Heroes Episode 5: Still Better, Still Not Great

This was the best episode of Heroes Season Two so far. It actually has me legitimately excited to come back next week and see what happens next. It doesn't hurt that Maya, Alejandro and stalker boyfriend West were entirely absent, that Kristen Bell was entirely present, and that the Matt Parkman/Nathan Petrelli and Monica/Micah teams are probably the most interesting ones on the show. Hell, even the Hiro subplot, while still boring and contrived (with his time travel/teleportation powers, why can't they go *past* the army, instead of through it?), was watchable. Still, here come the gripes (and a few kudos):

*When one of your producers can't spell "lightning" and instead spells it either "lightening" (that'd be making it lighter) or "lighting" (that'd be making it brighter)? Yeah, that doesn't look so good.

*Also, lightning hands? Cool power. Introducing that power by having the girl talk to herself and fire a few sparks at a nearby cargo shipping container? Laaaaammme. Jeez, reveal the power when she fries a member of the Lucky Charms gang, at least that would have been cool.

*Kristen Bell is doing good stuff with what little they've given her, though. Some of that Veronica Mars sass in the hands of a much more wicked girl. I *loved* her "Yeah, OK I killed him" conversation with "Daddy" and I'm dying to know who "Daddy" is. Easily the best new character of the season. No shock there. No pun intended.

*Second best new character, though, is definitely Monica. She and Micah have a great rapport (and the kid who plays Micah is one of the best kid actors on TV), she has a cool power and I like that they're instantly going into "What do we do now" mode rather than having her spend three episodes denying her powers.

*Unlike, say, Peter, who is still pissing about in Ireland, with the writers' mistakenly believing we give a shit if they kill any (or indeed all) of the gangster/bar owner characters they've introduced this season.

*Parkman's dad? Great stuff. I was totally buying his act until the second he was revealed, and I thought the reveal of what was going on with Matt Parkman and Nathan Petrelli and the mindgames was very well shot.

*Also digging the stuff with The Company, with Stephen Tobolowsky being great as always, and I loved Mohinder and Nikki interacting, if only briefly.

Overall, while it's worth noting (as EW did) that at this point in the last season, we got that kickass, electrifying moment in the subway between future Hiro and Peter, and thus Heroes Season Two is still too slow and disappointing, this was a promising upturn. The real grade is probably still a C or a C-, but if you grade on a curve against the rest of the season, this was a B, maybe a B+ episode. Here's hoping it continues to improve, and faster, each week.

Linkblogging

Bush wants $42.3 billion for war, says we can get the money by not giving healthcare to poor children (OK, I made that last part up, he actually just thinks war money falls from the sky. In other news, Congress, please don't fuck up again and let these guys declare war on Iran, OK?)

I'm quoted in the New York Times. Which is kinda cool. Even if they flubbed the name (and link) to the site.

Max Riffner (winner of the 2006 Isotope Mini-Comic Award) has a 24 Hour Comic. It is about a werewolf. And it is a lot of fun.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 24, 2007

TOP FIVE
Proof #1 (FBI Special Agent Bigfoot. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. A very promising, very cool new Image series)
She-Hulk 2 #22 (First issue by Peter David and Shawn Moll... and it's kind of awesome, actually)
Spirit Vol 1 HC (First six issues of Eisner's Spirit in hardcover... hoping for cool extras)
Thunderbolts #117 (Still really cool, great use of Doc Samson)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #5 (X-Men vs. the Hulk, Roger Cruz's best art yet, Parker in fine form as always)

THE REST
Annihilation Conquest Wraith #4 (Good finale, can't wait for Annihilation Conquest)
Avengers Assemble Vol 5 HC (Concluding the Busiek Avengers run)
Crawl Space Xxxombies #1 ('70s porno zombies by Rick Remender and Kieron Dwyer)
Daredevil #101 (Great issue, but I'm disliking the direction Milla's story is going in, and I *hate* that the character on the last page is in this book)
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #4 (Last issue of the best Fear Agent so far)
Flash #233 (Second issue was kinda weak, but Waid's kicking a lot of ass on Brave & The Bold and I really want to like this book)
Foolkiller #1 (Not expecting a lot, but I like the character)
Green Arrow Year One #6 (Finale of the action-packed Diggle/Jock book)
Hack Slash Series #5 (The latest in Tim Seeley's fun horror/action book)
Jack Of Fables Vol 2 Jack Of Hearts TP (Yay! Second trade! Spinoff as good as the main book)
Killer #5-6 (From a retail point of view, super-late + double shipping is highly annoying. As a reader of The Killer, though? I'm OK with it)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #6 (Space armor... rock)
Marvel Zombies Covers HC (After Marvel Zombies 2 and 52 Covers last week, I'm pretty much right in the mood for this)
Neozoic #1 (Alternate universe where humans live alongside dinosaurs, with great art)
Potters Field #2 (Second issue of Waid's modern day pulp hero... I'm already wishing it was an ongoing series)
Previews Vol XVII #11 (Down the Line is in the works)
Star Wars Dark Times #6 (New story arc, new art by Luke Ross, probably still the same great comic)
Transformers Devastation #2 (Big things happening in IDW's Transformers line)
Walking Dead #43 (After that cliffhanger last time? Can't wait)
Warhammer 40k Blood & Thunder #1 (Orks talk funny and blow shit up)
Warhammer Forge Of War #4 (Caught up on Boom!'s fantasy comic recently, and now I'm really digging the stories of all the soldiers and mages who lost a really big battle and what happened after)

Being Unsurprised Doesn't Equal Not Being Pissed Off

So the House failed to override Bush's veto of the childcare health program.

It's been clear that this was the way the wind was blowing for a while, but I'm still pissed to see it actually confirmed. Despite polls showing that 60% of Americans favored the increase (and we should be ashamed as a country that the number isn't higher), Bush and his cronies stood up and knocked back a chance to increase funding for childrens' health insurance by $35 million. Bush, in what can only be considered a condescending tone, offers up $5 million as his ceiling. Considerably less than we're spending on his war.

Silver lining, this is probably going to screw pretty heavily with Republicans running for election or re-election. Downside of course being that the Democrats aren't much better, and I'm a regime change in 2008 isn't going to help the families who are going to have to struggle with their kid's healthcare costs because Bush and those who voted with him are somehow terrified that socialized medicine will destroy America.

Seriously?

Seems to me it's been a pretty good year for Marvel. If you just ignore all the stupidity and misogyny going on in the Bendis corner of the universe (and I've surgically removed my Avengers love until somebody else is running that show), there's been World War Hulk and Incredible Hulk, a perfect mix of modern pop thrills and actual appreciation for the characters and history, hipster superheroes from Brubaker, Fraction and Ellis, the kickass cosmic epic Annihilation: Conquest and just solid post-Civil War superheroes in books like New Warriors. Sure, the X-Men are basically dull and lifeless, but really, Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and company might have been the last hurrah for those characters. When even Ed Brubaker and Joss Whedon can't make 'em interesting to me, there's something wrong with that subset of the universe or with me. Allowing that it might be me, and I might just be tired of the X-Men, there's still a whole lot of readable (and strong selling) books at Marvel.

They've made best sellers out of the Hulk, Moon Knight and Iron Fist. I've loved these characters for a long time, but I didn't think anyone else would.

So what's the first thing they do, when they've got a good buzz going, Hulk is a cool character again, and folks want to read about him? They hand him over to Jeph Loeb, whose Wolverine arc was... well, calling it a trainwreck is being kind. Here's Paul O'Brien to explain.

And what does Loeb do? Well, in a move that seems more in line with DC than Marvel, he's starting off with a murder mystery involving "one of Hulk's oldest cast members." Hands up, anyone guessing it'll be a perfectly good female character. If your hand isn't up, you probably haven't been reading superhero comics lately. Maybe I'm wrong, though, and they'll just off Rick Jones or someone else who no doubt has more potential in him/her than this lame duck of a story.

Oh, and the Hulk? He's big, and red, and puffy, and looks like something you'd see watching Adult Swim while tripping on acid. And there's a mystery about who the character is. Because having just established Hulk in his classic look, with a new and badass personality and motivation, and a movie on the way starring Ed Freakin' Norton, the first thing you want to do is change *everything* about the character. After all, it worked out so well for Wolverine.

But maybe I should give Loeb the benefit of the doubt. After all, remember his Superman/Batman? And how it made absolutely no sense? Hmm. Well, what about his work with Rob Liefeld? Oof. OK, but what about his work on Wolverine?

If Tim Sale were involved, I'd have reason to be at least a little bit hopeful, as Loeb/Sale bring out the best in one another, and their collaborations always raise Loeb's game, occasionally (as with his Daredevil: Yellow) to an A-level. But this looks just awful.

And worse, 2007 has seen a Marvel Universe with no Mark Millar, and Millar is gleefully announcing he's going to save the company (presumably from making sense and having characters instead of indistinguishable action puppets) by having five books at Marvel next year. Yikes.

With these developments looming and the ugly-ass gun-toting new Cap, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about Marvel '08, at least in terms of my own interest. And DC is showing no signs of getting my interest back anytime soon. I'm sure I'll get my superhero fix somewhere, though, at Image and Dark Horse if nothing else. And if the last few years are any indication, even if DC/Marvel aren't firing for me in general, the small press and self-publishers will be producing plenty of good material.

Mountain Dew Game Fuel

So while at the grocery store today with both kids (and there's a fun adventure), I was picking up some soda and I saw Mountain Dew Game Fuel, the limited edition Mountain Dew flavor tied into HALO 3.

Now, while I don't drink it a lot, I always kind of liked Mountain Dew in college. And I've had a bit of a fondness for the variant Mountain Dew flavors like Code Red (still a favorite) and Live Wire (the orange soda, and I miss it) and have even liked the somewhat chalky, grape-influenced Pitch Black (although I still have 8 cans of Pitch Black II in my fridge, so I'm not so much a big fan now). So what the hell... I figure I'll give this soda with a "blast of invigorating citrus cherry flavor" a try.

