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Dr. Michio Kaku, famed theoretical physicist, is finally using the force. After years of dispelling the myths of Sci-Fi as bunk, he has caved in and accepted his role as Jedi Master Kaku. He is a distant relative of Master Yoda. You can see the family resemblance.
Now the eternal battle between light and dark is balanced. Master Kaku will inevitably take on the evil that is Darth Hawking known to us mere mortals as Dr. Stephen Hawking. Don't let that chair fool you. He's a bad ass.
A new application for Twitter makes "clouds" of most popular words you use. You can pick a cloud for the day, week, month, 3 months, 6 months or year. Here is my month of verbology.
I love that I got McCrea and Ennis in there from that week we were hanging. And the rollergirl gets a wee mention too.
And here is my lexicon for the month.
Yay! Chloe is in both clouds. I do seem to curse a lot and talk about the podcast though. I wonder if I should try to make a story out of the words like we used to do in school. Oh yeah, I already did. I lived it!
The picture above will make sense soon enough. It's my sister and I at one of those old timey photo things way back in 2001. As you can see, my hair was really long. And if you didn't know, I had hair down to my bum for 20 years. Cut it to the shoulder last year and then finally went short back in May. Being part Filipino with super long hair, people often thought I was of Native American heritage. Racist whiteys!
About 6 years ago at Thanksgiving, my sister and I were at the Caesar's Palace buffet in Atlantic City. I thought I'd have a little fun. My hair was down and we were in line for food. Some Caesar's Palace workers were saying "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone. The following scene then took place.
CP worker: Happy Thanksgiving!
Me: (Crossing my arms and sternly looking at her.) For YOU it is.
Get it? She probably thought I was an Apache or something and I threw it back in her face! Mwhahaha. It immediately became awkward as she suddenly was speechless with a look of horror on her face like she deeply offended me. My sis was cracking up and, I think, embarrassed at the same time. Comedy gold will do that to you.
Good thing I didn't try go to the concierge and ask if the blankets were diseased or tried to have the single tear falling down from my cheek (See video below). Things might have turned ugly.
Anyway, happy raping/pillaging of the proud native people of this land! I mean, uh, ...Happy Thanksgiving!
Comic News Insider: Episode 232 is now available for free download! Click on the link or get it through iTunes! Sponsored by Dynamic Forces. Reviews: Doctor Horrible One-Shot, Victorian Undead #1, Black Knight Vol. 3 #1, Nola #1, Drone #1 The boys experiment doing the show via Skype because Jimmy is too lazy to leave his apartment since he's drooling over that Hayden Panettiere video and laughing hysterically at the Muppet/Bohemian Rhapsody one. David Petersen joins Joe via Skype to discuss his fantastic series, Mouse Guard. We remember Eric Martin (aka "The Question" on The Comic Forums), a big supporter of the podcast community/fellow podcaster/all around nice guy, who tragically passed last week. News includes animated Spectre, Marvel takes S.H.I.E.L.D. through history, Bjork likes Moomins, Flash Forward slows down, more U.S. Doctor Who air dates and more! Top 3 and plugs galore. Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us! 212 501 6246 www.myspace.com/comicnewsinsider www.comicspace.com/comicnewsinsider Thanks for listening!
A multitude of things has been happening that has put me in a bit of a funk. I'll be fine. Just gloomy for now.
While niece Chloe is kickin' ass and doing so well, I still worry about her daily. 2 brothers pop up out of nowhere in the same week which sort of throws me off balance. And causes a stir in the overall family. My insomnia has been awful and I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep nightly making me exhausted, cranky, emotional, stressed,etc. Not being that social and really feel disconnected from friends. A few other pity party type things happened as well. Then this week, 2 people I know died. I wasn't all that close to either but it triggered something in me that spiraled me a bit further down into this funk.
Nelson was the old curmudgeon of an Irish bartender at O'Flaherty's here in NYC. He's been my late night barman since 1994 when I moved here and started going there. He was in his 60's or so. He'll be missed as he was always "fair to middlin'". He was a NYC legend for sure.
Eric Martin was a fellow podcaster, comic nerd and all around great guy. He used to listen to my podcast and comment on our forums often. He was a big part of the podcast community. He even started up a couple of shows of his own. I met him at Heroes Con a couple of years ago and we chatted a bit. Nice guy and big ol' nerd like myself. What's not to like? He was way too young to go at 36.
As I said, I'll get over the funk. I'm not one to look out for sympathy. I usually internalize. (And to be clear, I'm not trying to use their deaths to gain sympathy for me. It's just an overall feeling that multiplied upon hearing about their tragic ends.) However, what with social networking, I put the word out in oh so many words that I could use a nice "How you doing/hope it's all good/etc." quick message from friends. Childish and stupid? Sure. But let me have it on occasion. Thing is, didn't get much love from friends. Which I know doesn't mean they don't love, they probably just didn't know what to say. Or maybe they actually don't give a shit. Who knows?
