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News and/or Updates from 2006 December 29, 2006: This being the season of rampant consumerism, frantic shopping, big sales and so on I thought it might be worthwhile to take a moment and attempt to remind people that you're dealing with people when you shop--not machines, not automatons, but people who are working at jobs. Don't act like an ass and you will likely get better service than if you are a jerk. The following stories come from several years ago, back when I worked answering phones for Pizza Express in Bloomington. The manager, Kevin, was about the most nonconfrontational guy in the world so he'd gladly defer and let me handle the jerkoff customers as I saw fit just so he didn't have to do it. A couple of times when someone speaking to him demanded to speak to the manager he handed the phone to me, and I wasn't even the assistant manager or anything. December 11, 2006: Watching the Cure's Festival 2005 DVD. On the one hand, it's good to see the core Cure trio of Robert Smith, Simon Gallup & Porl Thompson together again playing with earned-his-wings latter-day Cure drummer Jason Cooper, harkening back to their early punk/postpunk days with a relatively stripped-down guitar-based lineup & keyboardless arrangements that emphasize the Cure's rock drive and not the goth drift. On the other hand, wow Porl looks old, and Robert looks fat and old. I wish they'd stop playing songs no one cares about from their later albums, and as usual for direct-to-DVD live concert presentations the director overdoses on his own cleverness (or what he thinks is cleverness and is actually cliche) by throwing every corny filter in the book at the video at one point or another. "Never Enough" always sucked and they should stop playing it, it's not like it was a real hit. I think Porl wrote it or something though. In the final assessment, recommended if you ever cared but I'm not sure this would demonstrate what the big deal was to anyone who wasn't listening to the Cure in 1987-89. Regardless, "Fascination Street" played by Smith, Thompson, and Gallup still works and the guitar-centered sound works for the Cure when they have a guitar player worth centering the sound around--i.e. Thompson (who while away from the Cure played with Jimmy Page & Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. Ironically, Plant is a Cure fan so they ended up playing the Cure's "Lullaby" as a regular fixture on the Page & Plant tour for Walking Into Clarksdale.) Inessential, but almost vital enough to make me care about the Cure for the first time since, oh, I don't know--Wish? Their recent albums have all been boring, but who knows, maybe with nothing to lose and Porl back in the fold they'll turn out something great again. The thing about English bands is, is doesn't matter how disparate they start off--the Sex Pistols, the Who, the Cure, Cream, Morrissey, whatever--they always end up looking like the same fat old Englishmen playing their old songs and hacking through their new ones. (Bowie is the exception that proves the rule.) It's just an observation, so please let's not have any tiresome nationalistic kneejerk defensiveness. It's not like American bands age gracefully--they tend to gravitate towards the state fair circuit, if anything. Even Def Leppard maintains a modicum of glam, where Blue Oyster Cult long ago lost all vestiges of the aura of mystery that provided their 70s allure. My patience for nationalism is pretty much nil at this point. Having pride in some arbitrary political body just seems so ...primitive. And fucking stupid. Anyway, so, yeah, The Cure Festival 2005. You'll like it if you like the Cure. There's your review. Fuck reviewing, this is boring, I dont have the patience for this kind of thing anymore. I can't imagine what kept me so interested about this process to write so many reviews as I did, but hey, whatever. I wrote them, they're up here now, so at least most of them didn't just disappear into the ether. I bet if I went through the box of magazines where my work appeared I'd probably find some others, but I've been meaning to check that out for like five years and it hasn't happened so it's clearly not a big priority. I've gone back and forth for the past couple years on whether to make a return to reviewing as I did briefly for the University of Hawaii newspaper Ka Leo (until they decided to cut every instance of semicolon use and arbitrarily hacked any sentence using a semicolon in twain) but I think we can safely put reviewing in the column of "Been there, done that, don't wanna go back" now. I spent the weekend editing the audio I recorded during the last calendar year--I cut it down from over six hours to just over a CD's worth of audio. I expect to cut it in half again at least and maybe add a couple new versions/tracks, but I'm working towards having my first new album in awhile finished soon. It'll have the "Find Someplace To Go" & "Not So Naive" singles released here during the past year for sure plus a lot of other stuff, mostly solo acoustic. No solid working title yet. Not entirely sure in what form I'll release it--might be pressed CDs, might be burned CDs, might not even bother to burn CDs. Doesn't matter. Almost entirely irrelevant. Oh yeah, I added Last.fm charts over on the right column of the front page here, so there they are and all. December 9, 2006: Ever worked retail? People ask the dumbest questions ever absolutely straightfaced and expect real answers. When I was working a Musicland two guys came in arguing furiously and came up to me as the accepted expert arbiter to resolve their dispute: December 3, 2006: So it's well known I have a lot of music. Sodge asked me: Just out of curiosity, I was wondering how much of your music you actually listen to. Have you listened to everying at least once, or are you one of those people that tries to go for "artist completeness" whether you like more than one album or not? I doubt I've listened to everything once through. I don't set up rules for myself like that anymore, I used to try but primarily I want to