I popped open the first can about a half hour ago. And this stuff tastes pretty much like drinkable Bayer Aspirin with carbonation. Which is to say, it's kinda nasty. Maybe it'll grow on me... I have 11 more cans to down to see if it does.

The question of course, is, "Randy, why on Earth would you buy HALO 3 soda when you don't play HALO and you know that the odds are good it's going to taste terrible?" The answer? I've liked 3 out of the 4 Mountain Dew flavors I've tried in the past, and I liked those odds. The other answer? I'm just as susceptible to marketing stupidity as everybody else.

Perhaps the best response to this drink can be found here.

Heroes: Better, But...

The fourth episode of Heroes was the strongest one this season. A big part of that is that two of the stupidest, least interesting plotlines (Hiro in Feudal Japan and Peter in Ireland) were entirely absent. Another part was that they finally, *finally* introduced a new character I didn't immediately want to throttle. And another part is that they seem to have hit upon a main story that actually seems potentially as interesting as the Sylar/Lenderman mysteries of season one. Now if only they can focus in on that and ditch all the extraneous garbage.

The new character and her family are cliched in the extreme, with a cringe-worthy inclusion of a "topical" Hurricane Katrina story. However, the new actress (Dana Davis) is quite good in a cliched role, and her powers (Taskmaster-esque photographic reflexes) are pretty cool, and well done. I'm finding it really, really hard to believe Tim Kring's assertion that he doesn't read comics... if that's the case, he has the super-power of accidentally ripping them off in every episode. Which is fine, just... acknowledge your influences, don't try to pretend you're one of the cool kids who doesn't read superhero comics when you're trading on the cool factor of the genre to shore up your B-list writing.

Was that harsh? No harsher than the feelings I continue to have for Maya, Alejandro and West, the three new characters whom I would like to see die in a huge fireball. Or a quiet gas leak. Really, whatever gets rid of them the fastest. I was actually stunned by the stupidity of coincidence that Sylar stumbled into the path of Maya and Alejandro, but that whole story gained a 50% boost in charisma with Zachary Quinto's arrival, and even better, maybe it means Sylar will kill Maya and Alejandro and we can be done with the whole stupid subplot. I confess, I didn't think bringing back Sylar was a great idea, but I don't really know exactly what his motivations/goals are at this point, nor do I know what's up with the cockroaches left at the scene of the crime, and I'm actually interested in both those mysteries.

The main mystery, which is actually interesting, is about "The Company" and how it relates to the original band of not-so-heroes. Sure, Parkman and Suresh are in a hilarious superhero version of My Two Gay Dads (surely the writers see this, right?), but I like where they've taken the characters, and I liked Parkman interacting with Petrelli. In fact, seeing some of these characters cross paths reminded me of the biggest misstep the show made in season two, which is splitting them all up again, when just building on the relationships and going forward would have been *so* much more interesting. Hopefully the connections will come faster from here on in, and we won't have to wait until midseason (or longer) before the various plots are connecting and I don't find myself wanting to fast forward through large chunks of the story.

Seriously, every time West is on screen, I keep hoping for him to either spontaneously combust or be revealed as a devious bad guy who's manipulating Claire. Because if this great boyfriend act is meant to be sincere, it's a little too saccharine for me.

At any rate, seeing Kristen Bell in the teasers gave me hope, as she shines in just the few seconds of screen time there, and if she can bring Peter back from his stupid, contrived Irish mis-adventure, so much the better.

Even though the show was better tonight, it was still weaker than pretty much any of the episodes from last season. And there were some weak, weak episodes last season. I'm still watching, but my finger's on the "Cancel Season Pass" button, and I won't be recommending to my two friends who've given up that they come back at this point.

How Much Do I Love Heidi MacDonald right now?

If you're at all a fan of the comic book medium, you should go read this. Then go to the comments and watch the fireworks.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 17, 2007

TOP FIVE
Battle Royale Ultimate Ed Vol 1 HC (I'm really looking forward to re-reading this story, and seeing how the Tokyopop deluxe format is)
Captain America #31 (Another great issue from Brubaker and company... bring on Omnibus #2 next year!)
DMZ #24 (Another self-contained issue, with a look back at Amina from "Public Works")
Marvel Zombies 2 #1 (Shocked at how much I enjoyed this first issue... I thought the joke would get old, but this was so funny it has me once again considering picking up the hardcover)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #2 (First issue was great, can't wait to see more)

THE REST
52 The Covers HC (A process book on the covers, plus all the gorgeous JG Jones art? Sold! And I'm not even buying the 52 series!)
Abyss #1 (New son of supervillain comedy book by the guys who did Star Wars: Tag & Bink Are Dead. I've read it, it's quite good)
Awesome Indie Spinner Rack Anthology Vol 1 TP (Some good indie names in here, and hopefully some new talent to discover as well)
Brave And The Bold #7 (First arc concluded on a high note, new arc starts here, I'm excited to see it)
Cory Doctorows Futuristic Tales Here And Now #1 (I've never read Doctorow's fiction, only his Boing-Boing posts, but this is a good excuse to check out his sci-fi)
Fables #66 (The Flycatcher story is running long - and maybe late? - but it's still one of my favorite stories of the run so far)
Highwaymen #5 (The highly under-rated action/adventure miniseries reaches its conclusion)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #17 (Parker's gone, but Ty Templeton's a good writer... I'll give his first issue a shot)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 11 (More of the best suspense manga I've ever read)
Ray Harryhausen Presents Sinbad Rogue Of Mars #1 (Beautiful art, writing by the creator of Hero Camp, great concept)
Savage Brothers Vol 1 TP (Rednecks hunt zombies in the post-apocalypse. Boom!)
Shazam Monster Society Of Evil Deluxe HC (I'd almost buy this for the beautiful art alone, even though the story let me down. I probably will, if the hardcover is as impressive as I'm hearing)
Sword #1 (New fantasy book by The Luna Brothers... dug Ultra, got bored of Girls... curious to see whether they can deliver on this one)
Uzumaki Vol 1 (My favorite horror manga of all-time, finally re-released by Viz)

Wasting Talent

You know what I don't want Alan Tudyk (Wash) doing? Playing another fucking lawyer on TV.

Put him with Greg Grunberg together on J.J. Abram's previously developed, now dead bounty hunter show, playing rival bounty hunters. Make him a sheriff in the old west. Have him play a test pilot who flies the rejiggered UFOs at Area 51 in an ensemble show by Barry Sonnenfeld. Hell, cast him on a recurring guest spot on 30 Rock or How I Met Your Mother or some other smart comedy. But c'mon... a lawyer? You've already wasted James Woods as a lawyer, television people. You've already wasted Anthony Anderson as another boring cop.

Why is TV obsessed with lawyers and cops? For every good one, there's about a dozen bad ones.

Dear Heroes...

Please stop sucking. I would like to at least watch until Kristen Bell appears.

Sincerely,

Randy

Cooking: Chicken Soft Tacos Onions & Apples and Chicken w/Lime Sauce

Since my last cooking post, I've cooked three new recipes. Two were very good, one was a dismal failure. I'll talk about that one first. It was Slow Cooker Red Beans & Rice, and it was pretty much my fault. The recipe said "Combine first 12 ingredients," which I read as "combine all ingredients" and so the rice, which wasn't supposed to go into the mix, was in the slow cooker all day. The result? Bland, flavorless awful mash that I couldn't even eat. Might try it again and cook the rice separate, like you're supposed to.

My favorite recipe of the bunch so far is Chicken with Lime Sauce.

Ingredients

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons olive oil
Cooking spray
3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons lime juice, divided
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

Preparation
Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove from pan; keep warm.

Add chicken broth, sugar, 2 tablespoons juice, and mustard to pan; cook over medium heat, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.

Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add cornstarch mixture to pan; stir well with a whisk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook 1 minute or until sauce thickens slightly. Whisk in remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and butter, stirring until butter melts. Return chicken to pan; simmer 2 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly heated.

I have only minor adjustments to make on this one. It would have been nice to have a little more sauce, as most of it evaporated or coated the chicken, so next time I think I'll reserve some of the sauce before returning the chicken to the pan, and then drizzle it on after I'm done. There was also a very, very slight lime flavor, so I'll probably add 2 tablespoons of lime juice instead of 1 with the butter, and keep adding a tablespoon here or there until the lime flavor gets a little bit stronger.

I also need to come up with a good side dish for this one. I'm really bad about cooking just an entree and not spending any time putting a side dish together.

Tonight I made Chicken Soft Tacos with Sauteed Onions & Apples:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups thinly sliced onion
2 cups thinly sliced peeled Granny Smith apple (about 2 apples)
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas

Preparation
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken evenly with salt, nutmeg, and pepper. Add chicken to pan; sauté 7 minutes or until golden. Remove the chicken from pan; keep warm.

Melt butter in pan over medium heat. Add onion; cook 4 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add apple; cook 6 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Return chicken to pan; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring frequently.

Heat tortillas according to package directions. Arrange 1/2 cup chicken mixture evenly over each tortilla.

Since this came from Cooking Light, I thought it might be a little flavor light, and I bumped up the salt and nutmeg to 3/4 teaspoons instead of 1/2. I also don't really measure fresh ground pepper, I just grind it on until it looks like enough to me. The result was pretty good.

Half of the secret of this one is having fresh tortillas... fortunately, in Austin it's really easy to get fresh tortillas, and they're good enough to eat on their own, so that makes them really good for fajitas and soft tacos.