'Twill all be well soon enough. Meanwhile, send out some mad love for fallen friends, little nieces and such. And go tell your friend you love them. I'm betting they'll appreciate it.
I'm so over all of the Christmas haters out there. To be specific, the ones who whine about it starting too early. Who gives a figgy pudding how early it starts? Over in the UK, they've been putting up trees and having lighting ceremonies for weeks now. Sure, they don't have a Thanksgiving holiday that many believe is when the Xmas cheer should begin here in the U.S. of A. Should we have a specific date for the festivities to begin? Write it into law?
"You can only start celebrating Christmas beginning at 12:01 a.m., December 23rd, each year."
I understand that the holiday is not for everyone. Some associate it with bad things. Perhaps something terrible happened around that time of year. Like what happened to Phoebe Cates character's dad in Gremlins. Fine, then YOU have a right to hate. Others who claim to love Xmas, are some of the biggest haters of the holiday preparations starting too early.
Guess what? I've already bought some new Xmas albums and have been listening to them. I was flipping through some It's A Wonderful Life memorabilia books the other day. And just ordered a ton of Xmas movies I realize I didn't have so I can start watching them.
So, you walk into a store and see decorations for sale. Start hearing Christmas music. OH MY GOD! THE WORLD IS OVER!!! IT'S A SIGN OF THE XMAS-OCALYPSE!!!! I realize you can't escape it as it's the store that is doing it. But what in YOU makes you so angry that you have to hate on it? Did Santa bounce you on his knee too hard and one of his elves touch your north pole? Whatever it was, don't ruin it for the rest of us who actually love the holiday. Universally, Christmas is a time of cheer and good will. Sure, that isn't always the case. I know it's commercialized. I know it's lost the original meaning of celebrating the birth of Santa Jesus Christ. But I don't think it's ever lost the meaning of cheer and good will. That is, if you don't let it. SO DON'T LET IT.
New York City is so beautiful at Christmas. I can't wait for the decorations to start going up!
Go cry your little black hearts out about how unfair and lame it is for Xmas to start too early. I'll be singing carols, watching A Christmas Story, sipping some bourbon egg nog, putting together my Xmas prezzie list and reflecting on how happy this time of year makes me.
And YOU can't take that away from me. So there. Take it away, K. Cho.
I met an awesome LA based roller derby girl named Sugar N. Spikes. We ended up hanging all night drinking and discussing the finer points of bank tracks vs. flat tracks. You may or may not know how much I LOVE roller derby. Always kind of dug it, but ever since that A&E reality series, Rollergirls, my love for the sport grew faster than a super speedy Jammer scoring points. I even convinced my co-host to get one of the stars of the reality series to be on my podcast, Comic News Insider (waaaaay back on Episode 41), a couple of years ago. Punky Bruiser is her name and she was way cool. I tied it into comic books since rollergirls have "superhero" names. You may also recognize Punky as herself in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. There she be below in all her bad-assery.
Some friends have recently gotten into it as well. Amazing cartoonist, Monica Gallagher, is trying out for her local league in Baltimore. She even started a web comic called Bonnie N. Collide about a rollergirl. Another friend is trying out for a league in LA.
It's certainly popular lately what with the movie Whip It out recently. If you haven't seen it, go. It rocks.
Back to the derby girl I met. Why is she the $350,000 roller girl? Well, she mentioned being on a game show a couple of times. I asked which one and she tells me, "Don't Forget the Lyrics" hosted by Wayne Brady. I saw a couple of episodes and I remember it being sort of a karaoke version of "Name that Tune". They play a song and you have to finish the lyrics in song. I asked her how much she won. She repliles, "$350,000." And yeah, she did. Check her out on the show. She wore her skates and everything!
Moral of the story? Fuck if I know. But I do know that roller girls are awesome! And Sugar N. Spikes is one of the awesome-est! Go support your local derby and sign that petition to make it an Olympic sport!
Comic News Insider: Episode 231 is now available for free download! Click on the link or get it through iTunes! Sponsored by Dynamic Forces. Reviews: Batman/Doc Savage Special #1, Ghoul #1, Tracker #1, Supergod #1, Tank Girl: Skidmarks #1 Jimmy went out last week with John McCrea on his last night in town. Garth Ennis, Heidi MacDonald, Ben McCool, Keith Burns and Lee Bradley all joined in on a beer fueled/fun filled/late night interview. It's informative, raucous, hilarious and fun! But...WHO is Darth Guinness?! News includes Lava-Roid now available, Dollhouse cancelled to no one's surprise, Zack Whedon does a Terminator comic, Angel of Death online again and more! Top 3 and plugs galore. Leave your iTunes comments! 5 stars and nothing but love! Also, get a hold of us! 212 501 6246 www.myspace.com/comicnewsinsider www.comicspace.com/comicnewsinsider Thanks for listening!