geekent’s stuff’n things

31/07/2008

vacation expenses assessment

Filed under: Debt Spiral — geekent @ 1:56 pm

car rental = $919.79 (could have save almost $400 if I had collision coverage… I need to figure out which credit card gives you the $500 deductible coverage and get one of those, as I’ll save in the long run. It’d be nice if my Autoshare coverage covered car rentals as well)


food = $309.57 (this would actually be much cheaper except for Aden and I decided to have a date night while Ma'n'Pa Kent looked after the little guy. We went to one of the most upscale places in T.Bay - the Caribou - and had a lovely relaxing dinner for about a buck and a quarter. We did have two lunches that were from our cooler, and two really cheapy lunches at Robin's Donuts in White River that aren't factored into the above because we paid by cash or debit, not on the credit card.)

gas = $263.09 (could have saved upwards of $7 had I went to different gas stations, but some of the gas stations I went to saved me .05cents/L (Stop-Pump-Go in Terrace Bay and Wawa) compared to others, so we did all right. That’s a little over four tank fills at around $50 a piece)

hotels = $263.09 (stayed at the Voyageur Lodge in Batchewana Bay on the way up, and at the Great Northern Resort in Sault Ste. Marie. We could have went cheaper in the latter, but we wanted a hotel with a pool to give the little guy some wear-down time after 8 hours in the car).



Total = $1725.94 (amount O/S on the credit card from this = $0. v00t)



Conclusion = holidays aren’t cheap.

30/07/2008

what I won’t be buying (comics for October)

Filed under: The Want List — geekent @ 9:39 am

October comic solicits are out, which means I’m now 3/4 the way through BNY in comic book ordering terms. I’ll be a little more lax in what I can do in September and beyond as I’ll be working the Silver Snail booth for Fan Expo in late August, which will give me copious amounts of store credit, but I need to pace myself as last year I wound up blowing my wad early on New Frontier action figures and running out of trade by the end of November.

anyway, my picks and unpics and commentary on what’s coming out (from the major publishers) in about 2.5 months’ time after the cut…


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Acquisitions: July

Filed under: acquisitions — geekent @ 9:23 am

An exceptionally light month on almost all fronts. Going into August I have about $21 in store credit at the LCS, which will be alleviated post Fan Expo weekend, which should last me then until the end of the year.
July 31st saw me 100% out of debt, although a miscalculation in bills vs. spending money for my first debt-free pay period has caused me to be short a few dollars for paying rent. Thankfully, I only pay rent to my wife who is willing to float me until next pay point. What a peach.

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29/07/2008

Is debt free, is not debt free… and other points of note

Filed under: Debt Spiral, Travel — geekent @ 1:57 pm

I’m back, sort of.

Vacations are lovely, and my regular daily life isn’t so bad either, it’s the transition between the two that’s a bitch.

Work survived two weeks without me (with much thanks to Toast for the fill in… I owe you dinner, at the very least, perhaps an Imax Dark Knight too), and recouping took a solid 7 hours yesterday, but it’s almost back into the regular swing. A pair of big things were left for my return and procrastination is no longer an option. Also, it’s time for that title shift.

Rack Raids didn’t fare as well without my regular contributions, but then contributions to the Raid have been pretty spare as of late as contributors hide in the shadows or drop off the face of the planet. Where’d they go? I dunno. I’m having difficulty getting back into the review groove but it’s something that I’ll force myself into shortly, since, you know, that’s what I do.

To compound my feeling of overwhelmedness I set up an interview with the Hoverboy gang yesterday, an exciting multimedia project that spans TV, the internet, comics and is rife with multimedia. Skewering pop culture, politics and social taboos in many different ways, it’s an impressive endeavor as is, and the plans Ty Templeton, Marcus Moore and Rick Green have will certainly make it even moreso if even half of their plans go through. Look for the “Hoverboy Away” article on Chud.com early August (and look for Hoverboy:The Republican Superhero #1 on the comic book rack as of last Wednesday… I got my copy).

