Weekly Recap - August 7th, 2010

Intro/Random:
When a business (usually a restaurant) is showing FOX News, I'm not quite annoyed to go up and ask why (or ask them to change it) but it does usually make me less likely to return. Seriously, folks... even CNN is better, and CNN is shitty as hell.

On Sunday night, I successfully got my iTunes library to recognize almost all of the songs on my external hard drive so that my laptop can play iTunes properly. This doesn't sound like much now, but the amount of work it took made it feel like a triumph of Herculean proportions.

Here's a helpful Google tip: When you're looking for Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, the awesome cupcake place in Austin, be sure you're clicking the right link. Because only one link from a search for "Sugar Mamas" will take you to cupcakes.

Comics I Read This Week:

Captain America #608 - Lots to like here, particularly the art (love Guice's take on Black Widow and Luke Cage in particular) and the new female Beetle. On the other hand, I think Bucky Cap needs to be doing some less personal crime-fighting, because it's getting a little too melodrama that every battle he's ever had is directly related to his personal history. And honestly, while I'm glad to see the Fixer here synced up with the Fixer in T-Bolts, I liked the reformed Fixer, and I'm not wild about him being revealed to be a traitor for Zemo

GI Joe A Real American Hero #157 - I'm enjoying this even more than I thought I might. Hama's got the same touch here that he did on the '80s GI Joe, and the loss of some of the wackier latter-era toys has freed him up to do some of his best work since the first 50 issues of the series, and Padilla is a flashier artist than Trimpe, but with solid storytelling fundamentals to back that up

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #3 - McCann does the kind of writing that Parker, Slott and Gage do at their best, which means it's right up my alley, Lopez is as good here as he was on Fallen Angel... these are my two favorite characters being done extremely right, and it makes me very happy

Hellboy The Storm #2 - A fantastic read, as always. Liked seeing Hellboy catch a bit off what's going on in BPRD as well... it's been long enough, I'd love to see him do at least a guest stint in BPRD again

Thunderbolts #144-146 - Took the time to read the first three issues, and I'm really enjoying Parker's take on the team. It's a nice blend of what Ellis, Diggle, Busiek and Nicieza have all done with the team in the past - still getting used to Walker's take on some of the more familiar characters, but I like his art a lot in general

Young Allies #3 - It took a few issues, but I'm hooked. McKeever's teen (and young twenty-something, in Gravity and Firestar's case?) book is like a new spin on the '90s New Warriors, without being a nostalgia book or another tired revamp, and I'm really digging Baldeon's art, particularly his expressive faces and strong background work

Comics Retailing Thought of the Week:
It's more than a little annoying how many people online think they can do my job better than I can, and are not at all shy about offering up their observations in the snarkiest possible manner. Despite never having worked comics retail, or in many cases worked retail at all, in their lives.

It's a skill set, people. Really. Just because you read (or make) comics doesn't necessarily make you more qualified to sell them, or judge how we do our job based on what little you know of me from online. I'm not saying there are no bad retailers, but there are a lot more good ones that don't get credit for what they do.

Comics News:
Go here to read Erik Larsen acting like a tool

This seems like kind of a gray area. Isn't a fan-film by definition under the copyright of the original work? Dark Horse did the classy high-road thing here, but it seems to me like legally, and you could argue ethically, they're in the right to treat any expanded universe work on Serenity/Firefly as part of that universe, especially if it was put out there on the Internet for fans to enjoy.

Tom Beland is doing sketches again! These are fantastic... two or three friends of mine have gotten them, and I've finally tossed my name in the hat to commission one as well.

This is a really interesting piece, reminding me that right about the time it went out of business, I was really digging a lot of Crossgen's stuff. I'd particularly like to see El Cazador and Way of the Rat back, and a collection of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (or more stories).

Gaming:
So it looks like I'll be having a Rock Band 3 party in late October.

TV/Movies:
I was watching the 30 Rock Live on the season 2 DVDs and... holy shit! It's Donald Glover, playing a bunch of parts! Guess this was during his time as a 30 Rock writer, pre-Community.

Saw Monster House and liked it a lot, especially the first half or so, when it felt like a modern-day take on the '80s kids adventure/horror movie like Goonies.

In case anyone was wondering... Ferris Bueller is still great, 24 years later. Loved seeing it again on the big screen at the Paramount. That said, this, from the Paramount show notes "You have to wonder, if Bueller's smart enough to evade getting caught while playing hooky, why not turn his genius to studying and simply graduate early?" makes me sad, as it suggests that the writer doesn't really remember what it was like to be in high school. Which is key to enjoying Ferris Bueller.

Hot Tub Time Machine, on the other hand, was dumb as hell... but fun.

And this week I'm going to see Inception for the second time on Sunday, and Scott Pilgrim on Thursday.

Other Links:
So... apparently Target is on my "do not shop" list along with Wal-mart. That's a bummer, because I actually do shop at Target from time to time, but not if they're gonna support guys like this. The "we just like his business politics, not his anti-gay politics" defense doesn't do much for me, either.

Oddly, the pro-business Republican platform offends me as much as the anti-gay thing. Because "pro-business" in politics (Democrat *and* Republican) usually translates to "Let the corporations do whatever they want."

The CEO offered up a "sort of" apology this week. While it's nice to see him say he's sorry, but it's a real "non-apology" apology, and doesn't offer anything to make things right. I'm not sure if they can legally ask for the money back, but that's something they should do, publicly, if they want to avoid the heat they're getting.

Of course, on the other side of things, there's Prop 8 getting overturned. Which is awesome.

This is depressing, but Anthony Weiner is my hero.