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May 23rd, 2012
 | 09:36 pm - On the Beloved Freak Beat
Who will be a dear and comment on the loneliest post of all time? I have friends writing books! That's worth commenting on!
For years, I'd been wanting to read Gotham Central (full Goodreads reviews: Book One, Book Two, Book Three, Book Four), by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka with art by Michael Lark, so when Angelo got me the first volume for Christmas and I stumbled upon a hundred dollars I didn't know I had, I bought the other three volumes and ended up burning through the series in a matter of days in time to meet Greg Rucka.
What, pray tell, is Gotham Central? It's Batman meets The Wire! As fun as superheroes are, it can sometimes be even more fascinating to read about the normal people living in that world. Brubaker and Rucka, two of the best crime/spy fiction writers in comics, bring their considerable talents to Gotham Central Police Department, bringing it to life impressively quickly. Seriously, I was sucked in from the very first issue. They have a way of maximizing what they can get out of each page, effortlessly melding small character moments with utilitarian plot mechanics. As a result, Gotham Central feels populated with living, breathing detectives. It's hard to keep them all straight at times, but the ones who get major focus are compelling characters, the best and most interesting, of course, being Renee Montoya, notable not only for being a well-drawn woman of color in comics but also, as this series reveals, a well-drawn lesbian of color in comics, and how often does that happen? The series has quite a few good female characters (in fact, the highest-ranking officer is Captain Maggie Sawyer).
Although there is no overarching story, per se, there is clear continuity, as the consequences of one case (often deadly consequences) can affect the next: not on a plot level but on a character level. We deal with romantic relationships, bureaucracy and politics, secrets between partners—you know, the kind of things you normally see in cop drama. Except now, bonus superheroes and supervillains! I was sort of conflicted on the role of the supers in this story. On the one hand, I was perfectly happy watching these characters solve crimes and have lives, and it felt almost gimmicky to involve costumes (will I spend each story waiting for the TWIST that it's actually the Riddler or Croc or Bane or whoever behind it?). On the other hand, this is Gotham, and they're Major Crimes, so they deal with the freaks; that's kind of their THING. And although it is a delicious, fiendish surprise to learn that a familiar face is involved, that's never the point of the story. The point is getting to watch good old-fashioned police deal with them rather than Batman.
As for Batman? We so often see Batman going to the GCPD for help, but Gotham Central shows us what it's like on the other side. Where regular people are just trying to do their damn jobs, and sometimes this freak in a bat suit drops in. Sometimes he saves the damn day, as if they couldn't have done it themselves. They don't look up to him. They resent him. It's a very interesting perspective.
Gotham Central ends up being a character-focused police procedural where both the character elements and the procedural elements are compelling. Brubaker and Rucka make this shit look easy, as if these stories were just waiting to be told. Despite the presence of costumed heroes and villains, the storytelling remains grounded, also thanks to Michael Lark's art. I could have read many more issues of this series; it's just so consistently good. But, alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, we're left with forty issues of how do to a crackerjack police procedural in a superhero world by focusing on characters and always keeping things grounded, bringing the supers down to a realistic level. Adios, GCPD Major Crimes Unit. I hope you're in a better place.
Wait, you're all still in Gotham. Scratch that.
Flex Mentallo, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, is difficult, even for a Grant Morrison comic. The ostensible plot follows Flex Mentallo, Man of Muscle Mystery, a fictional parody of Charles Atlas created by an in-universe Wallace Sage who then stepped out of the comic pages and became real...in the fictional sense. Still with me? That's not even entirely relevant, since this Flex Mentallo seems to be living in a different world than the one in Doom Patrol, from whence he came. But it does make him the perfect character to use for Grant Morrison to get his Morrison on. So Flex Mentallo investigates some mysterious bombs that aren't really bombs and discovers that someone else from the pages of his comic may have become "real." Meanwhile, Wallace Sage, now a drug-addicted pop star is committing suicide and having an existential crisis, and all reality is about to come crumbling down. Excuse me: all realities.
All of this narrative is really a platform for Morrison to muse on the history of comics (Silver Age, Golden Age, Bronze/Dark Age, New Age), what comics mean to him (and humanity), what superheroes mean to him (and humanity), The Crisis on Infinite Earths and the role of the multiverse in fictional and "real" reality, where these ideas all come from, and what comic books and superheroes should be. It's bold and dense and hard to really grasp on a first reading. To be honest, I don't fully comprehend it all, and I don't want to put in the work to do so right now, but I know that Morrison is playing with interesting ideas that I would love if they were a tad bit accessible to me. As always, I respect his ambition, and even if I don't quite follow it all, I can still appreciate the great lines, gonzo superhero/supervillain creations, and fantastic art.
My initial reaction: I have no idea what the hell I just read, but I think it's supposed to be mindblowingly amazing? Er, 4 out of 5 stars. Let it be known, however, that Angelo gives it 6 out of 5 stars.
Current Mood:  hungry
Current Music: Garbage - Beloved Freak
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May 20th, 2012
 | 10:09 pm - Tom Hiddleston Loves "Miami" by Will Smith
So on Thursday night I am flying to Miami to embark on a cruise to the Bahamas with dozens of Indian youth in the hopes of finding a wife and/or Indian friends. There will probably be snorkeling. And awkward social situations. Because I am terrible in crowds. I figure it will either be a good experience or a miserable experience, but either way, it will be a new experience.
I'm learning toward miserable because I have a headache and fever right now.
In Timeless, by Gail Carriger, the final book of the series, ALL IS REVEALED! Or something. In any case, Alexia travels to Egypt to answer the summons of the oldest living vampire and unravel the mysteries of whatever the hell her father was doing. Meanwhile, Biffy and Lyall remain to unravel the mystery of a shooting. I've enjoyed the last two books well enough, and I was kind of reading the series out of inertia, but I felt an unexpected fondness for these characters and this world during this book. Was it because it was the last one, or was it because it's actually better than the last two? Some things are certain: the new character introduced at the end of the last book is a delight, the dual narrative allows Biffy to shine in a way I didn't know he could, the plot is just simple enough to keep chugging along without too many complicated contrivances, the fact that the unflappable Alexia actually gets flapped a few times is good, and science!! It's a very enjoyable, breezy read, and a nice conclusion to the series.
A childhood favorite for many, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg, concerns Claudia and Jamie Kincaid, two kids who run away from home and go live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art because whatever, I guess. And there's some statue that may or may not have been carved by Michelangelo, and they decide to investigate.
The book has a few things going for it, most notably a narrator, although the narrator—the titular Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler—tells the story as an omniscient narrator despite not being omniscient, which was just confusing. And Claudia is amusing. But Jamie really steals the book; he basically has no filter (he's nine!) and says the darnedest things.
I really couldn't get into the book, find something to really care about. It seemed so...basic and simple, when the setup had potential to be a little more complicated and interesting. It leads up to some sort of epiphany about secrets or something, which I guess is...something.
On top of all that, the audiobook quality is terrible. The reader, Jan Miner, is fine; it's like your grandmother is reading you a story (and her voice for Jamie contributes to his stealing the book). But the recording is too sensitive, and you can hear her lip smacks and mouth noises and it's incredibly distracting; it's like your grandmother is making out with you.
While the Calliope Reaper-Jones books weren't my thing, I do enjoy a good children's book, and Among the Ghosts, by Amber Benson, which is reminiscent (but not derivative) of Coraline and The Graveyard Book, is a good one.
Noleen-Anne Harris Morgan Maypother, or Noh for short, goes to stay with her aunt for the summer and begins to explore the abandoned, empty West Wing of the New Newbridge Academy, where she makes some friends! Dead friends. What's amusing is that we get both Noh's perspective and the ghosts' perspectives, and the ghosts assume she's another ghost because generally "realies" can't see them. Noh gets caught up in the mystery of why ghosts are disappearing. Which must somehow involve ants. (There are ants on every single page. The illustrations by Sina Grace complement the story well.)
One of my favorite parts of the book is the occasional interjections from the narrator regarding a "nasty thing" waiting in the wings to do nasty things at some point. I love that sort of thing, and it gives the book a bit more personality. The writing style is clearly geared toward children, with few frills.
The ending is sort of bonkers and convoluted and could have used some more time to be developed (and it also seems like Benson was setting up a series), but it's also rather exciting and original, certainly not the way I expected the story to go.
Overall, it's a cute ghost story that lacks a certain something to make it great but is enjoyable nonetheless.
Current Mood:  sick
Current Music: Beck - Derelict
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May 16th, 2012
 | 11:43 pm - Belief in the One True Power
So apparently I'm never going to write a book because I'm too busy writing plays about talking beers or whatever, but my friends are way cooler than me, actually taking the initiative and getting shit published.
Unquiet Slumbers of the Sleepers, by Alex Telander, is ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) actoplasm's first short story collection!
"Blood Is the Life": A young boy craves blood. Why? Oh. The end. This piece is all mood and atmosphere, but it ends right when it gets interesting! B
"Hangman Syndrome": Like the first story, this story is mostly about setting the scene for an idea that isn't really developed. A man is hanged for being a witch, and it gets weird, but...that's pretty much all there is. B-/B
"Connecting...": A dire, unsettling message from the future...via AOL Instant Messenger! A clever concept, but a little hard to follow. While I wasn't entirely satisfied by the end, it was a good trip. B/B+
"Westville": While this story could also fall under the "Here is a supernatural conceit I am describing, the end" category, it's much more assured than the first two and it has a good construction. A nice Western with a supernatural twist and a strong narrative voice. B+
"Midnight": Easily the best story in the collection, like Stephen King meets Neil Gaiman. Frank Black, a loner outsider, crosses path with the Brood, a deadly alien race. Frank's an interesting, compelling character, which the other stories were lacking. B+/A-
"The Bad Place": Another story reminiscent of Stephen King (and I mean this as a compliment). A young boy investigates his neighbor's house when he thinks he might be dead, and it's very spooky inside, though not necessarily for the reasons you'd expect. While the descriptions are spooky enough, I found myself wanting something more to happen, though. B
"How to Commit Perfect Suicide": A bit of a departure, this story is exactly what it claims to be: a sly, slightly sarcastic guide on how to commit perfect suicide. It delivers what you expect it to, although I can't help but think there was room to stretch a bit, especially with that voice. B/B+
"Suspect in Interrogation Room One": A twisty little mini-thriller that jumps between the interrogator and suspect as we wonder what crimes have been committed and who will win this battle of wills and wits. B+
"The Monk and His Sword": The first half of this story is about the monk. The second half of this story is about his sword. I really couldn't get into the first part, but the second part is pretty badass. B/B+
"The Shadow in Black": A man encounters the Grim Reaper after an accident. Also, he likes Genesis. The band, not the Bible book. A decent tale, if a bit by-the-numbers for this sort of thing. B/B+
It's a solid collection of well written stories, and I was most impressed with the variety of ideas and writing styles, even if the stories themselves didn't always grab me. In fact, what made it really difficult for me to evaluate the stories is that they were so different! I wasn't able to pin down what made each one an Alex Telander story. It was fun to watch him experiment and then read the origins of each story.
In That Quiet Earth, by Alex Telander, is actoplasm's second short story collection!
