Blog Recap - January 24th, 2011

Intro/Random:
On Friday, I took Aaron with me to early breakfast at IHOP. I ate, he picked a little at his pancakes and mostly watched Toy Story 3 on my iPod. Which kept us from having any fits thrown or boredom-induced antics. Technology is cool.

TV:
TV Dudes Episode 114

Wow. Season finale of Mad Men Season Two has some *intense* moments. Probably the best episode of the show I've seen so far.

Anytime I even *think* of Parks & Rec, this song pops into my head. Fair warning, it's that addictive. But funny as hell, I think.

OK, 30 Rock, I totally want a Queen of Jordan spinoff now.

Hey, ABC... a shot of Matthew Perry giving a wry smile is not really selling me on your new comedy Mr. Sunshine. Seriously, you don't even have one good joke for the teasers?

Fringe: If that was the show I had been watching when episode one aired, I would have kept watching it. Time to borrow some DVDs.

Comics:
Cyclops (Archaia) #2: So far kinda familiar corporate/military sci-fi territory disappointing compared to The Killer by these creators.

Dungeons & Dragons #3: Orc kissing, Dwarven murder forts, banter, thoughts on the foolishness of plans & Shadar-Kai. Nice one, Rogers!

Jason Murphy & I talk Heroes for Hire in the second episode of Loose Canon.

Getting a little annoyed seeing the comics bloggerati lumping Borders in with comics retailing and drawing conclusions about retailing as a whole. Borders may sell graphic novels, but they are *not* a comics retailer. They do not do what we do, and our fortunes are only tangentially linked. (Ditto for the death of Wizard magazine, by the way.)

Batwoman #1 orders cancelled. Delayed until April. I know JH Williams' art takes some time, but this kinda thing is gonna kill the momentum.

I love Anne Hathaway, but she hasn't been in any movies I've wanted to see. So this is great news for me. Not so sure about Tom Hardy as Bane... I kinda like Dixon's original take on Bane, and didn't want a skinny, re-invented version, I thought Hardy would make a great Hugo Strange.

DC's new ratings system is very heavily based on videogame ratings... which makes it much more useful than Marvel's arcane system they introduced a few years ago.

Gaming:
On Thursday, my D&D players successfully defeated a Cult of the Dragon Below, found the only Warforged only bar in Sharn and the warforged made new friends and got herself some bling.

Logan Bonner, WOTC designer, analyzes the success of 4E mechanics like Magic Items, Epic Destinies and Paragon Paths... great stuff.

I'm going to miss new minis more than this writer, but he makes some great points about tokens being a bit easier and more affordable. I would have loved to have both options, but this is a good eulogy for D&D minis.

Politics:
This is a brutal takedown of outgoing douchebag Joe Lieberman. And Greenwald's point about Lieberman's support of repealing DADT makes sense, and makes his support much less impressive.

Well, this blows. I know many on the right hate Olbermann as much as I hate Beck, and so I was kinda glad to have him around.

I watch this and I feel like it's not the politicians that matter. Comedy may be what saves the world. The Daily Show has imitators... broadcasting in Iran. *That* is fucking awesome.