The Return of Opus

I rarely get the Sunday edition of The Boston Globe, I'm not much for clipping coupons and really the whole thing is just a bitch to throw away for the small amount of info it provides. But I happened upon one the other week and much to my suprise, right on the front page is a new comic strip by Mr. Berkeley Breathed, this time simply titled Opus. Over the years there was only two daily newspaper comic strips that I enjoyed. Most of them are barely tolerable. These were Calvin & Hobbes and the Pulitzer-Prize winning Bloom County. Oh, and The Far Side was pretty good too. Anyway, I was pretty happy to see it and so I checked out www.berkeleybreathed.com and it seems that Opus came back a little while before the election.

Click to enlarge


Anyway, I thought that was worth pointing out. Also there's a movie in the works, allegedly to be completely cgi. This is a dicey propostition but I always felt the A Wish For Wings The Work TV special could have become a holiday staple much like A Christmas Story and the rest of those cartoons.

Here's one more dealing with the ol' anxiety closet... WHAT'S IN GW's ANXIETY CLOSET

Dump Tanks and Skull Island

I know, this is old news, but I've just recently gotten back into checking up on Kongisking.net -- the place to go to for info on Peter Jackson's King Kong remake. It's been up for a few months now posting these sometimes interesting, sometimes funny (Jack Black), "production diary" videos. I never watched any of these videos I guess Mr. Jackson also made during Lord of the Rings (I have much more anticipation for this king kong than I did for the hobbits) but these little videos are a pretty great if you have any interest in movie making. Or any interest in on-set antics of Jack Black. And I have a fondness for both so... Anyway, there are about 30 of these things on there now so it's a good way to waste an hour or so if you want to. You get a very deep insight into how a production of this ginormous size is run, from a look at some of the smaller aspects like the creation and placement of fake animal poo, to the creation of a fake ocean storm. But the tantalizing thing of it all is you get a good idea of the aformentioned ginormity of this movie and how cool it all could be. And yes, Jack Black is always "on" when a camera is in front of him. Click on the big ape.



p.s. -- new Sin City trailer here

Fan of the Farrell

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is coming out on DVD on December 28th. That's great and all, but what I'm looking forward to is this:



When the cast and director were having their rounds at the press junkets when Anchorman was coming out they'd mentioned that they'd filmed a whole other plot line that didn't even make it into the movie--basically that they had enough extra footage that could be edited to make a whole seperate movie, and that they'd probably put in on the DVD release. And so here we are with Wake Up Ron Burgundy, to be released as a seperate DVD on the same day as Anchorman. Very classy.

Watchmen & Friends

Yeah, so I suppose Watchmen deserves its own post. I don't know why it took me so long to pick up this book. It's status amoung comic book geeks is something equivilant to On the Road or the Bible. And I'd known how good Alan Moore's stories can be--I still have my copy of The Killing Joke sitting on my bookshelf after foolishly selling many other of the comics I had as a kid long ago. But like a good number of any of the other books I've read over the years, I decided to finally pick this one up after reading so much about the struggles of getting the movie version up and running.



You can type "Watchmen" into Google and you'll see people have set up sites all over the world disecting every panel of this comic book--er, graphic novel. As the blurb from The Villiage Voice puts it, a brilliant piece of fiction. And that really is what it is. The act of reading a comic book still seems to put some people off for whatever reason. But I have read very few books that have left me as eerily touched or have spoken as profound and timless a message as has Watchmen.

Simply calling it a commentary or decunstruction of the superhero mythology is just grazing the iceberg of this book. (Click the pic for the plot description.) But what really stuck me was how timely this book is. It came out and takes place around 1986, but I'll be damned if it doesn't resonate like it came out last month. I suppose it could be simply from the fact that the Russia vs Afganistan conflict and the general political climate during that time is a very interesting reflection of our problems now. And that may be the reason the movie is finally getting in motion. But whatever happens I can only hope they do it half the justice it deserves. I agree with the Devin over at CHUD (they even have a message board set up for this) who has repeatedly requested that it be made as a miniseries on HBO--Band Of Brothers style, giving each chapter it's own hour. That would be ideal--but I've read that the script is actually pretty good and I think Paul Greengrass is an interesting choice. As long as they're fans of the material I feel this could turn out well. Let's hope.

In other comic news, I want to recommend 4 titles that have giddy every time the next issue pops up.

