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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Friday, July 10th, 2009 |
jkcarrier
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1:03a |
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| Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | |
andrew6
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10:49p |
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| Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 |
dewline
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9:41p |
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dewline
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5:19p |
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ajasont
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4:48a |
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| Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | |
andrew6
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7:14p |
Quote of the Day
By "P Black" over at Deadline Hollywood Daily, re: that guy who died whose name escapes me: "how many people in the world have touched so many people in so many different ways?" I really wanted to write a comment, but honestly, I don't think I could come up with something funnier than the line I'd be responding to (which I really hope was intentionally funny, but based on the rest of Black's comment, I fear was not.) Also, the whole thing, with the possible exception of the city of Los Angeles footing the bill for the memorial? IT'S NOT #*%&ING NEWS. A |
colomon
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1:25p |
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
So, while ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mandolinjen, Henry, and I drove to fromtheboonies's wedding and back, we listened to The Lightning Thief on the iPod. I was quite impressed, and I think Jen was as well. At one point in the middle she described it as "American Gods meets Harry Potter", and that's a fair description. It's as if the author asked himself "How can I cash in on the Harry Potter craze?" and then came up with a brilliant idea: take the same rough setup, but map it to a modernized version of Greek mythology. Our twelve-year-old hero learns his long-missing dad was a Greek god, and now he must live up to that heritage. The book avoids a lot of the cruftier bits of Rowling's early books. Where the first two HP books are set almost exclusively at school, and putter along without a plot for most of their length, The Lightning Thief introduces mystery and action pretty quickly, then once the setting is fully introduced, embarks on a quest that takes young Percy all the way across the US, down into Hades, and up to Olympus. There is quite a lot more action, and the stakes are much higher. The take on the mythology felt right to me, with lots of nice appearances by classical characters. All in all, I'd say it was very noticeably better than the first couple Harry Potter books. While not as good as the best of that series, this book is only the warmup. If the author can match Rowling's feat of making each book bigger and more interesting than the previous, this could be a great series. I'm definitely looking forward to reading (or more likely, hearing) the next one. Current Mood: inedible |
nuadha_prime
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12:48a |
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| Monday, July 6th, 2009 | |
andrew6
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9:24p |
The Future of Comics, Live and In Print
Rough day going to the doctor to see if she could do anything about the CRIPPLING FACEPAIN!(tm), which led to an unexpected realization, an unplanned confrontation, and the unhappy sensation that in an effort to make things better I've managed to make them worse. So I'm not going to talk about me and instead focus on the Future of Comics (I and III) Fiona Staples and Nick Johnson. At long last, the first issue of Fiona's latest WildStorm miniseries, NORTH 40, written by Somebody Other Than Me (the lucky swine) is out on Wednesday. You, like all right-thinking people, should buy eighteen copies, one to read, five to lend, and thirteen to encase in liquid carbonite so future generations can see how awesome comics were back in the old days when you couldn't read an ebook while showering. On a semi-related note, the cover to North 40 #3 may be my new favourite piece of Fiona artwork. I can't quite put my finger on why, possibly because I've repressed all memory of anything in my life that ever involved pink balloons and/or a corsage. Meanwhile, Nick's started his new, month-long gig at the Telus World of Science Creative Kids Museum, where he'll be publicly working on transforming NO MORE PARENTS from the ramblings of a demented sufferer of CRIPPLING FACEPAIN!(tm) into a wonderfully entertaining adventure comic for children of all ages except three and a half, because 3 1/2 year olds are vile little creatures who must be systematically and mercilessly punished until they reach the age of four, at which point they transform from despicable little rotters into something that's at least tolerable. It's the circle of life. So, if you're in Calgary, or you're really bored and have enough disposable cash to go to Calgary, and you're a child of all ages other than 3 1/2, you should go pay Nick a visit and throw grapes at him while demanding that he sing obscure Neil Diamond songs for your entertainment. He'll do it if you've got enough grapes, you know. As it happens, I've also spent a portion of today working on a small comic strip-style advertisement with the Future of Comics (II) John Keane, and now that it's done, I estimate he'll be willing to talk to me again without wanting to kick my teeth down my throat sometime in the next four to six months. E-mail is perhaps not the best way to communicate nitpicking-level ideas, but I'm not convinced things would've gone smoother on the phone, and in any event CRIPPLING FACEPAIN!(tm) works very much against my (at the best of times dodgy) ability to present half-baked ideas as coherent statements of intent while talking in realtime. So, yeah. NORTH 4o #1 (and WEDNESDAY COMICS #1, which I'm also looking forward to) on Wednesday. Nick and NO MORE PARENTS at the Telus Science Centre all month. Good stuff being created by good people, reported by a good-for-nothing. *** ALSO GOOD: TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE Volume One, by Michael Kupperman. For someone who's been really quite miserable for the last couple weeks, I've been laughing out loud an awful lot every time I take a minute or two to read a page or two of TDTT. A |
