Brad's Week in Dork! (8/10/14-8/16/14)

Why hello there.  Miss me?  This has been one of the busiest summers of my life.  Traveling to France with my 93 year old grandfather so he could be showcased on Brian Williams' Journey To Normandy, road tripping to Memphis with The Wife, devouring my fourth San Diego Comic Con, and having just experienced my first ever Business Trip...to the glorious state of Ohio.  I've been ignoring you guys.  If you've been following my Twitter & Instagram accounts then you know that I haven't ceased on the cinema consumption.  But I have abandoned ITMOD.  Matt's been keeping the fire burning, but it's time for me to get back on board.  No more lazing about.

Yeah, that's right, I met Andy Serkis.  Just one of the many cool moments from this year's Comic Con.  That photo was taken around 1:00 AM in the Hall H Saturday Line.  Spent nearly 20 hours on the grass & concrete and was granted various strange encounters during the wait.  I wish I had slapped a post together about this year's Mega Dork Event, but I figure I'll just sprinkle in the relevant photos as we move through the rest of the year.  For right now, you'll just have to settle for a typical Week in Dork.  Of course, being stuck in Ohio away from friends and family meant that there really wasn't much to do other than go to the movies.  Every night I was in the West Chester AMC.  Not the widest selection of movies, so forgive me if I had to settle on a couple of stinkers.

Lucy:  The set up is dumb.  The execution is dumb.  The performances are often silly.  But I can't help but think the movie was one or two kickass sequences away from being a great film.  Scarlet Johansson is snatched off the streets of Taiwan by Korean gangster Min-sik Choi (Oldboy himself!), and for about fifteen minutes there is some genuinely uncomfortable terror at play as they pack her belly with bright blue super drugs & prepare to ship her across continents.  When rape turns to a beating, and the drugs burst inside her, Johansson is gifted with enough brainpower to join The Uncanny X-Men.  The Black Widow has a couple moments to Matrix it up, but before you know it her cranium needn't bother with roundhouse kicks or gun kata.  The film races to its climax as Lucy taps into the universe, and the film attempts to pass beyond Stanley Kubrick's infinite.  I dig the ambition.  However, the film is too quick, too slight, and too obvious to actually be good.  A solid attempt, but a swing and a miss.

The Purge - Anarchy:  Man, I rally want to love these Purge films.  The idea of a government sanctioned night of violence & debauchery is both ridiculous and rather terrifying.  Yet, these Purge films are just stupid bullshit (Ha! Put that on the poster, "Stupid Bullshit!" - In The Mouth of Dorkness), and worst of all they are boring.  The first film took the Kill Crazy Rampage plot & dulled it into a snoozer of a home invasion story.  The sequel thankfully expands on the universe by taking its characters to the streets, and introducing us to Frank Grillo's Punisher.  If the film had committed to a solo film for Grillo then just maybe we would have had an entertaining horror/actioner.  Instead we've got the usual stupid cliches bumping into each other and falling prey to the spooky masked folk.  Can they possibly get it right for the third outing?  I'll be there to judge.

On Wednesday night I went wandering the back roads of West Chester, Ohio.  Not much to see.  Found the hole in the wall shop Queen Comics & Card Company, and then stumbled upon a White Castle.  In my thirty four years on this planet, I had never had the pleasure of consuming Harold & Kumar's most desired slippery treat.  Now was the time.  I ordered the number 1 Slider combo with cheese and few extra packets of Dusseldorf Mustard.  The bun was greasy, the meat was gray, and the flavor was rank.  I guess I can see the appeal of these tiny burgers, but don't dare rank this drunk food alongside In-N-Out or Sonic Burger.

The Hundred Foot Journey:  After choking down the White Castle and drowning it down with a bucket of soda, The Wife & I synchronized our texts so that we both sat down for The Hundred Foot Journey at the exact same time.  No new ground here, but it was fun to watch this cute little film knowing my better half was enjoying it several states away.  The basic premise of two opposing cultures finding kinship via culinary perfection is scientifically proven to warm the heart.  With the added bonus of Helen Mirren there is no way you can come away hating this movie.  It's sweet.  That's enough.

Sex Tape:  This film pretty much exists to showcase Cameron Diaz's side boob.  It certainly doesn't succeed on the laughs.  Jason Segel better be careful or these slumming it paychecks will result in a career of barely passable comedies.  A bored married couple attempts to rekindle their spark by adapting the Joy of Sex via their plethora of product placement iPads.  Rob Lowe pops up to snort cocaine & bizarrely reference Disney movies.  Sure, I chuckled once or twice, but I mostly sunk deeper into my seat at the thought of Diaz's inevitable future blunders.