I also recommend having a large skillet... my medium sized nonstick was very full when the onions and apples were cooking, and I tossed a few of them over the side while I was stirring, no matter how carefully I tried to stir.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 10, 2007

TOP FIVE
Bprd Killing Ground #3 (The latest BPRD continues, and it's been great as usual)
Dynamo 5 Vol 1 Post Nuclear Family TP (Insanely cheap $10 trade of the best new superhero comic on the market)
Gyo Vol 1 (I've got the previous version, but I'm psyched to see Viz re-releasing horror manga master Junji Ito's work)
Nova #7 (Nice payoff to the Annihilation Conquest stuff)
Suicide Squad Raise The Flag #2 (Loved the first issue, looking forward to more)

THE REST
Absolute Sandman Vol 2 HC (I haven't broken down and bought these yet... but it's probably just a matter of time)
Atomic Robo #1 (New pulp-ish adventure book from Red 5 - great art, fun story)
Booster Gold #3 (Mild interest at best, but it's still keeping that mild interest)
Brawl #1 (New Dean Haspiel, plus another feature from Activate... great cartooning)
Fantastic Four #550 (McDuffie wraps a somewhat overlong story, and it remains fun FF stuff)
Garth Ennis Chronicles Of Wormwood TP (Heard good things, on an Ennis high because I re-read Hitman... but low expectations, because Ennis's 303 bored me to tears)
Green Arrow Black Canary #1 (Lowest of expectations, but I want to like it, because I like Chiang's work so much)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #4 (Paul Benjamin's all-ages Hulk continues to delight)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man Vol 1 Digest TP (Van Lente's all-ages Iron Man has been a lot of fun thus far)
New Warriors #5 (A weaker issue, but still good)
Noble Causes Vol 7 Powerless TP (I'm really behind on reading this, I need to catch up)
Runaways #28 (Way too many characters, but there's definitely stuff to like in Whedon's run)

More Political Ranting

McCain thinks Bush is right on in veto-ing the expansion of the kids health insurance plan. But then, he also thinks he still has a shot in hell of being the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, so he's clearly delusional.

But then, at least he's not an open scumbag like Todd Akin of Missouri, who says "among other things that we're going to provide health care to the children of illegal immigrants" as if that's the worst thing in the world. Because we don't want to spend any money on giving health care to kids in America when we could be spending that money on Blackwater and Halliburton. And Bush says "I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system." Spoken like a rich kid who's never had to really concern himself with how *fucked up* private medicine is. And then there are some critics, who say their concern is that parents might be prompted to drop private coverage for their children to get cheaper coverage under the bill. Because we want to make sure and take care of the insurance companies, who do their best to not pay out on medical claims as a matter of company policy. Wouldn't want them to suffer instead of some kids or parents.

The White House doesn't think American law should apply to American "security contractors" working in warzones on the behalf of American people. Because it'd be inconvenient to have to apply all those laws and principles our country is supposed to stand for while we're trying to kick in heads overseas.


Oh shit, we're gonna get Hillary, aren't we? Is it wrong of me to hope they catch her with a dead hooker and a suitcase full of cocaine in time for Obama to get the nomination instead?

Look! Idiot Democrats!

My political views do tend to skew anti-Republican, but I don't exactly leap for joy at the prospect of a Democratic majority either. Their inability to do *anything* with the majority they regained in '06, combined with the generally spineless way they go about "opposing" the Bush Administration's policies, has me pretty well disgusted with the Democratic party as well.

Then I saw that top Democrats are proposing a war surtax, and that only reinforces that there really isn't a good party in America. They're both filled with opportunists and idiots. I particularly love this quote:

The surtax would be "a percentage of your tax bill," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey, D-Wisconsin. "And if you don't like the cost, then shut down the war."

Wait... shut down the war? How exactly would I, random taxpayer, do that? Isn't that what we elected you dim-bulbs to do? You want to tax me more because you guys aren't doing the job we elected you for, the job opinion polls tell you we want you to do? What the hell kind of sense does that make?

Now, this measure is unlikely to ever get anywhere. The Democratic party has been clear that they don't support the measure, it's just political grand-standing. But it's *stupid* political grand-standing.

Weekly Comics to Come - October 3, 2007

TOP FIVE
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #7 (Vaughan wrote the best issue of Buffy thus far last issue... can't wait to see where he goes next)
JLA Hitman #2 (Loved the first issue, hope Ennis and McCrea can give it a good part two)
Miki Falls Vol 3 (Terrific new story in a manga vein by Akiko creator Mark Crilley)
Question Zen And Violence Vol 1 TP (Been wanting to read these O'Neil/Cowan stories for a long, long time)
Transformers Devastation #1 (Surprised at how much I've been anticipating the next leg of IDW's Transformers reboot)

THE REST
Annihilation Book 1 TP (I got the hardcovers, but I'm glad to see this saga back in print, it's one of Marvel's best books of 2006)
Empowered Vol 2 TP (More of Adam Warren's pinup/parody book)
Essential Moon Knight Vol 2 TP (Still need to read my volume 1, actually... but I'm picking this up because it's almost entirely Moench/Sienkiewicz stuff)
Lobster Johnson The Iron Prometheus #2 (First issue was pulpy fun)
Metamorpho Year One #1 (Dan Jurgens writes and draws, and I've always had a bit of a fondness for Metamorpho... although a re-telling of his origin isn't exactly what I'm looking for)
Omega Unknown #1 (Terrific Dalrymple art... weird, weird story)
Vinyl Underground #1 (New Vertigo book... nice Sean Phillips covers, not sure about it beyond that)
Vogelein Old Ghosts GN (I've actually read this second graphic novel about Jane Irwin's clockwork faerie, and it's as effective and imaginative as the first one)

Cooking: Sausage & Mushroom Soup

In an attempt to broaden our dinner options a bit beyond my limited repertoire of grilled steaks, burgers & chicken, spaghetti and the occasional meatloaf, I've decided to start trying out some new recipes. Right now, I'm mostly getting them from myrecipes.com, which is a site from Cooking Light, Southern Cooking, etc. Tonight we tried the first one, and it was pretty good, so I figured I'd share it. It makes a ton... my guess is that you could feed about six people with it using it as a main dish, especially if you add some bread. Or you could serve small cups of it as part of an Italian meal with pasta or chicken parmigiana or something along those lines, and probably have enough for 8-12 people.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 pounds mild Italian sausages (I used sweet instead)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
7 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried red-pepper flakes
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 pound angel hair
1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

Preparation
1. In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over moderate heat. Add the sausages and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Remove. When cool enough to handle, cut the sausages into 1/8-inch slices.

2. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in the pot over moderately low heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until golden, 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Add the broth, thyme, red-pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, and the salt to the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes. Stir in the sausages and bring back to a boil. Add the pasta, reduce the heat, and simmer until just done, about 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons parsley and the black pepper.

For my modifications, I left out the parsley, since I assumed it was more garnish than flavor, I only used a 1/2 lb. of mushrooms (which seemed like plenty to me... your mileage may vary) and I couldn't find low sodium chicken broth, so I used regular. In retrospect, if you wind up going this route, you can probably skip adding the additional salt, although it certainly didn't kill the taste. But I think it might have been on the border of doing so for Suzanne.

Also, if you want to make the soup easier to eat, crack the angel hair in half before dropping it in. We wound up using both spoons and forks to eat the meal.

Anyway, now that I know I like the taste, it's time to figure out what I can do to cut down on prep time. I'm also thinking I might try halving the recipe next time I make it, so that we don't have quite so much left over.

Blog Update for September

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.

Another great month for comics, as the top 20 sort of made itself and left over a dozen worthy contenders out. Those included the latest issues of Annihilation: Conquest Wraith and Quasar, the second Johnny Hiro, the latest Fables, X-Men First Class, Iron Fist (and its annual), The Order, Usagi Yojimbo, Highwaymen, Green Arrow Year One and World War Hulk (all favorite series by the way), not to mention promising newcomers like the second issue of Brit and the JLA Wedding Special and Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1. There were five strong debuts that made the top 20, though, although sadly all of them are relatively short limited series, so no breakout new ongoing hit. DC made the chart with four books... two Vertigo, and two set in the DC Universes I miss, one the late '80s (Suicide Squad) and another the late '90s (Hitman). Marvel ranked higher with six books, although it's notable that five of those are set in their current continuity (whereas I generally won't touch DC's current continuity with a 10-foot pole), although only one (Criminal) is a non-superhero book Dark Horse made a good showing with four of their own, including the best issues of Buffy and Fear Agent yet, a promising debut in Umbrella Academy and another solid issue of BPRD. Image also did well with three: True Story Swear to God, Walking Dead and Dynamo 5. IDW has 30 Days of Night: Red Snow, Boom! has Potter's Field. I don't know if the lack of any true indy/self-published books is a reflection of my taste or the brutal marginalization going on for those guys in the current market. I tend to think the latter, but then, I would, wouldn't I?

As with last month, my graphic novel reading was severely curtailed by reading actual books. I finished The Subtle Knife and started The Amber Spyglass, and still have Patriot Acts, Gates of Fire and a horror novella lent to me by my friend Nate Southard on the night table. I also diverted from my regular reading to re-read Hitman #1-60, and I can't say as I regret it. It's reminded me that the series is just as good in reality as it is in my memory. At any rate, as a result my Graphic Novels of the month are merely eight, and a couple of those (Essential Punisher, Thunderbolts) are on there because I've already read some or all of the contents, not because I've had a chance to do much more than skim the new collected versions.

Besides reading actual books and '90s comics, what have I been up to? Well, I'd been considering switching from HBO to Showtime, and when Tell Me You Love Me was dead boring, and the first episode of Dexter on DVD was jaw-dropping amazing, that pretty much did it. So I've been catching the first season of Dexter (finished the last episode on Wednesday night) in order to be ready for the season opener on the 30th. I finished up watching The 4400 (was the show always this bad? I'm interested in the plot, but the writing... wow... yikes) and Burn Notice (most fun new show in quite a while, can't wait to see it again next summer). I watched the first two episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm before dropping HBO, but I don't really think that means it can make the cut. I have put Weeds on regular rotation, though, and might do the same with both Californication and Brotherhood once I get caught up on the latter and watch the DVDs of the former. I also finally watched the DVDs of Friday Night Lights, which is every bit as good as the critics say it is. I watched one disc, put it back into the mail to Netflix and immediately bought the season on DVD so I wouldn't have to wait for the rest to arrive. Next up on DVD, season one of Brotherhood so I can see if Showtime actually has three shows on that I want to watch.