"Final Destination": Like "Blood Is the Life" in Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers, this first story is more of a mood piece, just describing a man going through intense pain after an apparent bug bite. It would make a good cold open for The X-Files, but it doesn't really satisfy me as a short story. B-
"The Lonesome Road": An author picks up a hitchhiker. Hijinks ensue? I mean, this is a short story by a sci-fi/fantasy/horror writer, after all. I'm leaving that question mark there because I really liked the tension that's set up; I was unsure myself where the story was going to go. And the last sentence bumped it up a notch. B+
"Digging in the Dirt": A story with a simple premise: a man gets a metal detector to look for...well, who knows? When he starts digging, however, he finds more than he bargained for. It takes a neat idea and executes it fairly well without letting anything get in its way. B+/A-
"It's Never Too Late": Billy Preston is in Intermediate Algebra. The bell rings. And...time stops. What's going on? Is the reason sinister or sweet? I'm always a fan of time stopping, so I enjoyed the descriptions of Billy navigating the frozen world. The climax and resolution are a wee bit on-the-nose, however. B/B+
"H.G.W.": Hey, do you think this story is about H.G. Wells? Good job! Do you think this story is about H.G. Wells making a phone call to the future? Okay, I don't know how you guessed that part. This is a cute story that doesn't have too much to it, but the basic idea is enjoyable enough. B/B+
"Outside the Chamber": Unexpected story about Nazis gassing Jews is unexpected! Heinrich is having a moral dilemma, and if he doesn't act fast, it may be the last dilemma he ever has, moral or otherwise. I found it a little hard to follow, but the central issue was compelling. B/B+
"A Hallowe'en Story": A classic ghost story. I liked the narrative voice here, as he describes one very creepy Halloween. There's nothing particularly original about it (classic ghost story, as I said), but I found it very evocative nonetheless. B+
"The Lights at the End of the Tunnel": A man dies and discovers that, as the title suggests, you can't just "go into the light," because...there are two of them. It's a neat, original spin on the afterlife with an amusing character. B+
"The Adventure of Lem, Odo and Tom": This is a cute, Lord of the Rings-esque tale of three friends on a quest to save the kingdom. I liked all the fantasy trappings and general worldbuilding (especially in a short story), but the quest itself seemed...kind of easy? There weren't enough obstacles, and there's no real climax. B/B+
"Motion in Motion": What might be my favorite story in the collection isn't really a story at all but a creative and amusing thought experiment. We begin with an amoeba propelling itself through the ocean, and Telander follows this initial motion through causes and effects, essentially tracking the butterfly effect (I had to smile when he hit an actual butterfly). The descriptions are detailed and cute and sometimes ludicrous, but I enjoyed following the causality. B+/A-
Overall, I found this to be a stronger collection than Unquiet Slumbers, and just as varied. It's funny, whenever Telander does something I haven't seen before, I almost always like it, but when he treads familiar territory, I'm more likely to be unsatisfied. Or maybe that's just natural. The occasional awkward phrasing and typos are distracting, however. I like that he doesn't restrict himself to one narrative voice, although...wait a second, all the stories are about dudes! And so were the ones in the last collection. I call shenanigans. In conclusion, it's clear Telander loves telling stories, and I look forward to hearing more of them.
You may remember when I pimped my friend Amanda's hilarious blog last year or when I hung out with her after Comic-Con. We've been friends since Ann Arbor, and she is a funny gal.
Lily and the Golden Lute, by Amanda Steinhoff, is a delightful romp of female piracy starring Lord Lily Washington, the eccentric millionaire. Lily and the crew of the Revenge are after the dastardly, lecherous villain, Reginald Doxweather, who possesses a magical golden lute that can make any woman fall under its amorous spell. To defeat him, they will have to fight their way through tree-monsters, cannibals, and—sacre bleu!—the French.
Lily reminded me a bit of Alexia Tarabotti of the Parasol Protectorate series in her complete unflappability, and, just like in that series, this unflappability left me unable to truly feel that anything was at stake. Lily is almost aggressively unflappable, and she delivers aside after absurd aside to support this fact. Some of the humor is reminiscent of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams (there are some very creative similes), and I laughed out loud several times (the defense of lying is GOLD). But I found the sheer excess of jokes a bit overpowering, many of them falling flat (the rest getting chuckles, at least). It made Lily less believable of a character, and I wondered whether the book would have been better with a wry, omniscient third-person narrator, so we could see Lily as a person and not a joke machine. And even though the precautionary preface did warn us so-called academics and intellectuals against looking for historical inaccuracies, I did find the anachronistic, modern dialogue mixed in with the more period talk confusing and distracting. The book has a strange tone that I couldn't quite put my finger on; it had the feel of an animated series.
The book is undeniably fun, however, a fluffy adventure that's never boring. There is a sort of anarchist, take-no-guff spirit that pervades the book, as if Amanda Steinhoff is going to take all your notions of female piracy and spit on them gleefully, molding piratical stereotypes into her own comic vision. Lord Lily Washington is here, everyone. Yes, Lord. She may be a female pirate, but she is certainly no lady.
So, check it: you can download Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers and In That Quiet Earth for FREE and buy Lily and the Golden Lute for MONEY. Go, support my friends, forthwith!
Current Mood:  sleepy
Current Music: Deftones - Cherry Waves
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May 13th, 2012
 | 09:00 pm - The Polter-Cow-Asilomar List Recap Post (Radio Edit)
For the fifth year in a row, I traveled to Asilomar for a medical writing conference, but for the second time, I don't really have time to write about it in much detail, which is just as well since hardly anyone reads LJ anymore. But I do have lots of gerunds, and hidden in them is some EXCITING NEWS, but it may be hard to miss. You'll see.
- driving down while listening to Over Sea, Under Stone
- persuading people to be in The Hudson-Patel Musical Comedy Revue Extravaganza (Remix), which I had written in about three hours on Tuesday night by stringing together old songs into a semblance of a cohesive show
- gravitating to the youngest attendees (both women, as usual): Faith (~late thirties), who seemed hesitant but agreed to do props if needed, and Ms. Pond (~mid-twenties, although a later comment, unless I misheard, seemed to imply she was actually a couple years older than me), who was accompanied by her dad
- chatting with Ms. Pond for most of the social about her decision to pursue medical writing and how to get that first job
- being deemed "interesting" by her because I don't cross the Golden Gate Bridge—a reference to the fact that I don't venture out of the urban Bay Area much—but I watch Veronica Mars
- being glad Asilomar finally had wireless
- leading Ms. Pond and her dad to the keynote speaker by using the shortcut I called "the deer path" because I sometimes saw deer while using it
- seeing a deer
- learning quite a bit about the neural basis of creativity and how dopamine levels can affect the ability to think outside the box and have innovative ideas
- waiting impatiently for people besides Jimbo to show up for the first rehearsal
- finally getting enough people for all the parts and struggling through some of the songs
- not caring that I was the only person who appreciated that I had named the host character I was playing Krevlornswath
- shutting down Pish-Dash's suggestion to change "If I was in L.A." in "California Dreaming" to "If I were in L.A" and add a comment about how it was the subjunctive...even though she still did it during the actual performance
- being amused at Faith's increased involvement and investment, becoming musical director and delivering punchlines, despite her initial hesitation
- learning about the affordable technologies being developed for emerging markets, which are much larger and more business-relevant than people think (the percentage of people with mobile phones is higher in India than in the U.S., for instance, and mobile money in Africa accounts for more transactional currency than Western Union)
- skipping out on the ethics session to read Gotham Central
- chastising Ms. Pond for not showing up to rehearsal...even though I hadn't told her when and where it was
- stopping by the evening social for about half an hour but exiting as soon as I could because I felt really young among the fifty-plus crowd (even with Magilla's high school-age daughter there...so I could feel old AND young)
- learning about sleep in health and disease and what a burden the sleep debt really is and what lack of sleep can do to your performance, both subjectively and objectively
- skipping the medical devices session to read Flex Mentallo
- making Angelo's day by giving him a reason to talk about Flex Mentallo for twenty minutes
- somehow working out blocking and choreography and line deliveries (I was particularly pleased that Nice finally read the stage directions about how she was supposed to deliver her jokes) in the second rehearsal
- responding to a comment that Dash-isha had arrived, we should tell her about the show, although she always forgets her lines with "Yes, that is true" (STILL NOT OVER IT)
- being late to introduce the session on regulatory writing...which was fine because the speaker hadn't shown up yet...because her daughter had had an accident and she had to go to the hospital...which it took us half an hour to confirm
- ignoring Dash-isha's calls of "Sunny! Sunny!" because I fucking hate being called that even after I told her not to do it
- using the rest of the afternoon to read Lily and the Golden Lute
- informing Dash-isha that I had not responded to her calls because my name was not Sunny and having the following exchange: "Aren't you Sunny Patel?"/"No, I'm Sunil."/"I...I knew that, didn't I."
- not being surprised that the R.M Award (or the Asilomar Award for Superior Social Facilitation) went to Faith, who was full of verve
- entertaining the crowd with our musical comedy antics, which, as usual, included a chaotic kickline
- enjoying Jimbo's ad-lib about REM sleep and Nice's ad-lib explaining her grammar knock knock joke
- leading the group to the avocations exchange
- hearing people share about their cats, hiking, writing a screenplay, writing a novel, and so on
- sharing my short play Man vs. Beer (the first draft, accidentally), Faith reading Beer with a Russian accent for some reason
- appreciating Nice's comment that she found it fascinating as a non-drinker herself
- being impressed with Faith's kinesthetic descriptions in the memoir excerpt she read
- learning a bit about how ad agencies handle promoting pharmaceuticals
- skipping out on the PubMed session to read Lily and the Golden Lute
- discovering that Man vs. Beer had been accepted into this year's Pint Sized Plays
What? That's great! Congratulations!
Thanks, Gerald!
So what's it about?
It's about a teetotaler trying to take his first drink. Beer tries to push him over the edge and counter all his arguments for why he doesn't drink. And then he has angsty monologues about what it's like to not drink in a society where drinking is normal. I say "he," but I could imagine both characters being either gender.
Your play is going to be in Pint Sized! People actually come see that thing! That'll be cool, huh?
I'm really excited! Come see it in July!
I don't think dragons are allowed in bars.
Curses and double curses.
- telling people that the play I'd presented the night before was going to be performed in July
- being told by Faith to send an e-mail about it, even though she was in Texas and couldn't come
- discovering that one woman whom I hadn't talked to the whole conference actually lived in my neighborhood, just a few blocks away
- stopping by the Gilroy Outlet Stores on the way home and being too cheap to buy twenty-dollar pants
Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Butterfly Boucher - Another White Dash
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May 7th, 2012
 | 06:17 pm - Magicians vs. Aliens
Sometimes you read a book SO GOOD you want to tell everyone you know to read it because it is just too amazing to miss out on.
I've just read two.
There are some books that are such a chore to get through they make you question why you even like reading in the first place. And then there are those books that remind why you love reading.
Carter Beats the Devil, by Glen David Gold, is such a book.
A sensationalistic, attention-getting summary of this book might read, "A stage magician is accused of murdering President Warren G. Harding!" And this is true and accurate, but the book is not some long and involved murder mystery with a stage magician frantically trying to clear his name. No, it is the highly fictionalized story of the life of Charles Carter, a.k.a. Carter the Great, a contemporary of Houdini (who makes an appearance, as do several other historical figures). Carter has an interesting and wondrous life (more wondrous than, say, Oscar Wao's), the kind of life I would prefer not to spoil any details about, and, as a bonus, we also get a complementary protagonist (or antagonist?) in Jack Griffin, the Secret Service agent chasing after him.
From the very first page, I felt that I was in the hands of a master storyteller, and that feeling never left; in fact, it only increased. I was positively giddy reading this book, often having audible reactions before something was about to be revealed. Glen David Gold spins a fantastic yarn that swept me into the story, transporting me back to San Francisco in the Roaring Twenties, and I didn't want to leave. I was reminded of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, but, thankfully, this book does not have third-act issues; in fact, the third act is an exciting nail-biter. Like The Prestige, the book is structured like a magic trick itself, and Gold frequently uses misdirection as deftly as any stage magician.
I also loved the look into the world of stage magic; Gold makes reading about a magic show as exciting as actually watching one. In addition, I found it fascinating to read about the construction of all the mechanical illusions, as well as the musings on what audiences want from a magic show, what sort of emotional reactions do particular tricks elicit. Some of Carter's tricks seem impossible, but I was happy to leave some of the magic as, well, magic, since it was such a joy to imagine.
Carter Beats the Devil is an astounding achievement, a literary novel that's completely engrossing and immensely entertaining. This is the best book I've read since The Shadow of the Wind in September 2010. I've read great books since then, but nothing of this caliber. And I think the two books do share a few similarities that illuminate my tastes. I like sprawling narratives with evocative details of time and place, filled with Dickensian coincidences and narrative ironies, with different characters' plotlines intersecting.
