NY Museums and Comics

Just a quick note to you fans of comics in the NYC area. I caught the masters of comic art show at the Jewish Museum (92nd and 5th) and it was cool. They had a lot of original art by Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb, Gary Panter, and Chris Ware. Plus a room full of 40's super-hero art. Well worth a look. I've never seen Eisner originals before and they had a couple of whole stories. They also had the whole Kurtzman war piece where the soldiers get into hand to hand combat and one drowns the other. Good stuff.

I also went down to the Society of Illustrators (63rd and Lex) and saw the show of Fantagraphic's artists. Clowes and Bagge are the big two but there was lots of nice art from a variety of good cartoonists. If you're in the area check them out.

Comics I bought: September 28, 2006

Just one comic this week. Usagi Yojimbo 97. Slow, slow, slow. At least for me. I also grabbed Following Cerebus 9 which is an issue devoted to Neal Adams. It's a hundred pages long and the type is tiny so there just has to be some interesting stuff in there.

Some More Short Ones

I have always been a fan of chocolate and I'm diggin' a new chocolate experience. I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate so dark chocolate miniatures have always been a staple of my diet. But in the last year or so there has been a new trend in chocolate: super-dark varieties. You could always get super-dark varieties in specialty chocolate shops but I have never been to a specialty shop let alone bought chocolate from one. I've been to their websites but the expense always kept me away. Super-darks were never in local markets. Now they are. A few different companies have some 60% cocoa chocolates (the start of the super-darks) on the supermarket shelves now. The flavors vary by brand but they are all good. I even found chocolate chips made of the same chocolate but you get twice the amount for your money. If you are not attached to the bar form then go for the chips. My mom just gave me a bar of 72% cocoa and that is the darkest I've gone so far. I can't wait to try the 90%. Dig it.

I watched a couple of movies this week; the first being "Open Water" from 2003. I can't decide if I think it's good or not. It's a low budget movie about two people who get left behind in the open ocean after a scuba dive. Will anyone notice the mistake? Will any rescuers find them in time? Do they live? Do they die? What about all those sharks? Are they a strong enough couple to not be broken by this experience? These are all the questions the movie explores while the man and woman bob in the water. They have scuba gear that enables them to float so at least the don't have to tread water indefinitely. That leaves time for conversation. A flare gun would have ended the movie quickly though. I don't know anything about scuba diving but I'm going to start carrying a flare gun with me at all times thanks to movies like this. I'm not sure if I like this movie of not but, to its credit, it made me think about what I would do in that situation. I like movies that give me something to think about afterwards. But to its debit most of the movie was two people bobbing in the water and their conversation wasn't very interesting. My Diner With Andre it isn't. Strangely it is also classified as a horror film. It's not. It's more of a disaster film than a horror film. It has more in common with The Towering Inferno than The Exorcist. Just a small scale disaster film. Go watch it and you decide.

But whatever you do don't try to watch Boogeyman from 2005. I didn't make it through this one as it played on cable this Saturday morning. It is the story of a guy who was traumatized as a kid by the Boogeyman adultnapping his father. Now the guy is all grown up and afraid of closets. Closets! This movie's idea of a scare is to have the lead character stare at a closet door while "scary" music plays and he slowly moves towards the handle to open the door revealing... wait for it... nothing! There is never anything in the closet! Once he stepped into a closet and they shook the camera and jump cut some edits while the scary music played. Then our hero got a scratch from a coat hanger! Tough stuff there. I had to turn the movie off it was so dull. According to most reviewers at IMDB I missed nothing. Stay away.

