there are times where Showalter and company botch the transition between touching and absurd, which can be a bit awkward. Mostly a solidly entertaining romp with lots of heart and more humor though; I'd recommend it.

still scared

i thought about it before i left to check out the pinoy market, actually.
i surveyed around.
but just before i made the payment, i told myself "have a little more faith that he is actually trustworthy"

i knew i should have hired the private investigator.

but, i knew too, that God was my utmost reliable private investigator.
i prayed to Him every single day to show me if he was dishonest.
then, came 110610.

still struggling.

still writing to heal.

Original: 'till i see you again

I guess, for you to be able to write a beautiful love story, you would have to be in one.

I was reading The Choo-Choo Train (again, yes. I told you I miss The Choo-Choo Train) and came across the following entry.

I have to say that even I had to rub my chest after reading this story.
Sad, man, really.

& just FYI, the story was written when someone was suffering on the dentist's chair.

'till i see you again
They finally picked a place. It was a rather intimate venue. For a rather intimate do. They had scout for a place for almost 6 months and nothing was ever agreeable between the two, until this one. He wanted somewhere convenient for everyone. She wanted somewhere cosy for her ultimate day.

They picked the theme color together, albeit it didn’t please everyone . The decor was just like what they’d envisaged together. They didn’t need a planner, everything was done between them, themselves.

The serene entrance which leads to where they would be standing as husband and wife was blissfully lit; you just couldn’t miss the love that fills the air.

Perfect was perhaps an understatement, for the ambience.

The night was a flawless navy blue. The breeze that was blanketing the night seemed as though they too, had cooperated well. Everything, every single thing was picture perfect.

He stood there, poised. Just how everyone had expected.

But there was something about his unruffled presence that was disturbing.

He stood there longer than what was required of him.

When the signal to walk forward by the father of the bride was ignored, heads turned to look back. Over everybody’s shoulders, stood an impeccably dressed groom.

The one piece of the night that nearly completed the entire perfectness.

“she knew she was dying”, was all that he could afford to say without even moving any muscle other than his jaw.

And a letter felt out of his right palm.

I couldn’t bank on your mother’s eternal protest about us being together because I knew it deep down, that one day; you would still make me your bride.

So, I planned my dream wedding. My sumptuous dream wedding.

Our tastes differ to a certain extent --- so I’d noticed. I like everything subtle and sweet , you love it bold and leave it all up to me, so don’t say that I hadn’t given in too ok --- but having each other shows that we have the best taste of ‘em all.

I’m sure you’re wondering what’s the meaning of it all when in the end, tonight... you would be standing there, reading this.

You would never understand what it was like to drag my feet and plan my wedding which I knew I wasn’t able to attend. But I had to do it.

I am not going to say sorry for the arguments over which best friend of yours should be the best man, over which ice sculpture should be in the middle of the garden, over which band should get the honor of playing on our very special night [I seriously hope it isn’t your friend's band that is standing under the marquee tonight], over which sampin looks better on you.

I am not, because for not being there tonight, those are the closest fondest memories I get to keep.

I am not going to apologize for keeping this a secret, either.

Because it is a secret, you have treated me and us as typically as I would have expected. And for every 1425 days we spent together, I am blessed that it has been a secret. I wouldn’t have known what it was like to go as a “normal” person if it wasn’t. Believe me; I know what it is like to go as someone who was battling.

All that “special treatment” one gets when others know that one is dying just wasn’t in my to-do-before-I-die list. But being married to you, was.

Every time we tick one thing off our wedding preparation list, I felt like I was already married to you. I knew I wasn’t going to be there to see the final outcome of everything we had planned together but I had imagined the whole scenario in my head so hard that it probably worsen the tumor! But don’t worry, my doctor ensured me that the last 6 months was the calmest time of my life. I didn’t even have one attack!

I had imagined myself in the dress I picked, being under the gazebo with you holding my hands, looking into each other’s eyes, trying to keep the moment on a standstill. Everything was beautiful. Do know that that would be the last thing I had in mind tonight too.

Tell my sisters that there is no word --- goodness! I never knew constructing this sentence for them would build a big boulder in my throat! --- of gratitude would ever express my gratefulness for all their help with the wedding. You know that I would miss them the most!

So, now that everyone is there, all our closest and dearest friends and relatives, I want you to tell them that you have been fooled by your bride who couldn’t be there under unavoidable reason. I am sure they would understand my absence and would excuse me.

Everyone that is there has touched my life, our lives in one way or another. Please thank them for me for being part of tonight and make sure they too celebrate our love. My life.

I am going to miss you till hell freezes over – I hope I’m not heading there now, though – and promise me you will take care of yourself as I had, unfortunately for us I just couldn’t hang in there for another day. It would have been a lot different if I could have stayed until tomorrow but I think this is best. I’d saved you the trouble of inviting the same faces to my funeral.