I love this book. Read it.
I have no actual basis for this remark, but The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex, has to be one of the best children's books in the last five years.
The premise is one we've seen so many times before: Gratuity "Tip" Tucci, a half-black, half-Italian eleven-year-old girl, writes a school essay—to be placed into a time capsule—about what the recent alien invasion meant to her, specifically her going on a road trip with her cat, Pig, and an alien named J.Lo to find her mother.
Oh, is that actually like nothing you've ever read or even possibly would have imagined? Yeah, that's what I thought.
This book is amazing and Gratuity is basically the greatest. Her narrative voice is sarcastic, naive, endearing, clever, and mildly profane, pardon her language. She's such a wonderful character, and I fell in love with her from the sentence, "The United States was this big country where everybody wore funny T-shirts and ate too much." She's telling a story to the people of the future, a device that lends itself to lots of self-aware narration humor, not to mention the depth it adds to the worldbuilding, as Gratuity imagines what the world must be a hundred years from now and what they must think of her world as it is.
J.Lo is an absolutely adorable alien and another wonderful character, desperate for Gratuity to like him, only wanting to be helpful and accepted since he is not really in with his fellow Boov. Through him, we get to see our culture as an "alien" culture. His English is not perfect, but he tries! He tries SO HARD! What, you don't love him? Do not to be ridicumulous.
Tip and J.Lo are the heart of the book, as is their evolving friendship, but Rex also throws in fun alien mayhem and, more importantly, heaps of social commentary. Although Tip doesn't make the connection herself, the Boov occupation of America is exactly what the colonials did to the Native Americans. And Tip and J.Lo find that civilization post-invasion is...less than optimal. On top of all that, Tip is mixed-race, and it's never a Thing; in fact, it's really only ever brought up when she has to roll her eyes at people who don't seem to grasp the concept. I loved that all of this was in a children's book.
Here's the thing about this book, though: YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK. But, wait, YOU HAVE TO READ THE ACTUAL BOOK. Erm. SERIOUSLY DO THEM BOTH. The audiobook is essential because Bahni Turpin's J.Lo performance is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. She brings him to life so gloriously, I don't think I would have loved the character half as much without hearing the voice she gives him; it's like a cross between E.T. and Johnny 5. Her Gratuity is great as well. I was dying laughing in my car a lot. But the physical book is essential because there are comics, not to mention illustrations (Rex started out as an illustrator).
Did you read that comic I just linked? Because if that doesn't get you to read this book, I don't even know. It's creative, inventive, original, hilarious, heartwarming, surprising, lovable, entertaining, and just plain awesome.
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Narcoleptic Youth - My Neighbor Hates Me
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April 17th, 2012
 | 10:26 pm - In the Future, There Will Be Robots
Tonight: two startling visions of the future! One is interminable and boring, and the other is exciting and awesome. See if you can figure out which is which!
Feed, by M.T. Anderson—recommended to me by a cute girl on BART—has a good, interesting concept to work with: in the future, everyone's brain is linked to the Feed, so what we've always dreamed of is a reality—we are literally on the Internet ALL THE TIME. What this means is that the Feed is always learning about you and your preferences and recommending things for you to buy, you have the whole Internet's worth of information at your fingertips, you can cyberchat with people without having to type anything, and, oh, your brain is full of ads. The audiobook impressively creates what are essentially fully produced radio ads that appear in between chapters or, sometimes annoyingly/distressingly, break into David Aaron Baker's narration unexpectedly. When characters chat, they sound different than when they speak aloud, presumably recreating different fonts/formatting in the text. I would definitely like to experience more creative audiobooks like this one!
If only Feed had compelling characters and a story to go along with the worldbuilding. I was reminded of Little Brother in that it seemed like M.T. Anderson had a good idea and wanted to make some social commentary, but he didn't really bother to tell a story. Some of the satire is pretty funny, and the social commentary is pointed and clever, but the main character is not likable at all, nor is anyone else in the book besides Violet, the girl he meets on the moon who opens his mind to maybe not being a sheep who relies on the Feed. Everyone talks in idiotic futuristic Valley Girl slang, and perhaps Anderson is making a point about how language will devolve into nonsense, but it sure makes for an annoying, frustrating read. At least Little Brother was entertaining. I wanted to give up on this book after the first few chapters, and it was a struggle to make it through most of it, since nothing really happened. The book focuses on the relationship between Titus and Violet, but Titus is so dull that I didn't really care. The book improves in the last third, but by that point, it had already lost me, and I wanted it to be over so I could move on.
In the near future, most people spend their time in the OASIS, a highly sophisticated MMO comprising hundreds of different worlds. Using haptic gloves and visors, people can interact in these fully rendered worlds as easily as the real world. The man behind the OASIS, James Halliday, is a huge fan of classic video games and '80s pop culture, and these loves pervade the virtual world he has built. When he dies, however, he reveals that he will leave his substantial fortune—and the entire OASIS—to the person who can decipher his riddles to find the keys to unlock the gates that will lead them to an Easter egg within the game itself. And so the Hunt begins.
Welcome to Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
Our hero is ubergeek Wade Watts, a.k.a. Parzival, an elite gunter, or "egg hunter." His sole mission in life? Find Halliday's Easter egg. He and his best friend, Aech, devote the majority of their time to brushing up on their classic video game skills and '80s pop culture knowledge, not knowing what piece of obscure trivia could be useful in the Hunt. Also, there is this cool female blogger named Art3mis. Obvious love interest is obvious. What do all these gunters want? To find the egg before the megacorporation IOI and its horde of Sixers seize control of the OASIS, monetize the game, and RUIN EVERYTHING. DAMN THE MAN. DOWN WITH THE EMPIRE.
Ready Player One is a flawed book, so let me get a bunch of criticisms out of the way. The book is hugely frontloaded with exposition, and even when the plot finally kicks in, expositional infodumps sometimes arrive to bring the story to a grinding halt. There is no artful integration here; Cline is just providing information about the extensive world he's imagined or explaining something about a game or a movie or a band or a TV show to a hapless n00b who's never heard of Family Ties. The book tries a little too hard to appeal to a broader audience, when this is clearly a niche book. The writing in general lacks a real style; it mostly tells you what's going on (Cline was a screenwriter first, best known for Fanboys). Cline can sometimes get caught up in the whole "Oh my God, I'm referencing something geeky, look at this geeky stuff I know, holy crap, aren't you geeks loving this geeky stuff??" aspect. The issue of online identity versus real-life identity has been dealt with better in other works.
This book is flawed. I recognize that. Truly, on literary merit, it only deserves four stars.
But I experienced this book as read by geek icon Wil Wheaton (who, hilariously, is actually mentioned in the book), which immediately gives it bonus points. And once the plot kicks into gear, shit gets real, and the book becomes an insanely fun thriller that is essentially geekgasm after geekgasm. Once it becomes clear that the leaders in the Hunt all have giant targets painted on their backs, competition becomes fierce and dangerous. This book is about a fucking puzzle hunt inside a video game; how could it not be awesome? I was positively giddy listening to this book. There were honestly times when I wanted to go out driving just so I had an excuse to listen to more. It's only appropriate that a book about video games is just as addictive as a video game, after all. The puzzles and clues and quests and trials are imaginative and creative—since it takes place in a virtual world, it sure isn't bound by the laws of reality, and you are not prepared for what Cline has in store for you—and, again, always rooted in some sort of gaming or pop culture reference. This is a book in which the geeks are heroes for knowing the third sentence on the fourteenth page of the Dungeons and Dragons manual or whatever. It is a point of pride, not shame. It's impossible not to root for Wade and his friends, and, of course, we also want him to get the girl. Basically, THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH FUN AND IT IS FULL OF AWESOMENESS.
This book is a must-read for gamers, pop culture fiends, and nerds in general. So basically everyone I know.
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Deftones - Xerces
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April 4th, 2012
 | 11:43 pm - There's a First Time for Everything
So this one time at Theater Pub I met this cute girl who was very fun and seemed to enjoy my company. And I almost asked her out but did not get the chance.
So I stared at my e-mail for a few days and contemplated asking her out directly but settled on expressing a desire to see her again and seeing how that went. Her response—several days later—did not really seem like she'd taken it as a request for a date, but we did go to a show on Saturday night. I bought her a muffin, and she was so surprised and appreciative, it was adorable. I made her laugh a lot. And I almost asked her out but did not get the chance.
On Sunday, I saw her again because she was performing. And I almost asked her out but did not get the chance.
Finally, I decided, screw it, and sent an e-mail that night:
If you hadn't left early tonight, I would have done this in person, but I thought it was time to be direct.
[Name], I would like to take you out on a date. Would you like to go on a date with me?
(I actually used her name. I did not put "[Name]" in the e-mail. Just for the record.)
Then I fell into a deep, dark hole for days as I imagined how terrible and unlovable a person I was. I beat myself up until even I got tired of it.
Finally, this afternoon, while in line for the Cabin in the Woods screening, I got her response:
Well thank you Sunil for being direct! I do enjoy your company but I'm not interested in dating.
To my surprise, since it was the answer I was expecting and had beat myself up over anyway, it didn't actually hurt that much to get confirmation. Was she not interested in dating in general or simply not interested in dating me? Why? What was wrong with me? I found I didn't really care.
Alas! Then let us continue to enjoy each other's company.
So that happened.
Current Mood:  giddy
Current Music: Nine Inch Nails - Last
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April 3rd, 2012
 | 02:56 pm - The Trials and Tribulations of Christina Hendricks
Once upon a time, there was an Irish barmaid named Christina Hendricks.
She encountered a lusty vampire by the name of Angelus, who offered her immortality in exchange for a kiss (and some grapes). One kiss (and some grapes), for immortality? A fair trade, she thought!
Only when she heard Angelus speak further did she realize her terrible mistake. Would he terrorize her with that atrocious accent for all eternity? No, no, she would not stand for it! She disappeared, boarding a ship for the colonies, desperate to leave Ireland, for, sadly, Angelus had ruined the Irish accent for her entirely.
Time passed, and she resurfaced in the 1960s as an office manager named Joan Holloway.
She had much experience dealing with the advances of men from her time as a barmaid, but nothing had prepared her for the level of sexist douchebaggery—a phrase she privately coined herself, although it would not come into vogue for several decades—at Sterling Cooper. Men leered at her and treated her with disrespect, simply because she was a woman! Yes, the accents were fine, and there was no trace of Angelus—although that new upstart account executive reminded her of him for some reason—but it did not seem like she had made much progress in two centuries. Men were men, it seemed, wherever and whenever she was.
Time passed. She became Nicolette, Olivia, Blanche. She always endured. Then, the Earth got used up, and she turned to a life of crime, taking the name of Saffron. Or Yolanda. Or Bridget. Or...whatever.
At this point she was simply fed up with everyone and just started shooting people.
Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: The Eames Era - Listen for the Sun
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April 2nd, 2012
March 29th, 2012
 | 11:18 pm - A Word Which Here Means, "You Should Comment Horribly on This Terrible Post"
I always thought I would enjoy A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket (full Goodreads reviews: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6, Book 7, Book 8, Book 9, Book 10, Book 11, Book 12, Book 13), and when I discovered that the audiobooks were read by Tim Curry, I thought NOW IS THE TIME. (Books 3, 4, and 5 are read by Lemony Snicket, who is perfectly entertaining, but he is no Tim Curry.)
A Series of Unfortunate Events is Lemony Snicket's chronicle of the terrible misadventures of the Baudelaire orphans, whose parents died in the mysterious fire that destroyed their home. Violet Baudelaire, the oldest, is an inventor, and she is frequently called upon to invent things to get them out of trouble, like MacGyver meets Tesla. Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, is a reader with mad research skillz, able to find answers in books and recall things he read in books years ago. Sunny Baudelaire, the youngest, is a biter. Because she is a baby, no bigger than a salami, and she has four very sharp teeth. Her language skills are not as developed, however, so she must express her complex thoughts in baby talk that is translated by Snicket or her siblings. You guys, Sunny Baudelaire is amazing. She is the Greatest Baby Character in All of Literature, Possibly Fiction. The brilliance of Sunny Baudelaire is that somehow Snicket is able to have his baby and eat her too: she is able to do things no baby should be capable of doing, like cooking or stapling, but everyone can still pull out the "She's just a baby!" excuse, and it totally works.
