MCF's Nexus of Improbability

One Year Later...

2011-10-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

Is this thing on?

No, no of course it isn't. There's dust and cobwebs everywhere, and flipping on the light switch took some effort. Nobody's home. No one is writing. No one is reading. I ended my six-year run of daily consecutive blogging one year ago, never to return. It’s perfect. It’s symmetrical. I shouldn’t post again and break the clean ending.

It's funny how nature abhors a vacuum, how I found things to fill the time I once used to spend writing, how the days never seem long enough even with one less responsibility. Not much has changed. I haven't quit my job and moved out West to seek my fortune. Still single. Still working hard at the office and with various bands. Still alive.

More importantly, my dad is still alive. He finally went to a new cardiologist for a second opinion, after bypass surgery last Summer did nothing to relive his angina. He was annoyed that they kept him in the hospital for tests, growing more impatient as the week went on. The doctor confirmed he needed a new aortic valve, and that being 81-years-old was not a deterring factor. Newer treatments such as getting a stent were still in the trial stage and there was no guarantee they would help. Being in good health otherwise, a new valve could get him as much as another ten years. Doing nothing in the condition he was in, with chest pain on even mild exertion such as walking through the supermarket, was an indication that he'd die in 2 or 3 years without surgery. I make my decisions based on math, and the math was sound.

It was convenient that his hospital, one of the best heart hospitals in the nation, was within driving distance of my job. My boss was very understanding, and I was able to take long lunch breaks. I remember one afternoon when my dad dismissed an orderly while he finished his salad, then walked up and down the hall looking for his ride. The man of course moved on to the next patient who needed to be wheeled downstairs for testing. When I came back after work, no one had returned for my dad yet. “I canceled the test,” he told me. When a nurse came in, my mom and I asked if he could do that, and he chuckled that no, the patient can't just say he doesn't want a particular test. He wasn't staying at a spa where he could skip portions of his agenda.

The day he was finally supposed to have the operation, we found him standing in the door of his room, waving his arms in disgust. We knew immediately something was wrong. When we calmed him down, we learned that the test showed blockage in his carotid artery, which we knew about. But it was apparently too serious for them to proceed with heart surgery, lest a blood clot be loosed upon his brain and he have a stroke. I got a nurse to patch me through to the cardiologist, who explained this to me, and that a vascular surgeon was on his way down for a consultation. The procedure, called a carotid endarectomy, had only a 1% risk of serious complications. He'd simply make an incision in my dad's neck, scoop all the gunk out of his artery, and sew him back up. Chances are that last year when the other surgeon opted to only do a single bypass, he was afraid of the stroke risk. They never gave us a satisfactory explanation, only that they didn't think the valve condition was that serious. And when my dad went for follow-up visits they told him his results were fine and shrugged when he said he still had symptoms. Thank God he finally found a doctor who'd listen and diagnose him properly.

I went back to the office since I'd likely need the following Monday off for the big surgery. My father had the carotid surgery late on that Friday night, the same day we had the consultation with the surgeon. I work late when I have a print deadline; these guys stay late when they need to save lives. There's a little perspective. I arrived after work to find my mom distraught in the lobby, because the anesthesiologist, a weasely Jason Schwartzman-looking mofo had took her by the arm, told her my dad could die, and rattled off all the potential complications with no bedside manner. I did my best to reassure her, and we spent a very long three hours in the surgical waiting area.

Of course he came through with flying colors and only a sore throat. When we went to see him, a nurse was spending one-on-one monitoring time to make sure he didn't roll over or yank out any tubes. He was angry and uncomfortable, and when the anesthesiologist stopped by to check on things, he shouted “That guy gave me too much dope!” The doc just smirked, checked something off on a chart, and wandered off to play some quirky character in an independent film. My dad went on to spend a long weekend in the ICU before the big day on Monday morning. Having been through surgery once myself, I envy the fact that for him it was over in an instant. My mom and I endured the longest six-and-a-half hours of our life while we waited. At least he had an anesthesiologist with a good bedside manner this time, who reassured us before they went in that he'd be monitoring my dad the whole time, and rattled off the risks like the boilerplate “this probably won't happen but I have to tell you all this in case it does” script he's obligated to read from, instead of the melodramatic “He could DIE!” that the other jerk threw at my mom. With Game of Thrones adapted for television and A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the series finally seeing print, I had the motivation to finally finish reading book four, A Feast for Crows. It was hard to focus in the waiting room though. At one point we went downstairs and sat outside. I wandered and found the chapel where I prayed. Hard. I had a sketchbook with me, as drawing was one of the things I finally started doing again in 2011, but even that was difficult under the circumstances.

After six hours we asked the receptionist if there was any news. We knew the procedure involved removing the heart to work on it while my dad was kept alive by a heart-lung machine. We knew it was his second surgery, and she pointed out that re-ops do take longer. She said she'd let us know when she heard something, but the computer showed he was still in surgery. After that, every time she answered the phone we thought it was about my dad. When the woman blew her nose during one call, my mom thought she was crying over bad news. I pointed out that if the receptionist in a cardiac surgical unit teared up every time someone didn't make it, she was probably in the wrong field.

Eventually the surgeon called, and I took the call. He spoke quickly, assuring me that all went well, although there was some bleeding in the catheter. I pointed out that my dad had an enlarged prostate and maybe that caused some problem. Everything went well with the valve though, and he even bypassed a circumflex artery that was 100% blocked. The next few weeks proved very exhausting and interesting. It was an entire day before the breathing tube could be removed, and when we finally could talk to my dad, he was often confused from the medication. Once he got angry when I didn't see the carnival he was seeing. “You're trying to make a fool out of me! There's a clown. Right. There. Inflating a balloon.” His hallucinations had some basis in reality, as an oxygen tank and a helium tank could look the same. I could always figure out the real-world equivalent of what he was perceiving. When those hallucinations improved and he starting seeming normal, we then had to deal with his doubts. “I'm dead and in the ground,” he'd tell us. Once when I was at work, he chided my mom about her demeanor in light of his death: “You don't seem very upset.” It took a while to convince him that it wasn't all a dream, that he wasn't dead and seeing things on his way out.

The biggest hurdle turned out to be the prostate. He had to keep the catheter in, and was constantly passing blood. He couldn't start improving until he could walk, and he couldn't walk until the bleeding stopped and the catheter was removed. Eventually a urologist had to put him through a third surgery, one that would correct the problem. The good news was that when he finally got to go home, he'd be leaving with all his ailments resolved. No more chest pains. No more getting up to go to the bathroom every hour at night. I used car analogies to reason with the former mechanic and to joke with him. “It's like when you bring a car in for an oil change and they find all this other stuff to fix!”

Through it all, I managed to stay on top of my deadlines, and I'm pretty sure my boss lightened my load a bit because a few assignments I was expecting seemed to land on other art directors. I played plenty of feasts, one which took a week, and on one of the nights we phoned the hospital so all the guys could wish my dad a speedy recovery before we serenaded him with the theme from Rocky. It got to a point where the security guard in the hospital parking lot recognized me and asked why I didn't just get a monthly visitor's pass. I didn't expect my dad to spend over 30 days in there, nor did any of us. But with that last surgery, and him finally walking up and down the halls, he was finally cleared to go home. We were assisted by one of the hospital volunteers, a retired old man who was part of a vast staff of people in their 70s up to their 90s who stayed active. My dad's had follow-up visits with all his doctors, and has even been going for therapy and walking on a treadmill. He's been tired, but that's improved, and his legs and back have been sore, but that's improved too. Through it all, he's had NO chest pain. A few days ago he and my mom celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary, so hopefully his extended “sentence” gets him at least another 9 years so they see 50.

While my dad is starting to become familiar with treadmills, I haven't stopped. I run 4-7 miles a day and still manage to be about 10-15 pounds overweight. I skipped my annual race this year, initially because I thought I'd have a feast that day. I wasn't hired for that gig this year, but it all worked out since my dad was hospitalized then anyway. And as I mentioned, I did start sketching again back in January, pushing forward despite being incredibly rusty. For a while I managed 5 or 6 a week, but that has dwindled to once a week. I have no intention of stopping completely though, and will stick with it whenever I have time and/or inspiration. Here are a few of my favorites from this year:

There's no way I could recap all the movies and television shows I've watched this past year. Thor was decent, but Captain America was the surprise of the year. My expectations were the exact opposite for these movies, and I was pleasantly surprised by the latter. I also had a longer wait, and my work buddies were very understanding while my dad was hospitalized, waiting until we could all see it together. It was worth the wait. As of this week, The Avengers' trailer has blown me away. I can't stop watching this thing. I wish it was 2012 NOW. It's everything I read when I was in high school brought to life on the big screen with RDJ of course killing it with the best lines and Joss Whedon's sense of humor and understanding of group dynamics shining through. I expect that will be the biggest draw at this weekend's NYComiccon, with Whedon and some of the cast in attendance, though I doubt I'll get through the crowds to that panel.

In the past few weeks I found out two good friends, one from college and another from high school, had gotten married. I knew the guy from college was engaged, but he e-mailed our crew after four months of marriage with a “by the way I'm married”. It was another week before we learned when he was married, and I realized we saw the bride and groom at a barbecue a week later, where none of us noticed the rings. At a party this past weekend, he laughed at how we admired his watch for like an hour that day and never spotted what was on his finger. When they get some money saved, they'll probably have a larger recommitment ceremony with all their friends and family. My other buddy from high school called to invite me to his wedding, and mentioned that technically he married her a year ago when they bought their place in Brooklyn. The duo run a couple of successful clothing stores which cater mostly to young lawyers with high salaries who don't think a few hundred dollars is a lot for a dress shirt if it looks good and fits. My fashion sense tends to be more Target, but I'm still happy for their success. As long as I've known this guy, he's been the epitome of someone who lives life. Whatever he wanted to do, he's done, without concern of risks or what people thought, and in that he's found success. When he wanted to live in Japan he did it. When he wanted to live in Austria he did that. And when he wanted to stop working for other people and start working for himself, he did that too. He's also a huge karaoke fan while his wife is also a dancer, so it was ridiculously entertaining to see him serenade everyone with a cover of Mr. Loverman while his wife and the bridesmaids did a choreographed dance. And this was all between the ceremony and their first dance. It was everything I would have expected from his wedding and more. The only way it could have been better would be if he got Weird Al to perform, which he told me was something he was seriously considering before deciding that'd be too expensive.

So, that's been my year in a nutshell(help, help I'm in a nutshell). I'm not about to start blogging again, although I did feel the urge this week and an anniversary was as good an excuse as any to post again. Drop me a comment if you meander back this way; I'd love to know what's been going on in your world. I've found a few of you(or vice versa) on a certain social network, so maybe we'll connect again in that all-encompassing realm if not this one. 2011 had its share of trials and detours, and in a Summer that included three major operations for my dad, an earthquake in Virginia that I felt on Long Island, and a hurricane a week later that knocked a tree through a neighbor's house but left us unscathed other than a week without power, I can honestly say this hasn't been a bad year, because everything worked out okay.

I can't wait to see what happens next. Who knows? I might even come back to write about it....

#2198 In a Four-Issue Limited Series

2010-10-13T00:01:00.005-04:00

I always knew how it would end. I just didn't know when. But perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Once I decided I was going to start a blog like my friends Curt and Jerry, I began mentally composing my first post in my head. Every morning when I drove to work, my usual anxiety about passing out behind the wheel(a long story, told here many times and mostly resolved), was replaced by subconscious prose. No matter the variation, it always started with the same line: ”When I was five years old, I thought I was Spider-man.” On Wednesday, October 13th, that line became a reality. I didn't really have a theme like Curt did with marriage or my friend Rey had with the bible or my buddy B13 would have with photography. I just wrote about myself, how my accident-prone life took shape early on, how I lived a life of inverse probability. Something that had a 2% chance of happening to one person would have a 98% chance of happening to me. It would take me years to realize that, at one time or another, we all fall into that unfortunate 98%. That's just life.

I didn't know how long it would last. For years I had occupied myself on the internet with a message board based RPG/fanfiction. It was where a “Neurotic O.R.B.” became a “Mysterious Cloaked Figure” and about 100 other characters. And in the ashes of a game that went from dozens of writers to me role-playing by myself, MCF the blogger was born. I wrote about obscure comic book characters(the “O.R.B.” in my original handle came from my college “Obscure Reference Boy” nickname). I wrote about cartoons and television shows. I wrote about my life and my family. The freedom of anonymity allowed me to be open and honest about my likes, dislikes, and fears. More than anything, it was a cathartic exercise. It was good to clear all that stuff out my brain at the end of each day. If no one but 3 or 4 of my friends read what I wrote, it would have still been rewarding. More than 3 or 4 people read and interacted with my posts, so it was amazing.

Somehow, I kept things going every day. Even when there were technical difficulties, or family difficulties, I made sure I posted something. There were more than a few memes, which felt like cheating, and more than a few memes and games of my own creation, which felt slightly less like cheating. A lot happened in six years. Friends had kids and moved away. We had one cat make a miraculous recovery, while another has been slowly slipping away for over a year now. My dad nearly died from a shoulder infection, overcame that, and then survived a heart artery bypass operation at the age of 80. My mom spent time in the hospital and spent time at craft fairs. I played a lot of music on weekends with my Baritone horn. Loved ones left us. We lost my music teacher, my Aunt Irene, my Aunt Josie and my mom's cousin. My mom's brother is still with us physically; mentally not so much. I lost my job at a company I'd been with for 7.5 years, only to land on my feet at another for just over three years now. And we lost LOST, but that was kind of a good thing. Six years is a long time, and it's good that they didn't drag things out any longer like some shows. It was time, and I was glad I was here to see it end, and share my thoughts on that ending. I was glad my dad survived his surgery to see the finale. Truth be told, I'm of course glad he survived. It's strange to think that without LOST, 24 and Prison Break, he and I no longer have shows we watch together. It's just on the brink of going on too long, but maybe I should get the old man back into Supernatural, or as he referred to it back when it began, “The Brothers”. He’d ask, “What’s on, ‘The Brothers'?” then go to bed at the first sign of blood or anything gory.