Then there were the starts of the new Fall season, which I've been blogging here. Nothing has blown me away yet, although Reaper is a hell of a lot of fun based on the pilot. Chuck is on thin ice, but I hear it gets better. Heroes is on thin ice, but it started weak last year too. How I Met Your Mother returns in fine form. I am kind of shocked that: A) NBC has such a hold on my TV viewing habits and B) Sitcoms make up almost 50% of my top 10 viewing. The Office and My Name is Earl both opened pretty strong (the former more than the latter, I could give up Earl if I needed the time but I love The Office), and I'm very much looking forward to the season openers of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights later this week. I'm also enjoying the (finally!) returning It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, although F/X's annoying scheduling, so that it starts about 5 minutes after when it says it starts and ends about 5-7 minutes later, is really messing with my Tivo scheduling. I think conventional wisdom at the networks is that this will get people to watch the show live (with commercials) instead. In fact, it will get me to decide to wait for DVD or not hassle with the show at all.

Not as many new sites this month as last, but there are some good ones. Alan Sepinwall is currently duplicating his daily TV content on his personal blog, but just in case that doesn't continue, I've added his new TV blog from NJ.com, AllTV, to the feeds. I also added new feeds for Boing Boing Gadgets, blogs for Tom Beland and Scott Chantler and the webcomic XKCD.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 26, 2007

Running late this week, so these are based on actually reading the books, rather than advanced speculation

TOP FIVE
American Virgin #19 (Best issue of the series so far, and I love this series)
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #3 (Best issue of *this* series so far, great action, art and some nice character reveals)
Criminal #9 (The Tracy Lawless series rockets along to its conclusion with the requisite amount of blood, secrets and danger)
Immortal Iron Fist Annual #1 (Beautiful art, fun pulp homage, every bit as good as the monthly Immortal Iron Fist, with the added bonus of Dan Brereton)
Killer Vol 1 HC (Beautifully drawn, creepy and involving story of a professional killer, in a stunningly designed hardcover... now if only we could get some more issues)

THE REST
Astounding Wolf-Man #3 (Good, but like Invincible, may read tons better in trade)
Avengers Initiative #6 (Bleh. Hate that last page reveal, which is akin to the Speedball=Penance transformation in terms of sucking the fun out of the Marvel universe, and wasn't crazy about Uy's art. I think I may be done with this book)
Brit #2 (Lots of fun, albeit not as fun as the first issue of the series. But definitely worth reading for Invincible fans)
Captain America Red White & Blue TP (Forgotten gem of Cap stories by lesser known creators and indy stars, plus some interesting behind the scenes material)
Green Arrow Year One #5 (Fantastic action comic... makes me miss the Losers a little bit less)
Immortal Iron Fist #9 (Martial arts tournament and secret knowledge, and this book continues to kick my ass each month)
Justice League Of America #13 (Pretty awful art, almost makes me long for the return of Ed Benes... story is OK, although disappointing after the great start of JLA Wedding Special... and I really didn't need the Sue Dibny reference)
Marvel Adventures Iron Man #5 (Sold out before I could read it... bummer)
Previews Vol XVII #10 (Down the Line in process)
Revere Revolution In Silver HC (Looks promising, haven't had a chance to read yet)
Spirit #10 (Can't quite make up my mind on whether it's a clever, witty send-up of pundits or an overly obvious bashing of easy targets)
The Order #3 (Weakest issue thus far, but still good, and features zombie hobos, which earns it bonus points)
Usagi Yojimbo #106 (This book has been really good lately, with demonic possessions, multiple bounty hunters and such)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #4 (Fun! Road trip with Beast and Iceman!)

Fall Season: Reaper

Well, what everybody is saying is true. It's a lot like Chuck, but better than Chuck. It's funny and yet it's got some nice dramatic moments too. It's got likable characters (I'll take the actually funny sidekick in Reaper over the annoying sidekick on Chuck, and Missy Peregrym is terrific as the hot yet accessible love interest), a fun premise and a general tone that reminds me of everything I liked about something like Buffy without seeming like a ripoff of Buffy.

And it's got Ray Wise as the devil, which is pretty much a good enough reason to watch the show all on its own. Kevin Smith directs the hell out of the pilot, but I have to say that I'm hopeful that other directors can pull off similarly good work with the show as it goes along. The special effects weren't blow the doors off expensive looking, there weren't a ton of fancy camera tricks or editing tricks (although a good editor, and someone good at the music choices and cues, is gonna be crucial)... the heart of what makes this all work is the cast. Good cast, good writing, good premise? Few shows this season have more than one of those, so far.

Oh, and I laughed out loud several time. Not only is the show imaginative and well-acted, it's *funny*.

I haven't seen Pushing Daisies yet, but Reaper is looking like my favorite new show of the fall.

Fall Season: How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy & Heroes

How I Met Your Mother: -Dary! Great start to the episode, nice use of Mandy Moore (although I liked her better in both Scrubs and Entourage... weirdly, I'm a fan of TV cameo Mandy Moore). It wasn't a *great* episode, but it was a good one, and I got several laughs out of it. I was especially impressed by the "Slap Bet" epilogue, which was totally for the long-time fans of the show, but recalled one of my favorite moments of the entire show (the second slap in the middle of Barney's "play"), and I also enjoyed the facial hair gags and Ted's "And that's the last thing I remember" narration. Funny show, off to a good start for the season.

Family Guy: I haven't watched any of season five, but I might be on board for this new season. The Star Wars episode was a lot of fun, especially if you can catch the in-jokes for not only Family Guy but Star Wars. I died laughing when they revealed Obi Wan. The "Dirty Dancing" sequence was overlong, but sometimes Family Guy can do that milking a gag type thing well, so I can't blame them for trying it. It was a callback to the "Somewhere That's Green" extended sequence that was one of the funniest in the show's history, in my opinion. I have to admit, I didn't catch Meg's role, I need to watch it again. I was also amused to see that they actually got Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo for the voices in the brief Vacation bit.

Heroes: Disappointed. Some of the same cliched writing that plagued the original pilot, the new characters aren't terribly interesting and I don't find any of the new status quo that interesting either. Well, except Parkman, who gets to be more of a real character than he was for most of the first season. But I don't really want to see Hiro in feudal Japan (even though David Anders is great), I think re-doing the "Clare's got to pretend to be normal, and so does her dad" plot was a mistake (and seriously, why on Earth would he go to work at a Kinko's? He can't do a *little* bit better and at least find a decent middle management job?) and I don't yet care about the Honduran brother and sister. Nor do I have a ton of interest in Mohinder reprising his arc from the first season, although I will admit the last minute twist makes that more interesting. Mildly curious about seeing more of the older generation (Ma Petrelli, Hiro's dad, etc.) but I'd like it to move faster, and I wasn't pleased to see "another shadowy guy in a hoodie" as the mystery villain. Basically, it wasn't awful, but they did seem to be repeating themselves an awful lot.

Now, Heroes started off kinda mediocre last season and got better and better, and hopefully that's what will happen here. But after the way they dropped the ball on the season finale, they really needed a stronger opening to hook me back in.

In other news, I decided I don't really care about Journeyman, and didn't watch it. And I watched Chuck early, so I already talked about that one.

President Bush Hates Children

Bush plans to veto a bipartisan (and how rarely does *that* word get attached to successful legislation today?) bill that would extend a healthcare program for children.

His basic reasoning seems to boil down to being afraid of socialized medicine, and wanting to make sure that if someone can afford to pay money to health insurance companies, they pay that money. Thanks, GW! Glad somebody is looking out for those poor health insurance companies, protecting them from all those wicked parents who might otherwise use the money to buy their kids food or toys or something!

Seriously, I think we all know that Cheney survives on a diet of live babies and Alberto Gonzales bathes in the blood of children before his congressional hearings, but is this the most evil-sounding administration we've ever had? It's like they should all have sinister mustaches that they can twirl at their media conferences, or maybe Bush could create a Cabinet level Minister of Tying Helpless Young Women to Railroad Tracks.

Yeah, I'm exaggerating a bit. I have to laugh so I don't cry at what our nation's government has been reduced to.

On the bright side, at least there's one less bridge to Nowhere, Alaska being built with taxpayer money. On the down side, Ted Stevens (who may in fact be Dana Carvey doing his "Cranky Old Man" sketch from SNL as performance art) still represents Alaska, so they seem no less stupid a state than they did when they were building a $400 million bridge for 50 people to use.

Fall Season: K-Ville & Chuck

Wow, is the Fall season looking bleak. There's literally nothing new I'm really looking forward to. I have Bionic Woman and Journeyman sitting on the Tivo thanks to Amazon Unbox, and nothing else to prevent me watching them, and I just can't work up the enthusiasm to watch. Even Pushing Daisies, which I expect to like, has two strikes against it: 1) I can easily see it being well-executed but not really what I'm looking for and 2) More importantly, even if it's good, it's probably going to have low ratings and get killed, as it sounds too weird to sell to the public.

I've seen two pilots thus far. I watched Chuck (thanks to Amazon Unbox) and thought it was OK. Mildly diverting. Had a couple mild chuckle-worthy moments. But the plots aren't smart enough, the action isn't compelling enough, the humor isn't sharp enough... it's solid, just this side of mediocre. And opposite How I Met Your Mother, so I doubt I'll be watching unless I start hearing a lot of rave reviews.

Tonight I watched K-Ville. I really wanted to like this one. It's got a good cast, reasonably solid direction, a *great* setting and production look... but it's some of the most cliched cop show writing I've seen. Worse, it's like they're trying to get every bit of New Orleans flavor in there in the most forced, cringe-worthy of ways. Inside of the first five minutes, I had heard just about every cop and New Orleans cliche there is. And there are two utterly pointless, utterly dull car chases. And With better writing, this show could be to New Orleans what The Shield is to L.A. But based on that pilot, I'm not holding my breath. It's not a bad show... it's just a disappointingly OK show, and up against Heroes, that isn't going to cut it. Alan Sepinwall has his review here, and he pretty much nails it.

Damn It!