And thanks for agreeing with me that a garden wedding was the most perfect “so me” do and don’t forget the fireworks! I promise to watch it from here.

‘til I see you again.

Almost immediately, the fireworks display started and he could feel her there, smiling at him, as she always does when there are fireworks.
Posted by Angelita Atractivo at 10:55:00 AM 3 comments

When Sleeping Together Is Too Cute

 

“OK, lemme think whether it’s right for a 4-month old to sleep with a 3-month old…”

 

“What do you think, MommaJett?”

 

“Hey, you… what do you think? Is it OK that we share a pillow?”

 

“OK, enough thinking already… Come, let’s just sleep. Not like we’re gonna do anything, just hold hands…”

 

“I said hold hands! Not put your hands across my face!” ;p

The (Li’l) Faces That Make Me Happy

 

“Hey, mom… I think MommaJett is taking MY picture…. errm, not yours…”

Doesn’t Ayesha look like she is dancing in this photo?

“To the right, to the left… C’mon everyone….” 

“Can we have some music here, please?” 

“Hey, do you wanna dance with me, too?”

 

“OK, all together now… move your shoulder to the right… to the left…. shake your body, too”

26072010

 

Abang – ironically who is actually my baby brother – celebrated his 22nd birthday recently.

Like father, like son… hopefully not! ;)

Abang wanted western food steak... So, his 22nd birthday dinner was  at Senses, Hilton. I was happy not to be the organizer this time, only the cake provider!

Nana did all the booking and inviting, methinks. Well-done, Na.

No, that wasn’t the ‘peace’ sign.

It was for 22! :)

 

Hope you had  a good one, Abang! xox

Linko! LIII

* I'm sure we'll have one or two more Comic-Con related posts coming up across the weekend before we get back to our regularly scheduled stupidity, so I don't want to dwell too much on the big show here except to point out that the news I'm most excited about (and actually most nervous about) is the word that IDW will be publishing an anthology of new Rocketeer material. I held out hope for years that Dave Stevens would eventually come back and continue the adventures of Cliff Secord to absolutely no avail, but I'll take what I can get now, especially considering the talent the publisher seems to have lined up on the thing. Nice cover from Alex Ross, too.

* Wikipedia Hole Link! - This week, I ended up spending more time than any human should reading about Cap'n Crunch online after buying a throwback box of Crunch Berries which used the original Jay Ward version of the cereal mascot (I'm a sucker for throwback packaging and Jay Ward in general, so combining the two is a no brainer for earning my dollars). Still, along the way I got reminded of the legend of the "real life Captain Crunch" John Draper. Click through and read his page, for reals.

* Speaking of Wikipedia, is there anyone on the planet who knows one single Goddamned fact about Dan Buckley worth putting on his page?!?!?! I'm assuming there is.


* Cupcake POW! is an adorably funny webcomic. (Via)

* OK, I kind of lied about no Comic-Con links, but I felt compelled to share my thoughts on this post by actor and general nerdlebrity Wil Wheaton on Techland. I mean, I've spoken with Wheaton on the phone before, and he seems like a very nice person who honestly cares a lot about the various things he's passionate about, and good for him on that. But I've read a few of his screeds on this concept of some kind of shared nerd culture which we must all support or stand up for in the face of Hollywood publicists/jocks/morons/whoever doesn't belong to be an aggravatingly stupid and pretty offensive one. And when it comes to whether or not a week-long event dedicated to generally nerdy things attended by over 125,000 people is "destroying" that supposed culture, I'd almost laugh if the whole enterprise wasn't taken so seriously by those engaged in the discussion. I don't know. Maybe I'm just missing some key point, but as a person who loves things like comics and sci-fi and could take or leave most movies and video games, I find the idea that someone who gets paid an honest wage to come and promote a movie or whatever is a threat to me enjoying the things I enjoy to be kind of childish behavior. Am I way off base here?


* Lots of news from home this week for some reason. First off, if I've at all cornered you to talk about life in my beloved hometown of Flint, Michigan before, I implore you to read Gordon Young's story on Dan Kildee's attempts to make Flint a model city for the shrinking of depressed urban areas. I like the Kildee family an awful lot for personal reasons, and I grow more and more into a proponent of Dan's plans for the shuttered houses of Flint the more I read about it. Worth a glance.

* Meanwhile, Flint's "favorite son" Michael Moore has announced a plan to make Flint a pilot city for refurbishing old theaters and new, community run movie houses. I put the favored son thing in quotes because despite the fact that almost anyone I meet asks me about Big Mike whenever they learn where I'm from, I myself and most other Flint natives tend to think that his positive contributions to our city fall somewhere between bull and shit. This sounds like a nice plan, though. Good for Moore.

* Finally, I crack up every time I read about antiquated laws still on the books, and this particular article reminded me again of the hilarious Michigan law which prohibits swearing in front of women and children. I've heard tell of people being written up for that but as of yet have avoided such a fate for myself. Fingers crossed!

