My Week In Comics 8-25-10

Since I may take a day trip to either Wildwood or Atlantic City tomorrow, so I can have a walk along a boardwalk before the summer ends, I need to crank this out.

Action Comics 892: Part 3 of "The Black Ring," in which Lex Luthor finds a piece of an energy source for the Black Lantern rings -- in Antarctica -- but the energy has strange effects on anyone who gets near it. While this Superman-less Luthor tale is intriguing, of more interest to me is a few pages at the end: a preview of the new ongoing Superboy series (to debut in November), which looks to be really fun and weird.

Superman: Secret Origin 6 (of 6): This miniseries was beset by delays, so it's been some time since the last one. It finishes on a good note, and it will probably be more enjoyable to sit and read the entire thing from start to finish, even if in a few years they make yet more adjustments to Superman's origin story.


Superman/Batman 75: It's a milestone issue, they've decided. Not issue 100 or 500 or (in the case of Action Comics in 8 months or so) 900, but important enough to add extra pages. The main story, I think, just might tie into the most recent storyline, and guest-stars the Legion of Super-Heroes. The rest of it consists of nine two-page spreads, paying homage in various ways to the World's Finest heroes. One that's really clever features

Stewart Bradley, Scissor Sisters and Me

What a nice day on my Twitter feed. I got a reply to my tweet to the Eagles' Stewart Bradley (I've written about him before)...

Then, a few minutes ago, I checked the list of my followers and found a new addition. You may recall that the other day I got to see the Scissor Sisters do a half-hour free concert for radio. That night, I found them on Twitter -- I had been following Jake Shears already but not the group -- and, sadly, found out that they held a Twitter giveaway for tickets to their show here. If only I had followed them 24 hours earlier! D'oh! Despite that, I decided to follow them -- and they're now following me back! I have another celebrity follower!

Okay, there are probably PR people or something doing a lot of the tweets, but still, it's the band's Twitter and it's a Verified Account, so it counts!

My iTunes Fits This Definition

In lieu of an iTunes shuffle baker's dozen, I give you a word of the day!

ca·coph·o·ny / kəˈkäfənē / Noun: A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds: "a cacophony of deafening alarm bells"; "a cacophony of architectural styles"

Being a bit frustrated by the lack of variety that the iTunes shuffle comes up with, I tried something different. I made a playlist of all the tracks that I haven't played this year (since I reset the count at the beginning of 2010). While I am listening to songs that haven't played before, within that playlist there still is a lack of variety -- songs from the same album or artist are still being played fairly close together. Right now, on a whim, instead of the shuffle mode I'm playing them in order of track length, from shortest to longest.

So basically it's things such as sound bites from cartoons (Bugs Bunny asking the immortal question, "What's Up, Doc?"), various spoken interludes from Janet Jackson albums (and others), quotes from "The Osbournes" TV show that were included on the "Osbournes Family Album" CD -- who can forget Ozzy saying "I love you all, I love you more than life itself, but you're all f--king mad!"), very short instrumentals in a handful of cases, some comedy bits from Joe Conklin...I ask you, is this not a cacophony?

I'm almost up to the tracks that are at least a minute long now. Eventually, if I continue to play the tracks in this order, it will be just a bunch of short songs. Somehow, that's a little sad.

Random Insomniac Ramblings

I'm up late (and will probably be up all night since I had major trouble dragging myself out of bed today), so...

• If you haven't seen the links I posted on Twitter and Facebook, check out Jersey Circus -- a hilarious melding of "Jersey Shore" lines with the "Family Circus" comic strip. Here's a sample:

• The weather is heating up again. It's supposed to be in the 90s all week. The humidity isn't supposed to increase until around Wednesday, which may be a problem. I fear my central air system needs maintenance, since the last time I had it on the air blowing from the vents didn't seem very cool at all. Problem with this is I can't afford said maintenance right now. Luckily, we've had a stretch where it's been nice enough that, at worst, I've had to use a fan. This coming week concerns me, though. It's good that summer is almost over, except that means winter's coming, and you know how I hate winter cold.

• I've watched very little of the Eagles exhibition games. I planned to watch the first three quarters of Friday's game at Kansas City, because the next-to-last exhibition game is the one where the starters get the most playing time. In the early games they don't play much; in the final exhibition they may be on for a handful of plays at most. So this is the one game where you can get some sense of where things stand for the upcoming season. Plus, with the game starting at 8 and the Phillies' game in San Diego not starting until 10, it set up the evening perfectly.
  
  Unfortunately, I fell asleep in front of the TV not long after 8 and missed a good chunk of the football. (This explains my off-kilter sleep schedule.) From what I've read, though, the defense seems much improved from last year but the offensive line is something of a mess, which is part of the reason for the struggles by Kevin Kolb and the first-team offense. It will be an interesting season nonetheless. Maybe not a great season, but interesting.

• Speaking of football and interesting, ex-Eagle Shawn Andrews has signed with the Giants and is posting to Twitter for the first time in months. How we've missed entries like this:

• Yes, I am still thinking of the podcast idea I've mentioned. That's another money issue. There's a site that I would use to host it but the plan I figure I would need would cost $15.00 per month. (See above reference to centrail air re: affordability.) So, until I feel comfortable with the expenditure or I had a sponsor (and how cool would that be? "The Joe in Philly Experience: The Podcast! is brought to you by..."), it's on hold for now.

• Coming attractions: I do need to write up this week's comic book purchases. (I ended up with 7 after doing some browsing at things I wasn't expecting to buy.) I haven't seen any movies in over a week. I hope to see one or two this week. Other than that, who knows? Something will inspire me, I'm sure.