I can't afford an XBox 360 *and* a Wii! Why must the videogame gods be so cruel as to have two awesome games, each unique* to one system?

I mean, on the one hand, we have Rock Band... which I must own. Therefore I need a 360.

On the other, Lucasfilm has *finally* announced the no-brainer lightsaber duel game for the Wii, which also has that cool control system that I'm in love with and happens to be $100 cheaper than an XBox 360. Therefore I must have a Wii.

Of course, this ignores the larger issue that I can't really afford to buy either one. But damn it, I had finally resolved to get an XBox 360 and let the Wii go, and now I'm back to being undecided again!

*Yes, I know Rock Band is on PS3 as well. But the PS3 looks pretty weak, is super-expensive and doesn't have the impressive roster of other games that the 360 does. So it doesn't count. I was never even tempted by the PS3.

Weekly Comics to Come - September 19, 2007

TOP FIVE
Captain America #30 (A kickass action story, plenty of twists and turns, *and* plausible redemption for Iron Man? Brubaker is the *man*)
Dynamo 5 #7 (The latest issue of the best new superhero book since Invincible)
JLA Hitman #1 (Hitman is my favorite Ennis work... can Ennis and McCrea capture the magic? And more importantly, will sales be good enough to finally get this series traded up?)
Johnny Hiro #2 (First issue was off the wall fun with great art, I can't wait to read the next one)
Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #1 (Teasers of this, in the Free Comic Book Day issue and DHP MySpace, have been pretty damn good)

THE REST
30 Days Of Night Beyond Barrow #1 (Sienkiewicz doing the 30 Days riff? OK, I'll check that out)
30 Days Of Night Red Snow #2 (But I'm more excited about Ben Templesmith writing and drawing this WWII era of vampires, Russians and Nazis)
Annihilation Conquest Quasar #3 (How many comics feature a cosmic warrior riding her lesbian dragon lover into battle? Not enough, I say)
Captain America By Ed Brubaker Omnibus Vol 1 HC (I don't think I'm going to be able to resist this expensive hardcover. The Brubaker/Epting/Perkins Cap stuff has been great, and that's despite me not *wanting* to like a lot of the plot twists)
Cyblade Pilot Season #1 (Joshua Hale Fialkov writes, so I'll give this one a look)
Dr Thirteen Architecture And Morality TP (Obscure DC mystical characters in a buzzed-about story with Cliff Chiang art... I'll give it a look)
Flash #232 (Really enjoyed the first issue, looking forward to seeing where Waid goes with it)
Gods Of Asgard GN (Terrific indie graphic novel about the Asgardian gods)
Green Arrow Black Canary Wedding Special #1 (After all the build-up and two specials already, this better be pretty good... I'm expecting a bait-and-switch death that's gonna piss me off, honestly)
Highwaymen #4 (The best action comic not enough people are reading)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #16 (Hawkeye! Jeff Parker! Awesome!)
Marvel Comics Presents #1 (Still unsure about this one, but the Immonen's story looks very interesting from previews)
Terror Inc #2 (Dug the first issue, looking forward to the second)
Thunderbolts By Ellis Vol 1 Faith In Monsters HC (I'm waiting on the trade edition, but I really want to get this collected, it's one of my favorite Marvel series of the moment)
World War Hulk #4 (Looking forward to seeing more, hoping Sentry's presence won't ruin the whole thing)
Zero Killer #2 (First issue was merely OK... but I'm going to give it a second issue to hook me)

Weekly Comics to Come - September 12, 2007

TOP FIVE
Fear Agent Last Goodbye #3 (This flashback miniseries is brutal, but it's also a remarkably fun war/sci-fi book)
JLA Wedding Special #1 (Fantastic start to McDuffie's run on the book)
Potters Field #1 (A very promising and dark crime book from Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta)
Suicide Squad #1 (The magic is back, as Ostrander returns, joined by the Manhunter artist Javier Pina, to tell a lost tale of the Squad)
Walking Dead #42 (Terrific issue, with a hell of an ending)

THE REST
The Arrival GN (Looks gorgeous, seems weirdly out of place with the rest of Graphix's imprint)
Booster Gold #2 (Just like the first issue... wordy slog of a first half, light fun in the second half)
BPRD Killing Ground #2 (Fantastic character developments, beautiful art)
Daredevil #100 (Interesting use of multiple artists, decent issue but the book is slipping a bit for me)
Essential Punisher Vol 2 TP (I fondly remember about half the stories in this book... kind of looking forward to reading the rest of them)
DMZ #23 (Standalone issue about a graffiti artist in NYC, pre- and post-war)
Drafted #1 (Disappointing first issue, but it's still a promising series)
Fables #65 (The Flycatcher story rolls on, with some great revelations and terrific moments throughout)
Hellboy Vol 7 The Troll Witch & Others TP (I'm still a trade or two behind on Hellboy... need to catch up)
Jack Of Fables #14 (I think I may have moved to reading in trade on this one)
Legend Of Grimjack Vol 8 TP (We're about to enter some of the weaker eras for Grimjack, but it's still good at the very least)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #3 (Want to read this one when I get a chance, #2 was a blast)
Nova #6 (A bit bummed by the ending, hoping it's a fakeout, but otherwise another solid issue of one of Marvel's best books)
Showcase Presents Batman And The Outsiders Vol 1 TP (Never read this book back in the day, but I'm interested in reading it now)
Star Trek Manga Vol 2 (Lots of creators I like on this one)
Star Wars Legacy #16 (Tons going on, not always in tune with it, but it has strong writing and art)
Star Wars Rebellion #10 (Either the end or nearing the end of the current crime/espionage story, which has been really good)
Thirteen Steps #1 (Weird, dark, quirky fun book about a werewolf in a monster self-help group)

Clowns Kick Nazi Ass

This is fucking awesome.

TV Thoughts - Midseason Post-Mortem & Fall Season Predictions

I did mention how much I hated the very idea of Kid Nation, right? I mean, I thought it wouldn't be possible for me to hate reality television more, so kudos to CBS for that one, at least, I guess.

So... midseason. Not as great as I'd hoped, but not bad. The Sopranos ending felt a little too precious and "look how clever I am" to me, and while I give David Chase full credit for guts, I also have little patience for these "it's more real" type endings, in whatever medium. Yeah, it's more real... guess what? You ain't writing reality. Fictional endings have resolutions, there's supposed to be payoff to all the build-up. Damages and Rescue Me both lost my interest well before the midway point. The 4400 is testing my patience with its comedic plotlines that we're clearly meant to take seriously (The Marked? A de-aging drink? Really?) and Big Love, though I watched it all the way through, has more or less lost me. I find almost every character (except Margene) to be completely compromised, and Bill, the lead, is a complete shitheel, which I don't think is what the producers want us to think.

Actually, HBO is dangerously close to getting canceled off my cable bill. Entourage is still (just barely) watchable, but nowhere near as engaging as it was, and I'm guessing it's going to get worse instead of better. Even if John From Cincinnati had come back for a second season, it wasn't must-see enough that I couldn't wait on DVD. Tell Me You Love Me, despite all the critical praise, bored the living hell out of me. The only thing HBO has left is Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I'm not sure that's enough for the monthly bill... I'll probably ride out the Curb season, and then if there's nothing promising on the horizon, HBO is gone.

Showtime might make a re-appearance, though. Weeds has been great thus far this season and I've heard good things about Dexter. The first episode of Californication didn't do much for me, but if Dexter wins me over, and if Showtime starts developing shows the way HBO did a few years ago, they might steal the pay TV spotlight for me. Best midseason show, though? Burn Notice, on USA, just the right side of cheesy with a terrific lead actor, just enough Bruce Campbell for flavor and plenty of clever spycraft courtesy of consulting producer Michael Wilson. Can't wait for it to come back from tennis-induced hiatus.

As for the fall season? Well, it looks kinda dire for new shows, but there are a lot of shows hitting their stride in second and third seasons, so it's not as bad as I thought. I first did this rundown based on information from the upfronts in late May, but I've seen and heard more on the shows by now, and some timeslots have changed, so here we go again.

SUNDAY
Honestly? There's nothing I watch on this night. Good thing, as it'd be up against HBO's last remaining toehold in my interest, Curb Your Enthusiasm. But I might start watching Family Guy again, if it doesn't conflict with Curb.

MONDAY
8:00 p.m. How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - I've gone from "I could take or leave this show" to loving it, mostly from re-watching summer reruns and realizing how great the cast is and how good the comedic timing is. Entertainment Weekly had a great write-up in their Fall Preview by Whitney Pastorek that further cemented my interest. (September 24)

8:00 p.m.: Chuck (NBC) - I still like the basic concept of this one, still enjoyed the teaser, and the buzz is pretty solid. Unfortunately, it's been moved up against How I Met Your Mother. Fortunately, I have two Tivos, one in the office, one in the living room. Unfortunately, stuff that gets recorded only on the office Tivo sometimes doesn't get watched. And I like to have HIMYM on both Tivos, so I can re-watch in the office while on the computer. So Chuck *might* get a spot on the office Tivo, but if it doesn't grab me immediately, it'll lose out to HIMYM reruns. (September 24)

9:00 p.m. K-Ville (FOX) - Anthony Anderson in a cop drama set in New Orleans, and I really want to like that. But I'm sort of inclined to distrust FOX on new shows, since they're likely to cancel anything that's actually good, and why get invested. Also, and more of a deal-breaker, it's on opposite Heroes. Still, this one will get the same chance Chuck did on the office Tivo, and if it's great, it'll survive. It also gets the benefit of one week without Heroes competition, which means it gets a one-week tryout on the living room Tivo. (September 17)

9:00 p.m.: Heroes (NBC) - Every little bit of info about season two, from casting to plot hints, has me excited to see it again, despite the lame season finale. (September 24)

10:00 p.m.: Journeyman (NBC) - In my initial writeup, I said that I was getting a lame vibe, and I failed to figure out where lead actor Kevin McKidd came from. Now I know that McKidd played the tortured soldier Lucius Verenus in Rome, and I've seen some of the slick promo spots NBC has put together for this time-traveling drama, and I'm definitely intrigued. It also has no timeslot competition. So it gets a shot. (September 24)

TUESDAY
9:00 p.m.: Reaper (CW) - I really wanted to abandon the CW after they abandoned Veronica Mars. But damn it, the geek buzz on this thing is huge. The pilot is directed by Kevin Smith, the production values make it look like a quirky Barry Sonnenfeld/Bryan Fuller show (although that show is actually Pushing Daisies, more on that later) and now that the timeslot competition of Chuck has been moved away, I'm definitely going to be watching. (September 25)

10:00 Cane (CBS) - I'm rooting for this to die so that Nestor Carbonell can get back to what will almost certainly be a more interesting role on Lost.

WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m.: Pushing Daisies (ABC) - Weird, intriguing premise, pushed over the top because the guy behind it is Bryan Fuller, of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls. Pushed even further because of Barry Sonnenfeld's involvement. I love the tone these guys bring to their work, and I like the weird premise (guy whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then he can't touch them ever again without undoing the gift, and one of the first people he brings back is his girlfriend) and the comic book promo I picked up in San Diego. It's between this and Reaper as my most anticipated new show. (October 3)

8:00 p.m.: Back to You (FOX) - It sounds like an NBC show, with Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton as co-anchors of a local news show, and it features Fred Willard, which is always a good sign. This is supposed to be a good, classic comedy, and it could win a place in my heart like How I Met Your Mother did. Since it starts a week early, on September 19, it has two weeks to earn a spot on my office Tivo before Pushing Daisies starts.

9:00 p.m.: Bionic Woman (NBC) - Buzz on this one has been disappointing, and I wasn't all that interested in the first place. It doesn't have any timeslot competition, though, so it'll get at least a couple episodes. But there's plenty to watch, and not enough time in the day, so if it isn't really good, it's gone. (September 26)

9:00 p.m.: Gossip Girl (CW) - A show about rich bitch girls and their trashy lives? Even having it narrated by Kristen Bell can't make me watch this, although if she was narrating it in character as Veronica Mars, calling these girls out for their inane lifestyles... well, that might do it. Happily, I can get my Bell fix on Heroes this season.

THURSDAY
Must-See TV is back on NBC on Thursdays, much to my surprise. I don't think there's anything (even Lost and Heroes) that could tear me away from 30 Rock, The Office and Scrubs. Fortunately, there's nothing else worth watching on Thursday nights. Except Ugly Betty, which is reportedly good but doesn't really strike me as that interesting. I'm going to watch season one on DVD, though, and if I'm wrong, I'll watch season two on DVD as well... because there's no way I'm not watching 30 Rock. Oh, and America? If you choose "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" over Earl and 30 Rock, I'm breaking up with you.

8-8:30 p.m.: My Name Is Earl (NBC) (September 27)
8:30-9 p.m.: 30 Rock (NBC) (October 4)
9-9:30 p.m.: The Office (NBC) (September 27)
9:30-10 p.m.: Scrubs (NBC) (October 25)

FRIDAY
9:00 Friday Night Lights (NBC) - Goddamn, is this show good. I passed it up last season, just like everybody else, because I didn't have much interest in high school football. But after unanimous critical praise, putting it in the same box as "great TV nobody is watching" like Arrested Development, I gave the DVDs a shot by renting the first one from Netflix. After watching the first disc, I went out and bought the DVD set the next day, because I didn't want to wait for them to arrive in the mail. This is a fantastic show, well-written, well-acted and well-directed. This is a drama about football for people who don't care about (or even better, actually dislike) football. I'm a geek, and the jock is my natural enemy, and I'm still completely wrapped up in this drama of high school jocks, coaches and their families. Even more than Heroes, this is the drama I'm most looking forward to seeing back on the air. (October 5)

My predictions for the season, based largely on what I'm excited about?

BEST NEW HOUR-LONG: Pushing Daisies on ABC
BEST NEW SITCOM: Back To You on FOX (Admittedly, there's almost no competition for this slot)

BEST RETURNING HOUR-LONG: Friday Night Lights on NBC
BEST RETURNING SITCOM: 30 Rock (Although it's really a three-way tie with The Office and How I Met Your Mother)

Kid Nation

I'm reluctant to even mention CBS's vile new reality show Kid Nation for fear of accidentally making someone aware of it who was blissfully unaware, but look over here:

This is a column by Maureen Ryan, a TV critic at The Chicago Tribune, talking about the reprehensible show. She's eloquent, focused and dead on target. Never once does she call Kid Nation a pus-soaked wart on the ass of modern society. Or point out that making this show is a good sign of just how soulless the producers and executives of Kid Nation are. Or suggest that every single parent who was stupid and cruel enough to sign their kid up for this televised Darwinian experiment should be lined up against a wall and shot and their kids given over to someone who might have an interest in raising them instead of using them to git on the teevee.

In response to this strong-worded but restrained piece, there's a discussion that ensues wherein people present all kinds of strawmen argument about Boy Scout camp and kids being coddled and how "we haven't seen the show yet." It's not uncommon when reading the Internet to want to reach in and throttle some clueless commenter, but I have rarely seen it so frequent as in that thread, where every intelligent or even just sane voice is shouted down by two or three yahoos with a half-assed stupid opinion about not coddling kids by making sure that they don't drink bleach or light themselves on fire.

The parents who put their kids up for this show failed on the most basic level they could, and should really go out and kill themselves now. Really, it's for the good of our collective intelligence.

I Love The Fratellis

It's been a stressful week, and I'm in for at least a couple more stressful ones in September. Busy time of year, lots of stuff going on, etc., etc.

But on the other hand, I finally went and bought The Fratellis album and I'll be damned... every song on it is good. Most are great. I can't remember the last time I had that reaction to an album. And then there's this video, which is all kinds of awesome:



Not just because the girls are hawt, but also because I have a fondness for the '40s pinup girl style cheesecake and also, the song is great. Oh, and since my good friend Nate Southard brought it up, I also like Los Lonely Boys. Didn't know they were from Austin, though. And I've only heard one of their songs (the one they were using on promos for Jeff Goldblum's short-lived show), so it's possible the rest of it is crap.

Weekly Comics to Come for 9/6/07

TOP FIVE
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #6 (Vaughan writing a story focused on Faith, one of my favorite characters in Buffy... looking forward to this)
DMZ Vol 3 Public Works TP (The best DMZ story so far... until the arc after it came up. Book keeps getting better and better)
Incredible Hulk #110 (One of the best Hulk stories I've read in the last ten years)
Lobster Johnson The Iron Prometheus #1 (The rare property where the spinoffs are actually just as good or better than the main book. Mignola keeps his hand on the reins, but brings in a terrific artist, Jason Armstrong, to handle the art on this pulp hero style book)
True Story Swear To God Image Ed #8 (Every issue is a delight)

THE REST
30 Days Of Night Red Snow #1 (Ben Templesmith writes *and* draws this tale of WWII era bloodsuckers)
Annihilation Conquest Wraith #3 (Some nice moody space action after last issue's somewhat lackluster origin/torture issue)
Black Canary Wedding Planner (Sure to be a fun, if weird, offering)
Captain America Chosen #1 (I'm expecting hand-wringing post-9-11 boring Cap, but hoping for action from the writer of First Blood)
Infinity Inc #1 (Steel and his niece. I know, I'm yawning too... but it is written by Peter Milligan)
Iron Man Enter Mandarin #1 (Fun retro Iron Man story by Joe Casey, in the vein of his Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which is both good and bad. Terrific artwork by Eric Canete)
Lucha Libre #1 (Mexican wrestlers battle crime, art looks amazing... what's not to love?)
New Warriors #4 (Really good issue deepening the mystery of Who Is Night Thrasher?)
Punisher War Journal Vol 1 Civil War TP (Now I need to give this a re-read, since I'm digging Fraction's other Marvel work so much)
Sentences The Life Of M F Grimm HC (Preview art on this book about a rapper looked phenomenal)
Shanna She-Devil Survival Of The Fittest #2 (Kind of fun adventure comic, with 20% more cheesecake than most)
Sorrow #1 (This post-nuclear ghost story looks like fun, and has gorgeous covers)
Uncanny X-Men #490 (Brubaker's conspiracy/terrorist Morlock story has been pretty solid, better than his spacefaring storyline in my opinion)
Y The Last Man #58 (Only two more issues left after this one, and it's not keeping a monthly schedule, which is just mean)

Blog Update for August

This is the latest monthly update to the left column of the blog, updating my favorite comics and TV for the previous month. The listings are alphabetical, not by rank of how much I liked them in comparison. My criteria for what makes the list is when I read them, not necessarily when they were published. This is basically also my own records of what I read/liked for the inevitable "End of Year" lists I feel like making.

I thought July was a good month for comics, but August might have actually been better. A couple books snuck in from the last week of July (like Immortal Iron Fist #7, which was amazing, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer #5, the best issue of that series so far), but mostly, it was great books crowding out other great books. There's a pretty good spread of most publishers, with 2 indies (Mouse Guard & Toupydoops), 2 Image (Dynamo 5 and Invincible) and 3 Dark Horse (BPRD, Hellboy & Buffy). DC bumps up to 5 if you count all their imprints (a lone book from the DCU, a lone book from Wildstorm and three from Vertigo) and Marvel once again really has its hooks in me, with 8 books, almost half of my top 20 for the month. Of those 8, two feature Ed Brubaker, two feature Matt Fraction and two feature Jeff Parker. Fair to say those three guys are in my top 10 writers of the moment. Probably the top five. As for the stuff that almost made the cut? There's well over a dozen, many of which easily would have made a Top 20 in a lighter month. McDuffie and Pelletier on Fantastic Four #548-549. Kirkman and Adlard on Walking Dead #40-41. Fear Agent Last Goodbye #2 was also great post-apocalypse action and survival tales. Brubaker's got Daredevil #99 and Captain America #29. New Warriors #3 offered up great twists and turns. Local #10 featured the Austin area and one of the few bars I've been to in town, Beerland. Usagi Yojimbo #104-105 were great as always. Spirit #9 started what is probably the over-arcing tale closing out the Cooke/Bone run. Green Arrow Year One #3-4 continued a strong bi-weekly story. Annihilation Conquest Quasar #2 and Wraith #2 were pretty solid reads. And then there were the debuts, like Brit #1, Flash #231 and Terror Inc. #1, all fun stuff.

