Archive for the 'Sci-fi and such' Category

Meanwhile, Far from Gotham City: My Six Favorite Songs

With the reportedly-good but reportedly-glum (not to mention extra-snuffy, due to Heath Ledger’s subsequent death) Dark Knight coming out this week, I am reminded of the 60s Batman series’ memorable theme song, open, and overall design — great things, and let none of my over-serious comic-reading brethren tell you otherwise.
And I find myself thinking of […]

Batmobile Is in Front of ACSH

I try to refrain from personal blogging during work hours, but the Batmobile is parked in front of ACSH at the moment — or rather, is parked across from the IMAX-possessing Loews where they’re apparently doing an advance screening of Dark Knight at 68th and Broadway.
I fear the numerous cops and FDNY gathered may […]

Is America Ready — for a Teenage President?

Today brings the second issue of Final Crisis, a DC Comics series partly about DC’s many parallel universes. But does one of the universes in their multiverse (as currently depicted) contain the Earth on which their early-70s comic book Prez took place? That was the all-too-plausible series about the then-new development of eighteen-year-olds […]

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night, and the White Witch (or Is That White Queen?)

Since I couldn’t quite fit a trip to Bali with a group of very attractive and warm-hearted people into my schedule last month, I was very gratified and honored by some info from the two people at the heart of the trip, Sandy Partowidjojo and Nicole Partowidjojo — formerly Nicole Beaver, who participated in my […]

Shrugged, Unwanted — UPDATED

I’m about to head off to an advance screening of the likely-mediocre comic-book-based movie Wanted (not that I’m ungrateful for the opportunity), but I have bad Angelina Jolie-related news (which will greatly disappoint my fellow libertarian Katherine Taylor, who likes Jolie so much she still speaks fondly of Tomb Raider — not that I’m knocking […]

In Media Res –

– all the more thrilling for seeming to start in the middle, chaos and conflict already in full bloom! It often works in telling stories. It has become almost a cliche in popular history books — start with some poignant, reflective moment late in [whoever]’s career and then flash back to tell us […]

Dystopia Gallery: Louisiana, Brown U., New Hampshire, and BioShock

I. I have but dim memories from Brown of Bobby Jindal, whose consideration for McCain’s v.p. slot led to Jindal being an answer at the Jen Dziura/Michael Malice-hosted trivia contest last week. Not everyone in the crowd yet knew his name, which may not be good news for him but helped me score […]

More Then-vs.-Now Rock n’ Roll

Some glimpses of rock across the ages:
•I mentioned Meat Loaf yesterday, and speaking of rockstar weight-gain, here’s Ann Wilson with sister Nancy in the 70s and three decades later (here looking better than she sometimes does, I think), again with Nancy. One half of Heart, still fabulous, the other, a living simulacrum of […]

The Crisis Continues

This has to be some sort of record for time elapsed before revising old DC Comics stories: Grant Morrison declares last month’s finales of Death of the New Gods and Countdown to Final Crisis “apocryphal” — and I don’t blame him. As I said in an earlier entry, he clearly wrote his stuff first, […]

Laugh at Hillary Clinton While There’s Still Time

With this week being the time when Democratic leaders — crucially, leaders other than Hillary Clinton — have said people should make up their minds between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, we may not have HRC to kick around much longer. That’s why I’m wearing my anti-Hillary t-shirt (“Re-Defeat Communism [in] 2008”) at every […]

Epilogue to the Month of the Nerd: Final Crisis

Just as nerds typically juggle several mythologies in their heads — Marvel, animean, Narnian, UFOlogical, to take this month’s four big filmic examples — any fantasy universe with multiple writers is likely to show many mythological influences. Grant Morrison went a step further with the first issue of the comic book Final Crisis, though, […]

Ultimate Nerd Day

Nerd culture, which I’ve celebrated all month long on this blog and will cap off today by rewatching the month’s four big nerd film releases, has different tiers, if I may deploy something akin to Marxist class analysis.
•There are “low” nerd-culture manifestations such as the performance of the ongoing, episodic play/variety show Rev. Jen’s Really […]

Book Selection of the Month: “Final Crisis” by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones

ToddSeavey.com Book Selection of the Month (May 2008, Month of the Nerd): Final Crisis by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones
I won’t give anything away about this long-awaited seven-issue comic book miniseries written by a comics writer I blogged about on Tuesday and drawn by the artist of Wanted (which becomes a movie with Angelina Jolie […]

Cry Tyroc and Let Loose the Legion of Super-Heroes

In honor of the start this week of DC Comics’ Final Crisis event — which will involve the Legion of Super-Heroes in August (and be this site’s Book Selection of the Month tomorrow), here is one of my favorite Wiki. passages of all time, about the Legionnaire Tyroc’s different scream-powers:
Scream effects
Among the screams in Tyroc’s […]

Michael Moorcock vs. Grant Morrison

So my favorite comics writer, Grant Morrison (whose comic book miniseries Final Crisis sees its first issue released tomorrow and reviewed as my Book Selection of the Month on Thursday), is quoted in one article summing up what he likes about current media by asking “Have you seen the site American Dwarf?”
Intrigued and […]