The first time I kissed a girl, I was stalling like crazy, talking about anything to avoid getting out of her car, searching for that awkward pause to make a move but never shutting up long enough to get it. Finally, in talking about Halloween costumes, she mentioned once dressing up like a Hershey's Kiss. “Kiss...” I repeated, then she repeated it, then we sat there for like another minute, the longest ever, before I leaned in for a quick peck. I did this a few more times because I really liked that first one, then jumped out and went home, and later apologized on the phone if I had been “too forward”. It took me a while to get there, but I would definitely become a lot more forward in the years we dated. I'm not sure what this story has to do with anything, save as an example of how I can filibuster and stall before getting to something scary and wonderful.

When Transformers #1 came out, it was billed as “#1 in a Four-Issue Limited Series”. But it was a popular franchise, with both toys and a cartoon, and if Marvel got 75 issues out of ROM, they could definitely do the same with a larger cast of licensed characters. At the end of the fourth issue, it looked like all of our heroes were dead, which was a pretty crummy way to end things. But it all led up to an announcement that there'd be an issue #5, and that issue had one of my all time favorite covers. I love that painting. The comic book outlasted the cartoon, and most of the toy line. When it finally ended, the last issue sported “#80 in a Four-Issue Limited Series” across the top. This was the end, but it wasn't a defeat. It was a victory, because it survived far longer than anyone planned.

This is #2198 in my Four-Issue Limited series. The blogosphere is not what it once was, but it's not the decline in readership that brings us to the end of the road. Even if it was three or four people and myself, that would be enough for me to write for. The problem is, I started to lose myself. I got more and more tired at night, and it became harder to write what I considered quality posts. There was a lot more a filler, a lot more phoning it in. In writing about my life instead of living it, I had a lot less to write about. There was the occasional party or adventure, but for the most part my best stories were in my youth, and I'd told them all before, some more than once. I began thinking about what I could do with more free time. Would I finally buy a house or join a dating site? Would I teach myself web design or start drawing again? Would I finish the list of books I had put aside years ago? Would I clean my room? At the very least, it might be nice to get a full night's sleep again. I'd often set the time for my post to 12:01 AM, an obscure reference to a cheesy television movie I loved and one of many Easter eggs hidden over the years, but most nights I was up far later by the time I got done with work, gym, television shows, and movies. I was getting less out of the experience, and if my heart wasn't in it, what incentive was there for my readers?

My 2000th post, commemorated by the first truly revealing photo of myself from my company's last Christmas party, would have been a fine place to end things. Part of me wasn't sure if there would be a 2001. For years I'd teased, and with that revelation there wasn't much else I could share. For someone as obsessed with numbers as I am, 2000 had a nice round feel to it. 2198 is a strange number. What does it mean? 2+1+9+8=20, and 2+0=2, and there’s my 2% luck, so there's that. But more importantly, I wanted to finish out my sixth year, my sixth season, and tie up all the loose ends. I also didn't want to come to this decision rashly, to quit and break my streak because I was feeling a little tired. On Thursday, when there's no new post, there is no going back. I can't go on to 2199; my next post would be 1 and I’d be starting over.

I always did ramble on. I always buried ledes, then dug them up, then buried them again. Even now, part of me isn't sure there won't be a 2199. And this definitely won't be the last you see of me. You have my E-mail address, and I'll certainly still check this blog and respond to comments. Who knows, with more free time, I might be able to comment on your blogs some more, something I admittedly got away from. And this might even turn out to be like that stunt comic books pull, when they start over with a new issue #1 to boost readership and increase sales. I don't think I'll ever add to the Nexus, but maybe down the road there will be a new blog. I don't know if it will be daily, or what it will be about. Maybe it will be one day a week, “Sundays with MCF” or “MCF's Weekly Artwork” or something. Maybe my presence on the internet will shift to my weirdest role yet, myself, if anyone tracks me down on one of those social networky things.

Today I am alive. I'm proud of the words and pictures I put on the internet, proud to have achieved some form of digital immortality. Today, my parents and my pets are alive. My family and friends are alive. I can’t speak for tomorrow, or the day after, or the one after that. This is a moment frozen in time, and a good time. Life is change, and for every up, there will soon be a down. I can look back and travel through time and visit any up place in my life in the last six years. I can visit the down places too, because it's important to remember both. It is important to remember it all. Today is a good time to end. Today is a good time to begin.

God bless you all.

The rest....is silence.

0

The Ultimate Hat Tip.

2010-10-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

Hat Tip: Curt, the first of my friends and coworkers to start a blog, which inspired me to do the same. Though his blog is retired, he remains a Happy Husband and currently a Happy Father of two.

Hat Tip: Jerry, who introduced me to Curt and whose own blog covered a wider variety of subject matter, including comics and other geeky things, cementing my interest in joining their ranks. Though being a husband and a father eventually took Jerry away from blogging, he continued to send great links and support the Nexus.

Hat Tip: Rey, my oldest real-life friend who also became a blogger. An old college pal who got me the job where I met Curt and Jerry, the self-proclaimed “GeekFriends”, Rey already had a Bible blog when he started his personal one. He also designed the nifty icons that topped my blogroll for the past six years.

Hat Tip: B13, another work buddy who got into the blogging game after I told him about my “secret identity”. His skill as a photographer made his daily photoblog a pleasure to check every day, and inspired me to push my own photography at a time when my interest in the hobby was waning. Though he's moved on to other hobbies and updates his site far less frequently, I could still depend on him for the occasional comment or link. He is also partly responsible for the largest number of comments I ever received for a single post, thanks to his campaign to defeat the Unseen Blogger in a competition I was running.

Hat Tip: Kev and Rubi Bayer, who if memory serves were the first readers I didn't already know in real life, who found the Nexus through Curt's Happy Husband site and have been readers and supporters ever since. Their appreciation of things like The Transformers or Joss Whedon made them welcome additions to the ranks of the Cloakfriends™.

Hat Tip: Janet, found through Jerry, whose blog was arguably once the most popular on my blogroll. Her grasp on pop culture and penchant for audience participation through her Tell It To Me Tuesday features would prove anyone wrong who found people disappointing, making her blog one of the most missed active ones.

Hat Tip: Darrell, film geek and Southern conservative who stood by his views with persistence and faced personal and medical problems with a good sense of humor and a strength of spirit. Always a good read and a good online friend.

Hat Tip: Lorna, whom the blogosphere could always count on for wisdom, comments, support, and encouragement. She was like a virtual Aunt May, though a bit hipper and wittier.

Hat Tip: Rhodester, hands down the funniest blogger out there and unsung star of Seabiscuit, and his better half CoffeeSister, whose experience in a video store first brought this dynamic blogging duo to light.

Hat Tip: All my former message board RPG peeps who made the transition at one time or another to blogging and/or commenting on blogs, specifically Neb, FawnDoo, Motocron and Spaceman Bill. Some of them are even still at it.

Hat Tip: Cube, for her great cat pictures, political quick hits, and of course inadvertently being the Samus of the blogosphere.

Hat Tip: Sean, who always posted the best links and pictures of pretty ladies, and whose countdown device I recently borrowed.

Hat Tip: Lyndon, honorary geekfriend with a similar love of robots and music, discovered through Janet's blog.

Hat Tip: SwanShadow, another great find from Janet, a patriarch with determination in adversity and a fantastic collection of commissioned comic book art.

Hat Tip: Sarcasmo, a witty blogger who left this world far too soon, only for her mother to keep the site going a while longer as a tribute to her.

Hat Tip: D. Prince, for keeping the blogosphere abreast of the absurd goings-on of celebrities with humor that rivaled Rhodester or Darrell and photos that rivaled any tabloid.

Hat Tip: Chris Sims, and Bully, my favorite comic book bloggers. Thanks for making me laugh and showing me I'm not the only one with an obscure knowledge of and appreciation for sequential art

Hat Tip: Spockgirl, the latest addition to the Cloakfriends™, certainly one of the more active commenters these past few months, showing there was still some life left in this old blog.

H.T.: All the rest who supported or inspired me in some way. Some were frequent commenters; others were bloggers I read on a regular basis, and more than a few deserve more than being lumped in at the end under “all the rest”. Know that, in one way or another, all of these people made this experience a genuine pleasure, as much as those listed above. Thank you AverageJoe, G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Giuseppe, Dan, Sue, Pratt, Jay, Big Orange Michael, Ali, Dosetaker, The Fifth Column, Dave, Jeff (A Golden World), Hulk, Jamie Dawn, Nehring, Kelly, Jeff (Peachwater), Quick-Change Artist, Solonor, Cap'n Eucalyptus, R.C., Wendy, Paul, The Unseen Blogger, Wil Wheaton, Kristine, Xtine, Otis, Snowball02, The Brothers Chaps, Felicia Day, Stan Lee, Elaina, and TheGreek(because not including him in this list would be seen as escalation).

* * * * *

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for an important announcement that may or may not come as a surprise....

1

PBW: NYComicCon 2K10: Day Two.

2010-10-11T00:12:00.012-04:00

The weekend may be over, but Photo Blog Weekend is not! Yesterday I shared images from my visit to the New York ComicCon on Friday. Saturday morning was a little tough since I had to play a parade in Queens in the morning with one of my Italian bands. I was optimistic when we seemed to be done by 12:30, but then had to stick around for the ceremony to play an Italian anthem. Then our band leader played another song. Then his son told us not to go anywhere, because he wanted us to play “Happy Birthday” for his daughter. Now it was after 1 PM, and less and less likely that I'd make it back to Long Island in time to drop off my dad, change my clothes, grab my weekend pass and camera, and drive to a train station to make it in to the city by a decent hour. We couldn't play while the politicians were still speaking, and I asked the drummer what we were waiting for. His wife got a little annoyed at my impatience, but he finally relented and said if I had somewhere to be, they had enough guys to cover the song. I explained I had tickets to “something” in the city and needed to catch a train.

I met my dad on the corner, and he told me to get the car and drive around the block to pick him up, so he wouldn't have to rush and get chest pains. Somehow, he miscommunicated which block he'd be on. By the time I got to where I left him, which was near the entrance to a highway, he was gone. I found him two blocks up, looking down a one-way street, and he didn't hear me yelling. I couldn't stop, so I had to go around that block. By then he had walked away, but thankfully reappeared before the light I was waiting for turned green again. Now I had to drive around again to get to the block with the highway entrance. By some miracle, I navigated traffic and got home with a half hour to get to the train station in the next town. I ran inside, changed only my shirt and shoes, and was back out the door in less than a minute, with a granola bar in my pocket as my lunch. I got to the train station four minutes before the train I was trying to catch, ran full speed, and got on it just in time. If I missed it, the next train wasn't for another hour. So it was that I was able to catch one more panel, some entertaining performances, and a lot more great costumes and sights. Next year, the convention is a week later, and shouldn't conflict with my band schedule. I still ended up with more swag than I wanted, as people were handing out posters, comics, and buttons every time I turned around. Every year I say I'm going to travel light, but it's impossible to come home with nothing. And the greatest thing I walk away with from the convention is inspiration, the urge to pick up a pencil and try my hand at drawing again. By the end of my second parade on Sunday, it was too late to make it to the city for a third day at the ‘con. It was just as well, since Sunday was also my parents' 40th wedding anniversary and I was also exhausted by then. At least parade and feast season is pretty much done for the next few months, with only one gig in November. During the week I don't want to do much more than watch television after a day at the office and a night at the gym, but maybe I can be creative on weekends if inspiration and free time are in abundance. If nothing else, I'll certainly still be creative through photography, even if capturing the creativity of others. To wit:

Sarah Douglas (Ursa in Superman II):

Katie Sackhoff:

A working cello by Nathan Sawaya:

What not to do if you walk in front of my camera while I'm taking pictures of a steel-bikini beauty:

Much better than that last attempt:

The hilarious and knowledgeable staff of Comics Alliance(including Chris Sims, the internet's foremost Batmanologist, center):

2

PBW: NYComicCon 2K10: Day One.

2010-10-10T00:00:00.016-04:00

Those of you with a firm grasp on a calendar probably realize this isn't Wednesday, but since I have something else planned for Wednesday this week, and had an exciting weekend that I can't wait to share, let's let the “PBW” stand for Photo Blog Weekend for once. Besides, 10/10/10 only happens once every thousand years.

I took off from work on Friday since I wasn't sure I'd be free any other day this weekend for the New York ComicCon. I actually did make it in for a few hours on Saturday, thanks to some amazing driving and running, but that's a story for tomorrow's post. On Friday, after taking the train in with a buddy from work, we discovered a fairly long line over an hour before the floors, open in the morning to professionals, would open for the rest of us in the general public. We met another guy from work who had never been to one of these, and he was absolutely starstruck. This is about the 4th or 5th one I've been to, so I've mastered the balance between walking around the floor and taking breaks to see panels, while taking famous people in stride. The crowd was insane since they combined the event with an Anime festival, and there were definitely a few claustrophobic moments when I was glad to get away from the shoving and random backpack strikes. The day went so fast, and they flashed the lights and sounded a horn when it was time to clear the floor. It was all a blur of celebrity sightings, great artwork and figurines, and awesome costumes. But don't take my word for it; see for yourselves:

Erik Larsen:

Todd McFarlane:

Peter David:

A highlight of the show for me was seeing the work of Nathan Sawaya, LEGO® Brick Artist:

Christopher Judge:

James Marsters:

Lou Ferrigno::

3

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 9

2010-10-09T00:04:00.002-04:00

This is it, the final ESSENTIAL listing of Cloakfest 2K9-2K10! After September 2010, that just leaves the first 13 days of October, for those of you who remember the date of my very first post. Admit it; it's on your calendars. Don't be ashamed. Now for those of you who realize we're four days from that anniversary, fear not; if I write anything significant in the next four days, which is a slight possibility, I will be back to edit this post.