spend as much time as possible listening to good music, not convincing myself I've listened to enough of something to judge it. Anyone who's remotely curious about my listening habits can track such simply by visiting my Last.fm profile, which tracks my most-listened artists, recently-heard tracks, and so on. It's an interesting service hampered by inconsistent behavior and lack of ability to customize your own data, but I find it more useful than something like Pandora. My brother sent me some sort of viral marketing thing for a Pandora-type service I assume his company is involved in promoting and though I dutifully went and checked out the site I got bored almost instantly. I just don't think I'm the right demo for something like that, but maybe when I was in grade school and just getting into music and needed recommendations and context I would have used that kind of thing (had it existed then) instead of delving deep into music reviews and books of music journalism and criticism. So yeah, I'm the type of person who puts up their own internet radio feed, not the kind who listens to others--not that I've put up an internet radio feed. I should look into that sometime. Which reminds me, a bunch of ebay listings are up now, and I'll be putting some more stuff up later today so check out Aaron's current ebay items for sale. These'll probably be the last auctions of the year; it always take awhile for all the payments to come in and the packages to go out, and I have to leave time before Christmas and so on. Over the break I need to trawl through my boxes of comics an CDs and sort out some lots to put up in 2007, but I just didn't have the time or inclination for that this time around so it's mostly books and graphic novels. November 18, 2006: The 2007 edition of Songwriter's Market, which includes three pieces written by me, is out and I received my comp copy via UPS yesterday along with a very nice note from editor Ian Bessler, an old college friend. Thanks Ian. I am currently embroiled in some other writing activities, which look to occupy much of my weekend. Good thing I generally enjoy writing, eh? Anyway, I'm looking forward to paging through Songwriter's Market when I have a chance, it looks like there's some good stuff in there. If not before, I can at least chill at home, page through it and avoid the crowds of people out shopping during Thanksgiving break next week. Ah, four days off in a row. Are there any other words so sweet in the English language? I have some ebay listings ending soon, and I'll be putting some more stuff up soon so it may well be worth your time to check out Aaron's current ebay items for sale. November 10, 2006: I just listed a bunch of graphic novels, hardcovers, & trade paperbacks over at Ebay, including both Marvel and DC stuff, so if that sounds like the kind of thing you're interested in and you happen to see this within the next seven days, then check out Aaron's current ebay items for sale. Otherwise, well. I guess you're missing out. Or at least you should feel like you are, whether or not that feeling has any basis in reality. November 8, 2006: Random, unordered, completely out-of-context quotes selected from my post history on the Something Awful forums (except one line from Ivychat): All tribute bands are sad by default. November 7, 2006: So I went to see the remnants of the New York Dolls (.40 of the original lineup, statistically) with the Supersuckers last night at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, which is a venue I've always liked except for their high drink prices--6 bucks for a Bacardi & diet is a bit much, no? The Dolls were actually better than I thought they might be based on the live DVD of their first reunion performance, but they did a few too many new songs--I mean, they only really made two albums back in the day, but they could easily have just stuck with that material. The new tunes aren't terrible or anything but seriously, I doubt anyone's rushing out to grab it saying "Wow, 'We're All In Love' was fantastic, I gots to hear that again." Their cover of Bo Diddley's "Pills" was good to hear though, and though it was far from consistent it wasn't disheartening the way many reunion deals can be. Also, I got an email from good old Dave Day from the Monks, a really nice guy who I remember as a pleasure to interview back when I wrote "Back To Monk Time": "hi aaron, i know it;s been a long time but i was fooling around with my computer and i came across you;re writing about the monks and read it again after all this time and was quite impressed. you;re quite the writer. just wanted to thank you again and say hi. keep monkin''; sincerely [dave day] banjo-boy. ha///. take care///. " Always good to know Dave's still out there somewhere. The Monks were a brilliant band and one of very very few groups about which one can truthfully say were ahead of their time, considering no one would make music even remotely similar to Black Monk Time for a good ten years after that album. November 4, 2006: Yeesh but it's nice to have a Saturday to just chill now and again. Things have been crazy busy around here lately, what with last weekend being taken up entirely by moving and all that goes with it, followed of course by getting the new place set up this week and the other aftereffects of moving, physical and otherwise. Everything's still not quite exactly where it's going to be, but it's far enough along that it's functional at least and good enough that I can take a few hours to relax, listen to some music for once in what seems like too long. Whoops, album ended. (It was Mind Bomb by The The.) Gotta put something else on. Okay, set. (Cheap Trick In Color rerecorded by Steve Albini.) Anyway I'm pleased to be largely finished with the transition period that's been going on for awhile and emerging on the other side. Establishing a new routine, getting caught up on things that have had to be put off, doing things that need to be done. But just for a bit, it's nice to have a moment to breathe. October 25, 2006: Thanks to karphead for the link to this, my current favorite