Letters to Holly

Friday, June 16

We Got Movie Sign

Your Sister wanted pizza for din-din and decided we should rent some videos. She specifically wanted Memoirs Of a Geisha as possible classroom viewing. She read the book a few years back. I tried it but couldn't get past the Cinderella cliche. She also wanted to try Napoleon Dynamite. Now, remember, she hates comedies. Armed with this knowledge, I tried to argue her out of spending 90 minutes frowning at the TV. But no. She was determined. I don't see this going well. At Blockbuster, we also picked up the Al Pacino version of Merchant of Venice and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I've heard good things about.

We only got around to Memoirs last night. It's a lush movie, clearly deserving its technical Oscars (art direction, costumes, and cinematography), but it has no emotional resonance. Maybe it's to reflect the selfles nature of the Geisha, but I believe you can show her stoic life without the film itself being devoid of passion.

Your Sister was enjoying rum and Coke, her favorite drinky-poo, and we have plenty of leftover pizza for tonight's film selection. It will have to be Kiss Kiss as that's due back Saturday. She has a parent conference today, a full week after school is over. What the parent hopes to achieve at this late date is beyond me.

Picture of the Day
The monarch caterpillars are back.

In the news
The Supremes decided that police don't have to knock if they have a warrant. I can see the benefit of that; evidence can be destoryed before someone answers rthe door. But if someone breaks into a house without IDing themselves, how many homeowners will understandably reach for their guns?
+ + +

The Colbert Report ran a great bit about a Georgia congressman who wants the Ten Commandments in public buildings. After offering his porposal, he's asked to name them. You should see this.

Wednesday, June 14

Catches Breath

We're trying to finish a convention program and the summer issue of the magazine at the same time, and it's making me a tad scatter-brained.

I finished up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, and it was disappointing. The formula of the franchise showed through, and it took an awful long time to get to the point. This sucker's about 850 pages, and about 200 of those could go without affecting the book significantly. This is the first book of the series I had read without seeing an accompaying movie adaptation first. I can't say how that affected my dislike of the book, but I could clearly imagine the action taking place in the adaptation production design, and all the characters sound in my head like the actors playing those roles. I'm gonna start reading The Tempest next.

We're talking about our individual insurance policies and trying to decide if I should join her state-employee coverage or stick with my own. We'll compare policies this weekend.

Picture of the Day/In the news
Comic companies like Big Event Stories, and usually these occur in crossovers, stories that run through several titles. DC (the Superman & Batman people) just wrapped up Infinite Crises, wherein their universe of characters tidies itself up a bit. Now Marvel has Civil War, wherein the heroes fight each other over the notion of deputizing themselves in exchange for their secret identities. This week, Spider-Man, to show his support for the idea, went public with his alter ego. This is causing a lot of hand-wringing and airmchair quarterbacking.


Myself, I don't like it. Not because I espouse a status quo among supherhero books. Nope. I don't like it because of what I call "spectacle writing." In order to attract collectors, publishers present Big Events that usually change back within a few issues. And Peter Parker has gone through a heap of Big Events within the last five years: Aunt May discovered he's Spider-Man, his power is now magical in origin, his first love was revealed to have slept with his archenemy and had his kids, he got a new ugly-ass costume, and he lost an eye and developed a strange healing coccoon power. And this kind of upheaval is happening across the board in Marvel. Cool comics? Maybe. But I call it needless turmoil. Writers are drifting away from telling Spider-Man stories and are instead telling big stories with Spider-Man in them. I'm no crank. I don't want comics to be the way they were when I was younger. But so much has happened recently and none of it feels like organic storytelling. It smacks of crass marketing, and the characters are losing their distinctive flavors. Each story feels like the others. These Big Events carry no weight when they occur so often. It's just bombast. I want comics that are fun and smart and occasionally meaty. I don't want mindless fluff, and sales gimmicks are mindless fluff.

You'd think they would have learned from the Big Spider-Man Event in the '90s: The guy we all thought was Peter was really his clone. Sales of the comic dropped like a rock, and it took years for the editors to pull the character ouf of that mess. I started reading Spidey on a regular basis when a new writer came aboard about six years ago. I dropped it amid the aforementioned list of Big Events. My favorite story during all that was a fun little arc about Spider-Man acting as a bodyguard for a mobster chased by a gamma-radiation Frankenstein of dead Mob victims. Spidey had to decide if he could keep the mobster's money and ultimately used it to build/dedicate a library branch to his first, and now dead, girlfriend. A little action, a little sentiment, a little moral dilemma. That's fun comics. That's all I want.