Going Private

If you're reading this you are one of the select few that I've verified as readers of my blog. In an effort to avoid attracting interweb creepers/predators/older men with mustaches and perve glasses I decided that I needed to make State of Polarity private. This means two things:

1) I will now be missing out on the external validation that comes from tracking my web hits, seeing the following I've gotten, and feeling like my own little musings are actually being read.

*I've had hits from Russia to India and I even had an Australian 'follower.'*

...and...

2) I can now dish more freely knowing that my words are not being creeped on by people I don't want reading this blog... particularly the boys I am dating.

*This might actually be fun.*

Anyway, I tenatively plan to go public again once I've combed said blog for personal details I may have let leak in previous posts. We'll just see how it goes.

Until then, thanks for reading.

You CAN Go Home Again

Okay, I've been tagged, and this time I can't dodge it. On his blog Between the Pavement and the Stars, Piers Beckley has listed those films that he'll watch any number of times, and challenged me, Danny Stack and Jason Arnopp to do the same.

It's not supposed to be an objective greatness list, or even necessarily a 'best I ever saw' list. There's many a great movie that I admire enormously, loved at first sight, and remember with awe, but don't necessarily want to re-experience. At least not right now, and probably not ever on a regular basis. Some experiences are diminished the second time around. I loved The Sixth Sense when I saw it in the cinema, couldn't wait for the DVD to come out, bought it the moment it did... and it's been sitting on the shelf unopened ever since. And not just because I know 'the twist', which was fun at the time but added no lasting value.

(Twists in movies are not the best idea. Something I've believed ever since, on the first appearance of Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game, someone yelled from the back of the stalls, "She's gorra cock.")

I suppose it's the difference between a memorable party and a favourite restaurant. Try to repeat the party experience and you're doomed to a vague sense of dissatisfaction and disappointment, whereas a favourite restaurant promises something reliable. Here the movie has an advantage in that the chef won't storm out in a huff at the beginning of your evening.

(It's happened)

Anyone who's raised a family since the advent of the VHS machine will be familiar with the phenomenon of the favourite tape or disc, played over and over, feeding a child's endless appetite for the familiar. We were lucky; in our household it was Pinocchio, and later The Blues Brothers. My friend Graeme wasn't so lucky. He got Bananas in Pyjamas.

If you're flicking through the TV channels and you happen on a familiar movie and you stay until the end, looking forward to "this next bit where...", then it probably belongs in your own list. If in an idle moment you find yourself thinking, "It's about time I saw X again," then X almost certainly belongs in your list. If you can quote every line and do all the voices, you probably belong in an institution.

King Kong
Jason and the Argonauts
Way Out West
The Music Box
The General
2001
Les Yeux Sans Visage
What's Opera, Doc?
Solaris (Tarkovsky, and seriously)
Twenty Million Miles to Earth
Hell is a City
Blade Runner
Goldfinger
Genevieve
The Wages of Fear
Pas de Deux (Norman McLaren Film Board of Canada short)
Whistle Down the Wind

These are the rules of the meme:

1. Provide a non-exhaustive list of films you'll happily watch again and again;
2. There is no rule 2.
3. Reprint the rules.
4. Tag three others and ask them to do the same.

So Stephen Volk, Good Dog, and Lee Goldberg, if you should happen by... now I bet you're sorry.

Hitting the streets!!!!

First one taking place TODAY!! Thursday 29th of July!!!
Snazzy New Development, one of Ireland's finest All Weather Market Venues!

How to find us today!!!

Gals, we are very excited to be hitting the road today and heading for Limerick City to participate in the first ever Artisan Fair at the newly developed Milk Market Venue in Limerick City. The Market today brings arts and craftspeople from all over Ireland together once a month ( last Thursday of each month!!!) to sell their wares and deal directly with the public.

Well we have the car packed to the brim with stock, mannequins, coffee and "oursmelves"! Hoping to have a nice day and hoping to meet lots of market browsers throughout the day. I believe there are also fellow Irish etsy shops going to be there too so it will be lovely to network and mingle with our fellow etsy sellers.

Market is open from 12 midday until 7 tonight... so why not pop by after your working day for a gander around! We will have lots of 'bonzie' goodies to tempt you!! ;)

Fixer Uppers

Boys. I kinda like 'em. And while I'm by no means an expert at dating, I have learned a few lessons over the last year worth writing about.

You see, in the last year I fear that I've broken a couple of hearts or at least caused a few cases of mild angina (*sorry boys, it was not intentional*). Likewise I've had my own mini heart-break this year as well. But this post isn't to whine about heart-break, it's to write about the lil pattern I noticed through these recent endeavors in dating...

That being, in each scenario/dating misfire either myself or the guy I was dating was what I like to call a... Fixer Upper.

Not following?
Let me explain...