October, 2010

Metaphysics 101
In my disturbingly crowded brain, every facet of my personality manifests, some avatars more dominant than others, on the verge of a potential power shift.

My Nexus Feature Five
Because six years of Essential POSTS isn't enough, I use My Fives to revisit my favorite features through tags/labels.

T.I.L.T. Things I've Learned Thursday IIIVI
And one last time, I share some of the things I've learned, useful or otherwise, on a Thursday, mostly for the sake of an acronym.

A Boy Called "Spider-Man"
Reminiscing about a high school nickname takes me back down the path that led to a hobby, and a career, and an overall life philosophy.

PBW: NYComicCon 2K10: Day One.
PBW: NYComicCon 2K10: Day Two.
I'm glad that my final PBW photographic adventure got to be at the NYComicCon.

The Ultimate Hat Tip.
By the time I'm thanking everybody I ever interacted with, it's probably pretty obvious what those numbers at the end of each post are counting down to.

#2198 in a Four-Issue Limited Series
I always knew it would end this way someday, and 2198 consecutive daily posts isn't bad, but I can't believe it's over.

* * *

But wait; there's more! Here's a listing of EVERY Essential collection from the past six years:

The Essential MCF 2K4-2K5

The Essential MCF 2K5-2K6

The Essential MCF 2K6-2K7

The Essential MCF 2K7-2K8

The Essential MCF 2K8-2K9

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 1
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 2
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 3
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 4
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 5
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 6
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 7
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 8
The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 Part 9

* * *

4

A Boy Called "Spider-Man"

2010-10-08T00:24:00.001-04:00

When I was in high school, one of the Long Island Railroad train conductors would often call me “Spider-Man”. The nickname was not derived from the fact that I bore any resemblance to Tobey Maguire, or spun webs, or had an unhealthy obsession with insects. And he certainly could not have known about my Secret Origin, how I scarred my face for life as boy while emulating my favorite superhero. Don't blame the cartoons; blame my own stupidity in sliding face first down a tree stump, and blame whatever teenagers left broken beer bottles in the underbrush at the base of that stump. My mom kept me away from comic book cartoons for as long as she could, but I'd always sneak a few when she wasn't looking, reruns of those bad ‘70s Marvel shows where they'd just use art from the comics and add slight animation, kind of the predecessor of motion comics. And of course Spider was on The Electric Company, one of those shows my mom did approve.

After years of public school, my folks decided to send me to an all-boys Catholic High School, for a better education and to assuage their fears that I'd become a drug addict or worse. I guess the constant nagging worked since I never did try drugs, but I wonder if I really would have if they weren't constantly asking me if that's why I acted so weird. In any event, while I grew up with a love of comic books, I mostly read them in supermarkets while shopping with my parents. The phrase “This ain't a library!” was well-known to me. Thanks to ‘80s cartoons, I didn't need to read to know who many characters were, and thanks to my favorite, The Transformers, I came full circle from cartoons back to comics when a Transformers comic book featured the wall-crawler. I began buying comic books on a weekly basis thanks to my change in schools. It was several towns away and I had to take the train. I could either rush to leave at the end of the day, with only 20 minutes to make the mile or so to the station from the school, or I could stay over an hour later and catch the next train. Since band was my last period, and local public school toughs would harass students cutting through the park, I was never in a hurry. Once two chased me laughing maniacally, kicking my Baritone Horn case so it kept making my arm swing up in the air. Soon I was taking the long way to the station, which led me to a nearby comic book store, and a place to spend my afternoons while waiting for my train.

And so, every week I'd have a stack of new comics to read on the train. I didn't have a job, but I'd buy smaller lunches and use what was left of the money my mom gave me to work on my collection. Since I always had a comic book in my hand, I was usually greeted with a “How ya doin', Spider-Man?” when the conductor came to get my ticket. A stack at home grew into two stacks, then four, and eight years later I had a bagged collection numbering well over 4,000 issues. When I graduated college and finally got a real job, I also got a real girlfriend, and started spending my money on her instead. There was a pattern to comic book stories, and I had read them long enough to realize the status quo, that there was never any lasting change. It was a perpetual soap opera. A character could be killed off and brought back, someone could be wounded and healed, and any major change would eventually revert to something familiar and old.

I never regretted stopping my hobby any more than I regretted starting it. Comic books inspired me to draw and create, and led to my becoming an art major in college. Good professors steered me away from that dream to the more stable field of graphic design, and I might not be doing ads on a computer today if not for the path I was set upon by my hobby. I made some of the best friends I'd ever make in college, kindred spirits with the same love of the geeky stuff a lonely high school boy buried himself in. We'd go on road trips to conventions and museums, or just sit around drawing and listening to music. Even as an adult, I kept links to comics through blogs and comic book inspired movies. The NY ComicCon has become an annual tradition for me now, and this year it seems a ton of people from my office are going there as well. I know this is a crazy weekend with two gigs and my parents' anniversary, but I'll be at the convention for as long as I can.

I don't wear a costume any other day than Halloween, but I enjoy seeing people dress up, from the professional to the homemade. Of course, you don't have to wear a costume to wear a costume. Maybe going to these conventions in my normal clothing is my way of wearing a costume, of saying I'm “normal” and “ordinary” when there was a time in my life I could recall the plot of various comics by issue number. Just because I don't collect these books anymore doesn't mean I don't maintain an awareness of what's going on in the industry, both professionally and within the stories. And the thing about that old nickname was that I had something in common with Peter Parker. Sure I was a high school kid in a suit, mocked by “cool” kids and keeping to myself. But Spider-Man wasn't a man yet at all; he himself was a teenager. He was still a boy. That's the real brilliance of Stan Lee's creation, that he didn't make this kid a sidekick like every other teen hero. When Peter put on that mask, he became a man. And it was more than a full costume hiding the fact that he was a Spider-Boy. It was what he did with his powers, how he learned to take responsibility and use his gifts to make a difference in the world. Maybe I couldn't stick to walls, or jump high, or lift a car over my head. How many of us can? But we all have gifts. Some of us are good at sports. Some can write or draw. Some are good at math, or talented musicians. Some people write until there's nothing left to write about, and then write some more. I wasn't Spider-Man, and I didn't put on a costume. But I did go on to put on my own face, and go out in the world, and get a job. For as many hours a week I spent on that train with my face buried in four color adventures, eventually that train arrived at my stop, and I had to go out in the real world. The real world wasn't always as colorful, but it had its share of heroes and villains. It was great to read about adventures. It must be fun to write about them. And living them? Well that has to be Amazing....

5

T.I.L.T. Things I've Learned Thursday IIIVI

2010-10-07T00:11:00.000-04:00

It's somewhat fitting, at least to a guy as enthralled with numbers and probability as I am, that my 36th Things I've Learned Thursday falls less than a month from my own 36th birthday. It probably means nothing though, because numbers don't always have meaning.

* We're always the people we were in elementary school, high school, and college. Our formative years are just that, the years which form us. This is not to say that we don't grow beyond our own pride and/or insecurity, beyond whether we were a popular kid or an unpopular one, a smart one or a dumb one. But these early roles are our foundation, and the root of any decision we make. And while this level of self-awareness is important, looking back in order to move forward, the greatest strength we might overlook in our arsenal is the realization that we are not alone in this. Everyone around us has his or her own core. If you can recognize who a person was, where he or she came from, you can better understand how to reason with that individual. It's not always easy, but if you look hard enough, you can see who you're really dealing with. After that, no argument is insurmountable.

* Somewhat related to my first point, my mom is starting to see living with my aging father as being akin to having another child. It's not that he's losing his facilities or that you can't reason with him. It's just that some of his common sense is waning, and his impatience, always a part of him, has now become exaggerated. He easily gets in trouble if no one is watching him for a long enough period of time. Anticipating the arrival of the oil guy to check our tank, and having too much free time, he decided to clean the basement on Tuesday afternoon. Apparently, upon finding a mysterious piece of plastic on the floor under the oil tank, he broke it in half, and immediately came upstairs to complain to my mom because his hands were now sticky. What he didn't realize was that this object was a glue trap which my mom had been successfully using to eliminate the Camel Cricket population down there. She couldn't understand why he'd pick something up without knowing what it was and break it, let alone why he didn't remember she had traps down there. She told him there was another one under the stairs; hopefully he remembers. Meanwhile, it took a while to clean the glue off his hands, and she later discovered the sink handle was sticky too because he had touched it. It's like me as a little kid all over again. And on Sunday, when we got home from the Fall festival, I left my ticket on the kitchen table. Within seconds of leaving the room to tell my mom where I put it, I heard ripping sounds. “I threw it away,” called in the old man, overhearing me start to tell my mom it was on the table, “You didn't want it, right?” So I've learned not only to keep an eye on my dad, but to not leave anything in his line of sight when he's bored and/or in a cleaning mood.

* It is very difficult to shop for my parents, but it's especially difficult that their wedding anniversary falls in the same month as Halloween. I decided to shop for them on Wednesday night since the anniversary is this weekend(along with about 4 or 5 other things on the busiest weekend ever), but I kept getting distracted by ornaments and costumes. For once, I don't know exactly what I'm going to dress up as, although I have it narrowed down to two or three ideas. It all depends on what props I can find, and which items will be the least disruptive to my normal appearance. As for my folks, while I thought I had a great idea with buying them an air conditioner, which they desperately need, at a time of year when they'd be more affordable, I found that every store I went to was only selling heating fans and room dehumidifiers. Foiled by seasonal merchandising! So I had to settle for a gift card in the amount of an air conditioner, and then the usual assortment of snacks, movies, and puzzle books.

* Intersection traffic cameras are dangerous. I already got a ticket once last year while driving my dad's car. Months after the fact, we got it in the mail along with a picture of our license plate and how many tenths of a second had elapsed after the light turned amber and I was in the intersection. Since then, they've multiplied across Long Island, and though there was a list of locations and many are obvious if you know where to look, it's easy to forget. On my way home from shopping on Wednesday night, I waited at an intersection to make a right turn. There was a car in front of me, and the driver opted to turn once the light was green, even though turning on red was permitted. I followed, and suddenly there was a blinding flash in my rearview mirror. At first I thought I had some kind of seizure, but realized it was the flash of a camera. The thing is, I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was turning from the side street. But now I'm worried that, from the camera's point of view, my car was in the intersection after the light had turned red. How could they distinguish if I drove straight ahead, or turned from the street with the green light? The still image would only show the back of my car. And if that's the case, that's pretty tough to fight, and a pretty crummy way for officials to make money. I'd almost prefer a running video camera to the still image, since that would show where my vehicle came from. I guess there's nothing I can do now but wait, and hope I don't get a picture and a fine in the mail in a few months.

* My sarcasm seems to grow exponentially in relation to my facial hair. I tend to act cockier whenever I have a goatee.

* Endings are inevitable, and should not be feared. I think the fact that we're mortal, or that entertainment is finite, makes us appreciate what we'll eventually lose even more. People, of course, can't ”Jump the Shark” like a television show that has been on for too many seasons. We might grow tired of each other, or fall into a routine, but we'd know something was missing when that other person was gone. Realizing the inevitability of death doesn't take away from the sadness when it does eventually happen, but there's some strength to be drawn from the removal of the shock and surprise. Most of the time, we don't know when an ending is coming. It's great when we can prepare and get things in order, but life and fate are in the hands of a higher power. A smoker might live to be 100. A jogger might get hit by a bus while only a young man. Real life doesn't come with a countdown clock, so be prepared....

6

PBW: MCF Acres

2010-10-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

My mom volunteered this year, as she's done in the past, to participate in and help out with a craft fair at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration. I went with my folks last year and got some great shots. This year didn't go as smoothly, and I almost didn't get in. Volunteers get free passes, and on Sunday my mom had a bunch left over that she didn't want to throw out. As we were walking in, she spotted a couple waiting near the line and started to offer the tickets, but when they turned around, they both had the same volunteer ribbons as my folks. The man launched in to a lecture starting with “Please ma'am, don't do that....” and went off on a near-rant about how they're losing money and might not be back next year. She explained that she didn't want the passes to go to waste but the guy, who actually had a gold ribbon indicating he was some sort of higher ranking volunteer, wasn't hearing it. So I began walking back to the car, while my mom called after me to ask where I was going. I said I'd just wait there until it was time to go home, since I now felt wrong going in with the free pass. So she kind of embarrassed me(and herself), by trying to get the guy's attention again. “Sir? Excuse me, sir? My son could use the pass, right? He feels funny...” This only made me want to walk further away, so I couldn't hear his actual response. Eventually, she talked me in to riding in to the grounds on a tram with her and my father, and I spent the next few hours keeping to the back woods and away from the main festivities just in case they threw me out, or whatever my weird paranoid brain was thinking. That thing has a mind of its own sometimes. In any case, it was kind of cloudy, so the low lighting made getting my shots a challenge anyway. But Photo Blog Wednesday has always focused mostly on the great outdoors, so this one will be no different:

7

My Nexus Feature Five

2010-10-05T00:36:00.005-04:00

Excuse me while I get a bit meta for a moment, with a strange piece of self-referential commentary on the regular features we've seen here over the past six years. Some did better than others, but there will always be a few that stood out for me as a blogger and a reader. In case anybody ever wondered for some inconceivable reason, these were My Five favorite features:

5) My Fives:
So of course #5 in my fives is My Fives. It started with Five Bill Murray movies, and over the course of 45 posts covered music, movies, television, beer, candy, video games, and in more than one instance comic books. I tend to ramble on about the things I love, and this format helped me break those things into bite-sized portions that were hopefully a little easier for my readers to digest.