Let's Be Cops:  Well it doesn't get much better here.  At least with Let's Be Cops you have two leads with genuine chemistry.  Jake Johnson and Marlon Wayanes Jr are a couple of failing thirty somethings (don't know what that's like???) desperate to recapture their dreams of youth by playing dressup.  What starts off as a quick pickup line swiftly transforms into hardcore vigilantism.  This not-so-high-concept lets its plot get in the way of the funny as villainous gangsters cockblock the jokes, and Johnson & Wayans have their improv stifled by a who-gives-a-shit narrative.  If you laughed at the trailer then you got the gist.

A Most Wanted Man:  This one crept up on me.  On the surface, it's a rather routine bit of espionage in this post 9/11 world.  But as the script ekes out its plot, the futility of the situation reveals itself and the dread ratchets from disgust to outrage.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman is exceptionally quiet in the film.  "Subtle performance" is a term that gets bandied about quite a bit, but I can't describe Hoffman in a better manner.  His stillness, his tiny control over his physicality allows for a final scene that I found absolutely devastating.  The man was one of the greats.  It irritates and bums me out that we'll never get to see an Old Man Hoffman character.  He could have done a Touch of Evil to melt our faces.  Of all the films I watched in Ohio, this was my favorite.

The Infinity Revelation by Jim Starlin & Andy Smith:  A few weeks ago Marvel published a one-shot Thanos Annual from Starlin & artist Ron Lim as a means of previewing this Original Graphic Novel.  That single issue was a trippy mindbender in which an Infinity Gauntlet era Thanos traveled back in time to save his past self from the clutches of Mephisto, all done within the context of Thanos' current failings during Jonathan Hickman's Infinity event.  I LOVED THAT ISSUE.  It was wild, weird, and plunging in batshit Marvel continuity.  It had me totally pumped for this book.  Yet...The Infinity Revelation is not bad, but it is nowhere near as good as that floppy comic.  This story centers around Thanos attempting to reconnect with Death by recreating the universe in his image.  The trouble is that his arch rival Adam Warlock has to tagalong and pester him with mumbo jumbo philosophy.  After the joy of this summer's Guardians of the Galaxy, I have been all about Marvel's Cosmic Comics.  Some are good, some are great, and some are ok.  The Infinity Revelation falls somewhere in the top of the OK category.

First Blood:  "It can be confusing sometimes."  For Saturday night's Late Show, The Alamo Drafthouse had Stallone's first Rambo adventure on the big screen.  Not the silly killfest that the franchise would eventually become, First Blood is probably more relevant today then it was in 1982.  A traumatized Vietnam vet hitchhikes across America in an effort to reconnect with the men he served with during the war.  Brian Dennehy's Korean War veteran turned proud local sherif sees a longhaired vagrant and attempts to run him out of town.  PTSD flashbacks send Rambo into a frenzy and the damaged soldier makes a run for it after humiliating the chucklehead cops.  Dennehy can't take a hint so he escalates the situation into a small town apocalypse.  First Blood is another cinematic bandaid on the festering wound that was Vietnam War, but Stallone's John Rambo could easily be roaming the country today, attempting to bury the trauma of Mission Accomplished.  It's a tough movie.  A sad movie.  A great movie.  Do not dismiss it because of the later films' taglines.

--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (9/29/13-10/5/13)

    I feel a bit better about this particular week in dork, if only because I was able to be really lazy on Sunday and watch a bunch of movies, something I haven’t been able to do in a while.  I needed the rest, though it turned out not to be enough.  Not too much else going on, except that for about two hours, the Godzilla trailer was out there on the internet, and it looked good.  Not sure why it was taken down; that seems silly.