With boy #1 I was just coming out of a serious long-term relationship. A relationship that was in all reality still being drug out by phone calls, emails, and intermittent hang-outs. This was not the premise to start something new and I told boy #1 that, but we still continued to hang out as friends. Things were great, we got really close, and had a lot of fun until an 'end all kiss' that caught me by surprise and made it clear that our relationship had a very different meaning for him than it did for me. Cut to now and that's one friendship that's more or less gone by the wayside.

Now for my own dose of rejection with boy #2. This boy caught me by surprise. He was smart, philosophical, and could talk (grr...), so I let it slide that I met him at a Halloween party in which he'd been attracted to me whilst wearing a none-too-conservative costume making me doubt the kind of girl he thought I was. I also overlooked the fact that he was a bit of a party boy and frequently wore the issued uniform of the tool army:

...MEK denim for men...

Anyway, I gave this guy way more credit than he deserved. In the end he kind of snubbed me after a few ups and downs in which I initially told him I was done, he convinced me to give him a second chance, and then pulled the old turn-around reverse dump. *This was of course after the passive aggressive stab at me he made via Fb status. Classic* But alas, though this break-up merited but a moment's pause, I spent the next half of the semester feeling retarded and more or less rejected every time I saw him on campus.

And finally, boy #3. Oh, boy #3. This guy is literally one of the greatest guys I've met. Smart, funny, handsome, encouraging, everything a girl could ask for. In the last couple months of the semester we got really close. He was there for me during one of the most stressful times of my life while I was applying to med school and confronting some issues from my past and he was nothing but supportive. Seriously the kind of supportive that transforms your bad days into good days and that finds a way to make you laugh when you really just feel like crying. Even as I type these words I get this frantic feeling that I might have let 'one of the good ones' slip through my fingers, but regardless, you can't force attraction, it just wasn't there for me, and I really wasn't in the place to start anything anyway. Sadly even seemingly perfect boy #3 is now just a chapter in my dating chronicles.

*So, back to my original point.*

The common factor between the demise of my relationships with boys #1, 2, and 3 is simple. In each case a Fixer Upper was involved.

With boy #1 I was the fixer upper on the rebound and not ready to start anything new. With boy #2, it was more or less the same problem only this time it was him that needed fixing in his own apathetic state and Neitzsche fueled angst. And with boy #3, once again it was my own outside issues and need of an emotional tune-up that prevented sparks from flying.

Now, you might be thinking the moral of this story is:

Don't Date a Fixer Upper

...But, actually I don't agree...

You see, while my recent tirades in dating didn't lead to anything bigger, they taught me a lot. In fact, I think I'd be a lot worse off right now if not for boys 1-3. Boys #1 and 3 taught me a lot about what I want in a guy and what I deserve in a relationship. And while admittedly not as healthy, even my relationship and fall-out with boy #2 taught me a lot in regard to what I don't want in a boy and improvements that I myself need to make in communication and conflict resolution.

So, I guess the real moral of the story is...

If you're looking for something serious or to settle down then a Fixer Upper probably is not what you're looking for. But if you're just into casual dating, having a good time, and learning more about yourself, then by all means hook it up.

Just do it with the knowledge that if you insist on being the one to 'fix' up a Fixer Upper you'll be doing for the next guy or girl, because anyone in need of fixing is going to be too into their own problems to be into you. That's right whether you're dating someone on the rebound, a party boy that expresses dissatisfaction and apathy for life, or a girl in the middle of a stress bomb, I'm afraid odds are that it's not going anywhere. But don't let that stop you...Let yourself be fixed and why not try doing a little fixing?

In the very least...
It's good dating Karma.

A Marvel-ous San Diego

Well great a job as he did, I can't just let Kiel take all the spotlight for San Diego Comic-Con International coverage, now can I?

One of my favorite things about conventions is getting to really feel a part of the larger family/team/insert-term-here that is Marvel Comics/Entertainment. Admittedly working away in my corner office with the rest of the Digital Media Group's content division (wow, that sounded delightfully corporate) I sometimes lose sight of being a member of this larger whole that also includes the boys and girls from editorial, marketing, etc. as well as all our great creators. When you're forced to pull together for a mammoth happening like SDCC though, that sense of camaraderie with the peeps you're in the foxhole with really comes back to the fore, and the best part is when you remember how much you like a lot of those folks.

I think more than any show since I started at Marvel, this one was the one where I really bonded with many good people outside my department, and a major goal of mine is not to let those relationships die on the vine going forward. I'm so fortunate not only to have the job I do, but also to work with some incredibly fun, dedicated and talented individuals, so I'm glad I get the wake-up calls to appreciate all that now and again.

Whenever a show goes well for Marvel, it's mainly due to two dudes: Mike Pasciullo and Tim Dillon. They organize the crap out of everything and also coordinate things like massive golden thrones from big deal movies being the centerpiece of our booth and attracting mucho traffic. Once again, them boys outdid themselves this year.