4) Blogroll Villains:
Here's the one inclusion that took me by surprise, but looking through these, I'm remembering how much fun I had. Basically I took what I knew about my fellow bloggers, their likes, personality, and rough physical traits, and used HeroMachine to transform them into super-villains. There was a fun interactive aspect to these posts too, as people tried to guess who was who. I had actually done something similar a year prior with heroes, but the villains were definitely more fun. And if that wasn't enough to sate my subconscious frustration at never working in the comic book industry, a few months after the villains I turned my graphic design skills to designing comic book logos for my blogroll(many of whom actually put them on their blogs; including The Bayer Family and Swanshadow, who still have theirs up as of this writing). I miss the good old days of having that much free time....

3) Phantasmic Links:
On 2.6.05, Phantasmic Links were born, in a much rougher state than they are today. Inspired by the weekly links my friend Curt would post at his blog, it was basically an excuse to do an “easy” post on a Sunday night when my brain was shot. At a whopping 292 posts, it was my longest running feature, and wasn't always so easy. Sometimes I had a lot to say about my weekend, whether there was some major family event, holiday, or music story to share. Other times all I could manage was a “Wow the weekend went fast; here's some links” style short introductory paragraph. As for the links themselves, since I'd spend time reading each article and watching each video, they sometimes took hours longer than a regular prose post. And the worst would be the games, which I had to beat before posting. Anyone who clicked all or most of the links really had insight into what surfing the net was like for MCF.

2) PBW: Photo Blog Wednesday:
While I never reached the level of photography as friends like B13, it was definitely a fun hobby that gave me an excuse to turn off the computer and get out of my room on weekends. It started as with a few shots from a cheap digital camera, and by the time I reach 287 posts, it will be rivaled only by my P-Links. Over time, with practice, I got better, and by the time I went to my first NYComicCon, I realized I might need a better camera. I got one just in time for my friend Rey's Star Wars®-themed going-away party, and the transition to better equipment was great to see. Over the last five years I feel like I've explored every inch of Long Island, and a few inches of Manhattan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. I've definitely revisited places, sometimes finding new sights and compositions. It's one hobby that I might grow tired of sometimes, but hopefully not one I'd ever give up completely.

1) Blog Party:
Sometimes, when a person moves to a new neighborhood, he or she might throw a little shindig to socialize and meet the neighbors. When I'd been doing this for a few months, I came up with a pretty good virtual equivalent, and my first party was a success! I didn't know about “carnivals” yet, or that bloggers were already gathering together to write about one topic from various perspectives. I just asked everyone for their top five(hey, five!) villains and the rest is history. Of course as the host, I found a way to bend the rules and write about 25 characters, though I did have a definitive top five among those. Other bloggers hosted parties over the years, while I hosted 8 of my own, and all total I had 30 posts in this category. After a while though, a person settles in to a neighborhood, and parties and socializing dwindles. Things become routine and familiar, but the memories of those early parties are eternal.

I won't ask what your favorites were, but in true Blog Party fashion I am going to cheat and give honorable mentions here to a few that didn't make the list: The M.C.F.A.T., my version of a meme in which I provided my own questions before getting answers from myself and my readers, and various games I came up with, including Perilous! and MCF's COMMON. Also T.I.L.T., Poll of Randomosity, Words About Bond, WWW; Weekend Wrental Wreviews, Answer in Song, Bracket Blogs and A Movie Thing were also things.

8

Phantasmic Links 10.4.10

2010-10-04T00:35:00.002-04:00

It was somewhat interesting to play with the only Italian band marching in a Korean parade through Manhattan on Saturday afternoon. Still, after waiting a little over an hour to get started, we walked a few blocks in less than an hour and I made it back to the train station a lot earlier than I expected. I need not have rushed, as my train was delayed for about ten minutes anyway, and I still got home too late to drive out East to make the paintball excursion I was missing because of the gig. It was still nice to have a few hours for myself on Saturday, to rest up for next week's ComicCon. Due to the inexplicable stupidity of scheduling it on Columbus Day weekend this year, I will miss large chunks of the event on Saturday and Sunday. But on Friday I will be taking off from my day job, which unlike the bands does pay me even if I'm not there. And after my parades, I'll see if I can get over there for a couple of hours each day of the weekend as well. It's sure to be a busy weekend, which also includes my parents' 40th(or is it 39th?) wedding anniversary. So, taking advantage of this weekend's relative quiet, here's a double-sized edition of PHANTASMIC LINKS for you to enjoy!:

(1) As an artist and/or art-lover, I can certainly appreciate a difficult medium. These leaf-carvings are far more intricate and detailing than things I'd be able to draw on paper.

(2) Rest in Peace, Stephen J. Cannell. My personal favorite of yours will always be The A-Team, and of course your signature production credit.

(3) Laura Vandervoort is back on Smallville as Supergirl and, as this gallery shows, more comics accurate than ever, minus one or two finishing touches....

(4) Here's a mercifully work-safe collection of ten of the greatest nude fight scenes in comics. I don't want to know what they were thinking when they had Bruce get attacked by Dick in the shower....

(5) Break down the population of Gotham City by occupation with this highly accurate pie chart.

(6) Parents will naturally take pictures of their children, but this father gets especially creative with his.

(7) Generate random music or experiment with different button combinations to create your own rhythms and melodies.

(8) The Midiclorian Rhapsody condenses the Star Wars® prequels into six minutes, so you don't need to suffer through those movies!
Hat Tip: J-No.

(9) Wake Up The Box 2 is a sequel with the same rules and some new surprises. Strategically place wood and use simple machines in this physics puzzler to wake up the box. In most cases, there's more than one solution....

(10) Unsheets are movie posters made after a film has been released, usually by fans, and manage to capture recognizable iconic imagery through simple graphic design.

(11) History was never my strong subject in high school. Here are 10 historical myths that might surprise all of us.

(12) Chris Evans has transformed himself quite successfully into Steve Rogers, much to the surprise of the internet.

(13) In case you were wondering, here's a breakdown of the Morgan Freeman chain of command. God trumps chauffeur; seems about right.

(14) The owner of Segway, Inc. died earlier this week after driving one off a cliff. Is that irony or poetry or something else entirely? Sadly, it's not satire.
H.T.: Rey.

(15) Isaiah Mustafa(The Old Spice Guy) as Luke Cage is a scenario that practically writes itself. I think there was potential for that to be a lot funnier than it was, but the ending is definitely a great payoff.

(16) I don't know if I'd read a comic bookin which the Seinfeld cast were the greatest heroes of the DC Universe, but I'd watch the hell out of that as a sitcom.

(17) This Utility Belt replica has everything an aspiring Batman needs, including a holster for your cell phone!

(18) This minimalist superhero t-shirt breaks down a couple of heroes using simple math.

(19) The Homestar Runner Wiki has long been my definitive guide to all things Homestar Runner. Sadly, the Homestar Runner site hasn't been updated in a while, and I wonder if this long hiatus may be permanent. I'll never forget Japanese Cartoon, which was my first introduction to this internet phenomena.

(20) And finally, use this bookmarklet to play Asteroids on any webpage. Follow the instructions, and start blasting away at The Nexus or anywhere you'd like....

Thank you for clicking! 10-4, over and out!

9

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 63

2010-10-03T00:29:00.000-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 63rd WWW:

1) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons:
The fifth film based on the manga finds Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro back on the road. After the injuries he sustained battling his archenemy Retsudo at the end of the fourth movie, I wasn't sure what condition our hero would be in. Japanese culture continues to baffle me as a clan intent on hiring the assassin send several messengers to test him, knowing that Itto's success will mean their death. Each one carries another piece of the message, until he has his complete assignment. The clan's honor is at stake, with the daughter of their previous leader masquerading as her brother, the true successor. This is one of the darker films in the series as we see how soulless a killer Itto can be. I thought his personal experience might give him pause, and at one point in the movie he actually spares someone. It could be a turning point for a man who considers himself and his son to always be at the crossroads to Hell, but sooner or later a road must be chosen. Spiritual matters, family tragedy, nor masked warriors can stay the blade of the deadly ronin, much to Retsudo's fury. Once Itto has accepted an assignment, he sees it through to the end.

2) Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell:
The sixth and final film in this series is on par with many of the others, though not as final as I would have liked. I had made the mistake of reading how the manga ended, so I suppose I should be grateful that I didn't spoil the film series by doing so. Retsudo's actions finally catch up to him as he faces disgrace for continually allowing Ogami Itto to slip through his grasp. The Yagyu patriarch has already lost three sons, but now sends his daughter and her deadly knife juggling technique against Ogami Itto's deadly Suioryu “horse-slaying” style. The film has a certain finality as our protagonist's visit the grave of Itto's wife and Daigoro's mother, with a few clips of her demise from the first film thrown in to remind us why father and son live the life that they do. The baby cart is in full effect, with guns that penetrate concrete, hidden blades, and Itto's bladed staff all making their last appearance. Retsudo is so desperate, he even turns to an illegitimate son living in the woods with a fairly creepy clan. The son refuses to kill the ronin for his father, but pursues him in the name of his own adopted clan. Their technique includes burying warriors alive for well over a month, a ritual they believe creates beings above life and death. Though not actual zombies, they're still pretty resilient, and pretty scary as they kill from the shadows and burrow underground like serpents. Itto continues to be a master strategist, and while his enemies' technique of instilling fear by killing all the innocents around their target initially works, he once again proves that choosing where to fight can greatly improve one's odds. And so we go North, to a snowy plain where burrowing underground is no longer an advantage. Ever the master of overkill, Retsudo soon follows with a full army in tow. We get to see ski-attachments on the baby cart and we see snow stained red with blood. In the end, this one concludes much like the others in the series. I liked that they managed to keep the same cast through six films. Harry Potter will end up with eight films, which I though was unprecedented, but then here's this samurai series from the ‘70s. I wonder if more were planned, but except for one loose end, this did seem to be wrapping things up. As I understand it, there was a 78-episode television series with different actors that covered the books more completely. Thematically, the balance of the stern, stone-faced killer and his curious little boy was a good one. The killer-with-child motif would pop up again in the coming decades, in films such as The Professional or more recently Kick-Ass. It's a nice juxtaposition that humanizes a killer while raising the stakes and giving him someone to protect and care about, after he's stopped caring about himself. Overall, I'd have to give this series 4-4.5 out of 5 stars.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

10

Metaphysics 101

2010-10-02T00:21:00.003-04:00

”You’re going to Hell, you know.”

The Party Man in Black leaned forward, allowing his sunglasses to slide down his nose. One hand gripped the door frame with the same intensity his other hand held on to his beer bottle. He regarded Altar Boy with a mix of disdain and amusement.

“A little old to still be carrying that thing, aren’t we?”

“I don’t think 8 years was a long time.”

“Yeah. 8 years out there. Here, maybe you can recycle this.”

The Altar Boy sidestepped to avoid the flung bottle, which was deftly caught by a short, balding man with thick spectacles. It clinked as he dropped it into a large sack. The Party Man in Black snorted.

“Nice catch, Math Boy.”

“3.14159265....”

“Whatever. It’s 6 AM. Try not to calculate too loudly while I slee--”

All three individuals clasped their ears as the lower brass portion of an Italian march suddenly blared.

“Enough. With. The. TUBA!” they shouted in near unison.

“Hey, eeets-a no too-bah! Ees Baritone Horn!” It was hard to see the Musician’s smile underneath his thick black mustache, or read his eyes beneath the brim of his red-white-and-green cap, but there certainly seemed to be mirth in his voice, with a hint of weariness. The music faded slightly as he strolled down one of the many long, labyrinthian corridors surrounding them.

“All of you. You’re all driving me to drink.” The Party Man in Black fell face forward on his mattress and began snoring loudly.

“Sinful.” scoffed the Altar Boy.

“Actually, by my calculations, he goes out an average of 1 to 3 times per year. The percentage isn’t that bad when compared to how often Worker is out there. It’s a necessary evil to alter other probabilities.”

The Math Boy nodded to various coffin-like metal boxes lining the shelves of one row. Plaques with words such as “Homeowner”, “Boyfriend”, “Husband”, and “Father” were visible, and each was hooked up to a monitor. Lines ran across each screen, along with a faint beeping, and each component was linked in a daisy chain of wires. A thin film of dust lay over the entire set-up.

“Monitoring these screens requires an increase in focus by seventy-three point--”

“Shhhh!” came an aggravated admonition from a nearby couch, “I’m trying to watch THIS screen!”

Math Boy shook his head sadly upon being scolded by the potato with the googly eyes. Spud was a creature of singular focus when his shows were on, and when his shows weren’t on there were DVDs. When there weren’t DVDs, he’d borrow Surfer’s computer and watch his shows there.

“I need to update my census,” muttered the Math Boy to everyone and no one in particular, “I’m beginning to lose track of everyone. Who’s active? Who’s deceased? Who’s dormant? Has anyone seen Singer? Music Lover? Dancer? Breakdancer? Shutterbug is barely around anymore. Runner comes through here 4 or 5 times a week, but at an average speed of 7.5 MPH, he doesn’t hear any of us. We might as well not exist. I’ve tried to warn him that the levels on Snackingest are increasing exponentially in proportion to the cooling weather, that Snackingest will trip him up at the first opportunity. At that speed, the result will be catastrophic.”

“Shutupshutupshutup!” came Party Man’s muffled voice from within his pillow. “We. Don’t. Care. And since when do you wear glasses?”

“Our parents wear glasses. I’ve always worn glasses. In here. For well over 11,000 days, if not more. There’s an algorithm which....”

But the Party Man in Black wasn’t listening. He was already out. His mattress was now a sealed metal cylinder, his name etched at the foot of it. The lights in the labyrinth dimmed. The blue walls and red linoleum faded. In the void, only the metal cylinders remained, and each closed with a hiss as they devoured their respective occupants. Math Boy was almost the last one to return to his. In the darkness, even Musician was silent. The only sound which remained was the clacking of the Surfer’s keys, always the last sound.