There are only a couple graphic novels that didn't make the cut this month, Shannon Wheeler's Screw Heaven, When I Die I'm Going to Mars from Dark Horse and Rose & Isabel Parts One and Two by Ted Mathot, which I finally got around to finishing. Both were very good, but didn't quite bump out any of the other good stuff I read this month. My desire to actually read books again has cut into my comics-reading (and TV-watching, and videogame-playing) time, and this month I read The Golden Compass (very good) and Kitchen Confidential (very funny and interesting, and man could I not be a chef). Next month I'll probably read the next two books in His Dark Materials trilogy, the new Greg Rucka novel Patriot Acts, and maybe start on the Alton Brown book I'm Just Here For The Food that I bought my wife for her birthday a couple years back.

In August, I started to watch Mad Men, based on a number of critics I like who loved it, but I just couldn't get into it. I really enjoyed the first episode, and the look and feel of the period is great, but I stopped and started the second episode about six times and just couldn't stay engaged. I gave up on a lot of shows this month, actually. I realized, with three episodes on the Tivo and no particular interest in watching them, that it was probably time to go ahead and give up on Rescue Me. I finished John From Cincinnati, although just barely, and I think my final estimation is that it's a mediocre show with genius in it. I invested a fair amount of time and got zero payoff. If JFC were actually the reason HBO canceled Deadwood (and it isn't), I'd have been pretty pissed. I have watched the first episode of Damages, which I'd qualify as "OK," but never got around to watching the remaining episodes on my Tivo, which means I probably never will. And Entourage is just barely hanging on, I'm watching purely on momentum now, same with Big Love (although that show is demonstrably superior, I just don't have as much intrinsic interest in the premise)... HBO better come up with something impressive in their next crop of shows, or, despite my love for HBO On Demand, I might go back to DVD spot watching those few shows they have that interest me, like Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Especially since Showtime has Weeds, which kicked off a great third season. True, Californication was weak, but I hear good things about Dexter, and two great shows could overshadow HBO at the moment. Especially since I haven't seen much The Wire, and thus I've got tons of seasons of that on DVD when I finally get time to sit down and give it the attention it deserves. I was also pleased to see Alton Brown's Feasting on Asphalt return for a second season. Burn Notice continued to grow on me, and is probably my favorite show of the moment. So of course, it's going on hiatus until tennis season (or whatever) is over, several weeks from now. I'm a little less enthused about The 4400 on USA, although as of right now I'm still watching it. And of course, I sprinkle viewings of Daily Show, Colbert Report and Countdown throughout.

I added a ton of new links to the RSS feeds this month, helped a great deal by post-San Diego linkblogging and business cards gained during the show. Added feeds for a half-dozen artists, new comic blogs from Marc-Oliver Frisch, Laura Hudson, Bahlactus, Jason Michelitch, Valerie D'Orazio and my first ever video podcast from Blair Butler. Added another TV critic from the Chicago Tribune via links from the TV critics I already read, and added feeds for CNN Politics (2008 election stuff is starting to piss me off, which means it must be time to become more avid in following it) and realized that I had somehow lost the feed for Whitney Matheson's excellent pop culture blog Pop Candy when I migrated over to Google Reader in the first place. Even better, she's got a podcast, too! Oh, and I figured out how to share my feeds from Google reader, so each category now has a link to the shared feed.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 29th, 2007

TOP FIVE
Brit #1 (Invincible fans should definitely pick up this return to an earlier Kirkman creation, it's a very fun first issue with strong art by Cliff Rathburn)
Fantastic Four #549 (I love seeing Black Panther and Reed Richards playing off each other, as written by McDuffie. And the rest of the book is really good too)
Hellboy Darkness Calls #5 (Stunning art by Duncan Fegredo, great monsters and action by Mignola, terrific book)
Local #10 (Finally, the Austin issue! Looking forward to Wood & Kelly's rendition of my town)
Manhunter Vol 3 Origins TP (The first volume was good, the second great, and as I recall, the third as good or better than the second. Can't wait for the relaunch)

THE REST
American Virgin #18 (I've been really enjoying this latest story, and I believe this begins a Ryan Kelly guest art stint, which is cool)
Avengers Initiative #5 (Some good stuff, some really weak stuff, good art... I want to like this book so much more than I actually do)
Fone Bone Plush Toy (These look great, saw them in San Diego)
Hack Slash Series #4 (Really fun B-movie horror/action stuff, as always)
Incredible Change Bots GN (Hilarious geek appreciation and making fun of the Transformers by Jeffrey Brown)
Previews Vol XVII #9 (Down the Line is in the works... now if only our site would come back online... stupid hosting company)
Punks The Summer Comics Special (Been anticipating this for a while, crazy experimental comic from Josh Fialkov and Kody Chamberlain)
Transformers Spotlight Optimus Prime (The big O (no, not Oprah) gets his own comic)
Usagi Yojimbo #105 (The two-part origin of Jei was creepy and great, and the book is, as always, terrific)
Walking Dead #41 (Wow, two issues in two weeks... and I'm guessing we're ramping up to some major goings-on now, with an invasion by the "evil" forces of the other town)
Wasteland #11 (I'm so behind on this story... I've read them all, but it hasn't gelled in my head... I really need a second trade to catch up)

A Little Current Events Ranting

So I went to CNN to find a link about Alberto Gonzales resigning, because I wanted to post a little something. But I found another link I want to talk about more, so let me just say, the news that Alberto Gonzales is retiring could only be made better if the word "resigning" actually meant "being devoured by rabid wolverines." And that definition could be retroactively applied to Karl Rove as well.

That said... do you believe this shit? Michael Vick, scumbag football player who organized dogfights, may not do jail time. May come back to the NFL. May get off the hook because, on what amounts to the third draft of his apology after he floated out a "no comment" type thing early and then a "it was the other guys, I never made any money off it" on Friday, he says he "found Jesus" as a result of this.

Really? You found him? What did Jesus have to say about you being the organizer of a dog-fighting ring? Was it something like the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank (that last name apparently a comment on his fucking soul), who said in the article, "We cannot tell you today that Michael is cut from the team. Cutting him may feel better emotionally for us and for many of our fans, but it's not in the long-term best interests of our franchise," Blank said.

Your franchise? YOUR FRANCHISE?

Oh, heaven forbid your professional football team have an off season in any way because one of your team members actually managed to push past the acceptable doping, date-raping, violent macho bullshit they get away with every day and find something socially unacceptable.

I watched pro football for a while there, and got kinda bored with it. Now I'm glad, because it means not having to justify supporting the kind of scum that seemingly make up the ranks of pro sports more and more these days, from the dog-fight-organizing pros to the apologist "anything for a win" coaches and owners.

The 2008 Presidential Election is gonna suck, isn't it?

Not since the Al Gore/GW Bush election in 2000 have I had such a dire feeling of "Death or Chi-Chi?" in my political choices. Seriously, if it's Clinton vs. Romney (or pretty much any of the Republican contenders of the moment) in 2008, I don't know if I want to vote. Because I honestly don't believe either one will represent me. And I've seen how well third party voting works out in 2000.

I mean, I knew Clinton was a cynical political operator even before this:



But now there's this:



If the next President isn't looking for an exit strategy from Iraq on day one, they aren't my candidate. But depressingly, it seems like the Democratic political machine is embracing Hilary, even though Obama or Edwards is probably a lot more electable with the rest of the electorate. It's the same kind of hive-bound, internal politics thinking that has gotten them to where they are today.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 22, 2007

TOP FIVE
Immortal Iron Fist #8 (Beginning the martial arts tournament, and it's great)
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 #1 (Saw a little of this in San Diego, it looked gorgeous, looking forward to reading it)
The Order #2 (The new character focused on in this issue is terrific, and it continues to be exactly what I want out of a modern superhero team book)
Thunderbolts #116 (Starting a new story arc, and it actually gives lameass emo boy Penance cool story moments... that's gotta be worth some extra points)
X-men First Class Vol 2 #3 (Fantastic, funny and clever and beautifully drawn, with a great short illustrated by Colleen Coover at the end)

THE REST
Annihilation Conquest Star Lord #2 (Dirty dozen in space, full of action, and the first death)
Amelia Rules #18 (An issue exploring what it's like for kids whose parents are soldiers in Iraq)
Comic Foundry Magazine #1 (New comics magazine, I've read the first issue and it's very good)
Death By Chocolate Redux GN (David Yurkovich's unusual, interesting superhero tales include a man whose powers can turn anything into chocolate, and that's not even the half of it. Great, innovative stuff in a new edition)
Green Arrow Year One #4 (More Diggle/Jock action comics)
Invincible #45 (This book is in really interesting story territory right now, and after re-reading the stories in the 3rd Ultimate collection, I'm very much in the mood for more)
Marvel Adventures Avengers #15 (Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk... the Avengers in Asgard? Hell yeah)
Naoki Urasawas Monster Vol 10 (More great suspense from Urasawa)
Repo #3 (The Spears/G future/action book rushes towards its conclusion)
Spirit #9 (Only four more Cooke/Bone Spirit issues left, meaning each one is a rare treasure)
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic #19 (Solid adventure Star Wars stuff, as always)
Surreal Adventures Of Edgar Allan Poo GN (Looks like beautiful art, strange story, and I've got a fondness for Poe)
Tellos Colossal Hc (I've only read scattered bits of Tellos, but knowing that this is the last we'll see of Mike Wieringo's non-superhero stuff, I absolutely want to give it a read in this complete form)
Terminator 2 Infinity #2 (First issue was pretty decent, I'll keep reading to see where it goes)
Toupydoops #6 (Yay! Another issue of the Hollywood as comics humor comic!)
Ultimate Spider Man 100 Project TP (Art book to benefit HERO Initiative)
Walking Dead #40 (Really digging the current story on this book as well)
White Picket Fences #3 ('50s alien invasion/young adventure comic)

In Memory of Mike Wieringo

I never got to meet Mike Wieringo. But I was a fan of his work, especially his collaborations with Mark Waid on Flash and Fantastic Four. And on Spider-Boy, the Amalgam one-shot he did with Karl Kesel. Wieringo's art showed the pure joy of comics, and I was really enjoying his daily blog, where he showed new sketches and was talking about a space adventure comic he was thinking about. Now we'll never get to see it, and that's the least of the sadness about losing Wieringo at such a young age.