The interview was a travesty of ill preparedness, however, as I was utilizing decade-old technology (handheld tape recorder) which was for some reason recording twice as fast as it was supposed to, so my 180 minutes of recording time was reduced to about 42 minutes of actual interview. Marcus and Ty are cordial, multi-talented guys with big ideas and a wild sense of humour. I unfortunately didn’t capture much of their dynamic on tape, when I finally got them both together. Marcus picked me up from work and we drove out to a studio in Scarborough to observe the recording of the “Hoverboy Theme”, which is a 50’s piece of military-themed bombast. When the tape recorder ran out, I was woefully unable to cope, sitting down to chat with the duo, not even a pen or pad for notes (I wished I had my camera so I could have at least captured a half hour or more of video with them). Anywho, all was not lost as once I filtered it through the computer and pitch shifted it and all that doohickery I did have some of it. I impressed no one however. **Sigh**

The camera, meanwhile, was at home, with pictures being processed by my lovely wife. Y’see my camera, bought about 3 years back, went sploosh into the water during a canoing jaunt, and wasn’t recovered, so Aden had to buy a new one once we reached Thunder Bay. There, we took upwards of 200 photos (well, more, but I have selective editing tendencies before offloading pics from the camera). The pics are here. I, frankly, can’t be bothered to post them on my own flickr as you may have noticed.

Our kilometerage on vacation totalled 3178KM (or something close to that). That’s enough driving for one month, I think. Total cost of trip (car rental, gas, hotels, food) was about $1550, which means just as I got myself out of debt, I fell right back into it again. However, as of this Thursday, I’ll be right back out again. Phew. Now, I have to plan out the house fund savings scheme so that we’ll have the most money possible when we go house hunting without being poor schmoes along the way.


and that’s lunch.

20/07/2008

Absent

Filed under: This Site — geekent @ 11:43 am

I’m in the middle of my first ever two-week holiday, and it’s not only been a vacation from work but a vacation from the computer. My life is professionally and recreationally intertwined with computers and the internet and it seems like escaping it is never an option. Emails mount up, websites go unread, and there’s a definite sense of falling behind and/or missing out. Far too many of us are way too comfortable with our digital life and fear and neglect giving ourselves some distance from it. It’s a communication tool, sure, but it’s also a crutch, like any addiction, and while it’s probably the least dangerous of habits, it’s still not a good thing, that separation anxiety it causes.

I’ve been off-line for a full week, at a cottage for 5 days, and then on the road for another two, and so the internet wasn’t an option. At the cottage, where there’s not a lot to do (it would seem at first), I did start to feel pangs of boredom, of detachment. At one point there was an utter and dire need to find out the weather situation locally and there was absolutely no way of doing so easily, and that was probably the only time where I needed the internet, though I did miss it and want it more often than that.

Funny thing though, I’ve had internet access for the past four days and I’ve actually been avoiding it. I’ve had one half-hour email check and chat session, and another this morning (lasting a little over an hour at this point… a lot of business to take care of on the Rack Raids side of things), but I was feeling rather liberated up until now, and it felt good. Putting some distance between self and the on-line world is wonderful. Spending time with my family, bonding with my stepson, chatting with my parents, having fun with my wife… stuff I do at home but the pull of my on-line responsibilities (whether actual or self-imposed) leaves me with less time to do so (and the feeling of more guilt when I ignore the computer). But there’s something refreshing about playing board games instead of video games, about wind surfing or playing badminton or tennis instead of blogging or writing reviews for hours. There’s something rewarding about going down to the waterfront and flying a kite with the little guy, rather than spending half a day juggling MP3s, reading a newspaper and doing a crossword puzzle rather than reading blogs and on-line journals… going to a used book store or recycled sporting goods shop in search of buried treasures which could just as easily and cheaply be obtained on-line… the real world is an even more magical place that the virtual one, and it’s too easily forgotten.

I’ve not said all I have to say, but I think I prefer to return to my family than get lost in my thoughts… for a change. I’ll be back in a week(ish).

