Flannel Jedi

Mac asked me last night who my favorite Green Lantern is. Interestingly enough, I’d been asked the same question back in October, at BD’s birthday pool and beer extravaganza. While my answer to the first instance of the question was reasonably short- I was explaining it to a fellow GL fan-boy- when Mac asked, it turned into a Brodie-esque explanation of GL history for the last 15 years.

I explained that, in a spat of DC’s “let’s replace our regular Silver Age Heroes with Extreme! youngbloods” action, Hal Jordan went zippo-bonkers after Coast City was destroyed by Mongul and Cyborg-Superman (I left out their details, no need to get that deep into it), his subsequent evolution-via-CPB absorption, and Ganthet’s passing of the torch to Kyle Rayner. Who, in the next few years, became a heavy hitter in the DCU, and garnered a respectable fanbase of his own, before Geoff Johns’ hard-on for the Silver Age came along to resuscitate Hal and all that jazz in 2005’s GL: Rebirth.

So, my bottom line to her was, that while I was indoctrinated into comics with Hal Jordan as the best and greatest Green Lantern, Kyle has a special place in my fan-boyism, and that part of me is sad to see him shoved aside along with Guy Gardner and the rest of the GLC.

But at least he’s fared better than John Stewart, who was supposed to be the JLA’s resident GL. Now, he’s just a footnote.

She responded kindly that I get long winded with these things. She has no idea.

- Talk Hard

So yesterday at the store I saw 2 check-out mags with the cast of “Jersey Shore” somewhere on the covers. Now, first off, I can’t believe they have these Neanderthals on television, let alone that People magazine is doing a story on them. Secondly, what the hell, people? I really want to smack some people with a rolled up newspaper like a dog who just dropped a steamer on the living room rug.

NO! *whap*. NO!

He knows what he did.

- Talk Hard

Today’s blog music: Magical Mystery Tour

First off, Happy New Year to all those I haven’t seen or heard from since 1/1/10.  Hope nobody ended up puking.

So, big doings lately.  For those who haven’t heard, Mac and I closed on a house.  It’s a nice 3 bedroom place with ample seating, and a TV and a bar.  Okay, no bar, but thanks to New Year’s Eve, we have a cupboard that is full of booze.  We’re amply stocked.

We’re still living partially out of boxes right now.  The kitchen has been mostly unpacked- easiest to handle, I suppose.  Curiously, we seem to be missing some silverware, not sure what other box might contain the elusive knives, forks and spoons- but I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually.  I mean, how many boxes can we have, right?

You had to ask.  We and everyone who helped us move (thanks to everyone again) all wonder the same thing: how could we fit so much stuff into a one bedroom apartment?  To be quite honest, we’re not sure.  It really seems like some sort of Time Lord science- we had more stuff that could logically fit in.  It all nearly packed a 24-foot U-Haul truck.  Dumbfounded, we stare at boxes still, wondering where things like the cordless phone are, and who might have marked a box with “collectables”.

That would have been me, by the way.

Still, we made it out of that apartment down from the airport and the brewery where they shot interiors for that last Star Trek movie.  I kid you not- it was the Budweiser plant on Roscoe.  Look it up.

“Though she was born a long, long time ago, your mother should know.”

That reminds me, I need to download Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper for Beatles Rock Band.

That reminds me again- my mom LOVES Rock Band.  Specifically the Beatles, but in general, too.  We had a grand time playing with our friends after working hard on moving day.

(Music stops momentarily as Mac returns home)

Anyways.  Right- house.

Unofficial name party name is Corellia.  Look that one up in your Expanded Universe encyclopedia.  We shall keep it.

I was planning a Wednesday comic review for this entry as well, but this keyboard is currently driving me crazy.  I shall probably not keep IT.  It’s either the keyboard, or my computer is having trouble running iTunes and Notepad at the same time. Neither of which makes me very happy.

Okay.  Resolution started.  Write more blogs.  We’ll see how it proceeds.

- Talk Hard

The Dead will RISE

Normally, I hate zombies.  I hate zombie movies, zombie books, etc.  Hell, I couldn’t stand listening to “Thriller” at night as a child due to the visuals it brought up.  There are exceptions- Shawn of the Dead, House of the Dead, and now Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern epic, The Blackest Night.  A zombie story that isn’t a zombie story- it’s a lot more than that.

Working from last month, DC’s Blackest Night crossover is in full swing.  Without going into excruciating detail, here’s the deal:

There are 7 basic emotions that make up an emotional spectrum; Love, Compassion, Hope, Willpower, Fear, Greed, and Rage.  Each emotion corresponds to a color.  All of these emotions have now been harnessed and converted into power wielded by creatures throughout the galaxy. 

The foremost is the Green Lantern Corps, famed creation of the Guardians of the Universe.  Also joining the mix are the Sinestro Corps (yellow), the Star Sapphires (violet), the Red Lanterns, (red), the Blue Lanterns (blue, sensing a pattern yet?), the Orange Lanterns (yeah, orange) and the Indigo Tribe (you guessed it, indigo).  It was prophesized that these 7 corps would come together in a titanic struggle called the “War of Light” that would lead the galaxy into total darkness, or “the Blackest Night”.