record. It's a legendary live recording of Kraftwerk when both members of Neu! were in the band, and despite its 'bootleg' origins it's a pristine, professional recording. It's really less Kraftwerk + Neu! than Kraftwerk * Neu! and is actually pretty fucking awesome. This doesn't sound anything like the later robotic Kraftwerk albums, it's much more organic and freeflowing, sounding somewhat like the long pieces from the first few Can albums. Highly recommended, and it's free to download from the above link. (For how long, I have no idea). Kraftwerk "There isn't any extra information about this unofficial release either in the liner notes or on the interweb thing - however, as you listen it becomes obvious that this is indeed a recording of the rather short-lived lineup of Kraftwerk that includes Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger in its ranks! That's right - Neu! as part of Kraftwerk!!! "It's basically a whole CD of extended "side-long" jams in the style of the first Kraftwerk albums performed in front of a small but enthusiastic audience and broadcast on Bremen Radio in 1971. The members of Neu! really take a forward role here, with Rother's guitar driving things for most of the time and sounding quite rocking, with glimpses of his future soaring melodic sound in the extended jam passages. The guitar and drums are backed up by synth and I believe organ bass, with notable exceptions of flute taking the forefront on the great version of Ruckzack (from the first Kraftwerk LP) and is it distorted electric violin on K4? Maybe just Rother taking a violin bow to his guitar strings! Proto-Kraftwerk and proto-Neu! It's exciting stuff, and on top of that the sound quality is excellent - a professional radio recording. "How has this recording not become better known over the past 35 years since it was made?! I don't know. It appears to be a newly released CDR edition with good-quality (but privately printed) packaging. Maybe it has stayed in the Radio Bremen archives until now? If you're sceptical about the authenticity I'm sure a listen will persuade you... and hearing someone in the crowd shout "Michael!" in the last second of the recording is the icing on the cake." - Little Bear [who shared the recording on the internet] This isn’t the motorik, some might even say monotonous, electronic sound of Kraftwerk. Early Kraftwerk were more experimental with sounds and effects - not quite dance music." October 23, 2006: I realize things have been a mite quiet around here lately; real-life concerns have limited the amount I time I have to spend on ye olde internet. Nothing serious, you know, just the typical making sure I have a job and a place to live along with my health and stuff. All of these things should be settling down in about two weeks though, assuming things stay on track between now and then, and I should have a bit more slack to ramble on here and play music and such. That's the plan, anyway. September 6, 2006: So I played the open mic night at 710 Beach Club (formerly Blind Melons) on Monday night, and it was a lot of fun. Too bad there's no way to share that fun with you--oh wait there is. After finally getting around to reading the entirety of John Ostrander's run on The Spectre, I am of the opinion that overall, the writing is stronger than Neil Gaiman's Sandman, successfully integrating many of the same concepts with more intellectual content, tighter plotting, and far less pretension. The Spectre's art is much more consistent as well, maintaining artist Tom Mandrake doing the best work of his career over the course of the entire series with most fill-ins by John Ridgway (Hellblazer's original artist). I can only ascribe the fact that Sandman is in print and available at any Borders while Ostrander's Spectre languishes in back-issue hell to the fact that Sandman appeals more to silly people who like to dress in black clothes and listen to music made by other people who dress in black clothes. (I was one of those people once, lest you think I cast stones indiscriminately.) It's just that Sandman is the kind of writing that when I first read it in late-teens/early-20s I thought it was really intellectual and deep, and now when I reread it I think it's the kind of writing that sounds really intellectual and deep to someone in their late-teens/early-20s (still quite good relatively speaking, though. Also, I stole that analogy from someone else's description of Elvis Costello's lyrics, and I don't recall who. Probably Chuck Klosterman or Greil Marcus). Frankly though, it's only recently that DC Comics has started to wake up to the vast bookstore market and the sad lack of in-print editions of some of the great work produced for the company. Ostrander's The Spectre and Suicide Squad (the latter largely cowritten with his late wife Kim Yale) are complex works that frankly would appeal to a lot more casual bookstore browsers than the wacky Silver Age reprints and 'event' comics collections that tend to dominate DC's bookstore offerings--there is, after all, a reason Sandman, Preacher, Watchmen, and V For Vendetta have been perennial bookstore sellers and it's not because they contain the first appearance of Jimmy Olsen's cousin or the new revamped DCU continuity in which Batman caught Joe Chill or whatever. I love that wacky Silver Age stuff and eat it up but bookstore browsers don't care about that, nor should they. You need to be able to hand someone a book and say just "Read this, it's good" not "Read this but first you need to know this and this and this and this is why that was important." You shouldn't have to already love the characters before picking up a book; the book should make you care about the characters. Ostrander's work on Spectre and Suicide Squad (along with the incredible Deadshot spinoff mini cowritten with Yale) achieved that. (Suicide Squad at least would definitely have to be recolored though, some of these issues look pretty garish. Black & white 'phone books' or manga-format would probably work well though.) Wasteland, the amazing series Ostrander did with Del Close, was less consistent over