11/07/2008

[Re-Review] Three EPs (The Organ, Amon Tobin, Solex) + bonus Beta Band

Filed under: CDs, ReReviews — geekent @ 12:52 pm

Albums: The Organ - Sinking Hearts; Amon Tobin - Verbal Remixes and Collaborations; Solex - Athens, Ohio
Dates Purchased - 2002/2002/2001
Original Review(s) - Sinking Hearts
Verbal Remixes and Collaborations

sinkinghearts.jpgRe-Review Sinking Hearts - the barely-existent chord shifts of Deborah Cohen’s guitar, ashley webber’s simplistic bass lick, the methodical perfunctoriness of shelby stacks drums all cowering behind the minimalist drone of Jenny Smyth’s hammond, the titular instrument the only one to stand out from the crowd, and even then it’s competing for attention with Katie Sketch’s (oxymoronically) haunting lilt. I fell in love with this EP the moment I heard the almost slow-motion drumbeat of “We’ve Got To Meet” make way for a single not of the organ and a penetrating bass dub. Six songs not even totaling 15 minutes were enough to make me a lifelong fan, and the dark glory of Sinking Hearts still resonates with me as powerfully as it did half a decade ago. I’m still amazed at how Sketch and her band of amateur instrumentalists managed to put together such an impeccable dose of anti-pop, so bleak in tone and yet somehow uplifting and beautiful. I sat patiently waiting for a full length, which came in 2004, proving somewhat disappointing by merely adding a few more tracks to restructured and rerecorded versions of the ep tracks. I caught the Organ on tour four times (maybe more) and was enraptured by what was, in every sense, a boring set, the band moving about as animatedly as Robert Palmer’s animatronic “Addicted To Love” women. But the androgynous Sketch was a siren on stage, her voice dragging the audience gladly to their doom. Comprised of gay, straight and bi members, the music transcends orientation and delves straight into the sexual and romantic subconscious. It’s absolutely gorgeous stuff, a classic work that, due to lack of future output from the band, will scarcely be recognized as such.

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10/07/2008

Busted

Filed under: Action Figures, Floppies, The Rules, The Want List — geekent @ 10:26 am

I broke the Buy Nothing Year this week *GASP*
I’d been bending the rules with my whole “store credit” at the comics shop but, yeah, this was a flagrant violation of the rules.
I went for a haircut the other day (the flowing locks are gone, now I’m all naval crewman), and the barber just happens to be across the street from BMV, a local discount/used/seconds bookstore retailer which I frequented when I was living in BOBTown (since it was also on the path on my way home). BMV has not just used DVDs and books and discounted books, but also comics and trades, you know, my weakness?
So I went in to look to see if they had any Planet Hulk or World War Hulk trade paperbacks (as Marvel often releases a glut of trades whenever a movie comes out, and Aden and I wanted to read up on some of the more interesting recent Hulk events after seeing the movie.. and since Aden was also interested in reading them as much as I, I could cheat and say they were a gift for her). They DID have some Hulk trades (and Iron Man, and a whole bunch of various Civil War and other overstocked Marvel titles) but not what I was looking for. What I did find, however, was the first two trades of DMZ for half-price (+$1) and the Hitman/JLA 2-issue miniseries which I missed late last year at half price (+$0.50), all told came to just under $20. I can’t resist a bargain, especially since I’ve been wanting to read DMZ for some time and my Hitman collection felt incomplete without the recent mini.

Well, Adrienne feigned shock, and appropriately chided me on my cave-in, stating she didn’t even want to read DMZ so I couldn’t even justify it (nope, I caved due to sheer greed and my bargain shopping sensibilities. There is a pang of guilt associated with breaking my own flexible BNY rules, but I’m still happy I got those trades at a really good price. And Aden just read Brian Wood’s The New York Four (which will be reviewed on Rack Raids in the next day or two) and liked it so maybe she’ll be receptive to his other works and I can “write off” the DMZ purchases.

JLA/Hitman on the other hand, I just plain regret. Awfully written (Ennis made Superman out to be a child, Batman to be an a-hole, Wonder Woman a moralistic prude, Green Lantern a wimp, and the Flash an even bigger a-hole than Batman if you can believe it… pitting them all into Deus Ex Machinas that the characters should never get into), and ugly (John McCrea’s never been a particularly clean or attractive artist, but this is borderline unreadable slop). A lot of fandom and reviewers, so jubilant to see Ennis return to one of his best creations, were excessively lenient on this book, and praised it as a great extension to the main Hitman series. Nope, it’s utter wankery, putting Tommy Monaghan as the if not ethically, then morally superior character in the story. Plus, do you think Clark Kent is ever going to tell a story like this to anyone other than a fellow hero or his wife or mother? Come on! Like that reporter wouldn’t see through the spectacled disguise the instant Clark started telling the story (and so much of it not from his own perspective). Bad character work and sloppy framing sequence, and generally intolerable writing all around.