I'll leave things there for now. As always, I'd love some feedback on my blog -- some suggestions or some requests or something. Or ask me a question.

Scissor Sisters: Free At Noon

Local public radio station WXPN has a free concert series. Fridays at noon, at their cool little World Cafe Live venue, an artist does a half-hour show which is broadcast on WXPN (and the shows are archived by NPR at their website). Today's show featured the fantastic Scissor Sisters, who were in town for a concert tonight, when I learned about this Free at Noon show, I signed up to be in attendance. All I had to do was not oversleep. If you know me, you know that this is a problem occasionally.

I didn't oversleep. YAY!

I was surprised when I got there because the room wasn't full. It never completely filled up, though there was a decent crowd. The band performed seven songs, starting with "Any Which Way" from their new album "Night Work." I used my phone's camcorder to record the next song, "Laura." Quality's not really good, though.



"Whole New Way," "Take Your Mama," "Fire with Fire," "Comfortably Numb" and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" finished off the show. From what I've read, the full concert is much wilder. Wish I could've seen that, but at least I got a little taste. You can listen to today's show here.

Some Phillies Stuff

See the seats at the top of this picture, the ones above the Ashburn Alley area of the concourse at Citizens Bank Park? Those are the Rooftop Bleachers, so named because they're inspired by the bleachers people had on top of their houses on 20th Street in order to see inside the old Connie Mack Stadium.

And I'll be sitting up there on September 3rd when the Phillies play the Milwaukee Brewers. A while back they posted a link to a special "Social Media Night" promotion on their Twitter feed: buy a ticket in this section for $20 (normally they sell for $28) and not only would they throw in a $10 food/souvenir credit, but you get a Phillies t-shirt with the phrase "Life is Tweet." Ha. I couldn't resist.

So if you're going to that game be sure to let me know. We can meet up, and I'll be sure to post to Twitter and Facebook and maybe blog about it. ;-) I don't know if that Social Media promotion is still running, but that night is also Latino Family Celebration night as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, and there's a discount available at Phillies.com.

I took that picture on Monday, when I was at the game as part of the Gay Community Night contingent.

Oh, Waiter... (NSFW?)

The photo below contains rear nudity, so if you're squeamish or can get in trouble for looking at it, be forewarned...

GOP Honcho: Yep, I'm Gay!

Good grief...

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay.

Well, yay for him. After doing damage for years to the cause of equality, he gets to benefit from the shifting tides that are leading to it. Maybe it'll help change some of the minds of his powerful Republican friends. Even one or two would be nice, though I won't hold my breath. Still, I'm not going to throw him a coming-out party.

Have to love the...diversity...in the comments by two of my friends who posted links on Facebook to the Towleroad story on this topic. Point-counterpoint! First up:

Oh for fuck sake...what, are we supposed to cheer and forget about how he used homophobia and gay marriage as wedge issue to win elections? Fuck this prick!

On the other hand:

(I'm) thrilled that Ken Mehlman has chosen to live openly.

California Math = Lindsay Is Free

Answer the following question:

90 is equivalent to:

a. 13 (as in, Lindsay Lohan was released from jail after serving 13 days of a 90-day sentence)
b. 23 (as in, Lindsay Lohan was released from court-ordered rehab after 23 days of a scheduled 90-day treatment)
c. All of the above

The correct answer is, of course, c.

Thanks, California! My kids will never be able to give the correct change at McDonald's! (Except when the register tells them the amount to give, which is all the time unless the computer system's down. Plus, my kids don't go to school in California. Or anywhere else.)

My Week In Comics 8-18-10

Perhaps it was because I sat on a bench in Rittenhouse Square reading these books on an overcast but not unpleasant afternoon (and finished them all just before it began to shower, ending my stint on the park bench). But I was at least reasonably pleased with all of these...

Supergirl 55: The battle between Supergirl and her Bizarro duplicate continues. The biggest problem with writing Bizarros is consistency. Sometimes it's clear that when they're talking Bizarro-speak, what they're saying is a complete opposite: "Me am ugly" means "I am pretty." Other times, they're speaking and there's no opposite meaning, although the language is still pretty fractured, as in a scene on the first page of this book, going back six weeks to a situation on Bizarro World where Bizarro Lois says, "You am greatest hero of Bizarro World, Bizarro #1, and now am your time to shine!" Anyway, Bizarro World is in great danger and that's why Bizarro-Girl ended up in Metropolis, and Supergirl has her hands full.

Batman Beyond 3 (of 6): The murderer who's attacking old Batman villains has been dubbed Hush, and we don't know if he's somehow connected to the original Hush, but he sure seems to know a lot about Bruce Wayne and Batman. In this issue, Bruce and the new Batman, Terry McGinnis, are really at odds, and Bruce has an unusual solution. Meanwhile, we see a bit of Terry's life out of the costume, and it's not going so well either.

Simpsons Comics 169: Meet Brad, a new kid in Bart's class. Bart takes Brad under his devilish little wing, but soon things take a bad turn...for Bart. Remember "Single White Female"? Sort of like that...

Comic Book Guy: The Comic Book 2 (of 5): Comic Book Guy is dead! And his eulogy is delivered by Stan Lee, who's in a rush: "I have to be on the set of 'X-Men 5: X in the City' in an hour!" (That's a movie I want to see!) That means there's a new owner of his store, and lots of changes. Also, suddenly the Internet is rife with "full, interesting conversations" instead of "mean sarcastic remarks." That's a crisis that is addressed by two characters not seen since "The Simpsons Movie" -- Russ Cargill and President Schwarzenegger!