Closer to home, my digital posse annihilated the con this year in the most positive of ways. We put out over 60 pieces of content between news articles, videos, liveblogs, interviews and much more--for real, you can check it all out here at our hub page. For a team of ten on-site staffers plus less than half a dozen freelancers, that's pretty dang impressive to my mind.

Shout-outs to my writing crew of Jim Beard, TJ Dietsch, Tim Stevens and the CKT's own Kevin "MIA" Mahadeo as well as newly-minted Marvel.com west coast assistant editor Marc Strom. Kudos above and beyond as well to our tireless video team of Alex Kropinak and "Fast" Eddie Bursch who did insane hours at the show and produced some beautiful stuff. Applause to our photographers Judy Stephens and Ryan Russell who were snapping away all weekend; Judy's pic of the Avengers cast even landed in New York Magazine! And high fives to my editorial compatriots John Cerilli, Ryan Penagos and Harry Go, plus our lovable adopted PR queen Margarita Vaisman and comics' toughest on-site reporter, the incomparable "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Oh, and of course big thanks to that dreamy Tom Brennan, just because.

And what was I up to at the show? Well, here's the short version...

-My primary responsibility was to liveblog a solid half of the panels Marvel held. I was generally paired with Strommy, but once in awhile Harry subbed in, and for the Marvel Digital panel it was all three of us. In all cases, I took the role of color commentator (ala Jerry "The King" Lawler, whom I met at the show) while my counterpart did play-by-play.

-The sole exception to that set-up was one of my very favorites panels of the show, Marvel Writers United, featuring Brian Bendis, Mark Waid, Matt Fraction and Chris Claremont, for which I flew solo. It was a similar "let it all hang out and talk about writing, influences and comics" panel with Geoff Johns, Brad Meltzer and Judd Winick back at SDCC 2004 that firmly cemented my decision to do this for a living to begin with, so revisiting that experience after a fashion was an awesome trip.

-Another huge treat for me was getting to watch and liveblog two episodes of the upcoming Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series. For real, guys, this show is going to be amazing. I don't say this lightly, but I really do believe this will be Marvel's Justice League Unlimited, and you won't find many bigger JLU fans than me. It just had the humor, the action, the larger sense of continuity and so many cameos, which is a lot of what I loved about JLU. As a bonus, I got to sit next to Chris Yost, who wrote both eps and gave me little easter eggs as we watched. On my other side, screaming like a 13-year-old girl at a Miley Cyrus concert, was Jim McCann, and seated behind us was Chris Cox, the voice of Hawkeye--so cool!

-Also really enjoyed in particular the Women of Marvel panel, where Kathryn Immonen, Marjorie Liu, Laura Martin, Christina Strain and the aforementioned Judy Stephens spoke eloquently and entertainingly on gender roles for both characters and creators in comics. It was a little strange to see Arune Singh moderating such a lineup, but my man was another SDCC MVP for sure and really came into his own on this show; I'm proud of him.

-I can't forget the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions showcase if only because seeing Stan Lee and Dan Slott share a stage was a joy to witness (Slott was still geeking out during our flight back to Jersey).

-Aside from panels (and there are many great ones I didn't list above), I also got to do some video hosting, which is always enjoyable for me. Fun fact: I acted all the way through college and would have double-majored in theater and English had a favorite professor of mine not smartened me up to the idea it was better to focus on one over the other, so I really like being able to get back in front of the camera on occasion. Reuniting my tag team with Mr. Daniels was a highlight, as was myself and Penagos attempting to push through the delirium of close-of-show Sunday insanity.

-I also helped facilitate for the second year in a row Todd Nauck sketching WWE Superstars, in this case the Bella Twins; there's already a video up on WWE.com and we should be posting one of our own shortly. Todd is probably the legit nicest guy in comics and one of the people who really made my weekend along with his beautiful wife Dawn, and the Bellas turned out to be incredibly kind, gracious and enthusiastic, so it was great to link them up and I hope we get to do more with both parties in the future.

-Oh, another unique bit of fun for me was getting to interview the editor-in-chief of the Guinness Book of World Records, who was on hand to present Chris Claremont with a plaque commemorating X-Men #1 from 1991 as the best-selling comic of all-time. That one's not online yet either, but I'll link as soon as it is and you can witness me trying to scam my way into history by setting a world handshake record and learn the current record for most Mars bars eaten in one sitting.

So much more went down over the week, but I've already got an essay here, and some stuff is best left to me and the eyes and ears of San Diego. Thanks so much to everybody who made this probably my favorite con ever!

San Diego: What Kiel Wrote!