“Numbers don’t lie.” yawned Math Boy, his eyelids heavy. “All must total up to 100%, no more, no less. Not all of us can coexist at the same intensity. By my predictions, a shift is upon us. A major one. A necessary one. All that remains is....all that remains...all....good....th....”

11

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 8

2010-10-01T00:33:00.001-04:00

Cloakfest 2K10 is almost over! August 2010 is behind us, which leaves me only one more complete month to recapitulate:

September, 2010

PBW: Light Show
A little experiment with a small keychain flashlight and long exposure yields surprisingly fresh results.

My Plate Runneth Over
I'm almost always a busy guy, between my day job and my weekend gigs, so the last thing I need added to the list is a property dispute. But when a jerk goes after my dad, he goes after my whole family....

MCF vs. the L.I. Universe
It took some extra effort to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World after poor ratings took it out of most theaters after a mere two or three weeks, but it was totally worth it, easily in my top 3-5 movies for the year.

MCF's 2010 Watchlist
I may be a busy guy, but I make time for television, though this year brings fewer shows and, thus far, not many promising new ones. Maybe I'm not busy enough.

The Miracle of Cubby
They say cats have nine lives, but I think my mom's cat has used far more than that. I've lost track of how many times we thought we'd have to say goodbye this year, only to have him make a comeback. Our vet rocks. My mom rocks.

AFK in AC
I'd only been there once before, and missed two other opportunities to go earlier this year. Acting against type, I plan to play hooky and have some fun for a weekend getaway.

Always Bet on Odd
I have a great time on my mini-vacation, and even win a few games of roulette, applying my powers of improbability to my own benefit for a change. But nothing lasts forever, and all things must end some time....

PBW: Boardwalk Quagmire
Behold day one of my weekend escape!

The Monday of all Mondays
The last week of our last September begins with gloomy weather, corrupt computer files, and bad television reception. But a Monday like that can't last all week...or can it...?

PBW: Fountains of Win
Day 2 of my weekend escape was mostly about checking out of a hotel and sleeping on a train for a few hours, but that didn't stop me from getting a few more cool pictures before making a reluctant return to reality.

Shifty Priorities
Guy works for band. Band leaders lie to guy about job being canceled and screw him over. Guy later gives up personal plans to play for band, and screws self over. Guy begins to question priorities.

* * *

And that's what I wrote about in September 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will conclude with a review of the next twelve days, and something more....

12

Shifty Priorities

2010-09-30T00:00:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, I just don't understand the way my own mind works.

For about three years now, one of the Italian bands I play for has made a pilgrimage to a shrine in Pennsylvania to play in honor of Padre Pio. It wasn't a bad gig, especially since we were able to hitch a ride on tour buses taking visitors there from Long Island and Brooklyn. It was always a nice day, and on two occasions my mom even came along for the trip. Back in April of this year, the woman who usually hires us came to one of our feasts in Brooklyn, and told us she was looking forward to seeing us in September. However, as the year went on, the band leader and his son told us that the job had “fallen through”.

Part of me was disappointed, but I got over it quickly enough. I had plenty of gigs with them this year, along with four other bands. One day off wouldn't kill me financially, and might even be good for me emotionally. My father, meanwhile, was suspicious. Last year they lied to two of their regular trumpet players and used a band leader from a New Jersey group and some of his guys instead. I didn't understand why they would lie. If you're a leader, it's your decision who you use, for whatever reason. I don't think it's so hard to man up and say, “Hey sorry guys, I've got someone else on this one, but I'll hire you next time.” I'm not a leader, though. Still, lying seems worse and compounds getting passed over for someone else.

I guess I fall victim to my ego, sometimes. For all the times my dad has said things like, “You're the whole band! They can't do it without you carrying them!”, I've actually started to believe it, like I'm some kind of lower brass quarterback. The truth is, anyone is replaceable. About a week before the job was originally going to take place, the band leader's son and I were playing a gig for the Jersey band leader. At the end of a long day, the leader told the guy he'd see him the following Saturday. I asked him if he had something but he denied it. Perhaps I had misheard. In any event, I had already made plans since the weekend was free, and would be enjoying a mini-vacation in Atlantic City. I have almost no regrets about that, save for getting my credit card bill and realizing I didn't “break even” when I factored in travel expenses.

The following week, I had a job with the Brooklyn group in Queens. They had a big band of about 14 musicians, consisting of their regular members, as well as a few “ringers” from the Jersey group. When some ladies from the society in Pennsylvania showed up and commented, “Hey it's the same band from last week!”, I couldn't help but be suspicious. The band leader just looked really uncomfortable, his eyes darting back and forth and then to the ground. Later in the day, at one of our food stops at someone's house, the woman who runs the Pennsylvania job said hello to me and the two trumpet players. “This is a different band than we had last week,” she commented, fully aware of the situation. We all just smiled uncomfortably, not knowing how to respond. “I know, you guys are the New York crew!” This was true, although not the truth as to why we weren't included.

I was a little mad at my Brooklyn leaders for the rest of the afternoon. I really didn't care if they didn't use me for the job, especially since it freed me up to have some fun with my friends. I could even guess their reasons. Neither of them drive, and on one occasion when no tour bus was available, they rented a van and had our bass drummer drive us. But he's been out of commission with a torn tendon in his ankle, and they probably lost money on the rental that time anyway. The son expressed surprise when I told him the bill included gasoline, which wasn't in the estimate the woman gave him over the phone. The Jersey guys live a lot closer, so it was probably easier for him and his father to take a train in and hitch a ride with them. I understand why some of us were excluded; I just don't get why they lied about it. I don't get why they lied so stupidly, as though we weren't going to find out. And I don't get why they still didn't come clean after it was obvious that the ladies from Pennsylvania had spilled the beans.

On Sunday I played another parade with these guys, and drove them to it after meeting them at a train station. I thought it would be awkward, but none of us brought up the subject of Pennsylvania. Maybe they didn't know that I knew. Maybe I should have said something. But they had no problem asking for a ride; the son said to me the day before, “So when should we meet you tomorrow?” He didn't ask if they could get a ride, but when. And afterwards, they asked me if I could hold on to the bass drum until their next parade in two weeks. Over the years these people have become like family, apparently to the point that they expect me to be a good guy and help them out. Perhaps the bigger idiot isn't the one with the oblivious sense of entitlement, but the one who helps out in spite of knowing people are using him.

I guess I was raised to put others before myself, to believe that the more inconvenienced I am, the more value there is to doing a good deed. I also find that leisure time is more enjoyable when I feel like I've earned it. I enjoy a cold glass of water, but I enjoy it more after I've gone four or five hours working in the hot sun. It's a weird hedonism-only-after-masochism dynamic of extremes. In any event, I had two weeks before I had to see these people again, and I was looking forward to playing paintball with my buddies this weekend. I make plans; music leaders laugh. Sure enough, my cell phone buzzed while I was watching television on Tuesday night. It was the band leader's son. I ignored it. Seconds later, our land line rang. I told my dad to let it go on the machine because I knew who it was. He didn't leave a message though, instead calling my cell phone a second time. When there was an intermission, I checked to see that he had left a voicemail marked urgent. The Jersey leader had a gig on Saturday morning in the city, and needed me.

“You're crazy if you go with them!” grumped my dad from the kitchen, where he was listening to baseball on the radio. “You go play ball with your friends!” It's funny; at some point my parents stopped telling me I was lazy, that I needed to be a hard worker like they were. “You don't see your father and I taking breaks!” was one of my mom's sayings. For some reason, the minute I started following their example and instructions, I stopped listening and didn't notice that they'd changed their tune. Maybe kids just need to do the opposite of what parents tell them. Maybe parents just need to tell kids the opposite of what they're doing. Maybe all human beings are inexplicable creatures who deliberately choose the opposite of our instincts.

As I watched television, I wrestled with the decision before me. The responsible thing would be to do the job. I couldn't turn down work to go play; I'm an adult. On the other hand, I told my friends I probably could make it, and now four days before I was about to cancel on them. I was also not inclined to go play alongside two guys who had lied to me, along with a group of people with whom they had replaced me and other regular players. But it would be bad business to allow personal feelings to get in the way of earning money. In the end, the math wasn't adding up the way I wanted it to, and I'm a slave to mathematics. If I played paintball, I'd not only be losing the money from the gig, but spending more money. If I played the job, I'd not only make a few extra bucks, but I'd save the expense of paintball. I was leaning toward the gig, and not liking it. I planned to sleep on it and call the guy back in the morning with my answer; it was late anyway.

Around 9 PM, our house phone rang again. Once more, he hung up when the answering machine came on, and once more he called my cell phone. My show was over, and this time I answered. Like an outside observer, I listened to myself tersely respond and ask for details. What time? Where were we meeting? Could I do it? Yeah, I could do it. Within about a minute, my weekend plans had changed.

I felt weird, almost depressed, with that sort of lump in my throat one gets on the verge of crying. My mom, overhearing what I'd just done, actually said it was “sad” that I'd “thrown away my recreation”. Who were these people, and where were they when I was growing up? I e-mailed my friend the bad news, feeling rotten, and he didn't take it well, which made me feel worse. Logically, it seems like the right decision. Work and responsibility are the priorities of an adult, right? It's immature to want to go out and have fun, at least at the expense of accomplishing work, right? It's really nagging at me, though there's no going back now. I had my chance to tell the band that I already had plans for the weekend, and I didn't. It's not like this would be my last opportunity to play paintball, and I'm not upset about missing it so much as having to ditch my buddies at the last minute. And it's made worse by the fact that I was mad at the band people for lying to me a few weeks ago.

Sometimes, I just don't understand the way my own mind works. There's a split between doing what I want to do, and doing what other people need me to do. Everything from my faith to my family has taught me that it's wrong to be selfish, to put myself before others. My dad, at 80, still pushes himself, still climbs ladders and works on cars, and finds frustration in the limitations imposed on him by his heart condition. If he's not working, he doesn't see the point in being alive. My mom is constantly working on her garden, or making crafts, and is spending the week getting ready to volunteer at a craft fair, in between cooking dinner and taking care of an ailing senior cat. They don't socialize all that much, save for the occasional phone conversation with their friends. But sometimes, they don't seem too happy, and I wonder if the shift in their advice to me, the sudden repetition of “We want you to go out!” over other catchphrases is the realization that they might not want me to follow their path entirely.

I've always struggled with balance in all things, as much as I recognize balance as the most important thing of all. A little playing isn't a bad thing once in a while; it's not like I party and then call in sick to my day job. I get my work done. I got so much work done this year, that I find myself with 8 unused vacation days three months before the year is over. Can it be? Can it be the lazy kid who would rather watch cartoons than hand his dad wrenches has become so responsible, that all forms of work are a priority? I think I sometimes create work for myself in order to avoid fun, and I don't understand that. It's like the more I go to one extreme, the harder it is to fight the flow and get back to the middle.

Something needs to change, and I need to start pushing back against the current. I messed up this time, at my own expense. I don't want to do this again. I don't know that I won't....

13

PBW: Fountains of Win

2010-09-29T00:00:00.005-04:00

My Saturday in Atlantic City didn't end when the sun went down. After a nap, I left my camera in my room, and began a series of adventures which didn't end until 6:30 AM, an official new record for the latest I ever stayed out. Yet somehow I had enough energy on Sunday morning to play(and win) a few more games of roulette, and get a few pictures in a nearby pier/mall before reluctantly making my way to the train station, and my journey back to New York, and reality. This is the conclusion of my AC Photo Blog Wednesday:

Yeah, that bit of train graffiti confirmed that I was back in New York.

14

The Monday of all Mondays

2010-09-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems like every Monday has been dreary and rainy lately. Granted, since I took a vacation day last Monday, and the weather was actually nice enough for me to do yardwork, I can't complain about last week. Tuesday may or may not have been a rainy “Monday”. The week prior, Monday did fit this bleak description. And this week, the cold drizzle returned with a vengeance.

I’m one of those people who find days without meetings to be the most productive. I'm one of those people who, when faced with a clean slate, will inevitably face a barrage of interruptions. I used to think I was unique in such improbability, but as time goes on, I realize I'm no different than the rest of you. We all have bad luck and bad days, some more than others. We all have our challenges; it's how we face them that sets us apart.

Other than crummy weather and a few interruptions, my Monday wasn't all that bad. I didn't get done as much as I wanted to, but then I never do. Part of it is setting my goals too high, and part of it is reality. And for some reason, my most productive hour is often between 5 and 6 PM. I accomplished quite a bit in that key hour on Monday afternoon, but I did notice some images in the file I was working on were not displaying properly. It looked like some kind of memory issue, and the fastest solution in those matters is to save, quit, and relaunch the application. That's exactly what I did, and that's exactly when my Monday became a MONDAY.

“Your file cannot be opened with this version of _________” was the message I got when I tried to reopen the file. I wasn't panicking yet. I opened a few other files to make sure it wasn't the application, then I opened an older version of the file from my manual backup folder. I've been burned by this particular Program-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named before, so I make a point of saving copies of my work at various points of progress. My older version was fine, but of course didn't reflect the work I'd done in the past hour. And I'd done a lot.

I looked online for solutions. I tried renaming the file, and changing its extension. I even found an auto-backup on my harddrive that the program creates. For some reason, this file was 250X bigger than the original, and gave a new and (in hindsight) hilarious error message every time I tried to open it. “You cannot anchor that item to text box.” “Thank you your trial version has expired.” Not one message made any sense, and finally I gave up, went to the gym, and ran four miles.

The weather was still crummy when I drove home, and Chuck was definitely the high point of my day. Technology burned me again when I checked my digital converter box and discovered it was off. Apparently, we'd had a brief power outage during the day. It wasn't enough to mess up my VCR, which was still recording, but with the box off, all I got was static instead of How I Met Your Mother. And then the reception on my box began to act up during The Event, during crucial scenes. I think The President's advisors told him a group of people were aliens, but I'm not sure. The scene was like, “These people are R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R...” and suddenly it was like I was watching Max Headroom. Thank God TV shows are also available online nowadays. As much as technology was the bane of my existence on Monday, it also helped me.