the course of its run and as it was short pieces rather than a single epic tale it's probably unnecessary to collect the whole thing, but at the very least the best bits of the series should definitely be cherry-picked. V For Vendetta's David Lloyd drew some of the best stories, that should be a selling point. Most importantly, though, these named works simply contain good writing, good enough to appeal to non-comics fans. I am not just blanketly recommending everything Ostrander wrote here either; the Legends miniseries he plotted was pretty dreadful and his Firestorm went a bit off the rails (a lot of the art was shit, too). It's just that the commercial potential for Suicide Squad, The Spectre, and Wasteland seems obvious: the work is very much superior to most of what else is currently available and very much in line with what bookstore comics buyers have bought in the past. That's money in the bank. September 3, 2006: I signed up for Last.fm, a music social networking site which is apparently responsible for coining the horrible word 'scrobbling' to describe the process of collecting data on what music one listens to. Actually, to be more accurate I signed up for it in February but just now got around to figuring out how to configure my foobar audio player setup to work with Last.fm. Anyway, my Last.fm profile actually shows some info on what I've been listening to lately, should you care to check that out or network with me there. Do try to remember that I keep my player on random 90% of the time, though: just because it shows an awful song now and again doesn't mean I consciously chose to play it. Then again, it doesn't mean I didn't. Sometimes my listening tastes bend that way. September 2, 2006: I'll be performing a Listen Local Showcase performance this Thursday, September 7 at PB's Tiki House, absolutely free! I'd love to see any of you there, though the venue is 21 and up only, sorry younguns. The lineup for the evening will be: August 28, 2006: On the flip side of my last update, today I'm reflecting that it's nice that some musical experiences do remain constant, or relatively so. The sense of anticipation, curiosity, excitement, and even anxiety I feel on checking out a longtime favorite artist's new album isn't exactly the same as when I was in high school, when I would allow my expectations to rise implausibly high and hope for every new release to be the best thing ever, but new stuff from someone whose work I've loved is always nice, especially since these are so few true artists in the field. I'm listening now to the new Bob Dylan, Modern Times. I will refrain from the over-analysis that goes hand-in-hand with most writing about Dylan and his work (though in fact I would argue that the level of complexity in Dylan's sixties work helped birth the entire field of music journalism by inflaming the imaginations of English majors all over the world) and simply say this: I'm listening to Modern Times, it sounds like the next album after the last one (Love & Theft), and I'm enjoying it. Love & Theft eventually developed into one of those personal favorites with personal meaning to me and where it figured in my life at that time and all that good stuff music enthusiasts like to carp on about; I don't know whether Modern Times will end up that way or if it'll end up being more like one of those albums I listen to, enjoy, and file away for future listening, but either way it's nice to have new Dylan to fill my eardrums. In other news, I've returned to live musical performance for the first time in several years. I'm honestly not sure when the last time I played music onstage was, but it was probably early 2001 with one of the last electric lineups of Daisy Glaze. The current thing is solo acoustic; actually, if I had compare it to something for descriptive purposes I'd say it's most similar to Dylan's solo acoustic thing from the mid-60s, though obviously not as good. Lots of words you won't be able to make out, lots of songs with G chords, strumming and singing. Kinda folky acoustic punkish rock, mostly. It is what it is; when I play for friends the most common reaction I get is that the listeners are generally "pleasantly surprised", which I take to mean that when a friend asks you to listen to them play it's usually godawful, and I'm not godawful. Maybe I should make that my slogan: "Aaron Poehler: not godawful." I guess that's more self-effacing than "Better taste than you." Anyway, watch this space for future announcements about upcoming performances around San Diego. August 23, 2006: I watched the documentary Jandek On Corwood about reclusive musicial artist Jandek. It was well-made, but reminds me that the mystique Jandek once commanded by simply being inaccessible is totally impossible today--and to a large degree, the qualities of mystique, danger, uniqueness, and rarity have largely disappeared from music. It used to be that contact with musicians was reserved for music journalists and groupies. It used to be that albums other than those in the top 40 were hard to find and required some effort to even get the chance to buy--and that's assuming you knew how to find out about their existence. It used to be that all we knew about the people behind the music were half-true rumors and legends and stories that had grown in the retelling until its central figures seemed larger than life, like golden gods. Now you can buy pretty much any CD ever released at any time on ebay or Amazon or someplace else with a Google search or two. Now you just add your favorite musicans to your Myspace friends and join their official emailing list. Now if you want to know if an artist is using a fake name, what their real name is, where they are from, when they were born, and where they live, wikipedia or some FAQ will provide the information you need. Don't get me wrong, I certainly wouldn't want technology to go away even were that possible and conversely, I love the fact that I can get whatever CD I want delivered to my door in under a week, and tons more people have heard my own music today than in the pre-internet era. But it