The Baudelaire orphans are wonderful characters, instantly lovable, so of course we hate to see them terrorized by the greedy Count Olaf, who has his eyes on the Baudelaire fortune. He is their first guardian, and he schemes with his acting troupe to get a hold of all that money, but, thankfully, the children thwart him and are sent to live somewhere else...where Count Olaf shows up in disguise, once again trying to get their fortune. The early books are extremely formulaic, and some are even self-aware about the formula, and I didn't think I could take thirteen books of the same formula over and over. Luckily, I didn't have to! Because the book reveals a series arc, and suddenly there is much more to the story, and the Baudelaires have more to do than simply escape Count Olaf over and over. And then later on, there's a paradigm shift that shakes the formula up again, all as Snicket continues to build an intricate, absurd world populated with colorful, gimmicky characters.
The series is essentially a whole lot of gimmicks thrown together. Since I expected the fiendish cleverness and metatextual delight of Pseudonymous Bosch, I was initially a bit disappointed that the only tricks Snicket seemed to have up his sleeve were reminding us that things would be terrible and defining words for the reader. He does expand his repertoire with each book, though, although those two do remain trademarks of the series. What I love about the series is the way Snicket plays with language, picking apart common phrases and taking them literally. He also enjoys defining characters by one singular motivation taken to extremes, leading to much amusing repetition of phrases. As a result, character development is minimal, but when it does appear, it usually centers on one of the major themes of the series, in which Snicket again tries to have it both ways: he constantly stresses the dichotomy of good and evil but also acknowledges the messiness of moral ambiguity.
The biggest gimmick of them all, however, is Lemony Snicket himself, who, of course, is actually Daniel Handler. But Snicket frequently refers to his own backstory and a relationship with a woman named Beatrice, and I soon became just as interested in his story as I was in the Baudelaires', especially because they seemed to be connected in some way. And the Baudelaires' story became more and more interesting as the series went on and they uncovered more about—oh, but I have said too much already, as the series is full of wonderful surprises. It builds an intriguing mythology.
And then...well, the last book is not what I expected. Amusingly enough, it reminds me of the Lost finale, which I actually did like, but I suspect many people will find it similarly dissatisfying, although others will find it lovely and emotional. I only mention that as a caveat, however. Because despite my disappointment with the ending, I did not regret my time spent with the Baudelaires at all. They're such great kids! Snicket's writing is immensely entertaining, and Tim Curry's performances are rich and delightful, and I enjoyed the build-up to the end, at least. The whole series is a lot of fun, and I do recommend it.
And on the subject of fake authors, witness Mark Reads The Princess Bride, in which Mark reviews The Princess Bride as if it truly is William Goldman's abridgment of the S. Morgenstern original...and we keep the ruse going on in the comments. The other day, I started a flame war that eventually led to my claiming to be Count Rugen's heir. Then I claimed The Stranger was originally by Morgenstern too. And then someone invented a government conspiracy, so I became a Guilderian secret agent, my victim continuing the story the next day. At this point, we have a bona fide scholar of Florinese history. There are several of us getting into it, creating our own little Morgenstern/Goldman/Florin/Guilder mythology. I even did a Buffy crossover.
I haven't had this much fun on the Internet in a long time.
Current Mood:  worried
Current Music: Audrye Sessions - Julianna
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March 27th, 2012
 | 11:03 pm - Mad Men? More Like Rad Hen!
For years, Mad Men was That Show Everyone Watched But Me. What was so flipping good about it? Why would I be interested in watching a show about an advertising agency in the 1960s? I don't care about the 1960s! Whatever, period production design and haute couture!
But then I heard about Don Draper's dirty little secret—which is slowly revealed over the course of the first season, so I won't spoil it—and I had a good hook. Let's just say he has a skeleton in his closet.
Mad Men focuses on Sterling Cooper, a boutique advertising agency on Madison Avenue. While it centers on Don Draper, the strength of Mad Men lies in its ensemble cast.
Don Draper is a complicated man, a man who loves his wife and family but still requires a mistress (it's the swingin' sixties!), as if he's not quite sure how to find happiness despite already living the American Dream. He's also a creative genius with a penchant for impressing clients with his brilliant off-the-cuff ideas for hawking their goods, often in overly personal monologues laden with subtext. A domineering personality, he clashes with Pete Campbell, a young upstart in accounts who begins as a whiny little shit but unexpectedly grows into one of the best and most interesting characters on the show. Pete is conniving and entitled as all get-out, but as we see more of him, we understand his perspective more. And speaking of entitled, meet Roger Sterling, whose name is on the door...but it's his father's name. Roger oozes suaveness and swagger, drinking like a fish and chasing tail like a dog. The other man with his name on the door is Bert Cooper, an elder statesman with an eclectic art collection who keeps a calm head in time of conflict but sometimes thinks he's too old for this shit. I quite enjoy the supporting characters: pretentious Paul Kinsey, nerdy Harry Crane, debonair Salvatore Romano, and, of course, Ken Cosgrove, Accounts. Finally, let us not forget Bobby Draper...or, in fact, let us, because he's been recast three times and is basically a talking prop.
And yet for such a manly show about men being men and doing manly things like drinking, smoking, and cheating on their spouses, I have to agree with those who laud the complexity of the female characters.
Betty Draper is a polarizing character, seemingly nothing more than a shrewish, repressed housewife, but she also carries a lot of inner conflict; sadly, unlike pretty much every other character, she actually gets worse as the series progresses, devolving into a comically awful terrible mother. And yet, she does have her fans. Joan Holloway was the character I'd heard the most about, but she begins the series as a bitchy queen bee, head of the administrative staff, to whom she condescends on every occasion. But she grows into something much more than a stereotype, a woman who feels fulfilled by her job because she is good at it. She does, however, face the constant sexism (it's the sexist sixties!) that plagues Peggy Olson, my favorite character, who begins the series as Don's dowdy secretary but is far too ambitious to remain at that post forever. Don becomes her mentor, and their relationship is a highlight of the series, especially because Don clearly respects her not only as a woman but as a professional, and he just happens to show that respect by constantly berating her...and sometimes saying nice things for a change. Sometimes. Peggy is sort of this little bastion of feminism in the office, always fighting for her rights as a woman, while sometimes taking advantage of her womanhood to get ahead...but not like that. In fact, Peggy's sexuality is very refreshing; she likes having sex, whatever, that is totally cool. Right, right, there are other female characters, but Peggy is the best. Finally, let us not forget Sally Draper, who may be the best child character I've seen on television. With parents like the largely absent Don and the cold, uncaring Betty, it's hard not to want to hug Sally all the time, but later seasons make her an interesting character in her own right, a girl trying to grow up in a volatile environment.
Mad Men is a period drama, and while it does have its share of "Hey hey, it's the sixties!" jokes and references, it doesn't rely too heavily on them; its best moments making use of the time period come when the show allows the characters to react to major historical events or social movements. We know the history, and it's happening all around them; it's their present. While I found the interplay with history clever and sometimes affecting, I didn't think it had much to say about today. And while I must admit that my first impression of the show was that it was reveling in its ability to portray the sexism, racism, and homophobia of the time period, I found that it really was more interested in commenting on it critically and sometimes subverting it; here the show did seem to be holding up a mirror to the present and asking how far we'd come (Peggy would still be fighting to earn as much as a man in her position today).
It was late in the first season when I realized how brilliant it was to set the show in an advertising agency. Not only does advertising allow for a glimpse into societal and cultural trends and how people thought at the time, but it also perfectly fits the theme of the show: lies. Basically everyone on the show is lying about something, and Don sits on a throne of lies. And it's not simply a matter of lying to people about things you did or didn't do but the lies you tell yourself. Characters lie to get what they want. They lie because they can't face the truth. They lie to avoid being caught. They lie to save face. They lie because you can't face the truth. They are trying to build themselves into who they want to be, but circumstances may not always be on their side. It's this perfect, slick metaphor that all the characters are living in.
Things happen on Mad Men, sometimes even exciting things, but, mostly, it is incredibly character-focused. It's one of the more contemplative shows I've seen, content to watch a character go about his or her business performing some mundane task that, in actuality, is incredibly telling. Sometimes, I was impressed with the cleverness of the visual shorthand or floored by how unfair it was that it could create such powerful images. Other times, the show seemed to be reaching for profundity.
Overall, Mad Men is a very well crafted series, but as much as I love it, I do feel that it's slightly overrated, that it's not nearly as deep and complex as critics make it out to be. That could be a matter of its being overhyped, and it could also be a matter of my heart belonging to Breaking Bad, a very different show that engages me far more strongly. But Mad Men does transport me to a shiny foreign land with characters whose lives I am invested in, whom I can root for, laugh with and at, hate, feel bad for, and other verb-preposition combinations. Finally, I am a part of the cultural zeitgeist!
Current Mood:  angry
Current Music: The Decemberists - The Infanta
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March 23rd, 2012
| 09:05 pm - First My Hunger Games Are Sticking Like Duct Tape
After months and months of curious directorial choices, interesting casting news, and enticing trailers, The Hunger Games has finally arrived, and, thankfully, it does not disappoint, a remarkably faithful adaptation of the books that immerses you in its world from the very first frame and does not let you go for two hours and twenty-two minutes.
The premise bears some similarity to Battle Royale, which constantly comes up in comparison. And like that movie, we start with title cards explaining why exactly we're about to watch a bunch of kids fight each other to the death: here, because the government is essentially punishing its citizens for having once rebelled and, not wanting to repeat that ghastly war, believes this will serve as a constant reminder that they are the ones in charge. Plus, it makes a great TV show, am I right? One reason The Hunger Games is clearly superior to Battle Royale is that it is uncomfortable to watch. Battle Royale is sick and twisted, but it's also entertaining, reveling in its blood and gore and death with an onscreen death countdown. By contrast, The Hunger Games is brutal and disturbing, making it abundantly clear how fucked up the very idea is.
Gary Ross deliberately chose not to make a slick Hollywood blockbuster, the sort of film the Capitol would make, instead going the handheld-camera route, which gives the film realism and immediacy. I know some people aren't fans of the shaky-cam, especially for action sequences, but I found it to be incredibly effective, especially once the PG-13 Games begin and all you need is a split-second of blood spurting or neck snapping to imagine the rest of the horror. It's not as if the whole movie is shot like a documentary, though; in fact, many of the scenes in the Capitol feel more static and steady, and the television coverage is appropriately slick. District 12 is dirty and Appalachial, and the Capitol is shiny and grotesque, the citizens in garish clothing and makeup, cheering the honor and glory of dying for entertainment and retribution. I also loved the editing, with quick cuts for key flashbacks and the focus on small details with loaded meanings.
While all of this is designed to tell the story from Katniss's perspective, the movie is actually third-person omniscient, without the narration of the books, and it is all the better for it, for several reasons. The third-person perspective actually makes the goings-on even more horrific because we see it all for what it is. We see everyone's reactions. We see pointless brutality, and we react accordingly. It's not filtered through Katniss's resigned acceptance of the world she lives in. The third-person POV also allows us to see more behind the scenes of the Games. What happens in the Gamemakers' control room? What is Haymitch actually up to during the Games? And, most importantly, what about President Snow and Seneca Crane? Probably the movie's greatest strength in what it brings to the table that the books couldn't is a brilliant setup for the rest of the story, giving us Snow's perspective on what is going on with Katniss and the Games. I would have liked to see some more of the other districts—although the one glimpse we get of another district really packs a punch—especially given the reality TV aspect, which actually isn't nearly as played up as I expected it to be. While we do get Katniss's experience of being a reality TV star, I wanted to see more of the sense that the other citizens were viewing her as entertainment. Instead, that job falls to the blue-haired Caesar Flickerman, who also provides necessary exposition to make up for not being inside Katniss's head. But the movie's other greatest strength—and, let's face it, it actually has a lot of greatest strengths—is Jennifer Lawrence, who is so fantastic that we don't need to be inside her head to know what she's thinking. It's all in her face. She completely embodies Katniss in all her pride, strength, conflict, love, sadness, prickliness, artifice, and all the rest.