Bye, Tonia

Got home last night as Your Sister was returning from the grocery store. We quickly cleaned the house and started working on dinner. Kathy and Tonia and Travis came over for a farewell party; Tonia's going back home to Germany. I made pizza. Your Sis bought a large cookie from the store. I also taped two World Cup Games for them to choose from. They arrived about an hour later. Neither game was watched as they chose an "Iron Chef" episode instead, and I gave them a lengthy explanation of how the show worked. Also showed off my Iron Chef apron. We then watched "Last Comic Standing," a bizarre show where loud, unfunny people are chosen by the audience over the witty folks. They left a litle before 10, and tearful goodbyes were exchanged. I'm gonna miss that kid, but Kathy and Travis are expecting a baby near September. They won't have much time to be bored.

We're planning on a Father's Day lunch with your folks on Saturday. Your Sis has two more days of work, and then her Long Summer Nap shall commence.

Still working. I'll bring the funny later.

Tuesday, June 13

The Quickness

I'm trying to slap out a magazine in a week's time. I gota edit, draw, layout, and ship it for a proof on Monday. GAH!

Today is a busy one, and I'll post more tomorrow.

Monday, June 12

Holy Crap, I'm Tired

Friday was a low-key night. We grabbed Chinese food and watched Batman Begins, still the best story of that character I've ever seen.

Saturday, we worked on the yard in what became an insanely hot day. She attended the high-school graduation while I recovered indoors. I took away the trash and recycling and hoped to treat myself to a crackaccino. Wait, no, I actually needed change from a $20 in case the landfill folks charged me more than a buck for the trash, and my chosen change-making opurchase was the crackaccino. I stopped off at the nearest gas station to find a customer befuddled by her franchise gift card. The clerk couldn't communicate to her how much money she had, and the customer was anxious over ... something, I dunno. The woman was a moron. A guy stood behind her trying to buy beer, and I stood behind him with my sweeeeet coffee drug. Five minutes later, he puts back the beer and walks out. I move up to his spot and listen in. It sounds like they're wrapping up the conversation. I decide to wait. But they never finish. Both women take turns second-guessing themselves. They check and recheck the numbers and enter long pauses of indecision. After another five minutes, I give up. I put the bottle back in the freezer and walk out the door. The clerk finally acknowledges me and apologizes loudly. The customer begins to bundle up her receipts and follows me out the door. She's apologizing and shouting "I'm done. I'm sorry. I'm done. I'm sorry." And I could have turned around, gone back in, and gotten my coffee. But I was mad. And it's a mad I latched onto. Neither woman seemed to realize I wasn't the only person to leave unhappy. That other guy didn't get an apology, and I wonder if that's because he was a black guy trying to buy beer. I don't look for reasons to be mad, but retail incompetence on either side of the counter hits my hair trigger.

In the afternoon, I watched World Cup. The feared adjustment period never materialized, as I was instantly hooked. While ABC and ESPN broadcasted, the Spanish channel coverage was a few seconds ahead and featured better contrast. We ultimately watched about six games this weekend, and we're hoping to have a party this week with games playing in the background.

That night, we attended the teacher party. Your Sister stayed sober while I threw back Smirnoff Ice.

On Sunday, we graded essays. All damn day. Twenty-four thrilling papers on genocides. I proofed and she assigned grades, but we both read them, and we're not better for it. Starting at about 2 p.m., we finished up around 1 a.m. In between, we watched more World Cup, listened to some of Who Framed Roger Rabbit [still a technical marvel], glanced at some VH1 '80s videos, at a quick supper with Ktahy and Travis and their Ohio friends, watched the Tonys, and ate some frozen wedding cake. The cake held up wel,l and had no taste of freon whatsoever. The Tonys, however, didn't seem to have thawed enough. It was an awkward ceremony and oddly subdued for a 60th anniversary of the awards. Between the sun, the drinking, the interminable essays, and the late night, I am beat. How tired am I? I dreamed that I stayed up all night and was dead tired. THEN I woke up.

Picture of the Day
Quake in fear, geek boys. The Emperor and Voldemort are in the same play on Broadway. Ian McDiarmid won for featured actor in a play (read: best supporting actor). And, if you really want to be really geeky, the actor who plays Harry Potter's cruel uncle won a best actor Tony. Who else was there last night? James Earl Jones. Evil's afoot, y'all.