My Week In Comics 7-21-10

Procrastinating again. Sorry. And this particular week was rather busy, too.

Time Masters: Vanishing Point 1 (of 6): "The search for Batman begins!" the cover says. Well, except it actually began in the "Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne" miniseries. This picks up, sort of, after the point in issue 2 of that series where the group trying to find the lost-in-time Batman -- Rip Hunter, Booster Gold, Superman and Green Lantern -- disappeared (into the 15th century, as it turns out). There's a bit of a flashback explaining how and why Hunter learned of Batman's being thrown back in time and why he and Booster want Superman and Green Lantern along. There are also some developments in the 21st century which are related, I suppose, although I have no idea how. And considering what I'm feeling about the "Return of Bruce Wayne" series (for that you'll have to wait until the next comic book update), this series might go by the wayside, or it'll be one of those I keep buying because I want the complete series.

Supergirl 54: The good news is that Kara finally decided to get back into costume. The bad news is there's a Bizarro Supergirl in town and she's taking prisoners. But she doesn't seem to be the only one involved in kidnapping. Whether this other plot is related or a setup of a future story arc isn't clear.

Batman Beyond 2 (of 6): Future Gotham has a new Batman. It also has a new Catwoman, it seems. Meanwhile, attacks on enemies of the original Batman continue, with another old Bat-villain seemingly behind them.

Superman/Batman 74:

Quick Review: Dinner For Schmucks

This may be the quickest Quick Review I've done in terms of how soon it's been since I saw the movie. Since I tweeted about it after I left the theater (without mentioning the title) I feel it's necessary. "Dinner for Schmucks" is based on a French film based on a French play, "Le Dîner des Cons." In this Americanized version Tim (Paul Rudd), a midlevel employee at a financial firm, impresses his boss and earns a chance at a promotion. What he has to do is bring someone to a monthly "dinner for idiots," where each employee brings someone that they all can laugh at and the boss awards a prize for the biggest idiot. Tim seems to be appalled by the idea until he runs into -- literally, with his car -- an oddball (Steve Carell) who creates dioramas using dead mice. This leads to problems between Tim and his fiancee, Tim and a deranged old flame who's stalking him, and so on. There's a whole thing with an artist working with the fiancee. The artist is played by Jemaine Clement, best known from HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" -- side note: Clement spends much of his time shirtless (the accompanying pic is from some other film but you get the idea) but Paul Rudd is never once not fully clothed. That's a demerit in itself. Eventually we get around to the dinner itself, and at that point there were maybe two moments which made me laugh. As for the rest, well, here's my Twitter update from earlier: "That movie was stunning in its painfulness." I feel like someone should take me to one of those idiots' dinners just for seeing this film. My grade: D.

Daily News Sexy Singles: No Gays, No Eagles

This week the Philadelphia Daily News ran their annual Sexy Singles feature, in which they show off local men and women, nominated by family or friends or co-workers or even by the singles themselves, because they're attractive and single. I complained about it last year, and interestingly enough, I still get occasional hits on that particular page according to my Feedjit widget. Is it because of having "sexy singles" in the title or because of the picture of one of last year's Sexy Singles, Eagles linebacker Stewart Bradley?

Overall, things haven't changed from last year. Of the 35 men and women, there are 5 employees of local TV or radio stations -- which surely leads to lots of mentions on those stations -- and the usual assortment of fitness trainers/models/actors. By my count, 22 of these people are either already celebrities (the TV/radio people, athletes, a contestant on the "reality" show "Chopped" on the Food Network) or are trying to be (shopping a TV pilot, graduated from broadcasting school, tried out for "The Amazing Race"). It goes against the idea that these are regular people who might happen to meet and fall in love with you or me.

I'm particularly out of luck: for the second consecutive year, no one is openly LGBT.

Going Out On A Limb

Thanks, National Weather Service, for your timely prediction about this month's temperatures...

It's amazing how you can make a projection for the month 29 days into that month.

By the way, phillyweather.net is a great site for local weather -- lots of good information without the crazy hype of local news.

