Friends, Links, Monsters, Free Samples

My apologies for not blogging for a couple weeks — and for falling behind, as well, on blogrolling those who’ve permanently linked to me (below, right) and linking as well to numerous interesting acquaintances, for which I have at last created a big page of Acquaintances (I haven’t been completely idle).

And NOW I NEED THE IVY-LEAGUERS AMONG THOSE ACQUAINTANCES — because next week we’re doing a debate on the question “Is the Ivy League Superior?” and there’s a chance that George-editing, 02138-founding Yale/Harvard man Richard Bradley (formerly Richard Blow) may have to bow out to go on a business trip. An understudy would be highly appreciated — someone has to argue the “yes” position, defending the Ivy League, against comedian Michele Carlo (e-mail me at ToddSeavey-at-earthlink-dot-net if you’re willing and haven’t grown bitter toward the ol’ League after years of paying off those college loans — any old friends from Brown out there still love the place?). [UPDATE: We have our understudy! Here's hoping Richard comes through, though -- official announcement to come this week.]

I notice, by the way, that the man whose position won the audience vote at our last debate, Stephen Schwartz, has a piece on TCSDaily.com about al Qaeda losing in Iraq. But if you would prefer to hear about the Ivy League and radical Islam at the same time, there is a solution: read James Taranto’s column on the formerly hostage-taking Iranian president being invited to speak at Columbia this week.

I, of course, just want everyone to get along, no matter how snide or callous I may sometimes sound. On the other hand, who doesn’t love…

Brutal Monster Combat!

Sure, you could go see monsters fight in a movie (such as the upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens, which apparently is being rescheduled to avoid coming out at the same time as a James Cameron movie; or the upcoming Aliens vs. Predators: Reqiuem, which will probably look bad in comparison to a James Cameron movie; or one of the army of zombie movies this year, including The Hills Have Eyes 2, 28 Weeks Later, Resident Evil: Extinction, a scheduled Day of the Dead remake, or December’s I Am Legend with Will Smith).

But for real, live fighting monsters, you can’t beat the outlandishly-costumed, monster-themed wrestlers of Kaiju Big Battel, and I’m pleased to see they’ll be posing for those who would like to draw pictures of them, along with burlesque ladies, at one of Molly Crabapple’s Dr. Sketchy drawing sessions, something that reaffirms the wisdom of my decision to praise her in my recent entry about comic books.

The monsters are only committed to posing at this event (so they, like the artists’ models, can be drawn by anyone paying for the chance to do so) — but fear not, because the Kaiju site shows they’ll be fighting in NYC on Nov. 9. I saw them fight live once, and it’s essentially live Godzilla-type battles narrated by a professional-wrestling-style ring announcer (who I think was also a co-founder of the events), which is to say, it’s one of the coolest things of all time.

My favorite bit at that time was the conceit that a battered fighter who looked like a giant beetle dressed in a Captain America costume, named American Beetle, was so bloodied from prior bouts that he had to be in a wheelchair with i.v.s in his arms, but he was so buoyed by the crowd’s patriotic chants that he was able to burst out of the trap he’d been put in — a giant box of Lucky Charms — and defeat his leprechaun foe.

The event was full of marvelous comments from the ring announcer along the lines of: “Dear God! I can’t imagine that he would be so battle-crazed as to consider using the War Hammer here!! Brace yourselves!”

As for 100% real-life all-natural creature-combat, it’s hard to beat this footage of dueling giraffes, noted on the always-fascinating Michel.Evanchik.net.

General Reflections on Monsters and Half-Naked Women

There is an inherent appeal to monster-fighting and half-naked women for males — perhaps the reason football and cheerleaders go together so naturally in minds not already captured by the allure of Godzilla, as mine was at a young age. (It also explains this new video made by girlfriends of U.S. soldiers, if you were wondering Why We Fight.)

I visited Niagara Falls only twice in my life: the first time I constantly imagined what a cool battleground the area would make for giant monsters (and took care, as I always did in childhood, to note the height of local landmarks relative to the height of Godzilla), and the second time I mainly paid attention to my girlfriend, Koli, only occasionally thinking about what a cool battleground the area would make for giant monsters.

But always the message is there, the steady drumbeat, written in our instincts: find the monsters, slay them, and win the approval of the women.

Free Samples

As the preceding thoughts — and my Acquaintances page — strongly suggest, nerds are an important part of my social world, so while I’m at it, here are three items of potential interest to the three major factions of nerds to whom I cater:

I. For libertarians, a video primer on Ayn Rand’s philosophy (libertarianism with additional elements, some odd), Objectivism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGIWqaPMS5A

II. For sci-fi and comic book nerds: the Iron Man trailer, to keep you anxious until the film kicks off next year’s summer-blockbuster season, on May 2, 2008:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

III. For skeptics (of the atheist, materialist, debunking, no-nonsense, anti-superstition variety), a link to a brief description of a cool but patently ridiculous Inuit god:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issitoq