As a result, we really are with Katniss on her journey, and we feel what she feels. I was practically an emotional wreck after the Reaping, and I didn't know how I could survive the rest of the movie. As the countdown to the Games began, I honestly felt like I wasn't ready. I wanted it to stop. I was not prepared. But, like Katniss, I had no choice. As the slaughter began, I flinched, I cursed, I cried. And by the end, only Taylor Swift could calm me down.
Although there was some fear about the movie's soundtrack, rest assured that there are no pop songs before the credits roll. James Newton Howard's score is emotive and moody, but the sound design also makes incredible use of silence and buzzing, once again helping us feel what Katniss feels.
It seems that I've spent the entire review talking about the movie as an experience, and, since I did go to a midnight showing, it really was an experience, but I think that's what's so amazing about it, that you feel like you've been transported to Panem and it's terrible and you can't get out. The movie follows the book almost beat for beat, but I felt like it could have been an hour longer, just so everything could have more impact. I have minor quibbles here and there with story changes and cuts and special effects and characters who didn't seem to get enough screentime (Cinna, Foxface, even Haymitch, unless I'm misremembering how much he's actually in the first book), but I think that, in the end, this is close to the best adaptation we could have hoped for.
If they stay with this creative team, I think Catching Fire will be fucking amazing and Mockingjay will destroy us all.
But if you've seen the movie, let's talk about it in SPOILERY DETAIL! (Warning: spoilers for entire trilogy!)
I'm not sure whether I like starting the movie with Caesar and Claudius. On the one hand, it does bring the reality TV aspect to the forefront, but on the other hand, District 12? Luckily, it's a very short scene and not the start of a frame story, which is what it looked like, which makes it all the more odd a choice to be the first scene of the movie.
PRIM! Everything with Prim was so wrenching, and Katniss and Prim were so great together, and I loved the subtle ways they showed that their mother had basically shut down and Katniss was taking care of the family.
Oh, Gale. YOU ARE SO TALL. That is basically what I get from this movie. Liam Hemsworth is fine in his limited appearance, but without Katniss's narration, her feelings about Gale are as good as nonexistent. Our whole audience was laughing every time the movie cut to Gale's reactions to Katniss and Peeta because it just seemed so hilariously one-sided. I'm kind of glad the love triangle wasn't really played up, though, because this story isn't really about that, and it only invites more ridiculous comparisons to Twilight.
So, seriously, I was practically a fucking mess after the Reaping. Effie was wonderfully awful, mouthing along with the terrible propaganda video, making this all seem like it was the greatest thing ever, and then, God, I love how everyone just sort of backs away from the person whose name is called, as if they're afraid that if they're too close, they'll go in too. AND PRIM TUCKED HER SHIRT IN HER DRESS OH MY HEART HOW WILL WE SURVIVE MOCKINGJAY. Prim and Katniss screaming and crying and nyeeergh. I loved how almost irritated Effie was that Katniss had volunteered, like it had ruined the show, it was so unexpected and not the way things were supposed to work down here. I liked the way they did the bread flashback in little pieces, although I'm not entirely sure how clear that is to someone who hasn't read the books until you get to see it in full and it's made explicit.
Effie was wonderfully awful and hilarious the whole time ("They don't even get dessert, but YOU GET DESSERT!"), always missing the point. I liked how she was SO made up that you could sort of see that she was fake, that there might be a real person underneath all that. Although I didn't really get that impression from the other Capitol citizens, who looked like aliens even without wacky-colored skin.
Haymitch! Oh, Woody Harrelson, I know I always pictured Haymitch as more old and grizzled than he actually is, but you were great. I loved that we got to see him courting sponsors during the Games, and it was neat that he gave Crane the idea to change the rules. Something like that, I wonder whether Suzanne Collins actually thought of when writing the books but never found a place to put in. There is nothing to contradict that idea in the books, I think, but the books generally imply that the Gamemakers came up with the rule change on their own for the sake of entertainment, which makes them look like big dicks, whereas this version makes Haymitch look good.
I actually really liked Josh Hutcherson as Peeta! Especially in the interviews with Caesar, he was so charming and likable, but he was also able to be all sad and sacrificial in the arena. Sure, when he was all, "I watched you go home every day. EVERY DAY. I WATCHED YOU. WAAAATCHED YOU. LIKE A CREEEEEPER," it was weird, but it was sincere, like that moment of seeing Katniss in the rain had really affected him, how could he have this bread and she didn't have any, it wasn't fair.
Oh my God, Caesar! That blue hair! That GIGANTIC SMILE! ALL THE VIDEOS OF CAESAR PLAYING BEHIND CAESAR. It was gloriously over-the-top, and I loved his explanation of tracker-jackers. It's like, "Oooh, MAYBE THEY'LL DIE! It'll be so exciting!" And let's not forget that horrible fucking "The TRIBUTE becomes the VICTOR" video that is about a KID BEATING ANOTHER KID'S HEAD IN WITH A BRICK. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE. This is what I'm talking about, how we see it as awful, plain as day.
I WANT CINNA TO BE MY FRIEND. Again, like Haymitch, nothing like what I imagined from the book, but Lenny Kravitz was great, warm and protective. I wish we had gotten more; I don't remember how long he's in Catching Fire before he's dragged away to his SHUT UP HE IS PROBABLY ALIVE SOMEWHERE WE NEVER SAW A BODY.
And speaking of fire, I thought the fire looked totally fake, and it might have been okay with the two dresses because it's supposed to be weird fake fire, but I wish the fire in the arena had looked more real, although you could make the case that was also weird TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED MAGICAL FIRE or something. Come on, how hard is it to just set things on fire?
Loved how the crowd noise when Katniss first went out for her interview just turned into buzzing and she couldn't even hear Caesar's first question. The movie did a really good job of showing how Katniss is terrible at this shit and doesn't think of herself as pretty and hates being in the public eye. I look forward to watching Jennifer Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss as the Mockingjay! IF WE BURN YOU BURN WITH US.
I think our first of several audience cheers was during the talent displays when Katniss shot the apple and then BOWED. AMAZINGPANTS. I couldn't even hear what she said, so it was very convenient that Haymitch repeated it for us in the next scene ("Thanks for your consideration" oh snaaaaaap). Wasn't there something in the book about how giving her an 11 was actually out of spite to make the other Tributes hate her? Haymitch played it off like it was just good, the end.
Avoxes! They didn't focus on them at all, but they were there, being all creepy and not talking. I wonder if they'll do something with them in the later movies.
So, seriously, once the countdown to the Games started, I wasn't ready. I was like STOP THIS MOVIE I NEED TO GET OFF. I was bracing myself. And then the Games were on and it was a fucking bloodbath, and I just couldn't believe what I was watching, all these poor, vicious kids, and there was that one boy with curly hair who looked like he was, like, ten, and I thought he was going to die in the first wave and I thought he did but then he didn't BUT THEN HE DID AAARGH HE WAS LIKE TEN YOU ASSHOLES.
Survivalist Katniss tying herself up on trees to sleep = AWESOME.
OH MY GOD THE TRACKER JACKER SCENE WAS SO GOOD AND HORRIFYING. The hallucination effect was freaky as shit, especially the bit with Caesar walking through the arena, and they even stuck in a flashback of her dad's death! Aaargh. That whole sequence was so well done.
And then...RUE. Oh man, SO ADORABLE. Every time we see her in training, shyly peeking out from behind a corner or hanging from the ceiling or whatever...SO CUTE. And then in the tree! I don't remember how long Katniss and Rue have together in the book, but I feel like it was much longer than they got in the movie. It seemed like they had, like, two minutes together before she died. And oh man, Katniss does not fucking hesitate to put an arrow in Marvel, I think it is, and then Rue is there with a spear in her, and she asks her to sing, and Jesus God, I already teared up when she sang the lullaby to Prim, and I kind of wish they lingered more on the lullaby to Rue, it seemed like they only let her sing a line or two before cutting away, but then she went to gather the flowers, and that whole scene was weird because it's one of the great scenes in the book where Katniss starts turning against the Gamemakers, but even though Katniss does not say a word, you can see she just wants to give Rue's death some dignity, and when she gives the three-finger salute, we see District 11 giving it back AND I AM TEARING UP JUST WRITING ABOUT THIS SHIT.
BUT THEN WE GET TO SEE SOMEONE WHO IS PRESUMABLY RUE'S FATHER FREAK THE FUCK OUT AND START A RIOT AND TURN ON THE PEACEKEEPERS BECAUSE THEY HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS SHIT AND IT IS AWESOME. It's like, boom, looks like that spark is CATCHING FIRE.
Oh my God, the scenes with Snow and Crane! He doesn't like underdogs! I loved the whole dynamic there, with Crane wanting to put on a good show, that was his purpose, whereas Snow was far more concerned with keeping the population in check. He was so menacing without being eeeeeeeevil. And oh my fucking God, Crane's final scene was FUCKING AMAZING. It was like Suzanne Collins thought, "Wait, I don't have to concern myself exclusively with Katniss's POV? I HAVE A MUCH BETTER IDEA FOR HOW CRANE WAS KILLED." I don't know how it will affect Katniss's awesome effigy of him that was specifically based on his hanging, but, man, do I love the fuck out of it.
The Gamemakers' control room was totally sweet! It was cool to see them manipulating the arena and everything in it. It did take away a lot of the surprises in the book because so much of the greatness of being restricted to Katniss's POV is that you really have no idea what the Gamemakers are going to do, they're like these unseen puppetmasters. But here we see them basically playing with these kids' lives (Jesus God, when they force Katniss back from the edge of the arena by firebombing her into the path of the Careers and Crane is like, "Get a cannon ready," AAARGH DIE).
FOXFACE. You guys, not nearly enough Foxface! But let's face it, I kind of wanted Foxface in the background of, like, every scene, being foxy, no one even noticing her because she is just so damn clever. And Peeta calls her Foxface like MAYBE THAT IS HER ACTUAL TRUFAX NAME IN THIS MOVIE (seriously, someone who has never read the books will walk away thinking her parents named her Foxface). The Nightlock thing was too compressed, I think, even though I guess it's perfectly fine that she just ate some random berries...but the whole reason she steals them from Peeta in the book is because Peeta has them with food because he thinks they're food so she thinks they're food, right? Here, I guess she just...eats some random berries, which makes her...not that clever rather than too clever? R.I.P. Foxface.
(But oh man loved the scene after the Cornucopia slaughter when they meet each other and they're like, well, we could try to kill each other or we could go our separate ways, all right, let's do the latter.)
Can Jennifer Lawrence just shoot things with arrows all the time? I will watch it. Loved the extreme close-ups as she focused on shooting the apples to trigger the landmines. I don't know, seriously, can we give Jennifer Lawrence all the awards?
Errgh, when Cato snapped that kid's neck. This shit is so much harder to watch than it is to read about, you know?
Oh, Katniss and Peeta in the cave! I didn't remember while watching the movie, but in retrospect, I do miss the sleeping syrup. There's nothing more romantic than drugging your lover so you can go get medicine to save him!
Oh! So, the announcements! Not how I imagined them at all. I always thought they had much more fanfare, but they were sort of...dull. Like, "Attention, shoppers, clean-up in Aisle 2, also you're all going to die."
Holy motherfucking shit when Clove threw the knife at Katniss I ducked and then as they fought I was basically shifting in my seat because I thought I remembered that Thresh saved her so I was like WHERE ARE YOU THRESH WHY AREN'T YOU SAVING HER YET NYEEERRGHHH and then Clove was like Evil Monologuing and WHERE ARE YOU THRESH and then suddenly Thresh was there and killing Clove and everyone cheered.