San Diego, man. Woof. What a long, strange, tiring, exciting, stabbing thing. As normal, I thought I'd take the massive gap in posting the collective Cool Kids underwent because of the show as a cue to fill up our corner with some ego stroking in the form of posting all that I wrote over the past week for CBR. But before I got to patting myself on the back, I wanted to note the following:

1 - For all my coming congratulatory bullshit, there is absolutely nothing that I did this weekend or ever will do at any show that will hold a candle to the unstoppable reporting prowess of Team CBR. At the end of the weekend, our on site panel coordinator – and all around chipper dude – Seth Jones sent out a text to the 30+ staffers we had on site thanking them for their hard work, and in it he said simply, "Best crew ever...I want you ALL back next year!" I couldn't agree more. At the risk of sounding like a total dickcheese, I take an extreme amount of pride in the fact that CBR probably covers this show with more depth and passion than any other media outlet – not just comics press or nerd press but ALL press. If you doubt me, check out our Comic-Con coverage index where the team delivered more reporting on panels than you can even imagine with more pouring in every day for this week and likely into next. Having so many people who were professional, timely, thoughtful and smart made what little I had to do administratively a breeze, and I swear to God I've never seen Jonah Weiland so laid back around late July ever. Thanks so much to everyone who kicked in.

2 - Holy fucking shit, Robot 6 and Spinoff Online! I would honestly be a hot mess if it weren't for the ladies and gentlemen behind those blogs, you guys. Every time I had some con-related news come across my desk last minute where we were all freaking out, I'd e-mail the Robot 6 crew and they'd not only respond immediately with a "YES!" but in some cases would actually say, "We were already chasing that." Can you fucking imagine how awesome those guys are?!?! They broke a lot of news on the show itself all by their lonesome and gave more better round ups of the breaking news of the show than any blog on the internet. Amazing, amazing, amazing, A-MAZE-ING, you guys.

And Spinoff? I can honestly say that when Jonah and I dreamt up the idea of a bigger media blog for the CBR network while doing drunken girly phone chats one night, there's no way we imagined it'd be as strong as its been in its brief life under Graeme, Kevin, Josh, Erik Jeffrey and the rest of the crew. We wanted to make a place on CBR that could expand out our coverage of other media that our readership seems to dig without sacrificing one iota of our comics coverage or comics focus, and I think we've done exactly that...and when I say "we've done" what I mean is "they've done, but it's so nice they put my name on that site too." Super aces, bros.

3 - Finally before I link to something that more than three of you want to read, I just wanted to say that I got back from this San Diego more excited about my working future and my future in general than I've felt in a long time. So everyone who hung out and said nice things and kept my positivity up all weekend...basically to all my friends at the show: THANK YOU. I went into this year's show not knowing what experience I wanted from it but walking away with the best one possible, and that was hella keen.

OK, so...content!


* I don't want to foist every piece of pre-con news that I worked on upon y'all, but in the ramp up to the show, there were a few legitimately newsworthy stories and/or just plain fun interviews I got to do that were tangentially tied to the con. For one, I was happy (and a little surprised) to be the only person to reach out and get comment from Jimmy Palmiotti and Larry Young as two of the principals in this coming Kickstart Comics company that's going to be hitting comic shops and Wal-Marts later this year. I know a lot of people throw automatic sneers at any company run by Hollywood folks, but my view is always that if someone is paying creators to get comics done, printed and sold, they deserve a shot to talk about that process in a forum where their potential readership can come and get facts on the product.

On the flip side of that particular story, it was nice to speak to Mark Waid and Matt Gagnon about their changing roles at BOOM! Studios. For being a place whose name carries "the S word," BOOM! has pretty much proven its commitment to comics first, and I'm always glad to see more healthy players of that stripe in the market.

Finally, there were a shit ton of product announcements and product announcement interviews from me in the ramp up to the show, but if I had only one to steer you towards, it'd be this one with Scott Snyder on his upcoming Detective Comics run. I don't know how well it reads through in the final copy, but I haven't spoken to any creator who was as flat out enthused over his new gig that Snyder in I don't know how long. It's nice to see new guys who are fucking hungry in comics, you know?


* Once I landed in San Diego on Tuesday morning, things pretty much started to fall on me left and right. For one, Jonah hatched some hairbrained scheme to get me onto the floor of the show before it opened (my brief photo set is here), and I'll admit it was kind of fun in its fake clandestined-ness. I think aside from all the other awesome perks, fans who want to become professionals should chase that brass ring with the knowledge that when they get that coveted exhibitor badge, there are few things more creepy awesome than walking the floor of Comic-Con when it's totally fucking empty of people.

The other major bit of Tuesday insanity for me was the fact that despite traveling to the show on little to no sleep, I'd committed to doing the latest of our new "Marvel T&A" column for the Friday of the show. We didn't want to miss a week so early in our new weekly column for any reason, so I called up Tom Brevoort from the Taxi stand of the San Diego airport for what I thought would be a ten minute "what do you do when everyone else is at San Diego?" chat and ended up with over 40 minutes of Q&A. If you're at all interested about the inner workings of Marvel Editorial over the product discussion these things usually gravitate towards, you may want to check that out. Also: Brevoort owes me a dollar for including that "T&T" gag in there.