Quick Review: Salt

"Salt" is definitely a summer movie in that you will enjoy it more if you just let go. Don't think of how the plot's machinations are outlandish or implausible. A Russian defector is being interrogated by the CIA. He talks of a Russian plan to destroy the United States using sleeper agents trained (brainwashed?) since childhood. The act that will set this plan into high gear is the assassination of the president of Russia at the funeral of the U.S. Vice President. The CIA is disinclined to take the defector seriously until he reveals the name of the sleeper agent assigned to carry out the killing: CIA agent Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie), the agent conducting the interrogation. She denies the accuation. One of her colleagues (Liev Schreiber, who I find to be very attractive, for what it's worth -- so enjoy the photo) thinks she may be telling the truth, but another (Chiwetel Ejiofor) doesn't. Then stuff happens, and Salt has to escape in order to find a way to clear her name and stop the assassination...or so it would seem. It's fast-paced and looks good, and from what I've read there's not nearly as much usage of CGI effects to fake the action sequences. Again, don't think, just let go and have fun. My grade: B.

A Phillies Question

This started as a little "random musings" post, but I've decided to limit it to just one question...well, two, counting the follow-up:

Are the Phillies back on track? And if so, for how long? They've now won 6 in a row, cutting a 7-game deficit in the NL East in half, but they still have uncertainty on a number of fronts. The rumors keep flying about trades: getting Roy Oswalt, giving Jayson Werth, some combination of the two, or something entirely different. The Oswalt stuff swings back and forth hourly, it seems. The Astros won't trade him to St. Louis because they're in the same division! St. Louis is the frontrunner to get him! Oswalt's 2012 option for $16.5 million isn't a problem! He won't agree to any trade unless the team picks up the 2012 option! Oswalt doesn't want to play for the Phillies! The Phillies are the frontrunner to get him now! Thank heavens the trade deadline is Saturday because this is getting tiresome.

Meanwhile, they fired their hitting coach and the offense is still not consistent, although it seems to be picking up. Then there are injuries.

Important Crappy TV-Movie Question

One of these days I will get around to ranting about the Phillies and putting up photos of murals I took recently and even recording a podcast. Until then, watch this clip featuring Debbie Gibson and Tiffany in an upcoming Sci-Fi Syfy network movie called "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid," and then answer the question below.



Okay, now that you've watched...which one is Mega Python and which one is Gatoroid?

My iTunes Shuffle Baker's Dozen 7-25-10

Technically, this isn't from the iTunes shuffle but from this other feature called "iTunes DJ" -- other than the fact that it only displays the current song playing and the 25 upcoming songs, I don't know the difference. But it makes it easier to post this. Since the songs to be played are listed, instead of it jumping through the entire library, I can easily copy and paste the first 13. And I'm all about the easy way out.

Cemeteries Of London - Coldplay
Orange Crush - R.E.M.
River Deep, Mountain High (Live Unplugged) - Annie Lennox
Believe Somebody -  Madonna/Cher/Whitney Houston (DJ Earworm Mashup)
If I Could Only Win Your Love - Emmylou Harris      
Pink Houses - John Mellencamp
Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming (Too Good To Be True) (with Michael Jackson) - Jermaine Jackson
What You Meant - Franz Ferdinand     
Dreamboat Annie (Reprise) - Heart       
Midnight Train To Georgia - Gladys Knight & The Pips
I Love You Like A Ball And Chain (Live) - Eurythmics
Up The Ladder To The Roof - The Supremes
Are You That Somebody? -  Aaliyah

A Little Softball Update

So my team's season is over, since our last 2 games were last Sunday. The Tabu Nighthawks finished with a 10-6 record after a 7-0 start. Ouch. But I'll still be at the fields tomorrow. The rest of the teams in our division have one more game each. After those games is the D Division All-Star game. I'm not in that game. Then there's the D Division vs. Women's Division game. I am in that one. (I volunteered to be one of my team's representatives for that. Why?) Then is the picnic/season-ending "banquet." In 2008, my first year back in the league, the banquet was held in a hall. Last year it was at the fields, but not on the final day of play but at a later date. This year it's right after the league games and All-Star and D vs Women games, so people will be messy and sweaty if they stay around for the picnic/"banquet." Not to mention there's a chance of afternoon thunderstorms. Having the banquet turned into a quasi-picnic makes no sense to me, but I'm not in charge of things. And if I hadn't volunteered to play in the game against the women, I could skip the whole thing and just stay home or do something else. Instead I'll be lugging around my backpack with my glove, cleats, etc. in the heat. Silly me.