So I think I always imagined the muttations as more like wolves than big scary bulldogs? As big scary bulldogs go, though, they were pretty freaky, although the CGI wasn't perfect. The execution in general, however, was awesome; when the first one just jumped out of nowhere, a girl shrieked. And holy shit, when TWO MORE JUST LIKE CAME OUT OF THE FUCKING GROUND OR SOME SHIT. I kind of wish they'd left in the bit about their eyes and the collars that implied they were actually the dead tributes because that just adds an whole extra layer of fucked up. And this was a moment when I really wanted cuts to the other districts watching this horrific shit as ENTERTAINMENT. We got a lot of the reality TV stuff from the side of the people making it, but not enough from the people watching it.
And oh man, Cato's final speech! That was not in the book, but I liked it, the whole "That's all I'm good for, right?" the sense that he may have trained to be a vicious killer all his life but it has actually fucked him up good. And they did pull back on his death scene, letting Katniss kill him after a minute or so rather than forcing her to listen to him scream the entire night. Movie's gotta move, haters gonna hate.
I think because they compressed the stuff with the berries, the big moment with the Nightlock seemed a little fast, even though it does seem to go that quickly in the book. But oh man, PEETA. Gosh, I really liked Peeta in the movie, which I was not expecting.
Out of all the little things that were cut and changed and streamlined and whanot, I think my biggest issue is with the end, probably because it was at the end and I had loved the movie so much until then that I was waiting for it to continue to please me in every way, and it fell a little short. My favorite thing about the end of the book is that Katniss and Peeta have to continue to fake their relationship after the Games or they are dead. And I don't think that's made explicit enough in the movie. Haymitch tells them to play it up in the interviews, and Snow comments on her mockingjay pin—oh God, I didn't even talk about the fucking mockingjay pin that is now just a random pin Katniss buys that has no significance until it is is given significance, it is a symbol because it is a symbol, and Snow's comment on it basically gives it its power, and maybe it works in the sense that Katniss sort of becomes the Mockingjay in a similar fashion, but it's weird because the mockingjay pin ACTUALLY HAS ITS OWN INDEPENDENT SIGNIFICANCE that was left out of the movie, but I think it will probably be fine in the end, probably—and then Snow menacingly watches them be a couple back in District 12, but I really wanted it to be clear that they had to fake that relationship because their lives were at stake. I don't know whether people who didn't read the books got that.
Wow, clearly, I had a lot of fucking thoughts. SO GOOD YOU GUYS.
Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Filter - Consider This
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March 19th, 2012
 | 08:17 am - Novel or Graphic Novel?
So the Legend of Korra premiere leaked and IT IS SO AWESOME YOU GUYS OH MY GOD I CANNOT WAIT. If I post about the show when it airs, will people comment? Is this something people will talk about? Because apparently no one reads comics.
The Eternal Smile, by Gene Luen Yang (of American Born Chinese and Level Up fame) and Derek Kirk Kim, comprises three separate short stories that cover one of my favorite themes, the interplay between reality and fantasy. Each protagonist has a strong dream, a wish for something, but how will it be fulfilled, and at what cost? "Duncan's Kingdom," about would-be-king Duncan and his quest to defeat the Frog King, is the weakest story, largely because it is an idea that has been done many times before, but without frogs. It is executed well, but it lacks originality. "Gran'Pa Greenbax and the Eternal Smile," on the other hand, is more creative, following the exploits of a greedy frog and his attempt to cash in on a mysterious Eternal Smile in the sky. It's cute for most of the story, but the conclusion really gives it an interesting bite. "Urgent Request" is the strongest story, surprisingly, and it features no frogs at all. Janet Oh at CommTech feels ignored at work and finds meaning and significance in helping a Nigerian prince. Yes, the strongest, Eisner-winning story in this collection is about a woman falling for the Nigerian scam. But it becomes something lovely! Seriously.
What's most impressive about the collection is how different the stories are, both in style and especially in art. Derek Kirk Kim uses a number of different art styles, color schemes, and panel layouts, each appropriate for the story. Yang and Kim make a good team, and I hope to see them collaborate again in the future.
For years, I've wanted to read Ghost World, by Daniel Clowes. I remember really liking the movie, but apparently that was mostly because of Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson and the fact that the movie actually had a plot. In the graphic novel, Enid and Becky are two teenage girls who spend every waking minute viciously snarking on every single fucking human being they encounter, as if they are SO ABOVE IT ALL. Halfway through the book, I felt almost physically ill, they were such awful, vile people with no justification at all for their behavior. What was the point of this? Why was I supposed to care about these characters at all? Clowes tries to cram in an actual story and character development in the last two chapters, but by then, he had lost me. Man, fuck this book.
I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura, had been on my radar for a while, though I'm not sure why. However I first became interested in it, I'm really glad! Barbara Thorson is a fifth-grade girl and a hero for our time, for, as the title states, she kills giants. This is not an action-fantasy romp, however, but a lovely, haunting tale of a child who has to escape into a fantasy world, who must cling to it in order to face reality. We see that at home, her older sister, Karen is raising her and her brother on her own, and at school, she acts out constantly, eventually forced to see the school psychologist, Mrs. Molle. She is tormented by a bully, Taylor, but she also makes a new friend, Sophia. Their blossoming friendship is one of the highlights of the book, as Barbara is a tough nut to crack but does appreciate that someone likes her for who she is.
The fantasy aspects add a hefty dose of surreality to the story, and some of it doesn't entirely work, confusing the metaphor rather than holding it together. What does work, though, works astonishingly well, largely thanks to the black-and-white manga-inspired art. We feel so strongly for Barbara that we want her to vanquish giants, whether or not they're real. In only seven issues, Kelly so well depicts the relationships between Barbara and Sophia, Karen, and Mrs. Molle—all relationships between women, helping the book pass the Bechdel test with flying colors—that the climax is almost emotionally draining. Even if the final message is a bit too explicit, it is entirely earned and almost brought a tear to my eye.
Like Daytripper, this is one of those books I want to force on people who don't think graphic novels can be just as rich, rewarding, and emotionally compelling as regular novels.
In 300, by Frank Miller with coloring by Lynn Varley, 300 Spartan warriors go up against thousands of Persian warriors. They fight a lot. People die. The end. That is basically it. Something about honor and glory or something. There is very little in the way of character except for Leonidas and possibly Xerxes, the Persian god-king attempting to conquer Greece. The real strength of the book is Frank Miller's pulpy narration and the large, sprawling art that depicts the bloodbath, well, artfully. All the best, iconic moments and lines from the movie trailer are all here, and it manages to be less boring than the movie, possibly because it tries even less to have a plot. It is a decent, short read. Basically: that happened.
Can we also talk about Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples's new comic, which has been described as "Star Wars meets A Game of Thrones"? Can we? Hello? Anyone? Because it's great.
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts III: 25
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March 12th, 2012
 | 08:17 am - Four or Fantastic Four?
Saturday was closing night for Eat Our Shorts 4: Love and Other Disasters, and, while I'll admit I was a bit hesitant about this show initially, it turned out to be a great, fun experience. I was in two short plays. In "Flip the Switch," I was one half of a gay couple at the gym who grill their workout instructor about his love life, and in "A Match Made in Heaven and Hell," I was an extremely condescending waiter tending to Jesus and Lucifer on their first date. The first play was fun; I got to say things like "We hired a cocksucker!" and be a backup singer and deliver a Norma Rae-style tirade about bottoms. But even though the writer and director did love me in the part, I felt miscast. In the second play, however, I felt more comfortable saying terribly awful things to super nice people. Even though it was a much smaller part, the character had a much higher laugh/line ratio. It was fun to play two very different characters in the same night.
And apparently I was good at it. One of the writers told me I was "so fucking hilarious" every night. One of my castmates told me that he and the other actors were always saying I was "so funny, so fucking funny" in both my roles and that I made them so different, which was key. One of the directors said that everyone was fighting over me after auditions, but I couldn't be in every play. One woman told me after the show that I was "phenomenal." In fact, I got a lot of compliments and praise from strangers (mostly for my waiter character, I think), which was neat. Hell, I even got stopped in a nearby taqueria by someone who smiled at me and said, "I just saw you at Eat Our Shorts. You were hilarious."
Also, we sold out every night, which was a new experience for me.
I'd never ready any Fantastic Four before, but in honor of Mark Waid's taking over Daredevil, Angelo, my pusher, bought me half of his run on Fantastic Four, with art by Mike Wieringo (full Goodreads reviews: Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4), and I enjoyed it so much I soon bought the other half. Luckily, the first issue was very introductory. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) is a stretchy supergenius, Sue Richards (Invisible Woman) is a loving wife/mother and supportive sister with invisible force fields, Johnny Storm (Human Torch) is an immature hothead, and Ben Grimm (Thing) is a rough-and-tumble galoot. They fight aliens and interdimensional beings and science gone awry. It's kind of like Atomic Robo in how silly and science-y it all is, but what really holds the book together is the family aspect. This is a very tight group of family and friends, and they love each other and snipe at each other. It's very endearing. Plus, the Fantastic Four, unlike many other superheroes, are huge celebrities with no secret identities. They have their own corporation to market themselves, which could come off as sort of douche-y, but it doesn't, especially given Reed's wonderful monologue at the end of Waid's first issue.
Having established his characters (well, "his" characters), Waid moves on to the highlight of his run, a story of the Fantastic Four facing their archnemesis, Doctor Doom. The things Doom does in this story are genuinely scary, and I give Waid and Wieringo props for really pulling me into the awfulness without having years and years of familiarity with these characters. There's all sorts of pain and misery and dastardly manipulation, and it's all rooted in the characters. It's superhero storytelling at its best, treating these people with powers as people first, characters with rich histories and complex relationships. And if that weren't enough, Waid actually spends a couple issues dealing with the aftermath, and it's incredibly affecting. What impresses me about Mark Waid's run is that he's truly interested in consequences. In the post-Doom stories, we see how Reed's encounter with Doom has changed him, not just physically but mentally as well (Waid's run is very Reed-centric, and he seems intent on piling more and more angst onto the poor guy). Although Waid falls back on clichés a bit, it's a very compelling look at vengeance and loss and the clashing of two brilliant minds.
The final stretch isn't as strong, but it does allow Waid to use the other major FF villain I knew about, Galactus. It was unusual and funny. These issues focus on what individual team members mean to each other. But Waid doesn't simply delve into the relationships these people have with each other but also the relationships they have with their powers. What do their powers mean to them? How do they define them? How do they make them feel? It was interesting that the Fantastic Four, throughout Waid's run, feel like people first and superheroes second. Their powers are sort of incidental to who they are, but they're still part of who they are. I really grew to love the characters. Reed, who's always concerned with how his inventions could benefit humanity. Sue, who's very complex for a female character in comics; although she is in some ways defined by her relationships to three men (her husband, her brother, and her friend), she is also a mother of two, and she's also a businesswoman. Johnny, who has a lighthearted, warm soul but gains some new responsibilities during Waid's run. Ben, who has a sweetly antagonistic relationship with Johnny and is probably the one with the biggest heart of all.
Thank you, Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo, for making me love the Fantastic Four. Now, however, I am in the strange position of wanting to read more Fantastic Four but being afraid to read stories not written by Mark Waid. For all my ignorance about the team, I feel like he really got the characters and stayed true to them without making the book about pseudoscience and magic and cosmic battles and whatever. The first Waid book I read was Kingdom Come, which I thought was overrated, so I've really had to get over that bad first impression to appreciate that this Waid guy, he knows how to write superhero comics after all.
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Deftones - Around the Fur
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March 7th, 2012
| 08:12 am - Man or Batman?
The centerpiece of my superhero comic kick was Grant Morrison's Batman saga. But, hey, it was a good excuse to check out a few other Bat-books I'd had my eye on!