Wow, somehow this confession turned into a review. Anyway… I cracked, I caved and I should be good for another 5.5 months now.


(of course, I’m getting those DC Infinite Heroes action figures for the stepson… yeah… for him… and the new Millenium Falcon too (it’s almost bloody 3 feet long!).

08/07/2008

[Review] The Incredible Hulk

Filed under: Cinema, Reviews — geekent @ 4:08 pm

Viewed: In theatre
Release Date: June 13, 2008
writer: Zak Penn and Edward Norton (uncredited)
director: Louis Leterrier

an-incredible-hulk.jpg

Full disclosure: I loved (still do) Ang Lee’s Hulk, and yes, I realize I’m in the minority, but it’s a brilliant film technically (editing, directing and design), and I highly appreciate Lee’s sense of comic book drama. The geeks go on about “Hulk dogs” as if there’s something inherently wrong with that just because it wasn’t in the comics. Lee’s take on the Hulk isn’t about the creature, but rather a story about fathers and their children, of Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) and his dad (Nick Nolte), and Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) and her father (Sam Elliott). The two stories crossed paths, in modern day and in flashbacks, and what unfolded was a mystery nobody was expecting and most still don’t see. Far too many people expected a big-budget Hulk movie to be like the character, rather mindless… a summer blockbuster, just popcorn-chugging fun, full of the Green Goliath smashing his way out of any predicament. Instead, as my wife says, it turned out a snooze-fest of disinteresting human melodrama.

The new Incredible Hulk movie aims to deliver upon expectations that weren’t met from the last film, swapping out any real sense of character progression for a number of CGI rendered demolition derbies, with equal motivation to distance itself from Lee’s film (but without looking like it’s keeping its distance) and to relaunch the character as part of the new cinematic “Marvel Universe”.

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07/07/2008

Lipton v. Tetley

Filed under: Cinema, Tele — geekent @ 3:10 pm

At some point over the past three years or so I’ve actually come to like James Lipton, the hyper-prepared, creepy, leprechaunish host of Inside The Actor’s Studio. I enjoyed Will Ferrell’s take on the man on Saturday Night Live years ago, and Bob Odenkirk’s somewhat repulsive take on Mr. Show, but that was parody, somewhat mocking without any real sense of affection for the man and what he does. But, if you sit down and watch an episode of the show with Lipton interviewing someone whom you’re actually interested in, it’s evident the man (and his writing staff) have done their research and are absolutely fearless about asking any question. Much of the time I have to question “what business is it of yours” but if it invariably comes back to, “and how do you use that in your acting/directing/writing etc.” there is actually some merit.

I think my initial beef with Lipton was his show’s misnomer of a title, since he so often has people who are not actors on his stage. I also was genuinely annoyed by the B-level, C-level (and below) talent that he frequently has on the show, wondering exactly what perspective these TV movie actors really have to give, as well as the young stars who only have a few pictures under their belt. But as a whole there’s an interesting examination of the form from all different angles to what he does, with the thoughts from the people in front of the camera, to the observations of the people behind it, to the people that watch it all from the outside as interviewers (Barbara Walters was on the last episode I saw).

I think I started cutting him some slack after Lipton’s brilliant turn on Arrested Development as the New Warden, who kept trying to promote his screenplay, aptly titled “New Warden”. It was a very self-aware performance, not to dissimilar from Liza Minelli’s Lucille 2 on the show or Bill Shatner’s ham-fistedness in every venture he’s undertake in the past decade. There’s something very enjoyable about an actor or personality who’s so very aware of their presence and how an audience perceives them, and then know how to use all that to their advantage in performing. Lipton’s certainly embracing his unique place in pop culture, and quite frankly, I quite like him for it. And this, well, this kills me:

Best use of “Booya” this decade.





more Hellboy shilling after the cut:

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06/07/2008

[Review] Wanted

Filed under: Cinema, Reviews — geekent @ 9:06 am

Viewed: In theatre
Release Date: June 27, 2008
writer: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas
director: Timur Bekmambetov
wanted.jpg