Christmas Is Canceled

Remember that year when Santa was about to cancel Christmas because the snowstorm at the North Pole was too powerful to allow him to take his sleigh out to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls, but then Rudolph saved the day thanks to his shiny red nose? Well, here's some horrible news...

Where is OUR Rudolph, dammit? Where is our hero to chill the air so Christmas in July go on as scheduled? Oh, wait, he's already left town...

Quick Review: Inception

If you're looking for a complex film that will make you think, "Inception" may be your film. Honestly, though, while there's much to like about it, the extreme complexity at times worked against it for me. Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb, a thief who, because of something that happened involving his late wife (Marion Cotillard), is unable to return to the USA to be with his children. What he steals, it seems, is ideas. With the help of some sort of device and some sort of sedatives, he and his team are able to enter a target's dream and manipulate things in order to learn some piece of information that the target is trying to keep secret. Cobb's team (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Tom Hardy) is hired by a businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) to do something different -- instead of taking an idea from someone's mind, implant an idea instead. This is what the title refers to. The target is a rival businessman (Cillian Murphy), and if Cobb and the team are successful, Saito will arrange things so that Cobb can reenter the country and be reunited with his kids. There are various levels of dreams, and time advances more quickly in deeper levels, and...well, I can't do it justice. It is, as I think I've made clear, really complex. It kind of takes a leap of faith to accept everything without wondering about the rules of the dream states that are presented. Also, normally in a film you're rooting for the protagonists to succeed. In this case the protagonists are essentially criminals. As it went on I wasn't sure if I wanted them to succeed or not. Still, it is visually brilliant and well-acted, and the ending is certainly worthy of debate...although just before the very last scene played out, I knew exactly what would happen. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Predators

If you're familiar with the "Predator" movies, you know that the third and fourth were crossovers with the "Alien" franchise. The only "Predator" movie I've seen is the original, which is briefly alluded to in "Predators," the new and fairly successful reboot of the franchise. The others were ignored, and from what I've read that's a good thing. This new one starts with Adrien Brody waking up to find himself in mid-air, plummeting into a jungle. He opens a parachute and manages to survive the fall, but he has no idea where he is or how he got there. Neither do the others he meets, who have arrived in similar fashion (including Alice Braga, Danny Trejo and Topher Grace -- and who would have imagined both Adrien Brody and Topher Grace in this type of movie?). All except Grace's character (a doctor) are revealed to have some sort of military background or expertise in killing. They learn, by reaching higher ground and seeing an alien sky, that they're no longer on Earth. Then they're attacked by creatures. Brody's character figures, correctly, that these creatures were used to flush them out of hiding to be hunted down and killed. (Those Predators are pretty smart.) The explanation for what is going on, as it's eventually spelled out, is interesting enough and at one point there's a conflict over whether to abandon an injured party or risk everyone being killed. And, of course, there's plenty of action and gore. Without spoiling it, let's just say that they're set up for at least one sequel. My grade: B.

French Fry Review: "I'm Lovin' It!" - A. Ant

Submitted for your approval: video I took today at a McDonald's at Franklin Mills Mall (a freestanding building on the outside, not in the mall itself). This is the window ledge next to where I happened to sit down. I saw a couple of french fries sitting there, but they looked odd because there were these specks on them. Then I saw that there were other specks along the ledge, and they were moving...



I took that video at 12:30. They only start serving fries at 10:30 or 11 because before that they only serve breakfast. So either those fries sat on that window ledge overnight, or they were only dropped within that two-hour window and those ants swarmed quickly.

And let me be honest about this:

A Ben Davis Sighting

I told you I had a baseball-related followup to my post on the Gay Community Night at the Riversharks game last week, and here it is: it seems that former major leaguer Ben Davis is a Riversharks player. He's a local boy (well, not so much a boy as he's 33 now), born in West Chester and a graduate of Malvern Prep, and was considered such a prospect as a catcher that he was the second pick overall in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. But he never turned into a star, and is mostly known for breaking an unwritten rule of baseball by bunting for a hit to ruin a Curt Schilling perfect game. (That's something I completely support, by the way, because the score was only 2-0 at the time and because Schilling is obnoxious.)