Now, Grant Morrison's Batman saga certainly is...ambitious. Angelo, my pusher, told me that all I really needed to know was that Morrison's take was that all of Batman's publication history was canon. Everything, even the weird stuff. Especially the weird stuff. In fact, it's really an attempt to make the weird stuff fit into the Batman mythos (he invents something called the Black Casebook, which is where Batman files all the weird stuff). Now, it's hard to really review the whole saga without some minor spoilers, so beware! If you care.
The story begins with Batman and Son, with art by Andy Kubert (full Goodreads review), which (re-)introduces Damian Wayne, Bruce's son by Talia al-Ghul (originally conceived in a non-canonical story until Morrison decided to make him canon, and thank goodness!). Damian Wayne is basically my favorite thing in the whole story because he's this violent demon child who's been raised by assassins, so he's a hilarious jerkface who thinks killing people is awesome, but he's also a ten-year-old boy who wants Daddy (and Mommy) to love him. This first book is really uneven, but, in retrospect, it's actually setting up a lot of important plotlines that continue in Batman: The Black Glove, with art by J.H. Williams, Tony S. Daniel, and Jonathan Glapion (full Goodreads review). While the highlight of this book is the art of J.H. Williams, who uses incredibly inventive panel layouts, as he had in Desolation Jones, the Big Story begins to take shape, thanks to the ominous introduction of the Black Glove, who intended to take down Batman. Even though I wasn't fully understanding everything, I could finally see what Morrison was doing, the way he was examining Batman and trying to figure out what makes him tick, as so many writers had done before him. It was clear that the Black Glove would be using a psychological attack, because you don't defeat Batman with a physical attack. Unless you're Bane. And Morrison effectively pulled together elements from these two books in Batman: R.I.P., with art by Tony S. Daniel (full Goodreads review), a surprisingly satisfying conclusion, as we see the Black Glove utterly destroy Batman and Batman fight back in the most unusual way. Unusual and kind of awesome. And ridiculous. And awesomely ridiculous. Really, though, it's the Joker's role in the story that makes the book. It's funny (no pun intended), the Joker is often the most memorable presence in Batman stories (his brief appearance in No Man's Land stuck with me more than many other plot elements).
I was kind of impressed with Morrison for writing such a challenging piece for a mainstream comic. It's some fucking weird, trippy shit, full of psychological horror and an examination of Batman's identity. But wait! It wasn't over! Because Batman had an important role in Final Crisis! So remember that time Batman shot Darkseid in the face and then Darkseid Omega Sanctioned Bruce Wayne back to the Paleolithic era or whatever?
With Bruce Wayne lost in time, it's time for Batman and Robin (full Goodreads reviews: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3) to be...Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne?? Oh, yes, you better believe it's entertaining, with Damian being a violent little shit and Dick trying to emulate Bruce as best he can. There is some disturbing-ass shit in these books; Morrison creates some fucked-up new villains (the Circus of the Strange, various rival gangs, the Flamingo). But the highlight of the books continues to be Damian, although it's also interesting to see how Dick deals with the loss of Batman. And what of Batman? Well, there's Time and the Batman (full Goodreads review), which is a nonessential book, and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne (full Goodreads review), a slightly disappointing time-jumping journey that turns into something nigh incomprehensible in an attempt to bring Bruce Wayne back into the fold...but what does that mean for our new Batman and Robin? And, what, is the Joker loose again? And elevating the book again? Oh, Batman and Robin, Vol. 3: Batman and Robin Must Die!, you are the true conclusion of the Morrison Batman saga, and you manage to tie elements of the Batman and Robin series into the Batman R.I.P. story, and, Jesus Christ, maybe it's not entirely coherent, but it was clearly planned out meticulously, and I've got to respect the ambition that went into pulling this shit off.
Afterward, I checked out Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert. Neil Gaiman imagines Batman's funeral, and who's there to mourn? Well, everyone from Alfred to the Joker. In case you were wondering whether Gaiman loved stories about stories...he does. Here, he has the guests tell their own stories about the life and death of Batman. But they can't all be true! And, yet, that's the thing about Batman. In an interesting way, Gaiman is doing the same thing Grant Morrison was doing in his run, trying to turn the publication history of Batman into a coherent life story and emphasize the eternity, the necessity of Batman, but while Morrison is more cerebral, Gaiman goes for the heart and is ultimately more successful, in my opinion.
The collection also includes some old Gaiman stories. There's a cute black-and-white tale that envisions Batman and the Joker as actors "playing" comic book characters, a Poison Ivy story, and a Riddler story.
It was also high time to finally read Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean. My God, what is this. I had been wanting to read it for years, and I think its reputation is well deserved. The story is simple: the inmates have taken over Arkham Asylum (led, of course, by the Joker), and Batman must go in and restore order. Meanwhile, we learn about the founder, Amadeus Arkham, and how he came to build this iconic institution. While Grant Morrison's writing is excellent, unnerving and creepy without being overwrought, the real star of this book is Dave McKean, who imbues the art with such atmosphere that reading this graphic novel is a truly chilling experience. Anyone who doubts the power of visual storytelling should just open this book. Working together, they tackle the nature of madness and sanity and what drives Batman and the Joker—in top form here, especially thanks to Gaspar Saladino's off-kilter red lettering. It's no surprise that this is a classic. Honestly, the word "masterpiece" was dancing around my head a lot of the time.
It seems only fitting, given his prominence in Morrison's Batman saga, that I end with Joker, by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. Azzarello's take on the Joker is as dirty and gritty as 100 Bullets, with a few bits of the delicious wordplay present in that book. He and Bermejo fashion a more realistic, less fantastical Gotham, where characters like Croc and Penguin look almost normal, though recognizable. The story is told through the eyes of Jonny Frost, a low-level hood who becomes part of the Joker's inner circle upon his release from Arkham. Whereas Grant Morrison's Joker sounds like Mark Hamill's interpretation, a madcap loon with genuine menace and brutality, Azzarello's Joker sounds more like Heath Ledger's interpretation, an amoral criminal with a terrifying disregard for human life. I felt that his voice was off, though; some bits of dialogue felt more like standard criminal talk than something the Joker would say ("Sucks to be you, doesn't it?"). Despite that, though, it's a cool underworld take on what it's like to hang with the Joker, especially because of Bermejo's art, which combines traditional and painted art to great effect. Because this is a manly noir book, women don't fare too well, sadly: Harley is a stripper who never says a word the whole book. But the story moves swiftly along, engrossing and engulfing you in its grimy, toothy filth.
Current Mood:  annoyed
Current Music: Placebo featuring David Bowie - Without You I'm Nothing (UNKLE Remix)
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March 6th, 2012
| 07:33 am - Armageddon or Discount Armageddon?
I had a mini-Buffy marathon on Sunday! "Band Candy," "Doppelgangland," "Hush," and "Superstar." As much as I love some shows today, there's nothing quite like Buffy. Even the episode structures are something special. Not to mention the acting, directing, music, and '90s special effects. But, really, the way the episodes are put together works so well; nothing is out of place. Scenes have a purpose. It's all so tight. There's ambition, but not at the expense of accessibility.
Looking for something to scratch that Buffy itch? Do you miss the days when a blonde girl fought demons and a patriarchal organization who thinks they know better? Well, have I got a book for you!
Discount Armageddon, by Seanan McGuire, has the difficult job of following the Toby Daye series, but, luckily, it's different enough not to invite actual comparisons. What it does share, though, is a tough, snarky heroine and incredible worldbuilding.
Verity Price is a cryptozoologist from a family of rogue cryptozoologists. What is a cryptozoologist, you may ask. Why, those who study cryptids. What is a cryptid, you may ask. Why, ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, of course. Basically: monsters. Having split from the Covenant of St. George, whose mission it is to wipe the monsters out, they actually try to protect the ones who aren't any real danger. Well, that is, Verity does do this...when she's not ballroom dancing. It's a wacky premise that works surprisingly well. Really, if you can accept the Aeslin mice, who celebrate the strangest holidays and festivals known to man, you can accept most anything. Well, you also have to accept that Verity is subletting from a Sasquatch.
Manhattan is teeming with monsters, so it's no surprise that a guy from the Covenant shows up, and this is urban fantasy, so it's no surprise that he's hot and sparks fly and loins burn, but there's some mysterious shit going down, and they're going to have to team up to figure it out. With the help of various other cryptids.
It's a fun, engaging read. One of my favorite bits is the location descriptions at the beginning of each chapter, which reminded me of the Middleman chyrons: "Central Park, a block and a half away from the Plaza Athenee, preparing to do something stupid." Nearly all the characters are women, which is nice. There are some delicious plot twists, some predictable and some not. While it doesn't have the obvious seeds for a strong series arc that Rosemary and Rue had, it's a wonderful introduction to a new sandbox I look forward to spending more time in.
Discount Armageddon is out today, so pick it up on Amazon or at your local bookstore! If you want a little taste of the world, you can read "One Hell of a Ride" for free. It's the story of how Jonathan Healy met Frances Brown. Who? Well, they're a couple of Verity's ancestors. See, if this goes to a full series, it will be the story of two whole families of rogue demon hunters cryptozoologists!
Oh, right, you should also buy it because I am in it!
Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Thumper - Gorilla Pimpin'
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March 5th, 2012
 | 07:05 am - Hero or Superhero?
Last month, I went on a superhero comic kick, and, oh, it's not even over! If you love superhero comics, you are in for a treat. If you don't, you will be bored. But, wait, most of these are worth reading if you don't think you like superhero comics! Seriously, these are pretty fantastic books here.
In his continual quest to get me to care about Superman, my pusher, Angelo, bought me Superman: Up, Up, and Away!, by Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns with art by Pete Woods and Renato Guedes, for my birthday. It begins as the story of Clark Kent, Superman having lost his powers during Infinite SuperMegaCrisis or whatever. It's been a year of living as a norm, and...he kind of likes it. Lois likes it too. It was neat to see the character in this light, as well as his relationship with Lois. Truthfully, I could have read a whole book about that, but the title is Superman, not Clark Kent, so he has to get his powers back eventually. Yet what surprised me was that even that didn't feel like an eye-rolling reset of the status quo. Even that actually tied into the characterization and what makes Superman/Clark Kent who he is. In a way, the story is really a character study about not just who he is but why he does what he does. Toss in Lex Luthor at his Lex Luthor-est, and you've got a great book. It's a bit overstuffed with heroes and villains, but it's also highly accessible to new readers, since Clark helpfully explains who everyone is.
By the time I reached the last page, I had a startling, unexpected realization: I actually cared about Superman. Maybe I only want to read more Kurt Busiek/Geoff Johns Superman stories, but there you have it. This is a great book for Superman fans and non-Superman fans alike.
Having seen the movie and the pilot for the upcoming animated series, I thought it was high time I actually read some Green Lantern beyond "Mogo Doesn't Socialize," and Geoff Johns's reboot/origin story, Green Lantern: Secret Origin seemed a good introduction to the character (the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, at least). And, in fact, it is, although Hal is kind of a dick for most of the book. He does grow, however, and he has Daddy Issues and all that. Johns seems particularly good at getting at the human element of superheroes, treating the human character with just as much, if not more, importance as the superhero. The more fantastical elements are also exciting and intriguing, especially all the business about prophecies, the dark secret of the Guardians, and what the fuck is up with not being able to attack the color yellow, come on now. All in all, a solid story that doesn't quite sell me on the character and the world (I'm still kind of whatever on Hal, and the Lanternverse just seems so big and sprawling and complicated that I'm afraid of it), but does make me the teensiest bit more interested in reading more of Johns's GL run, at the very least.
I'd had my eye on Marvels, by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross for years, but after having loved Busiek's work on Superman: Up, Up, and Away!, I thought it was finally the time.