Well, it seems the prophecy wasn’t that far off, because since the groups have started infighting amongst themselves, another Corps has risen.  Only this time, it’s the absence of color.  The Black Lanterns, representing nothing less than Death, have come to put out the lights of emotion in the universe.  And we’re pretty screwed as of now.

Y’see, black power rings fall from the sky, and into the graves of superheroes and villains.  They then bid these dead folk to rise.  These parodies of life can see the emotions of the living bright as daylight.  At the height of emotion, the Black Lanterns rip out the hearts of their victims, sucking out the emotions, using the light to charge their rings.  To what end?  Speculation abounds.  Chances are something very, very bad.

*SPOILER ALERT*

As of now, we’re up to Blackest Night #2, released last week.  In #1, we saw the first Black Lanterns raised by Black Hand (including Elongated Man and his wife Sue who proceed to kill Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who are in turn raised), and watched as a renegade Guardian subdued her collogues in black goo.  In Green Lantern #44, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen fought Black Lantern Martian Manhunter.  In Blackest Night: Batman #1, the new Batman & Robin confer with Deadman- who just watched his body come back as a Black Lantern- about the dead rising, including Dick’s parents, the Flying Graysons!  Blackest Night #2 saw heroes of magic neutralized by Black Hand, and Black Lanterns Aquaman, Dolphin, and Aquagirl subdue Aquaman’s former protégé Tempest- removing his heart and transforming him as well.  One interesting development shown- Don Hall, the original Dove was “at peace” and not raised with his brother, Hawk (who bitched about once again having to “do everything himself”- Black Lanterns are not without a sense of humor).  In Green Lantern Corps #39, Guy, Kyle and the rest of the Corps are assailed by black rings on Oa, which breach the mausoleum of Fallen Lanterns, raising an army of Black Lanterns against the Green Lantern Corps.  As Guy Gardener says: “What the @#$% ?”

This week saw the release of Blackest Night: Superman #1.  Wherein, the deceased Superman of Earth-2 (long, long story) is brought back and proceeds to go on an emotion collecting spree in Smallville.  Our Earth’s Superman, along with the recently resurrected Superboy (not a Black Lantern) face off against the undead horror, only to discover that Kal-L wasn’t the only survivor of Earth-2 to have been brought back- his wife, Lois Lane, had taken out Krypto the super-dog, and kidnapped Ma Kent.  What will our heroes do to save the day? 

So there you have it.  An 8 month long event, with tie-ins and crossovers galore.  What more could a die hard Green Lantern fan ask for?

Oh, how about collectable figures, t-shirts, and replica power rings?  Oh yes!  4 waves of action figures, along with 5 exclusive SDCC Hal Jordan figures!  How will our wallets survive this onslaught?  Will they be drained in the grip of the Blackest Night?  Odds point to yes here. 

Blackest Night, from DC.  A zombie story for non-zombie lovers.  Whee!

- Talk Hard

So, a quick weekend yet again.  Although it went fast, there were a few non-boring achievements to be had.  I’m amazed that I did anything, really.  Besides dishes and cleaning the cat-box, that is.

In WoW, Eisenzwerg finally hit exalted with Ironforge (not an quick feat for a Death Knight) and with that came Champion through the Argent Tournament.  After more than a week off, it felt good.  I’m close to revered with the other Alliance factions, so they’re next.  More dailies at the tournament, followed by starting area fun- this time with Darnassus.  Gonna be another long haul. 

In other WoW news, Doc decided to retire from the game for a bit, and entrusted Penny Dreadfuls to Eisen.  A big responsibility?  Sort of.  Not many of the guild members actually sign in on a regular basis, so there’s not much to manage.  But- I’ll keep things tidy until he decides to sign up again- likely with the next expansion.  That announcement should be at BlizzCon in a couple of weeks, so he can start planning then.

Gaming news: beat Ghostbusters finally.  No spoilers here, as there might be readers who haven’t finished it, but I will say that the ending is pretty abrupt, and the last few boss encounters are easier than the lead up to them.  I got stuck at one point and failed a few times- even after I found out what to do.  I do not know how anyone could play that part, or some others, on anything but “casual”.  But- I’ll probably end up playing again.  One last issue with it- you don’t get to save and go back to the firehouse after the end to view the artifacts you pick up in Central Park.  I would have liked to see those items around.  Also, hints of a sequel?  Hell, yeah!

D&D related- ordered some parts to create a Warforged mini for Doc’s campaign.  Gonna be fun trying to make these items look like a medieval robot-golem thing.  Looking forward to it.  After that- I’m looking forward to some non-mini modeling, as I’ve got ideas and items ready to go for action figure customizing.  That’s going to be interesting.

Picked up Green Lantern: First Flight on blu-ray last night.  Mac picked up The Mummy.  We ended up watching the latter, because I didn’t know if she’d like my choice, and ending the evening on a good note was important.