doesn't hurt to point out the truth. Truth is all we have to defend ourselves against the lies that barrage us every day; marketing may well be the major shaping social force of the historical period beginning with the second half of the twentieth century and continuing through to the present day. And the truth is for all we've gained, we've also lost some things which very possibly can never be regained. And some of those things are things I miss terribly--like the feeling of hunting through record stores and flipping through every single CD trying to find just that perfect album, the CD that wouldn't let me leave the store without it lest I never see it again. Like the notion that rock stars are somehow greater than human, instead of occupying the often less than human position minor celebrities occupy in our culture, reduced to caricature. Like the idea that someone out there is making absolutely fucking killer, brilliant music that no one's ever heard of, but they just haven't gotten their 'shot' or whatever. But some things that go away don't come back. And Jandek's just a guy after all. August 19, 2006:The Scion is "hip" in the same way that IKEA and Apple and the Democratic Party are "hip": via a manufactured, calculated marketing strategy that appeals to a specific demographic by defining itself against the mainstream rather than competing on its own strengths. Most cars accept the reality of the science of aerodynamics and its effect on fuel economy? Hey, the Scion isn't for "most" drivers! It's for unique snowflakes like you who are bold in their consumer choices, bold I tell you!
August 17, 2006: I've always loved the 28-issue run of Animal Man Grant Morrison did. Even today I think it's still his best, most inspired work--uniquely original without the tone of forced weirdness that sometimes infects his comics. (Fortunately, the entire run has been collected in three trade paperbacks, so you don't have to hunt it down issue by issue in dusty comic shop back rooms the way I did.) I've really been enjoying DC Comics' weekly event comic 52 and it's a special treat that Grant is writing the Animal Man scenes in the book (Animal Man showing up towards the conclusion of Grant's epic JLA run was a big 'fuck yeah' moment), but really outside of the context of his own book Animal Man always seems a little bit ordinary; I mean, really, before Grant got ahold of him he was just another B-list character no one but comic geeks remembered. It could just have easily been Space Cabbie. What made the series great and the character of Animal Man as written by Grant memorable was the groundbreaking metafictional qualities Grant infused throughout the series, tempered with his own raging DC Silver Age fanboyism. Grant's love for this fictional world comes through on every page, especially the heartbreaking finale (no spoilers, but it really is). The only way Animal Man can retain that quality outside that context is to take the context with him when he pops up in other books (to which he seems limited these days). Animal Man should take on the aspect of the DC Universe's avatar of metafiction--let's say through the typical means he's trapped in our universe for a year. Somehow he stumbles on our comics about his universe and reads every single DC Comic ever published while he's here, since that's all valuable information where he's from--I mean, to you and me it'd be like finding the secret behind-the-scenes diaries of Che Guevara, Tom Cruise, Kurt Cobain, Adolf Hitler, and every other important or popular 20th century figure all in one place. So then he gets zapped back into the DCU (let's say Captain Atom has something to do with it for no good reason) and he's the only dude who knows all this crazy shit that essentially boils down to insane comic nerd trivia in our universe but in his context it's like someone handed him the cheat codes to life. There's still plenty of potential drama and suspense in his story since the timeframe of his privileged information would end when he was returned to his own universe, and he'd definitely keep his knowledge to himself since the mere possibility that he might be privy to the secrets of the powerful and dangerous would result in his instant elimination, but it would add an extra frisson to any interaction between Animal Man and other DCU characters, as the reader would always wonder what edge Animal Man gained via his knowledge. Plus let's face it, just having the ability to take on animal powers is kinda weak sauce. August 16, 2006: The latest album I can't get enough of is Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out Of This Country, which isn't as overtly political as one might think from the title...or is it? Personal politics are the root of all others, after all. Catchy female-voiced pop songs, a simple pleasure. It's not heavy lifting or difficult listening, it's just nice-sounding, pleasant stuff. Not every day has to be a Trout Mask Replica day though, and lately I've been throwing Camera Obscura on a lot more than old Don Van Vliet. Nothing on Country quite hits me the same as "Suspended From Class" on their last album Underachievers Please Try Harder, but the whole affair comes off a bit less Belle & Sebastian overall (which is fine with me) and "Hey Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken" gets me every time. I'd link to the official Camera Obscura site but loath as I am to admit it their myspace page is a lot more useful in that you can actually hear four tunes from the new album, including the title track and "Hey Lloyd" simply by clicking and they sound quite good. Myspace is often an obvious punchline and their coding and technical underpinnings could be a lot stronger, but the simple functionality of their music interface trumps pretty much anything else that's been a serious contender, and as far as music networking it just works. I know a lot more people have heard my stuff on my myspace page than have heard it here or (heaven forbid) bought CDs, and I'm sure that holds true for most artists on there. Still, you gotta admit it sounds dumb when people