Tuesday is another day. Remembering what I'd designed, it won't take an hour to get back to where I'd left off. It's just annoying to have to do the same work twice. But these things are bound to happen. Whether I'm doing work or watching television, a storm, surge, or random glitch can make for a bumpy road. The question is, am I a slave to the technology, or a slave to fate? The one thing I learned from the casinos is that the longer you do anything, the more likely you are to lose. Maybe I should have left work at 5 PM. No matter what, I'd be doing the same thing Tuesday morning, but it wouldn't be a second time. Or maybe it simply would have happened then, setting me back to Tuesday afternoon. You can't predict fate. You just have to learn from experience, and make an educated guess as to when it's the best time to jump. Then jump, pull the cord, and pray to God that the parachute isn't a knapsack.

15

Phantasmic Links 9.27.10

2010-09-27T00:00:00.000-04:00

After Atlantic City, I was pretty sure this weekend would suck by comparison. The trip to the dentist I was dreading on Saturday morning turned out great when I found out that I not only didn't have any cavities, but what I thought was a cracked tooth was merely an excess piece of a filling from my visit six months ago. “You had an extra piece,” explained my awesome dentist, “I have already removed it; I just need to polish it.” When I got home to check, it looked like a perfectly intact tooth; no crack, no white spot, no indication that there's even a filling there. On Saturday afternoon I played a decent gig, although the band leader's son apparently got into some kind of argument with the society president, so we might not be back next year. At this point I could care less. I found out there was a job last weekend that they didn't use their regular guys for, when the ladies from the out-of-state society were at Saturday's job and flat out commented, “Hey this is a different crew than last week!” I don't mind not going to every job; it does bother me that those guys feel the need to lie about it. I didn't mind having a weekend off to do something fun, and I want these bands to have back-up musicians so it's not such a big deal when I have another gig or a personal affair to attend instead of one of theirs. On Sunday, we played the world's longest short parade. It was only six blocks, but we didn't start for about an hour, and it took another hour to get to the end with everyone stopping to perform or make speeches at the reviewing stand. Financially, this was a better weekend than last weekend, and though it wasn't as much fun, it wasn't as bad as I feared. In other words, I can't complain. What I can do is relax, and surf through some PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) I know it's a (very well done) fan-made trailer, but I would watch the hell out of Pokémon Apokélypse if it were a real movie.

(2) Thinking about doing your own plumbing work? Here are 15 disastrous DIY plumbing attempts that might make you reconsider.

(3) Charlie Brown + Hellboy = HELLBROWN. Awesome.

(4) Listen to the Super Mario Bros. dungeon theme as it was meant to be played....death metal style.
Hat Tip: B13.

(5) This interactive map of Middle Earth is a true testament to the worldbuilding of Tolkien.
H.T.: J-No.

(6) Chris Sims, the internet's foremost Batmanologist, picks his favorite title cards from the animated series. Those things really were works of art in themselves; you can check out a gallery of them here.

(7) After The Avengers, could these be the next Marvel properties to make it to the big screen?

(8) Apparently, there's some kind of major spelling error in this school billboard. Me, I look at that, shrug, and think strippers need to go to school somewhere....
H.T.: J-No.

(9) And this week's “holy crap I'm getting old” moment comes in the form of the news that Teri Hatcher is going to play Lois Lane's mom in the final season of Smallville.

(10) Speaking of final, I wonder if Robot Wants Ice Cream is truly the last game in that series. They've been so much fun.

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

16

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 62

2010-09-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 62nd WWW:

1) Youth in Revolt:
While at first glance, this seems to be Michael Cera doing his usual routine, an awkward intelligent guy trying to impress his dream girl, there are a few things which set it apart from his usual fare. When Cera's Nick Twisp goes on a camping trip with his mother(Jean Smart) and her dirtbag boyfriend(Zach Galifianakis), he meets and falls for a girl named Sheemi(Portia Doubleday). Sheemi has a love of all things French and speaks with the same pretend pretentious air about things well before her generation as Nick does. The two seem to have that in common, escaping their trailer park lives by elevating themselves. Sheemi is already dating Trent, the most popular guy at her school who writes her some truly terrible poetry, and when Nick's trip comes to an end, he realizes he needs to step up his game. The kids work out a plan in which Sheemi helps Nick's dad(Steve Buscemi in a great but all-too brief role) get a job near where she lives. But convincing his mom to let him move in with his dad will require the docile teen to dig deep and find his bad side. This is where the movie had the potential to separate itself from other Cera films. He creates an alternate imaginary persona named “Francois Dillinger”. The 20-something actor ditches his slight falsetto, and adds a mustache, cigarette, and blue contact lenses. This aspect was what appealed to me in the trailers, and I wish the film spent more time with Francois, a far more interesting character. Obviously no one else sees him, but they do some clever things with split screen or simply having the “evil” twin interact when Nick is acting out. Overall, there's an independent film vibe to the piece, and its definitely a coming-of-age story. Sheemi's Christian parents catch wind of some of the things Nick-as-Francois has done, and end up sending her away to school. This leads to some standard teen sex comedy hijinks with Fred Willard as an eventual accomplice. Justin Long also has a great part as Sheemi's drug-addled older brother. He's definitely an actor who sinks his teeth into cameos extremely different from the starring roles he usually takes. In addition to some of the split screen stuff, there are a few interesting animated interludes. I've since read that this movie was based on a series of books about the Twisp character, and in light of that it comes in at a remarkably short running time of about an hour-and-a-half. With the exception of Year One(which was just awful), this is probably my least favorite Cera movie, even though I did like it(just not as wholeheartedly as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Superbad, or Nick and Norah's infinite Playlist). They definitely could have had more fun with the alter-ego persona, but it does end on a great note, particularly the last line of the film which was excellent.

2) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril:
Four movies in to the manga-based series, and ronin Ogami Itto is still wandering with his son Daigoro. Some key things happen in this one beyond his pursuit of a topless tattooed female warrior. He's finally separated from the kid for a while, and we get to see what Daigoro is turning into. Another warrior notes the lack of fear in the eyes of the child, even when he finds himself trapped in a burning field. He has seen death; he has walked the path of the warrior. Ogami's son is well on his way to following in his father's footsteps. Meanwhile, we finally learn the reason why Ogami was framed and disgraced by his enemies, and his usual one man vs. an army sequence ends with a confrontation with his greatest enemy Retsudo. Before he gets there, he resolves the situation with the tattooed lady as well as her father, and we get more insight into the notion of dying with honor in this culture. And after his big confrontation, we end on the most uncertain note of all in the series. More than ever, we see that Ogami is human, not the demon he has always proclaimed himself to be. He acknowledges that he and his son walk on the crossroads to hell, and when ninjas continue to crawl over and bite him even after losing their limbs, one can understand his sentiment. He bleeds, but he's not dead yet, for when he dies, the boy will die. Their fates are linked, so he keeps going through sheer force of will. The fights are bloodier, the music is seventies-ier, and the stakes are higher than ever. I like the continuity between the movies, as Ogami still bears a scar down his back from a fight in the previous film against an honorable foe, so it’s a safe bet that the unfinished business with Retsudo and a few other foes will come back to haunt him in the final two installments.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

17

Poll of Randomosity Seventeen

2010-09-25T00:13:00.000-04:00

Hey! It's the Nexus feature everybody(or nobody) wanted to see one more time! Remember the old Poll of Randomosity? Here's my SEVENTEENTH set of TEN random questions for us to answer together:

1) Did you catch the final season premiere of Smallville, and if so, what did you think?

2) And if you caught the sixth season premiere of Supernatural, what did you think of that?

3) How do you feel about going to the dentist?

4) When do you stop working?

5) Do you ever get head rushes?

6) What will be the first new show of the Fall television season to be canceled?

7) Would you rather be invulnerable but blind, or be completely paralyzed with all your other senses intact?

8) Do you believe in randomosity?

9) Have you ever suffered from ”Senioritis”?

10) What's the deal with the numbers?

For me, the answers are:

1) I thought it was awesome, but the premieres and finales of this show have historically been great, even in the weaker seasons. I won't spoil anything, but it was great to see one original cast member make an appearance, and disappointing to see a sub-par stand-in for another original. I hope that particular actor makes a return in the finale. I do like how the gloves are completely off with referencing other characters from the comics, especially the little CGI tease of this season's true “big bad”. They managed in one episode to reference things all the way from the first season, while demonstrating how far they've come, and how far they potentially can go in the next 20 episodes or so. I just hope they don't mess it up.

2) I was worried about it, because it was planned to be a five season show and ended so perfectly last year. After battling the devil himself for two seasons, I wasn't sure how they could go back to a monster-of-the-week formula. The premiere was average, and was fine as a standalone episode. When compared to what they had been doing, it fell a little short, but it's not as bad as it could have been. This probably should be the last season though. It's important to end on a high note.

3) Normally, I look forward to the experience. I've only had four cavities, and that's four more than I would have liked, even though I made it well into my 20s before the first one. On my last visit I needed two fillings, and in the months since I've noticed what looks like a crack in one of my front teeth. I'm hoping that's just the seam of one of the fillings, since one side of the tooth looks whiter than the other. In any case, I have an appointment this weekend which had been delayed a few weeks, so while I'm nervous I'm also relieved that I'll finally find out what it is, and what needs to be done to correct it. I have a great dentist, so I'm sure he can help me.

4) Officially, I should be done by 5 PM. Most nights I leave the office around 6:30, although some of my time after work is spent gabbing with friends about movies or photography. Mentally, my brain never stops and sometimes a solution to a problem I had during the day will pop in to my brain at night. In the middle of writing this post I had to stop to e-mail myself at work, since I'll never remember by Monday morning the solution I'd thought up. I don't get paid to think when I'm not at the office, but my brain seems to do it anyway.

5) Once in a while when I stand up too quickly, the room may spin. It hasn't happened in a while, but I had a pretty bad one on Thursday. I got back to my desk after walking to the printer and felt very dizzy. My heart also raced as I considered the sensation that I might be passing out, but that was likely anxiety creeping in. The technical term for the experience is Orthostatic hypotension, and considering I'd had a LOT of sugar and caffeine that day and had been seated for a while before getting up, I don't think I should be too concerned.

6) From what I've seen so far, I'm going to guess Running Wilde. I like the actors but they've done better, and the network they're on has also canceled better shows. Of course, they've also kept worse ones, so we shall see.

7) That's a horrible choice, but as much of a visual person as I am, I wouldn't want to lose the freedom of motion, and not being able to be hurt would make the blindness easier to deal with.

8) I believe in the appearance of randomosity, but that there is always a pattern bigger than what we can see. That which appears random is always part of a larger tapestry.

9) I never did during my school years, no. When I was younger, I could keep the same level of quality work right until the end.

10) I think they had something to do with Jacob's list, although that still didn't make it clear why the same six were a serial number, or wreaked such havoc on luck when played in a lottery....I'm honestly fuzzy on the whole thing. Those numbers, right?

And you, my loyal readers? Where do you stand on these inquiries?

18

The Best.

2010-09-24T00:12:00.000-04:00

The best comedy on NBC is Community.

The best old lady is Betty White. (sorry, Ma!)

The best ice cream flavor is Cookies ‘n Cream.

The best pizza comes from New York.

The best day of the week is Friday.

The best incarnation of The Beast is ape-like.

The best James Bond is Sean Connery.

The best time to go back to sleep is on a Saturday morning, after waking up from a dream that it was a weekday and you had to go to work.

The best returning drama on broadcast television is Fringe.

The best new drama is Boardwalk Empire.

The best number is 333.

The best live-action Lex Luthor is Michael Rosenbaum.

The best animated Lex Luthor is Clancy Brown.

The best timeless rock band is The Beatles.

The best grunge band is Pearl Jam.

The best things in life are free.

The best time to quit is while you're ahead.

19

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 7

2010-09-23T00:22:00.001-04:00

Cloakfest 2K10 lives on! July 2010 is done, which means we're up to August already! I can't believe it's going so fast.

August, 2010

Running Out of Time.
Every year I participate in a 5K run against other Long Island professionals, and every year I get a bit faster. I wonder before this year's race if I'll be fast enough, when there's no more time left to prepare...

faster.
Oh, I was fast enough. Surprisingly, so...

My Marvel Weapon Five
I know they're not real, but they're pretty damn cool anyway.

PBW: Cuz He's 50.
I can't possibly have a 50-year-old cousin yet, can I? Because that would make me....nahhh. I'm still a kid.

Sensitivity Zero
I usually keep things light and avoid tackling sensitive subjects, but after wrestling with one hot topic for a few weeks I need to work out my thoughts. Having the right to do something should not supersede taking how others will feel about doing that thing into consideration.

* * *

And that's what I wrote about in August 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will continue....

20

PBW: Boardwalk Quagmire

2010-09-22T00:09:00.006-04:00

Picture it: Atlantic City, 2010. A blogger and his friends find themselves with an interesting conundrum. Even after a night that ended around 5:30 AM, they have hours of sunlight on a Saturday afternoon to kill before they even think about gambling or drinking. Fortunately, the blogger brings his camera, and it’s a beautiful day to walk along the beach, not the dreary, rainy experience from his first visit. And so begins a Photo Blog Wednesday that does more justice to Atlantic City. Below you’ll see what I saw on Saturday, from our room to the beach and more, and next week I’ll share what I saw the next day before reluctantly journeying back to real life.

21

Always Bet on Odd.

2010-09-21T00:51:00.002-04:00

The first time I visited Atlantic City, I did what any self-respecting idiot would do: I fed $60 bucks into a slot machine and lost it all within minutes. I then went from machine to machine trying to win it back, printing out vouchers, popping in twenties, and generally acting like I wasn't playing with real money. Mind you, this all happened before I'd had my first drink.