* Once CCI gets underway, the majority of my time doing "live reporting" – that is to say I cover some of the bigger publisher panels as they happen while trying to lose neither my mind or my tenuous wireless signal. I can't complain about it really as doing a panel live means one hour of stressful typing followed by zero work on my part. It's honestly a sweet gig, and I hope that in the rush to catch as much of the news and quote people as accurately as I can, what I produce somewhat resembles readable prose rather that some kind of strange fanboy bulletpoints that need to be decoded by the message board kids. Anyway, the lion's share of these reports included: The first DC Nation panel, the Geoff Johns spotlight, the Marvel Avengers comics panel and the famed Cup O' Joe panel.


* And as part and parcel of that panel coverage, I also spoke to writer Jeff Parker about his plans in taking over Marvel's Red Hulk character with his "Atlas" artist Gabriel Hardman. To be honest, I wrote that story from a couch in the lobby of my hotel at four in the morning during a night of restless, stressful insomnia, so if it makes no sense please don't blame Parker.

* In between that, I found a moment to interview DC co-publisher Dan Didio about the whole "Alan Moore doesn't want Watchmen back or to write a sequel" thing. I mean, I got as much out of DDD as he was willing to give on the subject at least. I honestly don't know what to make of that whole story or even if it's that big of a story, but I'm always interested in hearing the big whigs talk about their big plans – even in vague terms – so it was an interesting thing in that respect at least.


* The other big chunk of my week was spent diving head first into Scott Pilgrim madness. It's kind of insane to me that one of the first things I did as a web reporter on comics was to interview Bryan Lee O'Malley about the release of the series' third volume, and since then the bond I've made with those books and that particular piece of my work life has been an incredibly satisfying and...I don't know? Humbling? experience. I'm going to miss waiting for new books in that world terribly, and I can't think of a better way to have ended my run following them than by live reporting on the star-studded movie panel and then on O'Malley's own comic-themed spotlight.

* I should also mention even though they're not up that for the first time this year, Jonah tapped me to do some of CBR's "Boat Show" video interviews. I hadn't done anything of the sort since the very end of my Wizard tenure where the process of talking to people at the New York Comic Con was as humiliating and degrading work experience as I've ever been through and made me want to stab an ice pick into my inner ear so I wouldn't be able to stand up straight in front of the camera anymore. Anyway, doing it for CBR was a much more pleasant experience, and in the weeks ahead you can all be on the lookout for video of me embarrassing myself in conversation with the aforementioned O'Malley, writer Kieron Gillen and the tag team supreme of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.


* If I could point you towards just one thing I wrote at the show you should check out (or the one thing you probably already have), it'd be my writeup of Grant Morrison's spotlight panel. Jonah very smartly didn't make this one a live affair as trying to encapsulate Morrison's thoughts on the fly would do the writer and his fans a real disservice. I hope I was able to cram as many of the interesting ideas, news and quotes I heard in that hour into my final report. and if nothing else it seems to be getting linked around a lot, for which I'm very grateful.

* Saturday evening at the show, some poor kid in Hall H got stabbed in the eye – a fact I learned while sitting in another panel taking notes, which I then had to leave to rush across the con to cover. Incidents like that are never the most pleasant things to write about, but I hope the report I filed with quotes from the police and Comic-Con's David Glanzer helped keep discussion of the event grounded in fact rather than wild speculation, despite the highly surreal factor that came in when I was asking questions of said police alongside local news stations, Entertainment Weekly and the Washington Post. Of course, that wasn't nearly as surreal as typing up said police quotes about the stabbing while sitting next to Todd MacFarlane on the couch on the CBR Yacht a half hour later. Saturday was fucking weird, man.

* I wrapped my on site reporting of the show with a brief chat with Glanzer about some of the events and issues that had sprung up during the week, and you can read that here. I hope to get David back on the phone for one more Con wrap-up talk this week, and I'll have two more panel reports hitting in the days ahead: A Mike Mignola spotlight and one about Paul Dini and Phil Hester's respective new Cartoon Network projects. Please be on the lookout for all of that in the days ahead, and see you next year!

San Diego 2010 Sketch-o-rama Pt. 1

Oh man, I am wiped the heck out from San Diego Comic-Con! I've been to three of these suckers now, and no question this was my favorite so far. Besides the show itself, getting to interact with fans and see what they think of what we're doing, I had the perfect balance this year of seeing my bros, spending time with creators who I love to chat with, fostering some camaraderie with my Marvel colleagues and going on trippy pro wrestling adventures that land me on the top of PetCo Park shaking hands with Paul Heyman.

But right now, as much as I'm still tingling from great stories and better friends, I'm pretty wasted from taking a red eye back and then heading into the office on three hours of sleep (I'm hardcore).

So while if the past is any indication all four of us will be checking in throughout the next little bit with anecdotes, pics, etc., for now I want to show off some of the sketches I was fortunate enough to pick up this year.