The bulk of Hollywood’s output from the past decade has been derived from source materials, whether they be novels, TV shows, remakes of (or sequels to) old movies, or comic books. Adapting or updating a story is always a tricky business, because what made the original work a success can’t always be duplicated, sometimes it’s a bit of right-place/right-time, and sometimes it’s the medium in which the story is told. A TV show tells a story differently from a novel which tells a story differently from a comic book which tells a story differently from a movie. In most cases, fans of the source material will invariably like the source material more than the film, because, as necessitated by the medium (and the audience), changes have to be made. Successful translations tend to pare in on what made the original work, and distill that upon the screen. Unsuccessful versions tend to only superficially replicate the source without understanding the heart or message or characters.

In this case, Wanted is a unique beast. A comic book mini-series created by writer Mark Millar and artist J.G. Jones, it was a high-concept “villains win the day” set-up (a rejected pitch, originally intended as an alternate timeline story for DC Comics) (my review of the graphic novel). In the comic, the bad guys rule the world, but there’s in-fighting, and the titular character, Wesley Gibson, must fulfill his destiny as the son of the greatest supervillain of all. The movie dispenses with the which very geeky needling of DC archetypes which comprised the bulk of Millar’s story and instead turns into a story about a league of assassins, complete with it’s own built-from-scratch intricate policies and curious history.

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04/07/2008

Last Content Standing

Filed under: Tele — geekent @ 3:37 pm

Semi-finals round 2 of Last Comic Standing aired last night, and the “reality show” is a freight train of bullshit. Unlike last week where I was incredibly annoyed by who they didn’t pick, this week I’m incredibly annoyed by who they did.

Esther Ku is a cutesy, young, 20-something Korean American girl who plays up her cheekiness to the Nth degree and seems to have someone convinced that she has some sort of talent (maybe for giving BJs to the producers?) Her act is overly-dependent on making painful “observations” about her Korean heritage, which essentially serve as mockery and perpetuation of stereotypes. Talking about her police officer brother she questioned what was so intimidating about someone saying “Ricense and legislation preese”? “Celebrity Guest Panel” Richard Belzer and guy from Sopranos both praised her, even though it was obvious they weren’t amused. I’m guessing some sort of producer edict said “we’re putting her through, so don’t say anything mean”. Earlier in the show, Belzer chided a comic (Heath Hyche) whose act had him playing a 1940’s Japanese pilot and speaking in Engrish, but said of Esther Ku’s same Engrish that it was okay for people to poke fun at their own ethnicity. Sure it is, if there’s something more than just perpetuating the same racist cliches for the sake of an easy laugh. There was nothing Esther Ku did that was funny or edgy in discussing her ethnicity, it was, instead, mockery and insulting. (The Japanese pilot bit would have been fine if the “joke” wasn’t so plain… “he fry rike Tom Cruise?” bleh).

It’s a problem I have with a lot of LCS contestants and comedians in general, people who use their ethnicity as a crutch. We’re not talking Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock or Margaret Cho here, people who are able to discuss their race intelligently and insightfully without resorting to denigrating their people. Those are people who can use cliches against the audience to provoke humour, as opposed to Esther Ku who says, in essence, “I’m not white, isn’t that funny?”

Oh and Esther Ku also makes fun of fat people (with lame jokes like, “Guys always wanna buy me dinner. Do I look hungry? I have a friend who’s heavy, and nobody wants to buy her dinner. She looks like she’s already full.”) How does that work Belzer, can you make fun of fat people if you’re not fat?

Then there’s Papa CJ, a comic from India who doesn’t denigrate his country or his people, but he spurts out joke after joke that reference the most basic elements of Indian culture, or at least what Americans know of it (large population, belief in reincarnation, call centers). Indian-Canadian comics like Russell Peters and Shaun Majumder have something to say about themselves, about their upbringing, about their heritage… Papa CJ is trying to tell jokes that have nothing to do with himself, they’re just jokes, and poor ones at that. Now, Papa CJ doesn’t come from a culture where there are a lot (any) of stand-up comedians, so respect to him for giving it a go, but he’s hardly pioneering anything. Watch some Richard Pryor or George Carlin (RIP both) and take notes.

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