This was not a good time. In fact, I began to feel anger and remorse at letting my buddy talk me into going to the worst arcade ever. Then I settled in at a roulette table. A waitress brought over some drinks, on the house. The game was more interesting than the slot machines, and sometimes I actually won. In the end, I still walked away from the table with less than I started with, but then you don't win money playing video games either. You pay to be entertained, and I felt like I was doing that. The slots were just these super-efficient money donation machines in which you pushed the same button over and over and never had any control of the odds.

I did a little better on my last trip. Oh, there was one slot machine that ate 20 bucks as a reminder of my first experience, but I was a little wiser overall. I stuck with roulette, and found three ways to play. One was the traditional kind with a dealer at a table and real chips. Another was completely virtual, played on a giant touch screen. A third was a hybrid, in which players sat around with individual touch screens, but an actual dealer and wheel stood in the middle of us. At the classic version I lost 20 bucks, then bought another $20 worth of chips, and played until I had $62, at which point I quit. I found I had better luck sticking with things like “odd” or “black”, where I had roughly a 50-50 shot at winning. Picking specific numbers for the ball in the wheel to land on paid more, but the odds were tougher. Like all things financial, more risk gets more reward.

We stayed for two days, this time. I caught a train with one friend after work on Friday and didn't get there until 11 PM. It was a fun ride that included a conversation with a cute girl who needed to charge her phone near our seats. She was only a college student, heading home for a wedding, but despite being young, pleasant conversation helped us all pass the time. Two of my friends had driven up already. After one guy finished a poker tournament, we took a break to enjoy some 20-year-old bourbon then headed back out to the floors, where our adventures included my aforementioned roulette win. By 5 AM, it had been a long night, but didn't include as many of the mistakes I'd made my first time. I think stopping for breakfast at the hotel diner where a very annoyed waiter took 45 minutes to bring me horrible pancakes may have been the worst thing I did.

Saturday was where things got dangerous. I didn't sleep well since I never do when I'm away from my own bed. I got 3, maybe 4 solid hours of sleep. We didn't want to start drinking or gambling too early, and wandering the boardwalk taking photos killed only so much time. I did discover the roulette video game which allowed bets as small as a dollar on which I actually doubled my money after playing for a bit. I also made the mistake of getting some pizza, after ironically chastising my friends the night before about getting pizza outside of New York. I should have taken my own advice. Back at the hotel room, watching Terminator 2 killed some time, especially as I dozed through some of the loudest bits. I awoke to one friend heading out to test his luck again. When he returned, he was up $150.00. Another friend came in and took a nap in his room, while the guy who was winning went back out. Later he returned to say he'd lost it all. We all got dinner at The Rainforest Café, possibly the loudest theme restaurant ever. Even the screeching animatronic animals did nothing to dispel the bad dance music playing in various bars. Some were better than others, but by the 900th time I heard this one, they could have turned off all the speakers and the music would still be bouncing in my head. “They play whatever crap keeps the girls moving,” explained one of my friends. When he put it that way, I suppose it made sense. In one bar, I heard a crash, only to see two feet sticking out under the curtain surrounding it. Friends of that overserved young lady rushed over to help her back to her feet. Thankfully, the floor broke her fall.

My best win was at the hybrid roulette, where I turned 20 dollars into 50, and promptly cashed out. I began to think I had a “system”, and figured that if I placed two equal bets that covered 2/3 of the board, I had a 66% chance of doubling my money since a winning bet in those sections paid 3 to 1. Obviously, luck is still a factor, and no one should be deluded into thinking a system exists. I was pretty lucky, and kept doubling my money, but I also played with caution, and a few times came close to losing everything. The key was walking away when I was up. With any game in any casino, the longer you play, the greater chance you'll lose. Know when to walk away. Know when to RUN.

Surprisingly, I outlasted everyone else on Saturday. One guy drove home during the day to get back to his wife and kid. Another, who didn't take a nap in the afternoon, went up to our rooms early. A third finally called it a night at 5 AM, probably the first time he's ever left a party before I did. I probably should have done the same instead of staying out for another hour, but I did meet a charming young prostitute when I was walking back to the hotel. “You dropped something,” called out a stumbling chocolate fantasy, as I fumbled in my pockets and doubled back to the sidewalk scrutinizing the ground. “What did I drop?” I asked naively. “Me,” she purred, sidling up to me. I had to give her credit for creativity, but still politely declined. Atlantic City is strange like that, with all these wealthy casinos bordering some really run-down and economically-struggling blocks. The girl on the train had told us how her brother, a firefighter, was beaten unconscious by a gang and lay bleeding in an alley before police found him. I guess I was gambling wandering the streets by myself at night, and was lucky a hooker was the worst thing I ran into.

When I got home, I found that I pretty much broke even as far as betting went. I had less money than I started with, but it all went to dinner, drinks, and travel expenses. I won back anything I bet, and had as much fun if not more than my first excursion. I stayed one night last December and came home $600 poorer. This time I stayed from Friday night to Sunday afternoon and the whole weekend cost about $200. That's not bad for a vacation, and worth the escape from real life. I took off on Monday, but did plenty of work. I trimmed the hedges, mowed the lawn, and picked up rotten pears at my dad's lot, where I also repainted the address number on the front of his garage. I mowed the lawn at our house, and climbed up on the roof to clean leaves out of all the gutters. I washed two loads of laundry. And yet, I feel strangely energized. Hopefully that energy carries over when I'm back in the office. The hardest part about coming back from a vacation is that sudden desire to take another vacation. I haven't seen the last of Atlantic City, and I'm glad I got to experience it in warmer, sunnier weather than my December trip in 2009. Everywhere I went on this trip, I either saw signs or spoke with locals about Boardwalk Empire. That show will serve to sate my longing for my happy place, until my next exciting adventure. Of course, my kind of adventure has less gunfire and more eating good food, playing games, enjoying sights, and generally not having to worry about getting home by any specific time. It's not real life, but that's the point.

22

Phantasmic Links 9.20.10

2010-09-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

I'm baaaaack! AC was more awesome than ever, and for once I actually broke even. Roulette is proving to be a good game for someone with my math skills and probability instincts. Of course, that's only what they want me to think, and the biggest lesson I learned this past weekend was learning when to walk away. I'm exhausted but content. I'll have some photos later in the week, and maybe some stories. Before I pass out from a weekend in which I slept a total of five hours in two days, let me collect this week's PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) According to Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye probably won't be wearing his purple costume from the comics in the Avengers movie. I like the character, but I have to agree that the costume probably wouldn't translate all that well in reality.

(2) Check out the web of a new species of spider in Madagascar, currently the world's largest web. I bet that thing could catch thieves, just like flies....

(3) Hey, remember how Joaquin Phoenix supposedly was reinventing himself as a fat, bearded rapper? Now we know what that was about.

(4) The people are pixelated. The background is not. A digital artist presents an interesting juxtaposition that challenges our perspective.

(5) If you have a problem that needs a unique solution, this gallery offers ways you can fix that.

(6) Speaking of unique solutions, the facade of this museum dilates in accordance with the level of daylight outside.

(7) Is anyone really surprised that the originator of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” has had to go into hiding?

(8) Batman technology will support the U.S. special forces. It makes sense to me. Terrorists are a cowardly and superstitious lot....

(9) I'm VERY excited by this Voltron concept art. Let's hope the actual movie can do justice to that art(and the original source material).

(10) Seriously, do not start playing Epic Battle Fantasy 3 if you have any kind of responsibilities or a life. You may disappear for hours at a time in this progressively awesome RPG with surprising layers....

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 61

2010-09-19T00:25:00.002-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 61st WWW:

1) Legion:
I'm tempted to simply write, “This movie made no ****ing sense.” and move on to my next review. If you've seen the trailer for this mash-up of The Bible and Terminator 2, you've pretty much seen the best parts. At a small diner/gas station in the middle of the desert, a motley crew of actors who normally can act gather to play the survivors of an apocalypse. A pregnant waitress is apparently carrying the (new?) messiah, and God has sent an angel to make sure it isn't born, because he's “tired of all the bull***” or some nonsense like that. But Michael, played by Paul Bettany, rebels, and for some reason not fully explained cuts off his wings and loads up on an arsenal of heavy firearms. Sure, it looks cool, but when we see what a full angel can do later in the film, you have to wonder why he downgraded to fighting the way humans fight. More importantly, you have to wonder why it works. Hordes of possessed people converge on the diner as the plot devolves into your typical horror movie cliché of characters being picked off one by one, in increasingly gory ways. The big twist here is that the possessed people attacking them are being controlled not by demons, but by angels. I would have guessed otherwise from their shark teeth and blackened eyes. There's the creepy and profane old lady from the trailer who skitters up the ceiling, the limb stretching ice cream man(who does absolutely nothing beyond roar, stretch and skitter as shown in the trailer), and a little boy with a knife. Seriously, are we sure these aren't demons? Where are the demons? Why did a television show like Supernatural handle this subject matter twenty times better than a big-budget movie? Why was Lucas Black(the over-accented lead from Tokyo Drift) actually putting on a better performance than veteran actors like Dennis Quaid, and were we expected to take him seriously when his name was “Jeep”? I seriously don't know how Bettany kept such a straight face when telling Jeep his devotion to his father and love for the pregnant waitress was the reason Michael disobeyed God's orders. As Gabriel, Kevin Durand made a great Thanagarian, blocking bullets with metal wings, slicing people, and smashing things with his mace. If this were a real apocalypse, we might have seen more than one of these warriors. Can you really toss a baby around like a football without hurting it? And why would December 23rd mean anything at all to the soldiers of heaven, if the calendar is a manmade creation with holidays assigned to arbitrary dates? I could go on, but I've already wasted too many words on this nonsense. Since they chose to end the story with the same voiceover dialogue they started it with, I'll do something similar with my review: This movie made no ****ing sense.

2) Daybreakers:
It's not often that someone comes up with a novel concept for vampires, especially with the current oversaturation of the genre in our culture. The ‘70s gave us Blade, the daywalker, a vampire created when his mother was bitten while he was in the womb, giving him their abilities without their weakness to sunlight. It wasn't until the late ‘90s that a film series would give him mainstream attention and popularity. For the most part, vampires were either these romanticized old world immortals, or overly theatrical monsters. With Buffy, they were brought in to the modern age, given personalities and contemporary concerns, even if we did get a few period pieces in flashbacks to their early days. I admit I am not the target audience for the Twilight series, and have no interest in angsty teen romance and vampires who sparkle in the sunlight. 30 Days of Night made vampires scary again, and had a unique spin on horror isolation, trapping humans up North in Alaska while being hunted by a predatory pack of bloodsuckers. And then there's True Blood, part Buffy and Twilight for adults, but with richer characters and themes, making vampires “outed” beings trying to fit in to our society like any other oppressed minority. On the one hand there are definite metaphors for the struggles of various groups, but on the other many vampires have shown that humans are right to fear them. Some choose to drink a blood substitute, while others still feast on the real thing. This brings us to Daybreakers, which presents a world in which the vampires have not only assimilated in to society, but they have become society. These are civilized beings in suits and ties, going to work on the subway every day. They drive cars whose windows black out during the day, while a camera shows what's outside. They use camera's and monitors in lieu of mirrors since they cast no reflection but can be captured digitally. Sure, they take blood with their coffee, but on the surface they're not all that different than you or I. But that's the surface. Humans have become the minority, and as a food supply, they're becoming scarce. Without human blood, these civilized vampires are breaking down into their core animal nature. Below the streets they are winged bat creatures with no hair and pointy ears. They feast on each other, and are mad. It's a great concept and unique, and my only real complaint is that I wish they'd done more with it. Ethan Hawke is a hematologist working on a blood substitute(a la True Blood), and for some reason he's sympathetic to humans. He claims it was because his brother turned him against his will, but other than one speech this isn't fleshed out much further. Sam Neill is his boss, a greedy pharmaceutical tycoon who recognizes the demand the population will have for a good substitute. And Willem Dafoe, giving the best performance of the film, is part of the human resistance, and possibly the key to a true cure. I really liked the world the movie created, and wished they'd done a little more with it. Some characters have woefully short arcs. One goes from human to vampire to primal mad vampire to ashes in the span of ten minutes. Hawke's character, as I mentioned, could have had a few more details in his backstory, and he does stumble on a rather radical solution a bit too quickly. Still it was worth the rental, and scores big points on world building and concept alone. There are worse complaints I could have about a movie beyond that it left me wanting more.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 6

2010-09-18T00:23:00.001-04:00

Cloakfest 2K10 lives on! With May and June 2010 reviewed, July is our next logical stop:

July, 2010

Triple elbuorT
Three problems visited in the end of June attain various degrees of closure, or lack thereof, at the beginning of July.

Keeping My Cool
This Summer was HOT, but I endure the heat for parades, a barbecue, and yard work. My dad feels the heat too and is disappointed in his limitations, while I'm impressed that an 80-year-old who had heart surgery can do as much as he does.

PBW: MCF Takes Manhattan 2
It's part 2 of 3 as I take advantage of a business trip to take pictures in the greatest city I know.

The Rise and Fall of M. Night
Once upon a time there was a promising director named M. Night Shyamalan whose film career path can be described as, “Great-Awesome-Good-Wait What?-Decent-WTF was that?!-OMGYouRuinedAvatarYouB@st@rd!” I elaborate on that a bit more in the actual post, of course.

The Old Man Keeps Going.
My dad might not be what he once was physically, but his spirit is an inspiration.

PBW: MCF Takes Manhattan 3
I button up my collection of New York photos in the conclusion of a three-part series.

Fix or Repair Daily Redux
I wish my troubleshooting skills included my dad's knowledge of automobiles, especially when my inability to get a friend's car started reminds me that I should have paid more attention as a kid handing the old man wrenches.

Loop De Loop
Without variety, I find myself going in circles, and parts of my life begin to blur as I forget certain details and repeat myself and repeat myself.

