I saw T-2 first, as a teen, and while I kinda enjoyed it, I’ve never had much devotion for it. I can’t even say when the last time I watched it in full (fifteen years?). At about twenty I finally watched its predecessor, and I didn’t much like it then, even less the second time. I suppose I was expecting something more out of it given the technological achievements of its sequel, but it was the third Terminator film that destroyed any enjoyment I obtained from the franchise and I just gave up on it. Then I started watching the Fox series, the Sarah Connor Chronicles, which didn’t necessarily re-ignite a passion but probably for the first time I was enjoying the Terminator. I’m greatly anticipating the new movie - which looks dark and miserable, intense and exciting - and a showing of the original on Space this weekend found me in a much more charitable mood. I’d even go so far as to say I kinda like it. I did go and have a bath for about half an hour during it (but it was on in the other room, so I could still hear it). I have to say, though I prefer Lena Hedley as Sarah Connor (blashemy?) to Linda Hamilton, but watching the original I like to think that Hamilton’s Sarah toughens up to become Hedley… not that it really matters as Chronicles doesn’t sequence into the film franchise’s continuity. I’m rambling…
18/05/2009
07/04/2009
[...consumed all new #96] Back Issue #33
There was no internet 20 years ago, at least not one that most people were familiar with. Today’s comic books are covered ad nauseum by the dozens upon dozens of comic book news sites, blogs, and even mainstream media. You can find commentary and discussion everywhere, astute reader essays and interviews with creators. But for stuff from the 1970s and 1980s even into the early 1990’s, there’s not a lot of information out there about the stories behind the characters, the creators and the comics. Back Issue magazine is one of few magazines I will search out, not religiously, mind, but I’ll dig through a few issues and find ones that interest me.
The latest is a total mixed bax, featuring the tale of the Teen Titans as they progressed through the 60’s into the 80’s. The story of Nova’s creation in the 70’s, a historical recap of Power Girl, Mike Baron’s launch of Wally West as the Flash in the mid-80’s, and even an interesting recap on Kitty Pryde, whom I have no fondness for, also appear. There’s a good interview with Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley about their New Warriors run (see “anew #28″) and a fun look at the James Bond Jr. franchise failure, interviews with the actor who portrayed Billy Batson in the 70’s and the voice behind Archie in the cartoons. On the flipside, there’s an atrociously written piece of niche fan wankery about Firestar (from “Spider Man and His Amazing Friends”), featuring cringe-inducing interviews with various script and comic book writers. It is so beneath the quality of this magazine, but the second part of some even worse piece of fan wankery about a fictional comics publisher where the Golden Age Green Lantern, Flash and Hawkman were stars instead of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman wasn’t even worth broaching. Sure, they’re comics professionals at the helm having the discussion, but aren’t there other comics-related things worth talking about than playing fantasy publishing? Save it for your blogs guys. There’s also a Steve Skeates interview, the first part of which appeared in Alter Ego magazine, which leads me to wonder, couldn’t they have kept it in that magazine?
[...learned #96] dulcet
1. Pleasing to the ear; melodious.
2. Having a soothing, agreeable quality.
06/04/2009
[...i ate/about me #96] pop
I managed for a few years to not drink any pop at all, well almost no pop at all, with the occasional mixed drink, and up until last year I was pretty good at keeping my pop consumption to a minimum of only with alcohol, and also minimizing my alcohol intake. The past year and a half, especially with “buy nothing year” last year, I needed to have some sort of creative outlet, and off and on mixing drinks was it. Aden and I would settle in on a Friday night, pop some popcorn, get drunk and make fun of reality TV. It was like the Soup: the Home Game.
Anyway, we got into the bad habit of keeping cases of Coke and ginger ale around the house. They’d disappear faster than we could drink them mind you, but we did manage to keep ourselves stocked. We realized this was a bad habit and broke ourselves of it, but we still wind up with pop around the house from time to time. Especially now that Aden’s pregnant and can’t drink, I haven’t been drinking much, but she’s also getting Coke cravings and wanting ginger ale to help settle her infrequent nausea.
While I’ve not been drinking Coke, much, again, I did discover a few weeks back that Coke and fireball whiskey is delightful (I’ve had more Coke this year than in the past 5 years combined though, about 4 or 5 cups in total), I have however been drinking gin and tonic, ginger ale and rye and a weird flirtation with Fresca one week with almost regular demand. I’d say I’m up to about a can of pop a week on average at this point, which may not seem like much, but my system is wondering just what the hell I’m doing.
Oh, here’s a tip, I’ve discovered a little nip of juice in the pop and booze mix adds nice flavour to the festivities.
Tonight, though, i drank ginger ale straight from the can, which I really shouldn’t do because it tends to fizz up in my esophagus and I get these really gross burps. But you didn’t really need to know that.