Astonishing X-Men -- This is getting a lot of hype so if you're barely into comics you've probably heard about it. Or, if you're a Buffy fan you may have obsessed over every issue already like me. Yes, Buffy meastro Joss Whedon has launched a new X-Men book (I believe he's down as sole writter for the first 12 issues) and it is a thing of gloriousness. These are great characters and he's made them even more enjoyable and relatable then I remembered them being. This title got me back to hovering over the stands like I used to years ago. Pure joy -- even if you're not that famialiar with these guys (huh?) this series picks up at a great place to jump into.

WE3 -- What happens when the military takes 3 household pets and straps them with some heavy-duty machinery to be used as combat weapons? Well, when the project gets cancelled and the animals are released by the empathetic project director, don't try to stop these 3 from getting home to their masters. But of course that's just what happens and the amount of carnage that ensues it quite intense. A well written and most timely series of three books (the third's about to drop this week or next) by Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum anyone?). And the brilliant brutal art work is unflinching and makes me cringe with glee. (Click link for Adobe peek)

Ocean -- Ah, Warren Ellis. A great great writter, genius of the medium really, who's also working on revamping Iron Man from the ground up. Both titles are worth checking out, but Ocean is a head scratcher that I still can't tell exactly where it's headed and am loving the mystery of it all. Mr. Ellis is great at creating his own unique worlds and his vision of the future universe of space travel and politics is cool as hell -- he's got kind of a Alien meets Solaris thing going on. I also like his diverse casting for the futuristic story. Making our protagonist a black dude (get Don Cheadle for the movie) and having the team he meets be largely made up of women is an interesting way to go.

Well, check those out. I don't think you could be disappointed.

Netflix Update

Been a while since I pimped some rentals, so as I sit here, day after Thanksgiving, a bit hungover with nothing better to do, I figured I'd do just that.




Masked & Anonymous -- So this one has been on my mind a lot lately as I've been listening to his autobiography. Most critics have been pretty cruel to this one but I really got into it. Co-written by Dylan himself (though you get the feeling that a good majority may have been improvised), it really is like taking one of his songs and stretching it out into a 90 minute movie. It's a dis-jointed almost sci-fi plot, rambles a bit at times, jumps around with free-association, is filled with other-worldly characters, and well--like I said, just like one of his songs. I loved it's disregard for standard movie conventions (like another movie below). This movie has it's own agenda and couldn't be bothered concerning itself whether or not you're up for following along. Let the movie wash over you, enjoy the excellent live songs Dylan plays that are scattered throughout and the 5 star cast that you can tell is having a good time just letting loose. There's a lot going on and trying to be said in this movie. Though critics disregarded it, NYU and probably some other schools immediately started featuring this in their film classes--and for good reason. They just don't make movies like Masked & Anonymous at major studios with a cast like this. It is an oddity to be sure, but a rather enjoyable one.

Ali G Indahouse -- It's Friday night, you have your beverage of choice within reach, you've smoked a bowl or two, now press play. That's the ideal way to enjoy this movie anyway. Now of course it isn't as brilliant as the show is, but did you really expect it to be? It starts off amazing and slowly goes downhill from there--but there are moments of hilarity sprinkled from beginning to end. If it was as smart as Anchorman it would have thrown the plot out the window and just come up with random excuses to deliver the jokes, as the whole Ali G becomes member of parliament thing seems forced and lame from the moment you see it coming. But no matter, there's a lot of bug laughs in there to make this worth checking out.

Also, if you haven't seen it--check out Ali G's speech to this years graduating class at Harvard. Laughter will ensue.

Blueberry (Renegade) -- This one's the weaker of the bunch but I still recommend giving it a shot. I'm into Vincent Cassel's work lately. Birthday Girl, Irreversable, Read My Lips, all top notch stuff that I recommend checking out. Anyway, this is, to my knowledge, the first psychedelic western. Very strange existential revenge movie based on some obscure comic book with lots of peyote consumption going on and even a five minute freak-out at the end. There's some good performances by the eccentric cast, but what really hooked me was the photography. I'm not familiar with the French director who made this but some of the cinematography going on here is amazing. The ending is a bit of a let-down though. The big pay-off seems to be Juliette Lewis' bush. But as I said, this is an existential revenge movie--if you can deal with that concept then you may have a good time with this one. And I refuse to call this by it's US DVD title of Renegade. There's no Lorenxo Lamas involved and Blueberry is a very apt title to this bizare movie--as well as the name of the main character and the comic book. Who do they think they're fooling with Renegade? Ick.