    On Sunday morning, I watched a few episodes of the serial killer TV series Hannibal.  Is it great?  No.  Honestly, it’s not even all that good.  But it’s watchable fluff.  For a show from one of the major networks, it’s shockingly adult, and I don’t just mean about the gore.  I mean, it’s not something a child or an illiterate feeb could follow with ease, making it at least better than ER, Big Bang Theory, or dozens (hundreds?…thousands?) of other similar crappy shows.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec:  “Who allowed you to shoot at science?”   Certainly, it is no great distinction, but this is Luc Besson’s best film since The Fifth Element.  It has a nice blend of his usual quirky humor, French sensibilities, and old timey adventure.  A plucky gal reporter travels the globe having crazy adventures, but her current quest involves a mummy, a mad scientist, an intellectual mummy, and a pterodactyl, all part of a puzzle that will save her infirmed sister.  Like most Besson films, it’s quirky and occasionally annoying, but unlike a lot of his more recent work, it’s fun enough to still be mildly enjoyable.  I’d have loved it as a kid, and I think that’s its best audience, with just enough potty humor and macabre to really rope ‘em in.  And who knows, maybe this will lead them to reading the comics and other books that inspire this sort of thing.  It also features possibly the only not terrible score by Eric Serra I’ve heard, so there’s something.

Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance:  The first film was an interesting take on the classic samurai film, with a swordswoman on a bloody quest for revenge.  This second film feels like an afterthought, with little of particular interest.  It’s fine I guess.  But I wouldn’t bother seeking it out.

The Brotherhood of Satan:  Another on a long list of 70s films about Satanists, this one has some cool bits, but like most of the others, it’s ultimately quite boring.  Lots of long, quiet shots, and sudden surreal action.  Lots of good character actors.  Worth checking out as a companion to The Devil’s Rain or Race With the Devil.  Just don’t go in looking for a classic.

The 70s, man.

Priest:  “I am the bringer of the tide.”  This movie is hardly genius, but it’s visually interesting and fairly fun.  It’s the sort of weird science fiction film that shouldn’t be so rare, where the filmmakers use modern technology to present something a bit different.  At the time, it was the closest thing to a Judge Dredd film (or Mutant Chronicles) I had seen.  Of course, now Dredd exists and that isn’t the case anymore.  Still, it’s an enjoyable little romp, and at least the vampires are monsters, not romantic heroes.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir:  “As for me morals, I lived a man’s life, and I’m not ashamed of it.”  A gorgeous widow moves into a beautiful old haunted house, the dwelling place of an old sea captain’s ghost.  She’s brassy and he’s cantankerous.  It doesn’t take long for sparks to fly.  It’s a very cute romance, and the actors both have a great deal of fun with it.

Sundown:  Gene Tierney is the adventurous lady of dubious background who gets mixed up with some bloody business in Africa.  Gun running, conscientious objectors, and hidden bases.  This is no classic. It’s a pretty forgettable espionage adventure film, but watchable.  If you’re looking for movies to supplement your Indiana Jones love, you can throw this on the list, but don’t make the extra effort if it’s not readily available.

Godzilla Raids Again:  The English dubbed/edited version of this film is a mess, but a funny one.  The Japanese version is more serious, though not nearly as good as the original film, or as interesting and strange as the later entries in the series would become.  It’s worth a watch for fans of the series, and does have some good bits, but it’s forgettable.

Son of Fury:  Tyrone Power is full of haughty, baby-faced rage with just enough charm to be likable.  Gene Tierney is only slightly more Polynesian than I am (read: 0%), but OH MY GOODNESS does she look amazing in her Hollywood island garb.  Mmmmm.  It’s a fun movie, and I really enjoy John Carradine’s supporting role.

Slaves in Bondage:  One of those ‘morality pictures’ that were so popular in the day.  Basically, just an excuse to show women in various stages of undress, doing various forms of naughty business…all in the name of educating people on the dangers of free love, drink, and any sort of fun.  The acting is markedly dreadful, with exceptionally awkward dialog.  It’s terrible fun.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.:  One of the better new Godzilla films, this one builds on a lot of what’s gone before, taking the whole ‘Godzilla’s bones’ thing to its obvious, Mothra infused conclusion.  The characters are OK, and the call-backs to classic films are well done.  There’s some genuine emotional stuff, and a good ending.  Plus, some crazy action.  I’m generally not as into these post-1985 films as I am the original run, but this is certainly a good entry.

Glen and Randa:  What if Adam and Eve were from Brooklyn…and morons?  In this post-atomic war story about a couple of naïve young people wandering around being stupid, we’re subjected to some strange images and weird behavior.  Not a good film, but an interesting low budget exercise.  It’s full of all that post-hippie disillusionment and self-hatred that has infected most science fiction since the 60s.  There are some good scenes.  Worth checking out, but don’t expect much.  Kind of like Idaho Transfer.  This has an X rating, but it's from a time before X meant 'porn.'  At worst, it should have an R.  There's nudity and a bit of awkward sexuality, but nothing to push it any higher than an R, for sure.