I was messing with some video stuff on my computer today. I do that every once in a while not because I am a film maker but because I occasionally like to archive things. I like to shoot video every now and then but I hate to edit it. So it is only very occasionally I break out the video software. The last time was the highlights from the Giants Broncos game from October of last year. Why that game? Who knows? I just like to keep my video archive skills form getting too rusty. So now I want the highlights from the Giants Eagles game from last weekend. I had to dust off my skills and deal with some problems. I have a video capture box from Formac but the software is out of date and doesn't quite work right. I downloaded the new software but it wouldn't work because I needed an "eprom update". "What the hell is that?" you ask. Well so did I. The Formac website was no help and is a piece of crap. Luckily I found my answer on a computer video forum on a completely different site. Unluckily I found out that I would have to send my box back to Formac so they could put a whole new chip in it. All for $70 plus shipping to England! Yeah right. The forum also had some alternate shareware software I could use. Yay shareware! Boo Formac! And if you need video compression software for the Mac -FFMpegX- rocks! It makes big video small and is shareware. Dig it!

Ouch...the Giant's game gave me a headache!

Comics I bought September 21, 2006

After a couple of whirlwind weeks at the comic shop things have slowed down. I got two comics this week. Strangers in Paradise 84 (only 6 issues left they count down every cover) and The Walking Dead 31.

I also had to buy two ink cartridges for my printer. Fifteen bucks per. Boy does that hurt. I recently read that ink for ink jet printers is the most expensive liquid on the planet. I believe it and I'd much rather buy comics.

The New American Town

Turning thoughts into writing. That was the subject of the book I saw at the bookstore the other day. It struck me as odd. What else was someone supposed to turn into writing? I didn't purchase the book or read anything in it so I have no idea what tips or ideas it holds but the name fascinates me. Writing isn't always an easy thing. It's not digging ditches but you have to sit down and do some work. First think about a subject and come up with some thoughts about said subject. See that. Thoughts. Just like the book says. Except it is not what the book says that interests me but what it doesn't say. Have I missed other things that can be turned into writing? Is that what other writers do? Turn hamburgers or motor oil into writing? Everyone is always looking for a secret that will make their world a better place. That magic that can turn butterflies into writing or cash depending on what secret you're looking for. What if some other book holds some secret of writing. This one clearly doesn't because turning thoughts into writing is no secret yet the title implies that somewhere out there is a secret. What secret could turn other things into writing? Wondering these things is much more fun than reading the book.

I saw this book in the giant bookstore in the giant mall in Nyack, NY. It was built a few years ago and I think it was briefly the largest mall in the country. It is so big that there is no place to stand and see the whole building at a glance. They have an illustration of the mall inside and it was upon seeing it that I said, "Oh that's what this mall looks like". It's just a bunch of boxes strung together so its nothing to get excited about architecturally. As a matter of fact it's ugly. But it's B-I-G big.

I went to the movies at the aforementioned mall on Saturday night with a couple of friends who had never been there. They were amazed at the whole phenomenon. The mall is not only big, there are four sprawling floors, but the top floor is like a small town. The top floor holds the movie theatre, an iMax theatre, the bookstore, a big box store and a whole bunch of restaurants. The food court is a floor below so I mean sit down an a waiter serves you restaurants. At least eight of them and there are lines to get in.

We caught an 8:30 PM showing of "Artie Lang's Beer League" and there were thousands of people on the fourth floor of the mall when the show started. The movie ended a little after ten and there were thousands of people still at the mall. I think the stores on the lower floors were closed but that fourth floor was alive. There is a comedy club there too. It's the concept of a mall as a small town taken to its conclusion. Small town designed to separate you from your money of course.

The bookstore was even crowded. Not uncomfortably so because it's huge but who knew that so many people like to hang out in a chain bookstore on a Saturday night? It's a transplanted town square except very well lit.

I liked the movie we saw. Not everyone will because it's a raunchy low budget comedy and the lead in it, Artie Lang from the Howard Stern show, can't act very well but can hit you with a funny riff time after time. The plot is nothing special but at least it doesn't get in the way. It's all the jokes about losers, drugs, drinks, and sex that make the movie. In other words your mom probably won't like it.

