1. Although the star of the politics-parodying film Who’s Nailin’ Paylin? is reportedly the
most popular porn actress in America now -- suggesting some sort of attraction,
however perverse, to conservative cultural figures -- the hipsters continue to
prefer the likes of the late folk singer Pete Seeger.
Watch Gerard Perry and me discuss him, Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, and the
amazing-and-hilarious documentary Jodorowsky’s
Dune in the latest
video on our humble YouTube channel.
2., 3. And do click here on our test video about RoboCop and our
recent look at 300: Rise of an Empire
if you haven’t already. (We’ll soon try more frequent, shorter ones.)
4. We haven’t watched or reviewed this documentary about
Bryan Talbot, my favorite combo comics writer-artist, but I’m pleased
this trailer makes him look like a
visionary.
5. On a more mainstream comics note, this second full trailer
for X-Men: Days of Future Past is a big improvement, and now I’m optimistic (and the shorter TV-ad version
is cool too).
6. But if you want to know why X-Men: Days of Future Past will probably erase almost everything you know about the cinematic X-Men, you have to
read my guest blog entry about it over at Stag Blog’s traditional “Apocalypse Tueday” spot.
Some additional thoughts about X-Men continuity:
•Azazel was the one truly bloodthirsty character in X-Men: First Class (the red, demon-like
teleporter) -- and in the comics he went on to father Nightcrawler via
Mystique. That may still prove to be the case in the movies, but apparently he’s
supposed to have been bumped off at some point between the early 60s and the upcoming
film’s early-70s setting, at least according to the amusing JFK-assassination-themed
official site for the film.
One possible lesson to take from Azazel’s sudden demise:
even if you’re a demon-mutant, be careful about messing with the CIA.
•Despite some people thinking it was an inconsistency, the
mild-seeming Stryker in First Class is simply meant to be the father of the more evil Stryker seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men 2: X-Men United, so that’s not a
contradiction (he even refers in First
Class to his “son William”).
•Xavier’s girlfriend Moira MacTaggert, though, absent
evidence to the contrary, must be a very
well-preserved seventy-something in X-Men
3.
•I’m excited that the reported 1980s setting of the 2016
film X-Men: Apocalypse opens the
possibility of them using Disco Dazzler and that using the Egyptian villain
Apocalypse increases the odds of them depicting a teenage Storm (she was a
thief in Cairo -- though born of an American and a Kenyan, if you can imagine
such a thing) as well as the mutant-filled African island nation of Genosha. Maybe this should be the film where this
franchise finally goes all-out with the colorful, fully comic-book-like
costumes for a change.
•Then the question becomes when the subsequent third
Wolverine movie (scheduled for 2017) takes place -- and whether it will retain
any mention of the prior two Wolverine solo films if the whole timeline’s been
rebooted, as I predict on Stag Blog. After Wolverine 3, they say, comes X-Force, which could thus easily be set
anytime from the 90s to the near future. We shall see.
•And speaking of evolution, those truly in the know will
understand why I think this bit
of real-life genetic news is positively, uh, sublime.
7. While you’re waiting for the next four X-Men movies,
here’s Hugh Jackman (h/t Mediaite) performing the two-minute Wolverine: The Musical.
8. Even better (and funnier): a faux-Jewel singing “A Song
for Wolverine” from the late, lamented ModernHumorist.com.
9. I’m less entertained by this Carls Jr. ad with
Quicksilver in it. It looks like there is no worry at all on Fox’s part about clashing with the Avengers
films’
separate depiction of Quicksilver over at Disney (the one in the Carls
Jr. ad lives in the 1970s, for one thing).
10. When the X-Men were created, they were a much-needed analogue
of the (very admirable) Civil Rights movement. Today, though, instead of
attacks by the Klan, you’re more likely to see videos like this
one featuring dozens of black teens attacking a family’s car, later punching
the mother inside with her five kids.
How many people
have to participate in something like this -- or, say, the flashmob destruction
of a convenience store -- before we’re allowed to conclude there might a
broader social pathology in a given community, by the way? (And when if ever is
it OK for National Review to rehire
John Derbyshire?)
I’m not suggesting it’s genetic -- or that, say, white
sports fans haven’t set things on fire for no apparent reason -- but the sheer
numbers of people who appear to condone or participate in ugly incidents like
this should make us all wonder how widespread the brigand mindset is in a given
subculture. It takes more than one or two bad apples to make a whole mob of
assailants.
10b. There is no film of another neighborhood conflict I
learned about recently because the combatants are rocks and don’t really
perform for the camera much. Three big rocks near what used to be the
Newtown/Bushwick border in New York City are each rival claimants to being the
centuries-old stone, called the Arbitration Rock, that actually marked the
border. I can only wonder if somewhere there’s an Appeals Rock they can turn
to.
The Arbitration Rock dispute is just one of many things I
learned last month from attending the fifteenth-anniversary celebration of all-knowing
Kevin Walsh’s historical site Forgotten New
York. While there, I also won one of his free walking tours and was pleased
to hear him give a shout-out to two New
York Press veterans in attendance, me and Paul Lukas.
11. Rocks in dispute are not much sillier than this dog’s conflict with a
leaf.
12. Here are some kittens scuffling to
very dramatic music.
13. But they can’t beat the fearsome and hilarious Banecat (h/t
BleedingCool.com).
14. And this
is purportedly the long-sought chupacabra. Uh, but it looks like a mangey
raccoon, which may in the end be all that a “chupacabra” really is.
And I’ll talk about other items on the borderlands (so to
speak) between the purportedly-paranormal and the surprisingly-mundane in our
next YouTube video, in which we discuss the unsettling new documentary Mirage Men.
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