The Misfits:  Wow.  This is an absolutely brutal portrait of a bunch of broken people on a booze fueled journey into hell.  The film is uncomfortable and painful, and the characters all way past their breaking point.  It’s fascinating, really.  I’m still no Monroe fan, nor am I much of a Gable fan.  But they’re both oddly compelling here.  It’s some stark, strange stuff.  Melodrama of high order.  It has a lurking menace to it, something about the music or the lighting, I don’t know.  But through the whole movie, I really wasn’t sure how dark they were gonna go, how brutal it was gonna be.  And, coming out around the time the Hayes codes were breaking down made the possibilities just that much more.  Remembered now as the final film of Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable, it is worth seeing past that ignominious distinction to see the film as it is, part of a changing tide of film as Hollywood began to shake the dust and cobwebs off.

Whirlpool:  Not an amazing Noir by any means, this does feature an especially fun and sleazy performance by Jose Ferrer.  I tuned in because of my building Gene Tierney obsession, but her role, while central to the film, was uninteresting.  You could have replaced her with any passable starlet of the time and nobody would have noticed.

    I’ve got multiple books going right now, not making a lot of progress in any of them.  Heck, I’ve even got a working CD player again, so I’m back to listening to audio books while I make my breakfast, which means I picked back up where I left off with a Cleopatra biography I was listening to last year.

    Seeing that trailer (now taken down, but no doubt coming out again soon) for the new Godzilla recharged my Kaiju engines again.  Not that they were all that run down.  And it worked out, because Tokyo S.O.S. had just come to me through NetFlix.  So, I’m gonna give Half Century War another read and do a review of that soon.  Darned fine comic series.

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (8/19/12-8/25/12)

    Not too much new this week, I guess.  Couple of chunks of downtime, so a lot of movies.


Doll Face:  Oh, spousal abuse.  Comic gold!  A huckster boyfriend (and advocate of lady punching) and a smooth talking writer vie for the attentions of a dancer with stars in her eyes.  Based on a Gypsy Rose Lee play, I’m sure she drew on her own history for some of the bits.  The excitement and romance of bury-Q revealed!

The Duke is Tops:  Lena Horne has a thousand watt smile, a sweet voice, and gams that just won’t quit (sadly covered in this film).  What she doesn’t have is an ounce of acting talent.  Still, it’s nice to see a movie from the late 30s, featuring black actors, that doesn’t feel exploitative (except that one musical number near the end), condescending, or outright hostile.  Some fascinating characters and good performances, too.  The Cats and the Fiddle were crazy, man.  The whole snake-oil sales subplot was unexpected, and kept reminding me of Carnivale.  The depression must have been a weird time to live through, beyond the obvious economic and environmental problems.  Not only did it foster the rebirth of American religious obsession (religion being the drug people run to most in times of trouble), but it seems to have been a great time for get rich quick schemes, self-discovery and creation, and outlandish personality.  Extreme and obscure fads popped out of every corner as people were desperate to escape the reality of their lives.

Hi-De-Ho:  Cab Calloway is a lady slapping cat who sings up a storm but can’t act a bit.  His violence prone lady friend isn’t having any of Cab’s new, mousy agent.  Calloway has a ton of charisma while he’s performing music, but once his band stops, so does most of his charm.  His dance during the song ‘Hey, now.’ looked familiar.  I realized it’s because he dances like me.  Did he have a time machine?  There’s a great tap number near the end, too.  And I’m not much of a tap guy.  The music in this one is awesome, but the in-between bits are kind of awkward and goofy.

Game of Thrones Season 1:  I’m generally not a huge fantasy fan, though I often do enjoy the genre in film.  And I’m really, really not a fan of the ‘death of trees’ fantasy sagas that seem to be the fashion of the day.  All these post-Tolkien, 10 book, 900 pages per volume series that cry out to the heavens for an editor.  And after watching this series, I have absolutely NO interest in reading the books.  But, this was a good show, and I can’t wait to see the next season.  It makes me wish more books (especially ones I actually do read) would get this kind of respectful treatment (Herbert’s Dune series?  Howard’s Conan?  Burroughs’ Barsoom?  Robinson’s Mars?  Oh, the possibilities).  Doing this 10-12 episode, season per book adaptation is a great option.

