Is this thing on.....?

Yes, yes it is. With new content coming very soon.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Part 1)

June 30? My last post was over two months ago?! Apparently I decided to take the summer off from blogging, despite all kinds of "stuff" happening tailor-made for this place. But, once I started missing a few things, it got harder to catch up. And with such a gap, I started to feel a little overwhelmed about everything I "should be" covering, and that kept me away even longer. So finally, I realized/decided by the end of July, well, I’m taking the summer off.

Now, I want to wipe the slate clean and start fresh for the fall, so I’m going to get all of this out of my system with a series of summarizing posts. Then, we can begin again with hopefully a little more regularity.

The biggest miss of course was my review of The Dark Knight. If you scroll down this page, I spent almost a year blogging about my anticipation for this release. Then on July 18, it finally comes out and…nothing, even though I saw it twice (and still hope to catch it in IMAX). I reviewed Iron Man back in May , but skipped reviews of the other big summer movies I saw – Indiana Jones, The Incredible Hulk and … The Dark Knight.

One of the reasons I think I skipped it was because I didn’t know what to write. I LOVED the movie. There are only so many ways I can write "awesome". And I had read so much about the movie before and after its release, it was hard not to be influenced by some of what I had read. Heath Ledger’s Joker was inspired and Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent was mostly great, though the resolution seemed a little… rushed, despite the movie’s length. Returning cast Bale, Oldman, Freeman and Caine built on their strong showing from Batman Begins with even meatier performances. Nolan blended drama, action and humor to create a fantastic, very dark sequel. It immediately leaps to the top of the list of the best comic book movie, though it’s followed pretty closely by Iron Man, as I wrote earlier.

The Incredible Hulk was a fun movie too. Casting aside the Ang Lee version from 2003, this Edward Norton-led version owed a lot to the TV show and the comics. It provided what we were looking for the first time – lots of action, with some major fight scenes against the military and the Abomination, and featured the Bixby-like Banner on the run and in hiding doing menial jobs under false names. And like Iron Man before it, the movie made clear its part of a larger Marvel movie universe. Kudos to Marvel for taking control of the movies based on its characters and planting the appropriate amount of seeds.

As for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, while it was great to see Harrison Ford back with his fedora and whip on the big screen again, the movie was a bit of a letdown that slightly tarnished the legacy of the character. It has its moments, but overall it was disappointing.

I didn’t see other comic adaptations Hellboy II or Wanted in the theatre, but I’m sure I’ll catch them on cable within the next year. Other summer movies I considered seeing but haven’t were the comedies Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder, both still in theatres. I’m on a mini-vacation late this week. Maybe I’ll catch one of them.

Trapped in the Vast Wasteland

So, when I restarted this blog over the summer, I thought I was reinvigorated enough to start posting regularly, but it’s now been over a month since I posted last. Why is that?

Simple. The new TV season. Not only have I been watching most of the same shows I watched last year, I have added several new ones – on both broadcast and cable. I have become such a slave to my remote that I find little time to post any more. Plus, I have also gotten a bit of a life going now, so that helps too. But, that’s not for the blog…..

But the good news is, once I do get back to posting regularly (hopefully, this week), I will have a lot of TV to write about. And movies. And books. So stay tuned.

I am actually looking forward to the writer’s strike, so I can get a bit of a breather. More reality TV means I will be watching less TV. More movies, more books, and hopefully more writing.

Thought Balloons of an Aging Fanboy

Whew, has it really been 6 months since I last posted? Well, a lot's happened since February (and even more during the 3 months before that), but I'm going to give this another shot, and thought this was a good time to come back to it.

I've backed off on comics a bit, and am no longer buying monthly (or weekly) issues, deciding instead to wait for key trade paperbacks, without worrying about the ongoing continuity of the DC Universe. I've been disillusioned by the current direction, and its pointless to complain and not do anything about it, so now I'm saving a little bit of money, and hopefully putting some of that time back into regular reading.

That said, the summer comics convention season just ended and there's a lot to link to, though surprisingly little of it had to do with comics. So, I'll try to get the best of that stuff up in the next few days.

Also, the new TV season is starting up soon, with a lot to comment on this fall, both new and returning shows. This summer, there's a been a lot of great new shows on basic cable, and I've been checking them out to. I should comment on them as well.

Thanks to my DVR, I've been catching a lot of great movies and documentaries, new and old, and of course you'll want to hear what I think about them.

The animation DVDs never stop -- I've bought a few over the past 6 months, with a few more on the way.

I can't believe how little reading I do these days -- no thanks to the iPod and DVR, but I'd like to pick that up again, and share some thoughts there as well.

Speaking of the iPod, I've been listening to all kinds of great music, new and old, blues, rock, jazz, and a little bit of everything else. Music criticism is not a strong point of mine, but I'll try to get better with the music appreciation at least.

Wow, that's quite a To Do list, or maybe its a mission statement, but either way, there;s no shortage of topics, now that I've re-connected to the blog and even took advantage of some of the new features that have been added, and will keep doing so.

So, hopefully, there will be a reason to check this out again, for like the three of you that were -- and maybe a few more can join this time.

Check back soon -- and comment often.

Welcome

I've been itching to try this for awhile, so let's see how this works out. Let me know what you think.

I'm going to try to post something new daily with links and pics and such. As the description above indicates, It's going to be about comics, movies, TV, cartoons, etc., which really shouldn't be a surprise. But who knows what this could turn into?

It will be pretty basic at first, but as I learn more about what I can do with this page, it'll get better.

Hopefully, I won't abandon this too soon. I'm going to set a goal of at least one post a day.

So, please comment and save this link as a bookmark/favorite. Enough explanations, let's see what this thing can do....