Now Davis, who hasn't been in a major league game since 2004, is no longer catching. He's spent the last two years trying to make a comeback as a pitcher. In last week's game he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks (plus the hit batter from the video I posted) in 3 2/3 innings. I had no idea he was the starting pitcher that night until I read the game recap at the Riversharks' website a little while ago. This year Davis is 2-5 with a 6.61 ERA. Opposing hitters are batting .337 against him with an on-base percentage of .390. Ouch.

Camden Riversharks' Gay Community Night

It's becoming commonplace for teams, particularly in baseball, to welcome groups of fans from the LGBT community. For sure, the teams are interested in selling tickets. However, the fact that they treat gay and lesbian groups no differently than other groups of fans -- Boy Scouts, church groups, colleges and universities, whatever -- is important.

The Phillies are one of the forerunners in this area, as this year's Gay Community Night at the Phillies will be the 8th. (Information on the event is available here.) Just within the last 10 days the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins held similar events, and it's not limited to major league baseball. NBA and NHL teams, including the Flyers and 76ers this past season, have also held events. However, it's spreading even beyond the four major pro leagues. The organizers of the Phillies, Flyers and 76ers events put together two more events, which were held on back-to-back nights last week: Out with the Philadelphia Freedoms (the World Team Tennis) and one that strikes me as more significant, the first Gay Community Night at the Camden Riversharks. I was at the latter. More, including some video, after the jump...

My Week In Comics 7-14-10

This week Philadelphia encounters a strange visitor from another planet! And "America's Favorite Fanboy" (well, that's what the cover says) stars in his own book!

Superman 701: The "Grounded" storyline begins in earnest, and where else to begin the Superman Across America walk than in the place where America was born? A couple of Philly-centric quibbles: a cheesesteak is referred to as a Philly cheese steak sandwich -- "with all the fixings," the waitress says. Give me a break. And of all the well-known places, or even not-so-famous sandwich shops and the like, Superman is getting his cheesesteak at a diner. (By the way, outside that diner there's a newspaper photographer that bears a resemblance to a guy from New York who once was bitten by a radioactive spider...)

Quick Review: Despicable Me

I guess I can state this as a fact: usually, the first trailer for a movie will be a small tease, often showing very little of the film itself. Something like this one, for example. Then, as the film's release date nears, its trailers get more detailed -- and in some cases, too detailed, giving away key plot points unnecessarily. In the case of the computer-animated (and 3-D, although I've pretty much decided that 3-D isn't worth the extra money) "Despicable Me," the first teaser only showed a bit of the film's opening scene, capped off by a silhouette of the supervillain Gru (voice of Steve Carell). Later trailers introduced the little yellow minions that we're all now familiar with, and then the three little orphan girls, and by that point I wasn't quite sure how all of this was supposed to fit together. Fortunately, it fits together very well. Gru, with the help of his minions and his assistant, Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), plots to steal the moon (by shrinking it) in order to regain his status as the number one supervillain from Vector (Jason Segel), but Vector has stolen the shrink ray Gru needs. Enter the three orphan girls, selling cookies door-to-door; Gru adopts them just to get into Vector's lair but then finds himself becoming attached to them. So there's the requisite warm-and-fuzzies, and a good number of laughs to boot. (I loved the sight gag showing what the Bank of Evil, where Gru visits to try and obtain funding for his moon-stealing plot, used to be.) It's not quite "Toy Story 3," but it's close. My grade: A-minus.

Return Of My Summer Playlist!

I stumbled upon a link to Billboard.com's compilation of their top 10 songs of summer (using a point system based on heir chart methodology) for every year from 1985 through 2009. Looking through their listings, I decided some additions to my summer playlist (Part 1 here, Part 2 here) are required. (I also am adding others to the list of songs I need to own.)