I did snag some new Nova pieces, but my sketchbook is actually still in the physical possession of the great Josh Adams right now. However, I did get a very special surprise Human Rocket rendering from none other than pro wrestling superstar and my Marvel.com broadcast partner "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels!

Not bad, eh? Chris may "fall down for a living" as he puts it, but I think he's got some skills! I see a bit of early Jamal Igle in that piece; very nice shading on the musculature. You may have a second career awaiting you Mr. Daniels!

However, Nova aside, I also had Megan's very special Miss Martian collection along for the ride and got two new portrayals of my favorite Martian, first up from Andy Lanning...

Many may know Andy as one half of the supreme cosmic writing duo of DnA along with Dan Abnett or even as a prolific inker, but he's also a hell of an artist in his own right when not working over somebody else's pencils, as this more than demonstrates. I had some very fun times with Andy over the past week as he's one of the funniest dudes in comics or anywhere really; ditto for Dan. Very glad to see DnA get their well-earned props on the Mondo Marvel panel from an appreciative crowd.

I also got Megan a sketch she's wanted for some time as she's always been jealous of my own Chris Giarusso Nova...

What can I say about Chris G's work? The guy is awesome and I don't think he's capable of bad art. His Miss Martian is absolutely adorable, but I'm not surprised. Megan is totally in love with this sketch already, so I owe Chris, also a heckuva nice guy.

So that's it for the first wave, but when I wake up in three days or so hopefully I should have more for you. In the mean time...Kevin, where are you, kid?!

I Miss You Choo-Choo Train

to be quite honest, i miss my old blog The Choo-Choo Train That Never Stops.

Yesterday was The Choo-Choo Train That Never Stops’ 5th birthday and i missed it.

i went through some of the postings a while ago.

i surely had written A LOT on love, on life, on friendship, almost everything under the sun.

(was even impressed  stunned that I could write those beautiful entries! wow!)

and the pictures, are simply priceless.

there were entries where only he had commented on.

and The Choo-Choo Train That Never Stop brought us together.

 

God, i really miss The Choo-Choo Train That Never Stop.

happy 5th birthday, my beloved.

Happy Birthday, Bro

My baby brother is 22 today.
(I can't even remember what my 22nd year was like)

Abang, hope it'll be a super-terrific 22 for you & fabulous 365 days ahead!
Love you lots, always.

Bonzie in the Irish Examiner!

Credits

Accessories: Bonzie www.bonziedesigns.com
Stylist and Shoot Producer: Annmarie O'Connor @ iblogfashion@gmail.com; 087 976 4920 Stylist's Assistant: Catherine Glasheen
Hair: Susan Corcoran @ John Geaney for Hair - http://www.johngeaney.ie/; 021 450 3788
Make-up: Kate O'Reilly using MAC Make-up- info@kateoreillymakeup.com;
Models: Anya, Frieda and Inta @ 1st Option http://www.1stoption.ie/; 01 670 5233
Photography: Miki Barlok - http://www.barlokphoto.com/; 086 223 7081
Location: The Westbury Hotel - http://www.doylecollection.com/; 01 679 1122

Johnny Hollywood, the Commentary

You may be curious as to why I appear to have a habit of interviewing myself, so the previous post could benefit from some explanation.

The first Johnny Hollywood entry came about as a result of a freelance journalist contacting me through my publisher to request an interview for a well-known magazine. I said okay, he sent me a list of his questions, and I imagine I must have put in an hour, maybe two, drafting the kind of responses I'd be happy to live with.

I never got to see the piece he wrote, but I gather that he'd canvassed about a dozen different writers with the same list of questions. From all the responses he cherry-picked selective quotes. Which is... well, it's not illegitimate. I'm not even saying it's wrong.

But I reckon it's pushing it, a bit.

Rather than see the words wasted, I shunted them onto the blog. A few weeks ago another interview request showed up in my mailbox. I didn't know the sender but she has a site for aspiring writers, from which it's obvious that she's sincere. Now, I never want to forget that my roots are in fandom - old-school fandom, the kind where the convention book rooms were huge and the screening programs tiny, of zines and apas that were often the nursery slopes for the next generation of pros. I'm conscious of my debt to the Bob Shaws and Rob Holdstocks of that world, so I try to behave as I think they would.

Well, as soon as I got a spare hour I fired off my responses, and despite a follow-up query it's been radio silence ever since. So I chopped out some early-career stuff you may have read before, and onto the blog it went.

So here's the outcome of that. In setting up a website and later a blog I made myself accessible, but maybe the internet now makes it too easy to get hold of people and some boundaries are called for. So if you want to ask me anything, ask me here, where it's personal.

But if you're setting out with Google and a list of boilerplate questions, looking to drum up some content from someone whose work you've never even read, from now on I'm gonna have to pass.

Garden Cookies

Cookies sample for customer.

Ida

80 pcs of vanilla cupcakes with baby girl theme.I think it is for cukur jambul if not mistaken.

Thanks Ida ....