ajasont
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3:05p |
I Am I
- I missed the writer's group scheduled for yesterday. This group has value for me in that I realize I'm not the only person writing into the void in Lawrence, and that there are some really, really talented folks out there around the block from me. - I missed because I was spending the last of my holiday weekend with my son and my wife and I did do some re-writing on an old story that's coming along very nicely. I was writing this morning before I came to work, too. - I didn't mean to miss the group meeting, it just happened that way. - I struggled with whether to re-write this story or just heavily edit and landed on the side of re-writing. I'm glad I did. I think it's working out way better than the first four drafts did. Even the draft I previously released into the wild pales in comparison so far. - I love books more than comics right now. It's never really been that way for me, but my post earlier today should give you the reasons why. Add in that I want to be a writer and it makes sense that I would want to read more, and books have more words, hands down, than any comic book. Even one by Alan Moore. - Hey, check out my friend Brad's cool new website even though it's "under construction". I like the framework he's built already. - Lastly, I'm going to the Campbell Conference this week, so I'll be all scifi'd out. That network can change its name if it wants to be a complete wuss. Verne, Wells, Heinlein, Asimov and Sturgeon are all rolling in their graves. Current Mood:  thoughtfulCurrent Music: Rock and Roll McDonald's |
dewline
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10:51a |
Odd Attachments
Some weird things get done to newspaper boxes...  Look closer...  Current Mood:  curious |
jkcarrier
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9:04a |
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ajasont
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6:15a |
Quickly, as I've got some writing to do before work...
- Why would I give up monthly comics? I pointed to this the other day on my Twitterfeed because it struck a chord with me. Monthly comics just aren't really all that exciting any more. Not much happens. As I'm a person who really likes Story over Art, it might behoove me to look more at collections than singles. I'm not reading that many monthlies any more any way, and I don't go to my Local Comic Shop very often, if only once a month, so it won't hurt me. - I've collected monthly comics for more than three decades, and it's hard to change that habit. - One reason it won't bother me that much to give up some monthlies is that there's no extra content, like letters pages, that's only in the monthly books. The last great letters pages were in James Robinson's Starman and Garth Ennis' Preacher. They were killed in favor of selling ad space. - $3.99 for a monthly comic is an awful lot of money, too. Three comics at USD $3.99 that only provide thirty, maybe forty, minutes of entertainment isn't a very good return on investment. - Hm. Seems I'm talking myself into this more and more doesn't it? - This doesn't mean that I'm disappointed in comics, only that if publishers are moving creators towards expanding stories so much that it's a better use of my money to wait for the trade, I'll wait for the trade. However, the backfire of that strategy is that I may wait until my local library gets the trade and I can try out series or stories that I wouldn't drop USD $20 on at the LCS. - Why not run it for free on the web each week and then collect it on paper in a nice book? The Avatar model for Warren Ellis' Freakangels makes sense to me. Maybe that's why I'm not in comics, though. - However, I'd read Batman and Superman this way, and those are books I'm NOT reading now. Take the risk, Marvel and DC, do something to TRY and capture new readers. Or perhaps recapture lapsed ones. |
| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 |
dewline
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6:25p |
The National c. 1978
This dates me more than I want to admit. I got a history/memory refresher courtesy of insidethecbc.com a while ago, with a selection of YouTubed "opening titles" sequences used by The National, CBC's main late-night newscast program from over the decades. This one in particular whacked me over the head with the "Do you remember when...?" vibe: I cannot yet recall the name of the typeface they used. I've seen the name, probably in some Letraset catalogue or Corel font library booklet. But cannot yet remember it. Help? If that link/embed doesn't work, let me know, okay? Current Mood:  nostalgic |
| Saturday, July 4th, 2009 |
dewline
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4:15p |
Sketch Nights at Algonquin I
Every so often on a Tuesday night in the summer months between semesters at Algonquin College, instructor Rich Lauzon holds forth in B Building's Rotunda/Portable Feast room, inviting animation, game design and other arts students past and present to get together and sketch whatever suits'em. I happened to be there for the session the night before Canada Day 2009. If you're an artist yourself, and the Algonquin Campus off of Baseline Transitway Station's within easy reach for you on the right night of the month in the summer, you might want to have a look. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12032267235 |
dewline
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1:25p |
Speaking of National Birthdays...