are onstage saying "Hey my name is such and such and you can check me out at w-w-w dot myspace dot com backslash brooklyn1986." You've still gotta have your own site, your own space to do with precisely what you wish, how you wish (link goes to thematically relevant xkcd strip that eloquently expresses my feelings on this issue). Myspace could change their terms of service tomorrow and be reduced to a tenth of their userbase within a year; it's happened before. Internet popularity is fleeting, especially among the myspace's primary demographic. One day everyone is on a site and the next they're elsewhere an that's just how it is. I suppose I should note that I add everyone who requests such on myspace, so feel free to add me if you're so inclined. Though I've been updating primarily here lately, I imagine I'll use myspace more when there are some solo performance gigs to announce. Open mic stuff is coming up soon though so I may be more active on myspace soon than I have been in awhile. August 14, 2006: There must be some quirk of copyright/trademark law that leads to the inclusion of comedy songs on otherwise hilarious comedy stand-up CDs, because it’s a nearly axiomatic occurrence. Back in days gone by comic books had to include a page or two of text to qualify for the lower mailing rate for publications (they used to pay people to produce crappy short stories—Stan Lee’s first comics work was one of those--but then switched to letter columns when they realized that was way cheaper), so only that could possibly explain why comedians with an otherwise flawless sense of humor slap unfunny, amateurish songs on their CDs. Worst of all is Joe Rogan’s “Voodoo Punanny”, a studio track which for some reason Joe slapped right in the middle of his live-recorded stand up routine as if he actually thought it was funny, but other examples abound though few ever get any exposure even on chronically comedy-deprived radio morning shows—even clowns like Bob & Tom or Mancow don’t think this dreck is funny.
August 7, 2006: Watched Ultimate Avengers 2 last night, which was a complete waste of time. The first one was pretty bad, but as the first product of Marvel’s self-produced direct-to-DVD animation project I figured I’d let a few things slide and maybe they’d have ironed out some of the kinks by now, but no. Actually this took everything they did even kind of right in the first one and threw it out the window and amped up everything crappy to 10: generic evil alien enemies with no character or motivation, incomprehensible nonsensical plot, random characters introduced for no reason, awful clichéd dialogue, sub-par animation, and bad voice acting. I don’t even know why they call it Ultimate Avengers, since it’s not based on Ultimates in any way this time around; the first one was like Ultimates done by morons but at least there were some elements held over from the comic. Ultimate Avengers 2 is just like a really bad 3-part G.I. Joe cartoon from the 80s. Marvel should really just scrap this whole idea because the people they hired to make their cartoon movies for them clearly have no idea what they’re doing; the most interesting thing to me about UA2 was that while it was top-loaded with horrible clichés, they were all movie clichés right out of a Jerry Bruckheimer film rather than comics clichés, which makes me wonder if they hired people with minimal comics experience who just want to use this to break into ‘real’ film work. Regardless, it’s just not working—hopefully when DC/Warner starts coming out with their new line of direct-to-DVD animated features, they’ll be better. Warner does have substantial animation resources and DC has stated their intent to adapt storylines from the comics as closely as possible, a policy that would preclude disasters like UA2. Really, why adapt Ultimates—one of the smartest, most politically/culturally savvy adult superhero comics on the stands today—if you’re just going to cut anything above a 6th-grade level out of it and turn it into something that looks like a button-masher space invaders videogame? Also managed to catch the pilot for The Singles Table, a new half-hour single-camera comedy featuring John Cho, who I liked a lot in Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. I really liked the pilot a lot, but it’s got the stink on it of being exactly the kind of thing I like a lot that isn’t going to reach enough mainstream audience to keep it going. Smart, witty, subtle, character-driven, non-caricatured well-rounded minority characters, no laugh track—these are all things I like to see in television comedy that the American public apparently doesn’t care about, since shows like this usually disappear after three episodes. The show has the feel of an indie movie (somewhere between Garden State & Clerks) crossed with an HBO show (more Sex In The City than Lucky Louie), and in fact the premise might have been better done as an indie flick because then the target audience could at least pick it up on DVD and check it out sometime. I dug the show but I’m not getting my hopes up. So on one of my regular boards this morning someone was asking advice for first-time visitors to Hawaii. El Jackalope posted “Rent a car and drive around. Make sure you go on the Pali and do the lookout there, it's amazing. Go to Char Hung Sut on Smith and Pauahi one morning and get some manapua and eat them. Don't stay in Waikiki much. Make sure you go to the Bishop Museum and Pearl Harbor (go on the Bowfin, a WWII Diesel submarine in dock!), etc etc. Main advice: don't be afraid to eat something that might look weird, and go local instead of huge tourist stuff. It's fun. Sometimes I miss it there. :sigh:” As a former Hawaii resident, this is mostly good advice, assuming by "I'm going to Hawai'i" you mean "I'm going to Oahu". In my experience you do have to go to the Pali lookout or everyone will whine at you until you actually go and yeah, it's a lookout with a view. Sure it's nice and all but big deal, it's Hawai'i, everywhere has a nice view. But it's free and all so hey. Go to Hanauma Bay. Go early because parking is difficult