The following, however, are already in my iTunes library. Some I overlooked the first time around and others I've changed my mind about. I'm sure you will find some of them quite cheesy, but it could've been worse: I still left "MMMBop" off the list. Adding these songs and "Commander" (my song of summer 2010) to my original list, I now have exactly 100 summer songs.

Oh, and here's some pretty summer scenery: Hugh Jackman at the beach...


A View To A Kill - Duran Duran (1985)
Sussudio - Phil Collins (1985)
If You Love Somebody Set Them Free - Sting (1985)
Raspberry Beret - Prince and the Revolution (1985) - I can sing the hell out of this at karaoke.
Papa Don't Preach - Madonna (1986)
Invisible Touch - Genesis (1986)
On My Own - Patti LaBelle & Michael McDonald (1986)
Higher Love - Steve Winwood (1986) - Also a killer karaoke song for me.
Venus - Bananarama (1986)

Jewel Rocks The Karaoke Mic

This is wild. From Funnyordie.com, Jewel goes undercover to a karaoke bar and sings a couple of her songs disguised as a not-so-pretty woman named Karen. Then she removes the disguise, goes back and sings again, introduced as herself, and some people didn't realize that Karen and Jewel were one and the same.

Undercover Karaoke with Jewel from Jewel

My Week In Comics 7-8-10

Now that I've educated y'all about the Rawhide Kid, I can make a confession. I actually bought issue one of the new miniseries the last Wednesday of June, and not as part of this week's purchase. I just wanted to hold off on discussing it until I wrote the Flashback post, and as it turned out issue 2 hit the stores. In another time-shifting move, the other book I bought was actually released a week ago. You may have heard a little something about it...

Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven 1 and 2 (of 4): It's more of the same -- perhaps the gay angle is a little toned down, but it's still there. (It's still got a "Parental Advisory" label on it, but it's in a much smaller font.) The Kid rides into Tombstone looking for the sheriff, Wyatt Earp, and his brother Morgan, only to find them gone and none other than Annie Oakley locked up in a cell. She informs him that Cristo Pike, brother of the outlaw the Kid handled in "Slap Leather," has managed to capture the Earps and is holding them in a stockade at Fort Pecos, with plans to hang them. In issue 2 the Kid and Annie arrive in Deadwood to assemble a team of gunslingers to rescue the Earps from Pike's army, including Doc Holliday, who's dating Annie. By the end of the issue the team is at six, so we know there will be one more addition.

Wonder Woman 600: This was out last week and I didn't plan to buy it, but then changed my mind a week later. There's an introduction written by Lynda Carter, a number of pinup pages, and some stories (one featuring a team-up of a ton of female heroes, one with Power Girl and one with Superman) that are fitting for a milestone issue. It ends with a prolouge to the new direction of the series. Oh, and there's that costume change that shook the world. I don't get the jacket, but other than that I don't dislike the new costume. I just don't think it was necessary to change her outfit that much. Considering the apparent cause of the change, it may not even be permanent. Something happened to change the time stream, and as a result there's a new history: Paradise Island was destroyed, Diana's mother and most of the other Amazons were killed and the infant Diana was whisked away secretly to save her so that one day she would grow up and be able to set things right. By the end of this story arc will there be other changes to her life story and/or continuity in general? Who knows?

Comic Book Flashback: Brokeback Before Brokeback

A while back, during a dark week where I had no comic books to buy, I mentioned that I was considering re-reading something old and writing a "flashback" post about it. At the time I had a vague thought of writing about "The Death of Superman," since it was that trade paperback collection that got me into this little obsession of mine. I never got around to it, though. Recently, I stumbled upon the news that Marvel Comics had released the first issue of "Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven," a four-issue follow-up of sorts to the 2003 miniseries, "Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather." And the seeds for this post were planted.

Now, normally a comic book about cowboys wouldn't be something I'm interested in. In fact, the resurgence of superhero comics in the 1950s led to fewer books featuring cowboys and other non-superhero characters. Marvel's book starring the Rawhide Kid, a creation of legendary Stan Lee, held on until 1979 and the Kid was only seen in a couple of miniseries after that. But in 2003, for the "Slap Leather" mini, the Kid was given a slight character revamp: now he was gay.