Bubba Ho-Tep -- A classic in my book. I love The Chin, and he was born to play geriatric Elvis and I pray to whatever god decides which movies are green-lit that there is indeed a sequel to this movie as the end credits suggest. A lot of you are probably already hip to this one, it's been out for a while now--but if you're not, it's Elvis and JFK in a nursing home fighting off an evil soul-sucking Mummy. From this plot they manage to make a movie that is both flat out hilarious and oddly touching. Bruce Campbell proves he's got plenty of acting chops as he gives us an elderly Elvis who's pretty much lost his will to live until Ossie Davis' black JFK gives him purpose in saving their home. And Ossie, lordy... by the end of this he actually has you believing that JFK could be alive, black, and living in Texas. Highest honors go to this one.

Well, that's it for now. These aren't the best of movies ('cept Bubba), but they've stuck with me for some reason or another so I figured I'd give them the shout out. Feel free to bitch me out if you disagree.

Bob Dylan via Sean Penn

So Bob Dylan's autobiography came out. Well, the first volume anyway. Chronicles, it’s called… And as I was wasting time in Borders standing at the big cardboard display flipping through the book (no pictures!?) the guy at the counter felt the need to comment to me how good the book is. I was really in the middle of trying to do the math—figuring out which was cheaper—the book with the on-sale discount or the audio-book?… I asked him if he’d heard Sean Penn’s rendition. He said, no, I kind of like hearing Bob’s voice in my head while reading it. Ok, maybe there’s a point to be had there. I’m assuming he meant Bob’s voice 40 years ago. But I chose Sean Penn’s voice instead. And therefore also choosing to be read to rather than actually reading it.

The first audio book, and the only other audio book I’ve purchased was Robert Evans’ The Kid Stays in the Picture. And I’ll go out on a limb here and say that those 6 cds are probably going to be the best rendering of a book put to cd ever. The guy’s voice is like the purr of chain-smoking gin soaked panther on ludes. I loved every minute of it. I know, there have been many jokes on the subject on Patton Oswalt’s cd and Mr. Show, all very funny jokes – but these jokes all stem from the fact that the audio book is priceless.

Well, the Chronicles audiobook is of course a different beast. And I just wanted to chime in and say Sean Penn does a kick-ass job. Loses himself in the part as he always does. Kind of kidding there, but really—by the second disc you pretty much start to think that Bob is telling you his story of getting by in the East Village visiting Woody Guthrie in the hospital and eating free french fries backstage at the Gaslight with Tiny Tim. Yes, it is a good listen – and while it doesn’t serve as quite the reference material a Bob Dylan autobiography on page does, it’s a really enjoyable way to go. There are a lot of references to the people who inspired him in those first few years in New York that you’ll sometimes want to go back to, but what’s good about this one, which wasn’t present on the Bob Evans audio book, is that there are track breaks on each cd, so it’s easier to go back and revisit bits.

I’m sure it’s an even better read – but I’ve got three other books that I haven’t even touched yet, so I choose Sean Penn to serenade me for 6 hours. Either way, you won’t loose.

Sundance Channel's Midnight Snack

If you don't get the Sundance Channel you should. I've been torn between the Independant Film Channel and Sundance Channel for a good while. And I have to say, today, I prefer the Sundance Channel. IFC gets some great movies, and some good original series -- Dinner for Five is hands down my favorite interview show on TV. Well, "celebrity" interview show. Charlie Rose still holds strong with his thang. But IFC also gets bogged down with having to rotate the same handful of movies every month which can get pretty boring. Now all this depends on which service you have, but it seems that now IFC is getting tossed in with a lot of packages and Sundance is costing extra. Consider it. I'm not completely sure about the packaging details but what I am sure of is Sundance has been kicking some programing ass recently.

I started noticing this in October when I became a big fan of The Al Franken Show in the morning repeats before work. Well, that show is no longer with us, but what we still have is Midnight Snack. This is a prime slice of, for a lack of a better word, "cult" movie greatness. Every Friday night at midnight, the great Bob Odenkirk hosts a showing of new, old, classic, soon-to-be-classic, midnighty type movies -- in his bath robe.