Finally, we saw GI Joe.  It was better than I expected.  I knew that it had to be better than Transformers 2, but I wasn’t planning to like it as much as the first Transformers.  GI Joe was a fun little movie- as many have said, it was really like watching a live-action cartoon, or having your toy soldiers come to life and fight in the real world.  It was by no means a piece of cinematic brilliance, but- and I’ll say it again- it was fun.  The 12 year-old in me was sqweeing the whole time.  And the few issues I did have with it, have been slightly changed after sleeping on it. 

The “accelerator suits” bit I didn’t like originally, as I thought they were too far out there.  Most of GI Joe was based in near-real life military hardware, or hyped up sci-fi versions of them.  The suits weren’t really in keeping with that theme.  But then, I got to thinking of the sequence they were used in.  It was basically a car chase, wherein two of the cars were guys in suits.  The more I thought about it, the cooler that concept sounded, until I reached the conclusion that it worked fine.  Of course, that train of though lead to another.  The leading female hero, Scarlett, was cool, but she’s in that sequence for one purpose, and one purpose only- to be rescued by another hero.  That’s it.  She doesn’t do anything but ride a motorcycle, and get blown off of it- only to be caught and saved from certain death by a male love interest.  It’s pretty blatant, and that, I have a problem with.

The twists were not telegraphed, but I was a bit annoyed with the twist nearest the end.  It was a crappy reveal, and I wish they’d gone another way.  Other than that, I was satisfied with the film as a whole.  We used a gift card for this flick, and we got much more than our money’s worth.

Anyways, that’s how the weekend went.  Full of uneventful fun.  This coming weekend looks to be even better.  4 days to FUNWORLD!

-Talk Hard

I’m trying to update Wordpress to add a link on the sidebar to my new Gallery page.  However, it’s not proving fruitful right now.  Here’s a direct link:

http://www.flanneljedi.com/galleries/main.php

The first group up is photos from Comic-Con ‘09.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to add more and get this stupid template to work right. 

Anyways, enjoy.

- Talk Hard

Micechat has a thread going regaring leaked info on the rumored Fantasyland expansion. Seems that in addition to a copy of DCA’s Little Mermaid ride, an entire new section is going in, featuring Princess specific locations and attractions, meet and greets, a copy of Disneyland’s Pixie Hollow, and a re-theming of at least part of Mickey’s Toontown Fair into Dumbo’s Circus. Here’s a link to an image overlaying “leaked” blueprints with the existing layout of Fantasyland:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6817/googleearthflrefu.jpg

And here’s the thread:

http://micechat.com/forums/walt-disney-world-resort/119872-fantasyland-refurb-blueprints-online.html

Interesting developments. I’m interested to hear if this is legit, and when it would begin/be completed.

- Talk Hard

(blog title is a reference to Paul Reiser’s novel “Couplehood”.  For those who don’t remember, Paul Reiser* played the smarmy Company exec who got squashed in Aliens- for non-geeks, check out Mad About You, or My Two Dads.)

With quite a few things happening to people I know regarding children, my mind has wandered onto the subject with increasing frequency.  Mac and I had a late night conversation before falling asleep the other evening about us potentially having kids.  It was brief, and we both admitted that it’s not something we’ve talked about in depth, but probably should sometime soon.

We’re nowhere near ready to have a kid in the financial area- we’re just now getting ready to look at a house, she’s still in school, and her career is really just starting to take off.  It’d be a horrible time for the endeavor of rearing an offspring.  Not to mention that the process of obtaining one the old fashioned way terrifies her.  I don’t blame her a bit.

But, emotionally, I think we both could handle it.  We’re always looking at other people’s kids and thinking “if/when WE have a child, it’d be this way or that way”, mainly to demonstrate that we would be superior parents in pretty much every way.  Our particular upbringings would provide us with the skills necessary to outshine even our own parents in the process of raising a boy or girl.  We’d kick ass as parents, man.  Wicked cool.

With familial things that have happened lately, a few people have told me that I’d missed my calling- before, I took that to mean child psychology or counseling.  But the more I think about it, the more I think that it may mean as a father.  As Mac and I discussed, there’s an age difference, and if we wait too long, I’ll be in even more horrible shape, and won’t be able to play catch or attend tea parties- whichever applies (to either gender, I’m not pigeon-holing here).

To wrap up- congrats to Grant and Jennie Coble on a new daughter.  It’s awesome to hear that your family is growing.  Hope everyone is safe and happy.

*what the hell happened to Paul Reiser, anyways?

- Talk Hard

I’ve been trying to get a handle on Wordpress and it’s a bit confusing.  CSS is hard enough by itself, but in this amount, my head is completely swimming.  I’ve been looking around for different tools, but so far, nothing’s been really stellar in helping me get a handle on this stuff.

Anybody got any ideas?

I’ll be blogging here more often, since my biggest hang-up- the style of the site- is pissing me off too much to care if it looks good right now.

Until I get ahold of this thing, it’ll look pretty plain.  Bear with me.

- Talk Hard

Go go iPhone blogging!