And not just gay, but gay. I mean, really gay. He's well-dressed, well-spoken, sophisticated and rather flamboyant. He makes no bones about what he likes. For example, here's what he says when some kids (small-k, as in youngsters) ask him about other famous gunfighters, including the Lone Ranger:

Quick Review: The Twilight Saga-Eclipse

As with the previous "Twilight" sequel, "New Moon," you really need to be familiar with the books or have seen the prior movies to have any understanding of what's going on. In "Eclipse" you still have a lot of the mopey, dopey stuff between Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson). Edward wants to marry Bella, Bella wants him to make her a vampire first, he wants her to stay human and experience human things for as long as possible, she wants to have sex with him, he wants to wait until they're married, blah blah blah -- I just want to slap these two! Meanwhile, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner and his abs) is also in love with Bella and insists that she loves him back but refuses to admit it. (At this point I am definitely on Team Jacob. Edward is such an annoying twerp.) Fortunately, there's more going on here: there's an army of "newborn" vampires being formed, and they're led by Victoria, the vampire who wants revenge on Bella. The Cullens and the wolf pack, longtime enemies, reluctantly agree to work together to combat the threat. There's the painful dialogue and its delivery, but at least there's some action, and a few clever moments. My grade: B-minus.

Quick Review: Grown Ups

Can crude, juvenile humor merge with good clean family fun? That is the scenario of "Grown Ups," starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider as childhood friends who reunite at the funeral of their old basketball coach, and then spend the July 4th weekend together at a lake house with their families (except for Spade's character, who is single). The weekend is spent teaching the kids of the married couples lessons, and resolving the various problems of all of the adults. Some of it's stupid and predictable but with these co-stars, all of whom worked together at various times, including "Saturday Night Live," sometimes you can't help but laugh. Even at Rob Schneider. So, to answer my opening question: not exactly. The film veers more towards the family stuff, which neuters these comics to some extent. Still, it's a little better than Sandler's last film, "Funny People." My grade: B-minus.

Not Feeling So Comcastic

As I mentioned the other day, my DVR needs to be replaced. Today the Comcast technician (who is actually a contract employee, as his truck was from some other company) was supposed to be here between 5 and 7 pm. They called and asked if he could arrive earlier. I, of course, agreed. He arrived at about 3:45 pm.

They gave him the wrong type of DVR. Something about the RF In/Out jacks on the replacement DVR being wrong. After he spent a few minutes going back and forth on his cell phone with the office and one of the other technicians he finally set up an appointment to bring the correct DVR for Monday morning between 7 and 9 am. This didn't thrill me. With softball tomorrow morning and Tabu being the Bar of the Week, I anticipate getting home late tomorrow night. However, I want the DVR replaced so I can record programs again so I told him that when they call before arriving, it'll be my wake-up call.

A little while ago I got an automated call confirming my appointment tomorrow. Not Monday, tomorrow. I called the 1-800 number. The rep said there were no appointments available for Monday. He rescheduled it for Tuesday.

I first got cable TV over 20 years ago. Although in the early years I had some truly horrendous times dealing with their customer service, I can't really complain about anything in all the years since. Any time I had a problem it was promptly fixed. So I hope this is just a glitch.

My Week In Comics 6-30-10

Yes, once again a bit of procrastination. I've got last week's books, this week's books, a flashback related to this week's purchases, and two movies to blog about. And with softball this weekend, I'm sure I won't get all of them in. For now, though, we'll start with the books I got last week...

Action Comics 890: "Now starring Lex Luthor," proclaims the cover. Yes, Superman still isn't starring in one of his own books. (Well, he'll be busy walking across America...) So for now the focus will be on Luthor's quest for power. His brief stint as an Orange Lantern during "Blackest Night" has left him craving it even more. When word spread that his companion during this journey would be none other than Lois Lane, and a preview showed them having dinner and speaking as if they were friends (at the least), it caused a bit of consternation. As I read the story, though, I figured out the twist. At the end of the story my suspicion was confirmed.