Wishing my friends in the American Union all the best of the day, and much enjoyment of many, happier returns to come! Current Mood:  hopeful |
jou
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10:50a |
Press
The Couscous Collective reviews Happy Birthday Michael MitchellI might also mention that the article's author Leia Weathington is a particularly brilliant essayist (not to mention comics writer), and has been detailing her most recent exploits in writerly form on her blog.I've been following these essays since day one, and I admit to loving them like a fat kid loves cake. They're frank, witty, and never cloying. Leia's planning to collect these into one volume, but for now they're all free on her blog. Enjoy! Current Mood:  hungry |
| Friday, July 3rd, 2009 |
jkcarrier
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1:01p |
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jkcarrier
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9:49a |
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jkcarrier
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1:03a |
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| Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 |
mtfierce
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9:10p |
Alive.
You know, just so that I check in with more than bits of the occasional 140 character commentary and Dr. E snippets. Made it through June, trying to make it through July. Working a lot. Had arainbowcat here for much of the month, but she's abandoned us for air-conditioning and games she doesn't have to share with the kids over at shadowpryde's. Fair enough. I haven't checked my horoscope or anything, but circumstances seem to have focused on making this the month for me to make a lot of unpopular decisions. One part of me says, "Life's too short to care about what other people think. You can hope you aren't going to lose friends because of decisions you need to make on your own issues. If it's part of the consequences, I'll just have to roll with it. ("Get better, less flammable friends.")" Another part says, "But I love my friends. I want to keep them. They've been molded into the right shapes and having to find new friends to fit is always awkward, especially the part where you hold them over the sanding belt." The stronger voice is the one that says, "I want to live. Don't hold me back." Why is it that listening to that voice always gets me in the most trouble? So, some of the decisions have been fairly easy. We'll go to ACNW again this year. (It's all cochese's fault.) It's just the corresponding decisions (how long to stay, who's going with) that get tough. I've already decided I will not be running any Amber (ADRPG) games. I may just sign up to play with GMs I like personally and say to heck with the rest of it. Maybe I'll bring the kids and just watch them and take it as a vacation. I don't know yet. Some of the decisions are very hard. I am having relationship problems with relationships that aren't even mine, amusingly (if predictably) enough. It's not even that I'm meddling. Part of me says, "I should just tell [this person] how I feel, and see where it goes," and part of me says, "Silence is freakin' golden." There are days I really, really miss anaughtie. Want to know how irritable I am? Here's a measure: I am really intolerant of the dog right now. Which is another reason not to get involved in a new relationship - I'm not at my prettiest when my hackles are raised. Anyway, so, I'm alive. And growly. So watch out. |
dewline
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3:41p |
VIA Rail Dream Map 2020 version 2
As shown on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) viarail_fandomRevised edition of the earlier map. Added in are the routes serving northern Québec and northern Manitoba, as promised earlier. Also included are direct connections feeding between Toronto and North Bay and Sudbury. As to the note attached to version one, my apologies for getting the relative positioning of Ottawa and Cornwall wrong. However, I do believe a direct rail link between Ottawa and Cornwall should be on the dream-shopping list for VIA down the line. |
paladine
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11:55a |
Movie Review: Son-Ghost-House-Of-Frankenstein-In-London-Meets-The-She-Wolf-Man
  Well, since I decided that I was going to show my nephew Creature From The Black Lagoon the next time I visited him, it occured to me that I should grab some of the other Universal Monster legacy sets to show him as well. I also hope that release of the new version of The Wolf Man is still locked for November, since we'll be visiting them around Thanksgiving and I want to try and talk my sister into let me and Dad take him to see it. Hopefully I'll be able to sway her with those magic words that work on any parent: "I'll get them out of your hair for an afternoon." So anyway, a couple months back, I got my hands on copies of the Frankenstein and Wolf-Man sets. And since I haven't done a review in a while, I figured I'd dip into these collections for that. Now, The Wolf-Man, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein are all iconic movies and frankly, I don't think I could really say anything that a billion other people haven't already said, so instead, I'll take a look at the other movies in these sets. ( To a new age of Gods and Monsters. ) |
| Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 | |
andrew6
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12:28p |
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dewline
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10:39a |
Confederation Day Plus 142!
In the spirit of the national birthday...  Hoping you all have a good one, people! (Source material: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Canada.svg If the Trade Marks Act of Canada trumps my little celebratory gesture, I'll take it down. I hope the government won't mind, though...?) Current Mood: hopefulCurrent Music: O Canada - Long Version, Instrumental - David Foster & The Vancouver Symphony |
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