and feel free to mock the instructional video afterwards. They make everybody watch it now. Yeah sure, Pearl Harbor, Bishop Museum, do that. It's something to do that's vaguely educational so you won't just be drunk/baked/at the beach all day. Find Jelly's and go there, it's an awesome huge store with comics, CDs, books, whatever. The people that run it are nice as shit. For new comics Collector Maniacs in Kaimuki has the best discount though. Gecko's kinda sucks. Go to Kailua Beach on the windward side, it's one of the nicest beaches in the world (consistently rated top 10). After a few hours there you'll wonder why anyone ever goes down to Waikiki, I do. Get shave ice at Island Snow afterwards, it's my favorite shave ice place. Eat a local plate lunch, or you haven't truly visited Hawai'i. You don't have to get poke, you can get just teriyaki beef/chicken with rice & mac salad, but you must eat at least one local plate lunch or your visit doesn't count. Also eat at Zippy's a few times, it's the real local chain. Get the Zip Min once. Drive around Oahu. Literally, drive all the way around it. You see a lot you'd never see otherwise and a lot of it's cool, isolated stuff tourists never see. People drive slowly in Hawaii and don't understand the 'pass on the left' thing, you'll often find some dude just crusing right at the speed limit in the left lane on the highway. Just chill and accept it, they even have bumper stickers that say "Slow down brah, this ain't the mainland." Don't be a douche. I have no reason to assume you guys will be, but as a former local I tell you this: pretty much every day you see some tourist acting like a douche, so after awhile it gets set in your head "tourists=douches". Use common sense. Don't be offended if people talk about race a lot more than you're used to. It's a subject that's a lot more open for discussion in Hawaii than on the mainland--I'm half-asian, but no one ever asks about my particular ethnic background here, whereas in Hawaii it's literally often the second or third thing someone asks you about, right after "So where'd you go to high school?" And don't be offended if anyone says you're a haole (how-li), which is generally used to mean white but actually means foreigner (ie non-Hawaiian), it's usually a casual joking thing since white is a minority in Hawaii. If angry braddahs are shouting 'Haole' at you you might want to find another beach though. Oh and if you are white, wear sunblock. When you're down in Waikiki look around and I guarantee you will see at least five tourists (usually from European countries, for some reason) who are whiter than Scarlett Johansson but have apparently never heard of sunblock and get crisped lobster-red the first day. This happens to Germans a lot. My theory is these people have lived at higher latitudes their whole lives and are unprepared for the greater intensity of the more direct tropical sun. Local white people in Hawaii need hats and sunblock on a daily basis, and so do you. Do try to do the local stuff but don't ever try to pass as a local. I was born in Hawaii, I'm half-Asian, and I lived there for years but I'll never be a 'true' local because I didn't go to high school there. The locals are very insular and protective and you will never fool them, and they will not give you the Kama'aina discount unless you can name three people you went to high school with that knew someone they went to high school with. I am not exaggerating, the woman at the golf course asked my brother exactly that even though he had a local driver's license. August 4, 2006: I've seen some bad movies (many at Spazzle's behest) but Reeker takes the prize. The best way to describe it is Identity made by idiots. The title was never explained and it had little to do with anything; the best we could figure is that "Reaper" was already taken and that was the closest they could get. Incidentally, while looking at imdb for the above links I noticed this current promo text: "In The Night Listener Robin Williams plays Gabrielle Noone, a late-night talk show host who strikes up an on-air phone relationship with a young boy who claims to be his biggest fan. As Gabrielle tries to reach out..." Now maybe it's just me but the male form of that name is Gabriel and the female form is Gabrielle, so pick one and stick with it. Still, even if it really is 'Gabrielle' it's still more plausible than the name of the protagonist in well-known anti-Semite Mel Gibson's Paparazzi: Bo Laramie. Seriously, Remo Marlboro is a better name. The whole movie is basically a movie star's revenge fantasy anyway but come on, Bo Laramie? That name wouldn't even work for a 50's western. Oh yeah, I bought a pickup for my acoustic, a Dean Markley Pro-Mag Grand. I plugged it into the Mackie and ran it through the amplifier and it seemed pretty good. I'm going to do some rehearsals with the pickup and singing into a mic to get ready for the open mic stuff; I suppose I'll probably run the recording when I do, since it costs nothing but hard drive space. If anything decent comes out of it, I'll post it as a live session. July 31, 2006: Made some minor changes to this page and the about me page, mainly involving moving some of my smarmy introductory text to the left there and moving the rest to that other page. No big whoop. I'm very nearly finished with Gerard Jones' Men Of Tomorrow, which tells essentially the nonfictional stories of the men whose lives inspired Michael Chabon's Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: principally, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, creators of Superman. It's quite well written (better than I expected, actually, as I was never really a fan of Jones' comic book scripting) and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Kavalier & Clay--if nothing else, to help one discern where the line between imagination and roman a clef lies in Chabon's work. Checked out the open mic at O'Connell's a bit ago; it was somewhat sparsely attended while I was there but the overall level of quality of musical performance was quite good, higher in fact than I