Gotham City Sirens 13: This is the conclusion of a strange two-part story involving Selina's sister (that actually was continued from the Catwoman "Blackest Night" one-shot) and for a book that's supposed to star Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and feature some humor, there wasn't much humor, Harley Quinn wasn't much more than a bit player and Poison Ivy wasn't in it at all. For the first time I'm starting to wonder whether I want to keep going with this.

Batman Beyond 1 (of 6): A miniseries based on the fine animated series in which, in Gotham City some years in the future, age and health forced Bruce Wayne to give up being Batman. High-school student Terry McGinnis, after his father is murdered and after stumbling upon the Batcave, is now being mentored by Wayne and has taken over as Batman. This series wants to tie the two eras together, as someone is going after the original Batman's enemies.

Simpsons Super Spectacular 11: I love these superhero spinoffs. The first story stars Homer and Bart as Pieman and the Cupcake Kid, who find out that they're not the only pastry-themed heroes in the world; and Bart and Lisa as Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl -- except Clobber Girl is sidelined by the "superflu." Because Stretch Dude doesn't work so well without a crimefighting partner, they place an online want ad, and the only one who replies is Gluestick. Gluestick is secretly...well, if you think about it a little you can guess...

Vampires Suck

Yet another spoof film -- from the makers of "Epic Movie," "Date Movie," "Disaster Movie" and "Meet the Spartans" -- is on the way. These movies are, to say the least, uneven at best. But the trailer for this one, "Vampires Suck," made me laugh more than I expected:



Combining two of the movie's targets -- "Twilight" and "Jersey Shore" -- here's a picture from the recent Jimmy Kimmel "Twilight" special that featured a spoof by the "Jersey Shore" cast. This is the first time I've seen a picture of Mike "the Situation" Sorrentino and didn't think of him as a douchebag. Maybe he should pretend to be a vampire more often.

I'll Miss You, World Series

There's a dual meaning behind the title of this post. The more obvious meaning refers to this year's Phillies. As I tweeted last night, after the Phils managed a measly three hits in an 11-inning loss to Atlanta, the more I watch this team, the more I feel that they're not going back to the playoffs this year. And it's not solely because of the injuries they've been bombarded with this year -- including, at the moment, three of the starting eight in their lineup (and don't forget Jimmy Rollins missed a lot of time as well). Sure, they miss Chase Utley (although he hasn't put up the numbers he's capable of) and Placido Polanco and Carlos Ruiz. And they've had pitchers on the disabled list as well -- at various times including Brad Lidge, J.C. Romero, J.A. Happ, Ryan Madson and Chad Durbin.

But the offense's floundering for most of the last seven weeks isn't just because the bench players filling in for the missing Utley, Polanco and Ruiz haven't put up the same numbers. Shane Victorino, Raul Ibanez, Jayson Werth, even Ryan Howard to some extent -- they all haven't produced the way they have in the past. A lot of good starting pitching performances have gone to waste. The bullpen still has its issues but they wouldn't be nearly as magnified if the hitters weren't so lousy.

Oh, HELL No, Facebook!!!

Never, Facebook! Never in a bazillion years! I don't care about the three friends of mine who like Palin or the anonymous ninnies who like Brewer.

I have no idea why, but this is turning out to be Facebook Day here on the blog.

Facebook's Important Discovery

Breaking news!!!!

I'm astounded! Is this actually true? You can like both music and sports? I can't believe it! Do you realize how much my life would have been changed if I learned this when I was younger? How have I lived the last 48 years without knowing this stunning information??????

My iTunes American Music

As we wind down the July 4th celebration -- of course, tomorrow is the official government holiday since the actual holiday fell on a Sunday, here's a list of all the songs in my iTunes library with "America" in the title. (For a couple of songs I have multiple remixes, so I just took them off the list and left the original.) I wonder how many of these are really all that patriotic?