I'm going to finish with a couple of Sunday night notes. One: The NY Giants come from behind victory over the Eagles made my football day today. Two: Tonight's Simpsons was the trippiest episode ever. Jazz music and random circus animals. Whoa man...the colors...

Comics I bought September 14, 2006

Another week another batch o' comics. Today I got: Love and Rockets 17, Scarlet Traces: The Great Game 3, Ex Machina 23, and the Escapists 3.

I also picked up a high end magazine ($19.99!) about comic art. It is called "Comic Art" and this is issue eight Summer 2006. I have never seen or read this mag before but what made me buy it was the little chapbook "Forty Cartoon Books of Interest" by Seth that was packaged with it. Seth is one of my favorite cartoonists so what the hey. The mag looks interesting with articles about Drew Friedman, prank magic art (from old comic ads), some New Yorker Stuff, and even Jim Starlin's Warlock. I have to warn you, though, that it has one of the worst covers I've ever seen. It's a twenty first century designer's take on a Miro sort of surrealism. You've seen this derivative stuff before and it's just awful. Sixth rate surrealism eighty years late. I only picked up the magazine because I couldn't believe the cover was so bad. Sorry whoever did the cover but I think it's a swing and a miss.

Of last weeks new series I tried: The Cross Bronx 1: ehh. Not very interesting cop story. I'm done with it. American Splendor 1: I've never been a huge Harvey Pekar fan but I liked this issue and will pick up more as they come out. The Lone Ranger 1 : I liked it. It was very well done and I'll put it on my pull list. Mystery in Space with Captain Comet: half good half bad. Not good enough to make the cut though.

TV is your Friend

The new TV season is starting and I don't know if I care one bit. I watched too much last season and I'm burned out. There were actually a lot of good new shows that have premiered in the last two years and I started watching a few of them regularly. Too many, maybe. They add up.

I have always been a fan of the Simpsons and have watched every season. For those who think is isn't as good as it used to be check out last season. It was a very funny one. More laughs per episode were to be found than on any other show. I am also a fan of Law and Order and watch all three but SVU tests my patience with their sappy episodes. I am also a regular watcher of Deadwood and the Sopranos on HBO but they run irregularly and hardly follow the network season schedule.

That was about it for my TV watching. Buffy and Angel had gone off the air and I lost interest in all of the incredibly redundant "science fiction" (that just has to go in quotes) shows that have been popping up around the dial so my TV watching was on the decline. The networks were making it harder to watch TV with all of the commercials and more ads right in the middle of a show. I don't want a promo for your next show while I'm still trying to watch the current one. It's enough to make a person find something else to do.

I also separate my TV viewing from just having the TV on. Being an artist and being that the nature of making art is to be alone while working on a drawing or painting I often have the TV on for noise. Since my eyes are elsewhere I just listen to the TV and often the show is nothing I'd sit down and give my total attention to. All of the shows that I say "I watch" are the ones that I sit down and look at. Though just listening to TV I really do appreciate good dialogue.

I the last two seasons I started checking out a few new shows that were getting some buzz. Lost and Veronica Mars both made it onto my regular rotation along with a show that got no buzz but is still fun: Las Vegas. I even watched a season of Desperate Housewives. That is now four new hour shows and it nearly doubles my TV viewing. Then I started watching Bones too. Five new shows.

Another funny thing happened last year. Sitcoms made a come back. I have long since grown tired of sitcoms and the last one I watched regularly was Friends and even that tested my will with its sappiness sometimes. The whole genre was in the toilet as far as I was concerned. Then Entourage, My Name is Earl, and Everybody Hates Chris debuted and made me laugh. I even started watching How I Met Your Mother about half way through the season and now count four funny sitcoms. There is almost a fifth in The Office but I tend to side with the two guys you are not supposed to side with and think that "sympathetic" characters are the real jerks. They mock the others for being different and I would like to give their straight laced butts the occasional beating. So I don't always get along with that show.