would have expected. The guy who runs the open mic was very friendly and kept it casual and free-flowing. I will likely return and very likely perform there, although I have realized that the fact that my acoustic doesn't have an onboard pickup may be an impediment. I feel like I've been dangling on the precipice of buying a pickup for this guitar for five years+, and perhaps the time has come. I've never been thrilled with the sound from any of the pickups I've tried out before, but maybe I'll have to research this out online and all that, or at least ask the dude in the store what he recommends. My rededication to focus mainly on solo performance in the near future (not that I'm opposed to working with others, but I'm not actively pursuing it really) seems to indicate it'd be worth my while and wouldn't just turn into a piece of musical equipment that sits unused, a particular sin of some sort. I paid the rent today though, so running out and buying something that doesn't directly relate to keeping food in my stomach or gas in my car probably isn't going to happen until Friday at the earliest. Current listening: a whole bunch of Bob Mould. Like five hours' worth. Just Bob too, no Husker Du or Sugar even. Must be a rainy day. Bob Mould is rainy day music. (As "Deep Karma Canyon" comes on. Yeah.) July 29, 2006: It's the season when leaks of pilots for new shows coming up in the fall start showing up--most I suspect leaked intentionally in an attempt to drum up buzz, but it's a smart marketing tool. I checked out a few this afternoon, including Heroes, a new 'people with superpowers in the real world' drama that Jeph Loeb (Lost, Superman/Batman comics, Smallville) is behind. It didn't grab me. They're going for a vibe very much like that of Unbreakable, so if you're one of those who loves that flick you might love this. They're very careful never to use the word 'mutant' as Marvel legal is very touchy about that kind of thing, so imagine X-Men done Lost style and you're 90% of the way there. Not entirely without potential but unless it picks up quickly from the pilot I can't see hanging in there too long with this one. Square in the same vein is Aquaman, which wasn't terrible but can be completely described by saying it's Smallville with elements from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and X-Files. Parts were pretty goofy and overdone/badly acted--in one segment, young 'A.C.' (Aquaman, though never referred to as such) is being attacked by a siren who cackles in her apparent victory and the actress actually says "Ha ha" rather than actually laughing. Recommended for hardcore fans of the above but probably no one else. A nice surprise was Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin's behind-the-scenes-of-SNL comedic drama (as opposed to Tina Fey's behind-the-scenes-of SNL dramatic comedy) starring Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, that guy from the West Wing who's married to the mother on Malcolm In The Middle, the other guy from Wings, D.L. Hughley, and a bunch of other people you'll vaguely recognize. The acting is good and the writing is very sharp, Sorkin taking on showbiz the way he took on politics previously, but most impressive is the chemistry the show has. It just works, it coheres into a plausible reality. I wanted to see more when it was over, which I couldn't really say I was dying for from the others. It seems an attempt to reach HBO-levels of quality in a network show (with big-budget network resources) and it could be a bet that pays off big time. This show could be really good for everyone involved as long as it doesn't get screwed by confusion with the other similarly-themed show. Last weekend I attended the San Diego Comicon for the first time, and found it worthwhile. I don't know that I'd travel halfway across the country for it, but it's definitely something. I bought exactly one thing: I had Carmine Infantino sketch the Flash for me. It's on my wall now (sorry no photo, my camera's borked right now). Next year I'll probably go to some panels and such, preregister and go a couple days. We'll see how it works out though. Also coming up: I'm pretty much practiced up and ready to start doing some open mics around San Diego soon. I'll make announcements here when relevant. I restrung my guitar for the first time in forever and it sounds so much better it's ridiculous. Looking forward to banging out some tunes on it in public again, hope to see you there. Until then, it will probably sound much like the solo stuff on the music page. March 28, 2006: In the spirit of spontaneity, I have posted a track I recorded tonight. Time shall tell whether this was a wise choice. I comfort myself in the fact that chances are slim the fate of the free world hinges on this decision. Anyway, see the music page for more on this development. February 24, 2006: In collecting all of my reviews from the far corners of the net in order to present them here, I found something interesting on Razorcake.com: there are at least a few reviews credited to me over there that I didn't write. At first I thought I just didn't remember them and for some reason they just weren't in the original .doc files I dug up of my Razorcake reviews, but I assume the wrong author's name just got tagged accidentally. In any case, all the reviews I did for Razorcake are up now in the review section, and if you happen to see one at Razorcake with my name on it that's not here then I didn't write it. February 23 2006: Added the review section, containing the largest assembly of my music reviews I've ever put together. I still have some old stuff to go through to add even more, but the bulk are up right now--the others will filter in slowly, as they have to be either retyped or scanned in. I also added a few articles to the Other Articles writing page. February 22, 2006: Well, the site exists, that's news in website terms I suppose. The structure is there and all the current music and a few articles so far in the writing, plus the design's settled for now and so on.
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