All American Girl - Melissa Etheridge
All American Girls - Sister Sledge
America - Jewel
America - Prince And The Revolution
America (I Love America) - Full Intention
America (I Love This Country) - The Simpsons
America Rules - The Simpsons
American Boy (Soulseekerz remix) - Estelle
American Flag - Morel
American Life - Madonna
American Music - The Pointer Sisters
American Pie - Madonna
American Triangle - Elton John 
An American Trilogy - Elvis Presley
God Bless The American Housewife - SHeDAISY
I Love America - Patrick Juvet
Kids In America - Kim Wilde
The King & Queen Of America - Eurythmics
Livin' In America - Donna Summer
Living In America - James Brown
New Year's-Americana Suite - Salsoul Orchestra
Which Way To America? - Living Colour
Young Americans - David Bowie

My New Cell Phone

So my old cell phone plan (through T-Mobile) was extremely basic -- for $19.99 per month I got only 60 anytime minutes per month, 500 weekend minutes per month, and nothing else (20 cents to send a text, no web access, etc.). I don't normally talk on my cell that much, but there have been months when circumstances caused me to go well over that 60-minute barrier. I've had the plan since 2001 and this particular phone since 2006. You know how quickly phones become obsolete? Mine was probably obsolete before I got it.

Lately I've been wanting to upgrade, but the plans are expensive. However, I finally found something through Virgin Mobile that really works for me. It's a non-contract plan, so I'm not tied in for a two-year period if for some reason I want to switch. Their "Beyond Talk" plans include unlimited text, web, email, IM. The plan I chose is $25.00 per month for 300 anytime minutes -- I should never go over that in a month. The only catch is I had to buy one of their cell phones, and the options were limited. BlackBerry was out of my price range (and the plan is an extra $10.00 per month if you get a BlackBerry).

It's The Beer Talking

I successfully used Audacity to combine these two separate recordings into one, so here you will find the short, rambling messages from late last Sunday night (after an afternoon of softball, and the post-game "picnic" which mainly consisted of beer, and a spell at Tabu after that). I probably need to do a poll on whether I should podcast with or without copious amounts of alcoholic beverages in my system...although knowing some of the people I know, I can already guess their answer...

Podcast Almost Ready...

I found this site called Audioboo that allows you to record and upload audio, so I created an account. The recording below was actually made using a program called Audacity. I haven't done a lot with it. I need to learn about editing and such so I can perhaps have production values: musical opening/closing, inserting sound clips, etc. Plus, I'm not sure if I want to use Audioboo for the actual podcasts or if I want to use libsyn, which I'd have to pay for. I'd love to get some feedback on all of this, because I want to set it up and submit it to iTunes. For now, give a listen to this...

My Summer 2010 Song (So Far)

Last year it was "When Love Takes Over." Now Kelly Rowland and David Guetta may have provided me with my song of the summer for the second year in a row, with "Commander." Right now I command you to...DANCE!



It's been added to my summer playlist on my iPod already.

Quick Reviews: Toy Story 3, Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work

I don't think there's too much to say, really, about "Toy Story 3." Anything Pixar touches turns to gold, and this film is no different. I will say that I think the long delay between sequels (due to squabbling between Disney and Pixar) did help make the plot more affecting. It might have seemed wrong if this movie came out in, say, 2003 with the same plot: young Andy is headed off to college and has to decide what to do with all of his childhood toys, a mix-up nearly gets the toys sent to the trash, they end up at a day-care center where things don't go as they expected, etc. But in 2010 it's almost perfect, ten years after the second movie. There are plenty of laughs and at the end I defy you not to tear up just a little. My grade: A.

Which do you think looks more realistic: the animation in "Toy Story 3" or Joan Rivers' face? (Yes, the only reason to merge these reviews into one post was to go for that cheap laugh.) The documentary "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" begins with a much-hyped close-up of her plastic surgery-enhanced face without makeup. To be honest, I thought it would look worse. The movie follows a year in the life of the comedienne, with a major emphasis on the fact that she will go anywhere for a paying gig, while summing up some of the high and low points of her life (her first appearance on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson," Carson's reaction when Rivers decides to compete against him with a late-night talk show on the then-fledgling Fox network, her husband's 1987 suicide -- in Philadelphia). It's an interesting, almost unflinching film, and with a plenty of her one-liners and jokes throughout. Plus, at one point while on stage she gets heckled and she just eviscerates the man. If you're a fan, as I have been, this is a must-see. If you hate her perhaps you'd enjoy seeing her during some of her struggles -- this isn't a puff piece; there are some very melancholy, sad and almost pathetic moments. My grade: A-minus.