So there you go. Another two hours of TV added. I'm almost a regular American. But eight to nine hour shows plus four to five half hour shows was just too much for me. I was glad when the season ended because I was having trouble sitting still that long. Add in some episodes of Nova, Frontline, and and occasional special on History or Discovery and I was burnt out. I haven't sat down and watched TV all summer (except for Deadwood of course). I'm still burnt out. I might just download some shows and maybe watch them later. I'll have my own TV marathon one day. I think I'll ignore the network schedules and make my own. Maybe I can work you in maybe I can't. Beside everyone knows that the Desperate Housewives are no longer cool.

Comics I bought September 7, 2006

A big haul from the comic shop for me this week. I bought nine comics. That is the most in a single week in months. I got five of my regular books: Jonah Hex 11, Savage Dragon 128 , Jack Staff 11, Local 6, and Battler Britton 3.

In addition I picked up four new comic series: The Cross Bronx 1 from Image which looks like a cop book, American Splendor 1 gets a new launch from Vertigo Comics, The Lone Ranger 1 from Dynamite Entertainment, and just because I was feeling nostalgic for a Jim Starlin "cosmic" story I picked up Mystery in Space with Captain Comet (who?) number one.

There it is folks a lot of comics to read. And football season kicks off tonight.

Putting Things in Order is Fun

I think putting things in order is fun. There you go. I said it. I've had enough of listening to lazy people saying that it has to somehow be a compulsion or neurosis. It is the only way to find things efficiently and the basis of civilization. For what is civilization but organized living that takes advantage of people's ability to cooperate. Lining up my paints from red to violet is fun as well as making it easy to find my naples yellow.

Everything doesn't have to be in order just the things you need to find. As long as I've played video games I've never had them in any order. That is because I only play two or maybe three at a time. Normally just one. The newest one and when that's done it gets thrown on the pile. With all the people playing video games out there I think there are relatively few video game collectors. Most of us are video game players.

If you have a collection of anything than you have to have some form of order. If you can't find what is in your collection than you don't have a collection you have an accumulation.

Putting things in order can be a relaxing time. The world is a messy chaotic place and being responsible for a small part of it making sense is an accomplishment. Categories, classifications, conditions, genre, there are lots of ways to line things up. I remember as a child when I realized that my comic books all had numbers on them and they could be put in order to make a bigger story than a single comic. From then on in it was fun to put comics in numerical order and watch them become a time machine as you thumb through them.

Years ago, back in the age of cassette tapes and CDs, I oddly stopped keeping my music collection in order. For years I had them lined up in cases in alphabetical order but that stopped working for me. When I would browse for something to listen to I knew where everything was without opening the case. That ruined the browsing experience. It was fine when I knew exactly what I wanted to hear but often I didn't know what I wanted to listen to. So one day, back before the age of CDs even, I mixed up all of my cassette cases. I took everything out and put them all back in as randomly as I could. It made browsing my music more fun. In this age of digital music everything is ordered nearly automatically. But everyone loves shuffle play.

I'll tell you what I don't like to do. Put things back in order. I had a little computer hiccup today when my external hard drive started acting odd. Well, it started acting odd a couple of weeks ago but it was minor and there were some additional odd things with my main hard drive that I fixed. I thought that was the problem. It wasn't the only one. Today I ran three hard drive utility programs and eventually got things back to normal but a bunch of files went missing. A bunch of MP3 files and a bunch of photos from my snapshot archive.

For some time now I've been scanning in all my negatives and digitizing all of my photo albums. Fifteen years worth of film. All of it was on my hard drive and some small amount of files were missing. I have backups of course but I had to go through all 30 DVDs worth of my backups to see what was missing and replace it. It took a while but now everything is back in order. It is no fun to have to do all that work just to get things back to the way things were. It is a good thing the photos were in order to begin with or the fix could have taken ten times as long.

Well, I gotta re-MP3 28 of my CDs now.