The Deadly Trackers:  Richard Harris faces off against Rod Taylor in this brutal, ugly, and sadly, kinda boring Western.  It’s got some really good bits.  But the whole thing meanders through a lot of ‘seen it-done it’ pilfering.  The opening 20 minutes are probably the best, setting up for some crazy revenge.  But the actual procedural (that’s how it feels) of tracking and killing the baddies gets tired fast.  Requisite Mexican buddy, prostitute, and dumb villagers are all present.  Just missing a priest, really.

Man in the Wilderness:  If nothing else, the image of a boat being hauled through the forest that opens the film is dramatic.  The bear attack…less so.  I had actually read about the events dramatized in this film during my Western Month a couple years back.  A testament to human endurance, to say the very least.  Richard Harris does a good job of looking physically destroyed, and he’s able to carry much of the film with little more than grunts and gasps.  There is some seriously beautiful scenery.  If you weren’t in the mood for a lot of dialog, this would be a good companion film to Jeremiah Johnson or maybe The Grey.  Though I guess the way it plays out is more ‘cinematic’ than the real events, but I kind of wish they’d stayed with history on this one.  The spirit is about right, but the details all wrong.

Viva Las Vegas:  I’m not the biggest Ann-Margret fan, but YOWZAH!  When she appears in those white shorts…I think my eyeballs fogged up.  Vegas is a city that holds no magic for me, either.  But showgirls are showgirls and they’re A-OK with me.  Elvis and his Italian friend’s club-crawl looking for Ann-Margret’s perfect posterior is kinda awesome.  And her swinging 60s dance number at the gym; crazy!  I’ve never had much skill reading women.  But I get what her body language was saying in that dance…and you can’t say that stuff on television (not even on FOX).  I think I need a cold shower.  The final race is horrifyingly explosive, though.  Like some crazy Car Wars action.  Everybody’s smiles and sunshine at the end, but I’m pretty sure two or three of those drivers are super dead.

The Eighteen Jade Arhats:  “Well miss, your kung fu is good.”  This dvd would make a great example of why ‘pan & scan’ is the devil’s work.  As far as the actual movie goes, I have no f’in idea what was going on here.  Lots of random dialog, lots of bad cutting and sudden zooms, and awkward sound effects like you just don’t know.  Who is anyone?  Why are they doing things?  What are they doing, exactly?  Is that Asian Julie Newmar?  I don’t know.  Somebody’s dead.  I guess some folks are trying to find out who did it.  Some old guy kills people with his palm…but I guess it wasn’t him.  Watch out for old dudes in wide hats who sound like they’re in a Don Blooth movie.  DEMON ATTACK!!!  It’s all right…they’re only men dressed up.  Birth Gate or Death Gate?!  Surprise funeral!  Monk wants a little head!  Light Kung Fu!!!  Conditional killing!!!  (Glad it’s not raining!).  Is that an apron?  Is he gonna make cookies later?  Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense.  Two thirds of the movie doesn’t actually matter.  I don’t know if it’s the transfer (which is terrible) or the way the film was shot, but it’s WAY too dark most of the time, so many fights are really hard to watch.  Not one of the better 70s chop socky movies I’ve seen.

The Creature with the Atom Brain:  A wacky scientist and an angry dude get together to use science-zombies for theft and murder.  Can a pipe smoking doctor and his hat wearing chums solve the mystery of the glowing fingerprints?  A lot of the film is pretty typical Atomic Horror stuff, with all the Mr. Wizard exposition and explanation.  But it’s well filmed and the cast is charming.  I love that when doctors get together, they sure enjoy smoking those Bob Dobbs pipes.

The Venture Bros. Season Two:  Holy crap.  What levels of bad taste and surreal madness will this show not descend to?  None that I can see.  The glory of the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend.  Brock Sampson’s sweet mullet.  A Blackula hunter and a sex changing Hunter.  Good sweet crap, this show is amazing.  And finally, the true identity of the Sovereign will be revealed!  Zoinks!

The Giant Claw:  “Atomic spit-balls.”  Is it a flying saucer?  NO!  It’s a giantass space bird and it’s coming for you.  This movie has some cool stuff in it, and some great Atomic Horror dialog.  But the creature never really works.  It looks like a strung out punk rocker mixed with a buzzard, and moves like Fiona Apple.  The movie is a little over long.  And though I know it would never be handled right, and general viewing audiences are too cynical to enjoy the madness, but part of me would love to see this remade today.