This book just makes me giddy. The concept is simple: the Marvel Universe as seen through the eyes of an Everyman photojournalist. But the execution is brilliant, as Busiek uses the publication history as his template for this world. Thus, we see the evolution of Marvel Comics and how the real-world reactions to certain characters and events may translate to the fictional reality. While a familiarity with comics history is obviously a plus, it's not a necessity; I was only really familiar with a few of the major events depicted in the story. But it was the fact that I knew that the other events were "real," had "really happened," in a sense, that made me appreciate the brilliance in how it was all put together. Busiek uses various events in Marvel history to show how everyday, "normal" people view superheroes and how their opinions are depressingly fickle, which is reflected in the comics themselves. Is Spider-Man a hero or a menace? Are the X-Men saviors of mankind or mutant freaks? Do we love or hate the Fantastic Four for being celebrities? Phil Sheldon just shakes his head in disgust and indignation. It's a perspective not often focused on, how the very existence of superheroes affects society and regular people, and I loved the picture Busiek painted. And, of course, the art that Alex Ross painted. I found that the painted interior art worked better here than in Kingdom Come, maybe because the it's so observational, like this is how we see the Marvels, so glorious and wondrous.
I was interested in reading the story that followed Superman: Up, Up, and Away!, but, hoo boy, Superman: Back in Action, by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieiza with art by Pete Woods, is definitely a step down from that wonderful book. The interesting thread is the public's skepticism that Superman is really Superman (as one character points out, the last time Superman "came back," there were four of them, all fake), but that's incidental set dressing. Rather than explore this idea head-on, Busiek and Nicieza concoct an excuse for a wacky team-up book, forcing Superman to work together with an odd assortment of heroes (and one villain) to save the world from aliens who are stealing lots of stuff. It's cute and fun but there's not much substance or character work here, and the story mostly seems to exist to set up some future plotlines that I don't really care about. Also, the art is meh. Geez, Busiek, way to destroy my interest in Superman so soon!
Also, there are three old-school Superman wacky team-up stories thrown in to fill the book out, and they are silly and old-school, if you like that sort of thing.
Given Kurt Busiek's treatment of Clark Kent in Superman: Up, Up, and Away!, I was interested in reading Superman: Secret Identity, by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen, which is all about Clark Kent. That is, a boy in the real world who just happens to be named Clark Kent...and have superpowers. By setting the story on Earth Prime, Busiek is free to retell the Superman story in a more realistic fashion, focusing on a boy—then a man—dealing with a secret identity and wanting to use his powers to help people. There are no alien invaders, no mad supervillains, no hokey sci-fi threats. The main threat is the government, and the familiar "government wants to control the superhero" plot is the weakest aspect of the book, as it takes focus from the more human elements, which are done incredibly well. The miniseries comprises four chapters, each set in a different stage of Clark's life, and by the end of the book, I was getting a Daytripper vibe from the way that the story encompassed one man's whole life. So he happened to have superpowers. Whatever. His life was rich and fulfilling in so many other ways. (Immonen uses a very different style here than he did in Nextwave, doing his own coloring to give the book an almost dreamlike quality.)
May I also give Busiek and Immonen props for making Lois Indian? And this was in 2004! Indians weren't even cool then!
Current Mood:  shaken
Current Music: Prospect Mali - The Silence
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February 2nd, 2012
 | 09:38 am - Well, What If There Is No Tomorrow? There Wasn't One Today
Oh my God, why haven't I been posting? Because my world is a crotch, that's why.
- Work. Work. Also, work. So much work. I was at work till after 7 the other night, and, honestly, if I weren't busy with other things, I would be staying late(r) all this week.
- My passport expired, and I need to get a passport photo and send in the application and all that.
- I got a speeding ticket, and I need to pay it and take an online traffic course, but there are like three or four to choose from and I hope the one I pick isn't going to rip me off.
- I need to remember to renew my renter's insurance.
- I am rehearsing for two short plays (yes, two, I picked up a small part in another Eat Our Shorts show). Rehearsals are both on Thursday nights, and I have to run from one to catch the end of the other, since I only have a small part. I'm pretty off-book, but not completely, and I barely had time to practice my lines since the last rehearsal.
- I need to memorize a 1-minute monologue for the Bay Area One Acts audition, but the one I really want to do is 1:40, maybe 1:20 if I cut a little. I have one that's about a minute, but it's not as awesome, though I could probably do well with it; it just wouldn't be as impressive, I don't think.
- I have to expand some 2-page scenes into 5- to 9-page scenes to submit to Act One, Scene Two, who will cold read my scene and then improvise the rest of the play.
- I have to write an ode to the concessions and an ode to the sound designer for the March Theater Pub show. These are short, maybe only a minute or two, but I want to be creative and entertaining, as well as give these roles their due.
- I'm also going to direct one of them.
- And act in one of them.
- I also need to work on the second act of Gravity.
- I also need to write something to submit for this year's Pint Sized Plays.
- I am also putting together four open sessions for the AMWA Annual Conference.
- I am also supposed to be putting together the newsletter for AMWA NorCal but haven't reinstalled Adobe InDesign on my new laptop, and I think I'm going to have issues because I didn't deauthorize the program on my old computer before it died, so I hope one of the registration codes I have still works.
- I haven't backed up my laptop in a few months, and I should.
- I am e-mailing with a potential future wife who actually sounds promising from the one e-mail I've gotten from her.
- I did meet this cute girl I was maybe going to ask out (ha ha, yeah right), but then I stalked her Twitter and found out she has a boyfriend.
- Uh, I still watch TV and movies and read books and play games and sometimes eat food?
Current Mood:  busy
Current Music: Rob Zombie - Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)
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January 12th, 2012
 | 11:39 pm - Paperless Books
Inspired by a Buffistas discussion about Isaac Asimov and his "serviceable" prose, I picked up I, Robot, read by Scott Brick. I had never read any Asimov, so I didn't know what to expect. I mean, I saw the movie, but I also knew the movie had nothing to do with anything. And I played a video murder mystery based on the book when I was a kid. But I had not read any actual Asimov.
I, Robot is a short story collection masquerading as a novel under the frame story of a man interviewing Dr. Susan Calvin, preeminent robopsychologist. She features in some, but not all of the stories, which are all about—you guessed it—robots. And, specifically, the famous Three Laws of Robotics. Surely, you know them; they're like Newton's Laws of Motion but for robots. A robot at rest tends to stay at rest—okay, no. A robot cannot harm a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm. A robot must obey all orders unless they contradict the First Law. And a robot must preserve itself unless such action conflicts with the First or Second Law. These laws are hardcoded into their positronic brains, however the hell they work.
I, Robot is basically a series of thought experiments masquerading as short stories, and, to my surprise, I really liked it! Asimov has a hell of a lot of fun examining the ramifications of the Three Laws and how they govern robot behavior (handy to have a robopsychologist around), and I found it really fascinating, all the scenarios he comes up with. The characters aren't particularly three-dimensional, but I did enjoy Powell and Donovan, and I am impressed with the fact that Asimov created Dr. Susan Calvin, the greatest robopsychologist in the world and easily the smartest person in the book, given that sixty years later, we barely seem capable of acknowledging that girls can be interested in science.
I got a Kindle Touch as a holiday gift at work, and for my first ebook experience, I chose Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, since I could download it for free and Custom Made is putting up a stage adaptation. I had heard mixed reviews of the book, but mostly positive.
Marcus is a teenage hacker in San Francisco. He is super l33t and loves playing ARGs with his friends. But then one day there's a terrorist attack, and he and his friends get taken in by Homeland Security for being suspected terrorists. Before he knows it, San Francisco is practically a police state, with people's privacy being sacrificed in the name of "security." So it's up to him to lead the revolution.
Little Brother is good. It's readable and entertaining. It's got a lot of interesting facts about technological topics. It's exciting, and there's lots of cool hacking. But, oh man, it hardly feels like a story. Cory Doctorow is not really telling a story about characters. He is condemning America's systematic chipping away at our civil rights and basic freedoms under the guise of protecting them, and also here are some teenagers. I exaggerate a bit; it's not as if the book reads like a polemic. But as things get worse and worse—from police brutality to torture—it's a paradoxical mix of ridiculously implausible and terrifyingly plausible. A lot of the book seems startlingly prescient, "reminiscent" of the Occupy movement years before it happened. There is a whole thing with pepper spray and everything.
This wouldn't matter so much if Doctorow were a more compelling writer. The book felt like Neal Stephenson-lite, but Doctorow is no Neal Stephenson. The prose is, oh, better than "serviceable," I suppose, given that it's the first-person POV of a teenage boy. And Marcus has a character arc and a romance and all that, and his voice is perfectly fine, but it's very matter-of-fact, with little subtext. Everything is right there on the surface. He tells the story, and that's it. Which is fine. But because the story seemed to be defined by the agenda of the book, I was left a little underwhelmed.
Little Brother wants to be 1984 for a new generation. A lofty goal that it doesn't really reach, but a good read nonetheless.
P.S. I am now on Goodreads! Be my friend and witness my useless ratings, which are 50% five-star and 33% four-star right now. Perhaps I need to recalibrate. Or stop liking things.
Current Mood: sick
Current Music: The Dragonflies - Radio Punk Star
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December 29th, 2011
 | 11:02 pm - Accowlades
Did you miss my Christmas post? It was the highly acclaimed "Vishnu Claus"! On YouTube! For you to watch!
Do you remember when I played The Rabbit and Stuart said I was "unexpectedly amazing"? He does his own "Best of 2011" awards. He does a lot of theatre, and he SEES a shitload of theatre. So imagine my surprise when I, of all people, was awarded Best Performance by an Actor (along with my co-star):
There was so much to love about Meg Cohen's "Joe Ryan", from Meg's funny and poetic script to Matt Gunnison and Kirsten Broadbear's excellent chemistry in the lead roles, but the best performances of the night were hands down John Lennon Harrison and Sunil Patel as a pair of criminal buddies whose first substantial backstory scene got a well-deserved standing ovation. Harrison is hands down one of the best and most underused actors in the San Francisco Theater scene and so to see him in such a substantial and fantastically written role was delightful, but Patel was the real "find", nailing a character I think it's safe to say NOBODY would have expected him in: a heroine addicted underworld doctor who has become the best friend of a murderous thug. Patel and Harrisoin not only captured their respective characters as individuals but the nature of the relationship between two such men and the final scene of the show, with Harrison emerging from the ground in Kezar stadium with Patel's corpse in his arms, was heartbreaking. I was so touched that out of the dozens and dozens of great actors he had seen over the year, I somehow made an impression. It was an amazing experience and such a great role for me. I wish more people had seen it.
Do you remember when I gave my cancer pharmacology workshop in Jacksonville and everyone seemed to love it? Well, as expected, my cancer pharmacology workshop was the best-reviewed it's ever been, averaging a 4.91 out of 5. I got 100% 5s on "Knowledge of subject" and "Willingness to respond to questions." Here are some highlights from the evaluations:
Sunil is a born teacher. I hope he continues to teach this course and perhaps develops others. He is an excellent lecture and understands how to use metaphors, graphics, and even class participation to enhance comprehension.
Sunil is a great workshop leader—very knowledgeable & very funny & engaging. I think he is Dimitri Martin’s "evil twin" & I mean that in the best of ways.
Please do more workshops. Very engaging.
Fabulous! I loved it! So much work went into this—thank you so much for your hard work & humor.
This is the best AMWA workshop I’ve taken! I learned a lot. Sunil is an engaging and enthusiastic workshop leader. He made complicated topics easier to understand.
Best workshop EVER! Entertaining and informative.
The instructor hit that perfect balance of being both entertaining and relevant. He was organized, and he could explain complex concepts in a way I could understand.
Sunil is a gifted teacher—I hope he’ll keep doing it. Outstanding workshop. I got the impression I did well.
Did you notice when I said I was a playwright? Because I wrote the first act of a play whose second act was improvised. It was pretty great, and dahliam flew up from L.A. just to see it. I wrote a sci-fi drama in the vein of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, and six great actors performed it without having seen the script (or anything else) before, and then they ended my play for me. People seemed to like it.
The best compliment, however, came from the house manager, whose response after the show was "OH MY GOD. TEACH ME HOW TO WRITE."
So basically I am awesome or something, I guess.
Current Mood:  sad
Current Music: Muse - Exogenesis: Symphony Part 1 (Overture)
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anxious
