Uncategorized – Page 14 – The Designer Monologues

March 27, 2010April 19, 2010

Planet Comicon

Spent the day at Planet Comicon today and scored the following loot:

1) Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic.

2) Captain Britain and MI-13, Issues 8, 12, 13 and Annual 1, continuing to fill in gaps in my collection.

3) Doctor Voodoo – Avenger of the Supernatural, Issues 1 and 3 (and a special reprint of his origin from the 70s).

4) Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet #1 — Smith’s unfilmed script, turned into a comic…. so I can properly bitch about what could have been when the Seth Rogan monstrosity comes out.

5) The Essential Dr. Strange, Vol. 3 (collecting the beginning of his Bronze Age run, which I read way back when).

6) Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg, Vol. 1 HC — collecting one of the first adult/independent comic series I ever got into….

and the Biggies:

7) TOMB OF DRACULA Omnibus, Vol 1 (variant cover) — I’ve been looking for this sucker for a LONG time, and it’s damn near impossible to find without spending BOOKOO bucks. I’m very, very pleased. This was my main goal for the Con.

I was completely unprepared to find this, however — and grabbed it as soon as I saw it:

8) Brush WIth Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens (Ltd. Edition Hardcover). This sucker went out of print the DAY it was released. I had resigned myself to never getting one. WOOT!

Not a bad haul at all.

March 26, 2010April 19, 2010

The LJ Kneejerk of the Moment

So, in a Twitter conversation about product placement, post-modern referentialism and Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video, Amanda Palmer said the following:

ironic product placement is only ok if you take no money & beyond that give all the income to something ironic. like the Klan.

…aaaaaand, cue the clueless firestorm. “OMG HOW COULD SHE SAY SUCH A HORRIBLE THING”, etc. etc.

Most of the links I’ve seen discussing this go to this overwrought LiveJournal post, whose kneejerk hand-wringing has generated over 400 responses.

*Sigh*

Because, gods & monsters, we know that the Klan has never been used for comedic effect….

(And those just came from the examples I could think of from the top of my head.)

So, get a clue, folks. It wasn’t a serious comment, as the slightest familiarity with Ms. Palmer would tell you.

(I seriously wonder how much of this is yet another iteration of the “How DARE she be engaged to Neil Gaiman” nerdrage….)

March 19, 2010April 19, 2010

Friday Music

Here we go… a bit of an odd mix this week, but hey, that’s how I roll.

First up, a track that I heard while I was in Austin this past week, on KUT, which is easily the best NPR station I’ve ever heard. I originally thought that it was some kind of mid-to-late-80s art-wave stuff (in the same vein as Talking Heads). I was quite surprised to discover that it was from an album released in late 2009. YACHT – “The Afterlife.”

While I was at SXSW, I had the pleasure of meeting Damian Kulash, the lead singer of OK Go, who was attending the Interactive portion of the conference, talking about viral video and direct-to-fan delivery models. They just left their label, over arguments about spreading their videos and singles virally (the label didn’t approve). Here’s their latest single: OK Go – “This Too Shall Pass.”

Alright, you can take this ironically if you want, and revel in the cheese. But if I’m being honest, when I received this cassette for Christmas 1983, I played the hell out of this song, and absolutely *loved* it — even though it was far from my usual musical tastes (which at the time was solidly New Wave). I still love it. Def Leppard – “Rock Rock (‘Til You Drop).”

I’ve always been a big fan of Steve Earle’s alt-country/rock song, “Copperhead Road”, which tells the story of a son of a bootlegger, who serves in Vietnam and returns home to become a drug dealer. I got a chance to hear the rest of that album recently, and found myself really liking this song — not only for the historical-Western subject matter, but because of the traditional folk ballad rhyme structure. Steve Earle – “The Devil’s Right Hand.”

The first official single from Kate Nash’s forthcoming album, My Best Friend is You, which comes out next month. (I had posted another track, “I Just Love You More”, last month.) Kate Nash – “Do Wah Doo.”

I’ve always liked when songwriters produce love songs to the city they call home. I heard this track while shopping in Borders last night, and immediately fell in love with the cleverness of the lyrics (“I don’t know what I was on, but I think it’s grown in Oregon.”). Train – “Save Me, San Francisco.”

There you go kids, enjoy!