Bye Bye Birdie:  “Who wants respect from a ten year old kid?”  Conrad Birdie (basically Elvis) has been drafted, and he’s gonna make some young woman’s existence mean something before he heads off.  He’s gonna kiss her on TV.  The cult of celebrity is explored in musical numbers, as women go totally apenuts for the gyrating, gold jumpsuited rocker.  Ann-Margret plays the lucky girl, and she does that all American Teen girl thing very well.  I love how she can look so sweet and prim in one shot and so…not, in another.  And who would expect that Gone With the Wind battle aftermath joke?

Lockout:  “You want some in your mouth?”  This movie is SO Luc Besson.  And I don’t think I mean that in a good way.  Awkward humor, wacky action, somewhat fun, but not as good as it should be.  When that dumb chick from Lost and that Australian guy who can’t seem to make the right career choices end up on the worst prison ever made (in SPACE!!!), full of Luc Besson-style criminals, run by the crappiest cops this side of Keystone, you know there’s gonna be a bunch of…well, cliché behavior.  This really, really needed to be R-rated.  More Crank and, less No Escape.  It’s basically Escape from New York, but written by 12 year olds, which is too bad, because Escape from New York in Space could have made for a cool flick.  I wish more movies of this type were made.  I could watch semi-low budget space-based science fiction films all the time.  But since the few that are made aren’t usually very good, I doubt that’ll happen.

Fun in Acapulco:  “No man really wants to get married.”  Ursula Andres looks like she stepped out of a Wagnerian fantasy land.  She should be clad in golden armor with a spear in one hand and a shield in the other.  Elvis finds her in a Mexican hotel where he gets a job as a singer and lifeguard.  You know.  That old story.  There’s a lady matador, a kid more connected than Ma Bell, and a champion diver who isn’t having any of it.  Though still a lot of fun, this movie is not up to some of the King’s other films.  Still, he’s like the Superman of Song.  A song needs to get sung, and he’s on it like chronic.  Elvis is kind of a dick in this, though.  He doesn’t really treat the ladies too good.  Though I think at one point, he could have had them both at the same time if he’d asked.  What’s up with that?

Die Nibelungen- Siegfried:  Fritz Lang’s silent fantasy film is another tale about dudes who should ‘just say no’ to chicks.  A great hero and a great king become best friends, but an amazon shrew and a blabbing blond spell a bloody end to what should have been a solid friendship.  There are some pretty cool scenes in this movie, but they’re weighted pretty heavy to the first half.  Once everyone comes back to Worms and the women get to work ruining everything, it’s mostly just standing around in castle rooms and chatting.  One credibility issue the film has is the ladies.  They’re…um…well, they’re…in the words of poet Austin Powers, ‘a bit manish.’  They kind of look like the Monty Python guys in drag.  Kriemhild is supposed to be a woman of such beauty that stories of her make Siegfried kill dragons, battle ugly dwarves, achieve huge honors, and brave all kinds of danger.  Personally, I’d be looking into ‘lemon laws’ if she was what I ended up with (and that’s before the whole, ruining my epic friendship and getting me killed part).  If she made up for her lack of looks by say, not getting anyone killed, or ruining everything she touches, it would be a different story.

    How could I resist?  Found Magnum P.I. season 2 for 10 bucks.  Oh, yeah.  Love this show.  It was cool seeing Tales of the Gold Monkey’s Corky in another episode as a local, by the books Navy guy.

    I checked out the first two episodes of the UK show Zen.  It’s always a bit odd watching shows as conspicuously and specifically placed in a certain geographic region where the accents are so wrong.  It’s one thing when ancient Romans all sport British accents, or medieval knights (even the French and German ones); but a bunch of British accents coming from members of an Italian police force?  It’s odd.  Made more so by the inconsistency.  Still, it’s always good to see Rufus Sewell working.

    While watching Cab Calloway in Hi-De-Ho, this past weekend, I got the idea for a great piece of art.  I want a painting of Calloway punching Hitler (perhaps over a table in a nightclub).  In the background, several members of his band are blasting Nazis with tommy guns, while the others continue to play.  Maybe Josephine Baker should be there, blasting some Gestapo goon with a derringer.  Berlin could be burning in the background.  The more I think about it, the more I like it.

    On Friday night, Lisa hosted another gathering of the graphic novel book club.  Habibi was the book of the night, and as expected, it brought out some strong opinions.  The book deals with some fairly rough subjects.  There was some spirited debate about sex and religion, about the portrayal of men vs. women in the book, and about the depiction of different ethnicities.  It was an interesting night.

-Matt