They also have cool Monday documentary specials, and Saturday night music related features (where they recently featured the mesmerizing behind the music style movie DIG! -- that They Might Be Giants doc is up next). I'm writing this now because I just realized Bob is hosting the final in Takeshi Miike's what the hell oh my god are you kidding me this is fucking kick ass trilogy -- Dead or Alive: Final this Friday. Look here for my slobbery kisses to Mr. Miike. And be sure to check the link on the Midnight Snack page for a cool Miike interview. This trilogy is huge fun and the Final(e) is Miike at his most famboyant what-the-fuck best. And to me the combination of Bob Odenkirk and Takeshi Miike, well, a channel can't program a block of tv any more Sean-specific than this. Watch it, you won't be bored.

Speak to the Blender (cuz common sense ain't listening) / Sin City

[So check out the updated linkange for some new ways to browse away your day.] This is one of the stranger inventions I've heard of lately. It's called Blendie. And it's a voice activated blender. You want a high speed mix, well then make a high speed mixing blender noise. Want a gentle mixing action, make a low gentle grumble. But really, no matter the effectivness, or need for this device -- the video is pretty fucking awesome. Click the pic to watch the hot girl-on-blender action.



Also, this is a movie that I'd somehow forgotten about until the other day when I saw this poster.



I like it, as far as posters go. But what really gets my geek blood a-pumpin' is the video that they showed at the Sand Diego Comic Convention a while back where he took some of the footage he'd shot and inserted stills from the books for everyone to see the attention to detail that's going on here. It used to be over at themoviebox.net but it seems some people got upset about everyone and their little brother downloading the thing or something so now if you haven't seen this already get it HERE. Seriously, this is some pretty cool shit -- albeit unfinished and incomplete and all that (and even though I still think Josh Hartnett's about as interesting to watch as a ham sandwich) -- but it's taking comic book translation into a whole new realm. And the fact that Frank Miller, the guy who created the books, is co-directing along with Rodriguez and Tarantino [who directed one scene for the price of one dollar] is a welcome sign. Rodriguez gave up his guild card to be able to make this movie with the way he saw fit and it looks to me like the result is going to be worth these unusual efforts.

The Curse of the Jaded Scorpio

So in one week I turned 28, the Red Sox won the World Series, came down with a bitch-ass cold from hell that lasted 9 days, got an ipod, and watched a bunch of bible-thumping rednecks fuck up our country for at least another 4 years. See, it's the karmic teeter-totter, with every good stroke comes the backhanded bitch slap. C'est la vie. And I really think that I've become so used to the daily slog through the river of shit that is the daily news I automatically put on the knee-high rubbers every morning. So when I woke up to get the confirmation that GW was indeed elected (this time for reals), it was like, bummer dude, oh well, it figures, don't it...

Sure I was upset, disappointed, or whatever you call it. But I swear I couldn't even work up a real simmer of a rage like I did 4 years ago. Nope, it felt like I was like I was out of stock on frustration. The lady I work with who's kid is over in Iraq, fuck, she was [is] super-pissed, but I just nodded in agreement and went back to reading about the R Kelly / Jay-Z feud. Other friends seemed like they were sincerely hurt and depressed by the turnout, but myself--I get angrier from 30 seconds of watching Fox News than the actual fact that Bush is going to be around 4 more years. I think I've become far too jaded. [I couldn't even get that excited about the Red Sox win -- I was happy, some clapping was involved, but I know that last year or the year before I would have been running full-speed in circles crapping my pants and screaming halle-fucking-lujah -- all at the same time.]

There are a couple of other theories I have about this. Maybe I'm happy that there'll be four more years of good comedy material. Or, maybe we'll be able to watch him dig himself into a situation where he'll be publicly humiliated, impeached, indicted, and/or forced to resign. I mean, with all that's happen in the past 4 years, it really isn't much of a stretch. Both those ideas are pretty sad also. I mean, let's watch him drive the country into the ground like a cigarette butt under his cowboy boot--but hey, at least we'll have a good laugh at our own expense! Or, maybe this will all hit me later on down the line. Either way, right now Nov 2nd and 3rd just seem like two more normal bad days. Sad...?

Lisa Simpson: We're the Mtv generation, we feel neither highs nor lows.
Homer: Really, what's it like?
Lisa: (shrugs) Meh...