Below is the first ever sketch I ever got, the first page in my sketchbook, from Chicago Con 1996. The artist? Mike Wieringo.



Edited to add: Scott Kurtz posts this recollection of moments with Mike, and it's incredibly moving. It's starting to sink in just how much we lost, and I'm remembering back to the day that Mike Parobeck died. So many years later, I'm still struck on an almost daily basis of how much that sucked, and I suspect the same is going to be true of losing Mike Wieringo so suddenly and unexpectedly.

Edited to add: I realize that it sounds stupid to say that I never met Mike Wieringo, when I've got a sketch from him. What I mean is that I never had a conversation that went beyond "I really like your art," so I don't really consider that we knew each other at all.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 15, 2007

TOP FIVE
Annihilation Conquest Quasar #2 (Solid second issue of the quest for a hero to stop the Phalanx)
Captain America #29 (Another beautifully drawn, interesting issue of the post-death Cap book)
Good As Lily GN (Word is this Minx book is a good one, and I'm very much looking forward to it)
Highwaymen #3 (I can probably call this my pick of the week already... issues #1-2 are some of my favorite comics of the year)
Narcoleptic Sunday GN (Read this on the plane back from San Diego... the artist is terrific, and writer Jeremy Haun, previously known for his art, does a great on the run/crime riff. Reminds me of Steve Rolston's One Bad Day, which I also dug)

THE REST
Booster Gold #1 (Not so much feeling the multiverse, but I really liked Booster originally, and his creator Dan Jurgens is involved, so I'll give it a shot)
Brave And The Bold #6 (Not loving it as much as I was early on, but it's still a really fun book)
Flash #231 (Waid's first full issue, curious to see where he goes with it)
Marvel Adventures Hulk #2 (First issue was quite a bit of fun)
Ripclaw Pilot Season #1 (The Top Cow pilot season one-shots have a pretty good set of creators on them)
Terror Inc #1 (Weird zombie/body-snatching merc/assassin concept re-visualized as a MAX book from David Lapham... sounds potentially interesting)

OK, this is a surprise

I knew Obama was showing some heat in the Democratic circles, but I wasn't quite sure I believed he was electable. I'd certainly vote for him, but I wasn't sure he could reach any kind of centrist or Republican-leaning base, which any candidate is going to need going into this next contentious election year.

But it turns out that he's polling third in the Iowa GOP caucuses. That's interesting, and it suggests a glimmer of hope, that maybe there are people out there who will vote for someone who shows youth and idealism, rather than just political pragmatism and the many scars of having battled their way into the political process for years and years at a time.

I don't know that Obama is my ideal candidate, but then, I don't think there is an ideal candidate for me. A recent rundown of candidate positions that was linked off Boing Boing showed me that Dennis Kucinich was the closest match, but he's definitely not a guy I see as real electable, and I've never particularly connected with him as a candidate before. But based on this, and seeing Obama face down Hilary Clinton over special interests (her defense of lobbyists turned my stomach, and pretty much put me off her completely... I'd been wary before, but that was pretty indicative of how much of a political insider she is) makes me think he's the guy I want to support in this election.

Unless MODOK runs as an independent. Because really, who doesn't want a giant telepathic head in the Oval Office?

Can Someone Explain Health Insurance To Me?

So it turns out that, as a result of the urgent care and brief hospital stay Suzanne underwent when Aaron was born, we owe the hospital, ambulance company and lab somewhere in the neighborhood of $7000.

Now, the amount isn't that shocking. Medical care is expensive, and these folks basically saved my wife's life. OK with that. Totally.

But here's the thing... we pay around $200 a month for health insurance, and they aren't really covering any of it. Because our deductible is $10,000, not the $5,000 each that we thought it was. Again, more or less our fault, we had a high deductible, OK.

But what the hell is the point of paying for insurance if it doesn't cover health costs? I mean, I pay around $150 a month for car insurance on two cars... if I have an accident, that insurance will take care of the car. Isn't that what insurance is for? To get insurance that would actually pay for these uncommon expenses, we'd need to be paying near $1000 a month. Which I sure as hell can't afford. I imagine many can't.

I realized that the health care system and medical insurance system was broken, but I hadn't realized just how badly. The sick part is, I still have to pay over $200 a month for insurance that basically does *nothing* for me on the off chance something catastrophic happens and our bill does go over $10,000 somehow. This is not unlike paying $50 a week for "Godzilla insurance." It's not likely to happen, but if by some chance Godzilla does rampage through Austin, I'll be covered.

So I guess the budget will be a little tighter for the next year or two while we pay off the hospital in installments. Not gonna kill us, but it is frustrating that we'll be paying basically *two* medical bills each month, one for past costs and one as a mostly ineffective hedge against future ones.

Well, this is disappointing...

...if hardly surprising. The Democrats have rolled over and given the OK to a secret court that could determine whether or not it's OK to wiretap foreign and domestic signals. Along with this article about "the art of compromise" it seems clear that the Democrats are little to no different from the Republicans, and no matter who winds up in office after G.W. Bush, it's probably not going to do anything to fix our severely broken government.

Our system of government is just truly and permanently fucked, isn't it? Riddled with corruption, controlled more or less by corporate interests and driven by a hundred different selfish agendas that have little or nothing to do with serving the interests of people they were elected to serve. I'm really starting to think that in my lifetime there's going to be armed revolution, a fascist government or a viable third party... and the third party seems really damned unlikely.

Weekly Comics to Come - August 8, 2007

TOP FIVE
Bprd Killing Ground #1 (The newest BPRD story starts, and the last one was great, as always)
Criminal #8 (I'm actually loving the second arc of Criminal more than the first, and I really enjoyed the first)
Nova #5 (This may be my favorite new Marvel series... great spacefaring action, and ties into Annihilation: Conquest very well)
Invincible Vol 3 Ultimate Coll HC (Very much into Invincible right now, looking forward to re-reading these issues and seeing all the cool extras)
Last Call Vol 1 GN (Vasilis Lolos' graphic novel about a ghost train, I've read the first 1/3 or so and it's great)

THE REST
Alan Moore The Complete Wildcats TP (This was great stuff, glad to finally get it collected... even though I think I still have all the issues)
Annihilation Conquest Wraith #2 (More of the new gothic gunslinger at Marvel... who is, I am informed, *not* Rom. But is still cool)
Black Metal Vol 1 GN (Rick Spears & Chuck BB turn in a tale of heavy metal and demonic magic at Oni)
Daredevil #99 (Nice reveal, as we finally find out who the bad guy behind the Gladiator madness has been)
DMZ #22 (Concluding the "Friendly Fire" arc, which has been the best of the series thus far)
Dynamo 5 #6 (Good cliffhanger on the last issue, this and Astounding Wolf-Man are two new superhero books everybody should be checking out)
Fables #64 (More of the Flycatcher arc, which might be the best the book has been since "Homelands")
Green Arrow Year One #3 (Second issue picked up the action, and this book has been a fun surprise)
Incredible Hulk #109 (I'm actually liking this side story more than the main events of World War Hulk)
Jack Of Fables #13 (I've sort of lost the thread of the story, but I still enjoy this one when I read it)
Robot Dreams GN (Beautiful looking book from Sara Varon, indie creator of Sweaterweather)
Star Wars Legacy #15 (Way too many factions in this book, but beautiful art and some interesting ideas)
Star Wars Rebellion #9 (My favorite of the very strong Dark Horse Star Wars books, with a great crime/intrigue story going on right now)
Un-Men #1 (New Vertigo book, and I'll give it a look)

Weekly Comics to Come - August 1, 2007

TOP FIVE:
American Virgin #17 (Loving this book as always, and the latest world travel story is the best it's been)
Annotated Northwest Passage HC (This is a gorgeous, gorgeous book collecting some of the best cartooning in the industry. Only $20, too!)
Fantastic Four #548 (Great stuff from McDuffie and Pelletier, and all of the FF come off as in-character and cool)
Godland Celestial Ed HC (Saw this in San Diego, it's every bit as gorgeous as you'd expect)
Metal Men #1 (Curious to see Duncan Rouleau's take on the unusual robot team)

THE REST:
Awakening #1 (New zombie book from Archaia Studios)
Conan & The Midnight God #5 (Concluding the really solid King Conan miniseries)
Faker #2 (First issue was intriguing and well put-together, I'll give the second issue a look)
Inannas Tears #1 (Myth and history with beautiful art, another Archaia book)
Killing Pickman #1 (And another Archaia book, this one about a monstrous serial killer and a vigilante homicide detective)
New Warriors #3 (Really good third issue continues to set up the anti-Avengers Initiative team)
Okko Cycle Of Water #4 (I think I missed issue three of this, but I dug what I've read previously)
Scalped Vol 1 Indian Country TP (OK, all the acclaim from folks I trust means I'll give this trade a shot, even though the series didn't hook me)
Scarface Scarred For Life TP (Ditto here, especially since there were satirical elements in the first issue I did really like)
Starkweather Immortal #0 (Another Archaia book, nice art, good premise about the immortal Legionnaire with the spear of destiny)
Uncanny X-Men #489 (Solid issue, although I'm still sort of bored with X-Men in general)
Wisdom Rudiments Of Wisdom TP (Paul O'Brien loved this one, so I want to give the trade a read)
World War Hulk #3 (Hulk and his aliens versus a pissed-off Thunderbolt Ross and the army? OK, that's potentially kind of awesome)