Crank Wanker
Over the years, one of my band leaders and his son have become like family to me. And, like family, they rely on me, especially since neither father nor son drive. This proves challenging when transporting a bass drum or just commuting to a job, and causes them to depend more than others. The bus depot proves not as patient as myself...

Signs and Causes of Stress
These include but are not limited to bizarre dreams, researching the disease of a dying aunt, eating lunch at my desk, dealing with a major printer jam, and discovering 8 D batteries have leaked inside a boombox I inherited from an old friend.

PBW: The Six Faces of Dorkness
I pity the fool who doesn't recognize my six digital alter-egos. I do, I do! (I don't.)

Tact vs. Age
Some people reach an age where they don't care what they say anymore, while others never cared to begin with. My dad more or less falls in to that first category while his oldest sister falls in to the latter, especially when matter-of-factly stating that if their sister did not pass away during her trip up from Florida, she would not plan on coming back to New York for the funeral.

Order of Operations
A rough week starts with my aunt losing her battle with cancer, my dad grumbling about the way his nephew worded the obituary, and me figuring out how I'm going to get everything done at work when a funeral clearly takes priority over a busy season. It's all about my autopilot.

PBW: Aunt Josie
It's a photo farewell to a favorite Aunt.

Always Darling
I said goodbye to my Aunt Josie with pictures, and then I said it with words. It still doesn't seem real, but my family made it through that tough week, and beyond.

Always Darling
I said goodbye to my Aunt Josie with pictures, and then I said it with words. It still doesn't seem real, but my family made it through that tough week, and beyond. Hopefully, we’ll see her again in the next life...

* * *

And that's what I wrote about in July 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will continue....

AFK in AC

2010-09-17T00:24:00.000-04:00

These are busy times for a certain mysterious cloaked blogger. Work. Band. Ailing pet. Property dispute. But I take one day at a time, and I take it all in stride. For the most part, I'm not dealing with anything I haven't dealt with before, and that makes it much easier to shut off my brain and go in to autopilot mode. It's a lot like hitting a fast forward button on a remote.

I guess I leaned on that button a lot this Summer. As I huddle under blankets at night, I wonder if it was really so long ago I was complaining about the triple-digit weather. I haven't turned my fan on in weeks. On Thursday morning, I finally closed my bedroom windows. 2010 was a blur, though it had some highlights, which included the discovery of a barbecue place on a dock not far from my office. Soon it became a Friday lunch ritual for me and my friends, enjoying cold beer and hot food at the end of a long week. The last few weeks, we'd all had trouble coordinating, or had meetings in the middle of the day. This week one of our friends was out of state on vacation. Next week, we'd surely make it there again.

Finally caught up after months of being busy, or more accurately finding myself in the eye of the storm(figuratively and, as I'd later learn, literally), I decided to walk to this place on Thursday afternoon. It was a little cloudy, and cool enough to walk such a distance, and though we'd always driven to this place, I was certain I could make the journey within my allotted lunch time. My estimates of speed and distance proved accurate. My knowledge of the calendar was not so much.

The folded umbrellas were my first clue. No one was sitting at the tables either, my second clue. I knew before I got to the counter that the window would be closed, but it was wishful thinking. I could taste that chicken, that spicy corn-on-the-cob. Even worse, the sign read that they were open from mid-April to October. It's not October yet by my calculations, but maybe there weren't enough people for them to stay open. I was dejected, and the grilled cheese with bacon and tomato on a salt bagel that I got at a deli on the way back to my office didn't come close.

I could certainly use a break, an escape for more than an hour. To that end, I actually cleared my calendar for this weekend. I moved a dental appointment back a week. I turned down a band job. I even wrote my next few posts in advance, so if all goes according to preprogramming, you'll have something to read in the next two days. MCF will be here; the man behind the cloak will not. On Thursday night a tornado ripped through Long Island from West to East, sending down trees and hail and disrupting all train service. I'm praying it's restored by Friday night, so I can get in to the city after work. I already reserved tickets for another train that will have me in Atlantic City by 11 PM! And I won't be home until Sunday afternoon. The first time I went there was in the middle of December, and I only stayed overnight. My friend and I managed to find some fun and some trouble. This time we're staying twice as long, and will have a group of about 4 to 7 people. I took out a bit more cash this time and split it among three wallets. I know it's as good as gone, but with a higher fixed amount I hopefully won't succumb to temptation and high ATM fees while I'm there. Who knows; maybe I'll actually win something. I know to avoid slot machines this time, the fastest way to spend money. I think in less than five minutes I had thrown away over 60 bucks.

Problems don't disappear when we run away from them, but that's not what I'm doing here. This is more of a break, almost a vacation, and a much-needed one. I took off from work on Monday, but I'll be back Tuesday and have a gig after work on Tuesday night. And Monday probably will be spent installing a light fixture at home and doing landscaping work over at my father's lot. The responsibilities will still be waiting for me when I get back. But for two days, they and I will be miles apart, and that will be nice.

Of course, if I hit it big, I might not come back at all. So, calculating the odds of improbability, I'd say there's a 98% chance I'll be back in a few days.

The Miracle of Cubby

2010-09-16T00:03:00.000-04:00

Fourteen years ago, I could swear my mom had brought home some kind of rodent.

Instead, it was Cubby, a little gray and white kitten. My dad was still in the early stages of dealing with his heart problem, and during their visit to one of his doctors, my mom heart faint cries coming from a nearby window well. Inside was this little guy, with no sign of his mother or the rest of his litter. My mom had no choice but to rescue him, and she became his mother.

I wanted to name him Cerebus, after a gray aardvark whose graphic novel adventures I had been reading at the time. I showed my mom some of the illustrations, but they of course didn't strike a chord with her. She liked “Cubby”, even though I didn't think the name would always fit him. But he was her little kitten, whom she fed from a small bottle and kept healthy, whom she sang ”Hush, Little Baby” to every night. Even after he doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in size, he'd always lift his head and come running for that song.

I'd occasionally try to class the name up and upgrade it to “Cubbington”, sometimes add a “Lord” before the name, but for the most part my mom stuck with Cubby. And he stuck with my my mom. He liked my dad, and was usually a little wary or afraid of me, except for when I was feeding him. Then he was purring and bumping in to my ankles as I tried to put the dish down.

Almost one year ago, we discovered Cubby had gone blind. It started with circling, then bumping in to things, and eventually the vet confirmed what we suspected. He postulated the cat had suffered some sort of stroke, and was able to treat any brain swelling with various anti-inflammatory drugs such as Prednisone. He'd never see again, save for possibly colors and light, but as a cat, it would prove to be a minor inconvenience. Animals compensate very well with their other senses, and since our cats are always indoor cats, he already knew the layout of the house pretty well. When he started getting soft tissue damage and weakness in his back legs, jumping up on the bed or the dresser proved dangerous at first, then impossible. Every 7 to 10 days, my mom would take him in for another shot, and he'd be like a new cat.

A few times this year we thought we'd lose him to a urinary tract infection, common in senior male cats. Every time he'd lose his appetite, stop using his litter pan, and try to crawl under furniture or into tight spaces. Every time we were ready to say goodbye, the vet would express his bladder, get him on antibiotics and medication to break up kidney stones, and he'd miraculously perk up. I've lost track of how many times I expected to come home and find he had passed away, or wake up in the morning to the same sad news. My mom has always stayed with her cats right up until the end, but this is one of the few she's had since he was a kitten. When I was a little boy, I believe her cat Cindy was given to her as a kitten, though that was before I was born and I only knew the cat as an adult. She knows what to expect, but it doesn't make it any easier. And the downside of my most hated human quality, the fact that our perception of time shortens as we grow older, is that Cubby's fourteen years genuinely don't seem long at all. Maybe it's his gentle nature, but we still see a kitten where this big old cat sits.

I thought for sure I'd be writing an obituary this week. They say cats have nine lives, but this cat has come back from near dead more times than that. One morning last week, my dad woke me and said he thought the cat had died during the night, but he was just sleeping in my mom's arms and perked up after a visit to the vet. Just this past Tuesday, he relapsed again, wasn't eating, and was lying stiff with his eyes open, tongue out, and taut skin. Even with a catheter, the vet couldn't get anything out of him. He gave Cubby a few shots and had my mom bring the cat back in the afternoon. He was a little more successful, but still the normally voracious animal showed no interest in food.

By Wednesday night when I came home, the cat was walking around. My mom said he had used the litter pan, and was devouring any food she put in front of him. His fur seemed shiny and soft again, and he was walking in a relatively straight line with hardly any sign of a limp. This year has been quite a rollercoaster. We know sooner or later he'll get sick again. And one of these times, the vet won't be able to help him. But we've got a damn good vet. Two years ago I was sure a respiratory infection would do in my pal Mr. Chirp, and today he's running around like a kitten, sometimes climbing up as high as the top of our refrigerator. At night when he gets bored, he sometimes leaves toy mice outside our bedroom doors as “gifts”. His “brother” Cubby has, of course, been getting most of our attention lately. So it's an interesting position to be in, emotionally, to avoid false hope while trying not to be negative, either. My mom sometimes beats herself up, laments that she's not doing enough, that she wishes she could help him. If he was in the care of anyone other than my mom, he might have been dead a year ago. And, truth be told, while he's still relatively young compared to her past cats, without her intervention, he might have been gone 14 years ago. So whenever his time comes, it will be that much later because he had the miracle of having the same mother I do.

PBW: Falling in Place

2010-09-15T00:10:00.003-04:00

Can you feel it? That slight chill in the air? The big difference in temperature between sun and shade? Summer is nearly a memory. But while Autumn is upon us, things are still colorful, and I don’t need to look far to find shots for Photo Blog Wednesday:

MCF's 2010 Watchlist

2010-09-14T00:29:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year again, when new shows premiere and old favorites return. It's hard to navigate the television week as technology has really changed the landscape. Now we get new episodes of some shows during the Summer, and with all the options available beyond TV, from VCR to DVR to online to DVD, times and days are meaningless. There was a time when we lived our lives by the network schedule, because if we missed an episode, we'd have to wait for a rerun. And that second airing might be edited down to fit more commercials. Also, missing a show meant not being in on the conversation at school/work the next day with your classmates/coworkers.

Last year was an interesting year, one that wiped a large part of my inflated viewing slate clean. LOST and 24 each came to an end after respective healthy runs. Other shows, like Heroes, Dollhouse, FlashForward, and Happy Town were simply canceled. Heroes made it to four seasons before being put out of its misery, while Happy Town didn't make it past one 8-episode season(I think the last 2 or 3 episodes were only available online).

I haven't heard a lot of buzz about new shows, and there are only 2 or 3 that I might check out. So I think my viewing schedule might be leaner, and there certainly aren't any shows like LOST or Heroes for me to follow obsessively. Fringe is probably the best of the surviving dramas I watch, while Community worked its way up as my favorite comedy, if only because The Office and How I Met Your Mother are starting to get a little tired. I'm genuinely excited about the final season of Smallville, and that surprises me. It's come a long way from a freak-of-the-week formulaic teen drama, and in the last two seasons resembles the comic book source material on a more epic scale. It took ten years to improve and get here, and I hope for a good payoff. Supernatural came to an epic conclusion after five seasons, but its popularity gained it at least another season beyond the planned five. Let's hope it can still maintain the same level of quality. And straddling the line between comedy and drama is Chuck, which is not only consistently entertaining, but actually gets better and better. Chuck and Fringe are probably the two shows I'm most looking forward to. As for new shows, I'll be checking out No Ordinary Family, The Event, possibly Nikita(whose premiered I've already missed), The Cape(which I don't think starts until January), and Undercovers(which wasn't even a blip on my radar until I read it was a J.J. Abrams show). I might fit The Walking Dead into my rotation too, either online or on DVD. That's at least six new shows I'm curious about; time will tell if I stick with any of them.

Television Without Pity published their list of see/skip/DVR/watch online picks, which I found to be a handy guide in mapping out my week. As with last year, there are some days which are completely dead, and others which have numerous conflicts. My VCR, DVD player and my computer will all be getting a lot of use this year. You can check out their more extensive list of the options that will become available in the coming weeks; here's what I'll probably be watching:

Mondays:
Chuck (8-9 PM)
How I Met Your Mother (8-8:30 PM)
The Event (10-11 PM)

Tuesdays:
No Ordinary Family (8-9 PM)
Stargate: Universe (9-10 PM)

Wednesdays:
Undercovers (8-9 PM)

Thursdays: (The busiest night of conflicts)
Community (8-8:30 PM)
30 Rock (8:30-9 PM)
The Office (9-9:30 PM)
Parks and Recreation (9:30-10 PM, hopefully later in the season depending on how newcomer Outsourced fares)
Fringe (9-10 PM)
Nikita (9- 10 PM)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (10-10:30 PM)

Fridays: (The 2nd busiest night of conflicts)
Smallville (8-9 PM)
Supernatural (9-10 PM)
Human Target (8-9 PM)
The Good Guys (9-10 PM)

Saturdays:
Absolutely nothing. A good catch-up night for all the shows that are on at the same time as other shows during the week. Or to, you know, actually go out.

Sundays:
The Simpsons (8-8:30 PM)
The Cleveland Show (8:30-9 PM)
Family Guy(9-9:30 PM)
The Walking Dead (10-11 PM)

And what's on your watchlist this year?

Phantasmic Links 9.13.10

2010-09-13T00:04:00.000-04:00

I've been on some crazy rollercoaster of work and music this past week. Things were busy as usual at the office, and just as busy when I wasn't there. I left work “early” on Thursday(5 PM) to play a feast, and on Saturday spent 13 hours in New Jersey for another feast. From there I watched the light from Ground Zero in awe and remembrance. Two of our trumpet players rode out on a boat in the middle of the procession to play taps as the people tossed out wreaths and said prayers. It was a long day, but for all the tributes that occurred, the greatest to me was seeing young people riding the train in to Manhattan like any other Saturday night, going to have fun and live their lives because terrorism, as horribly as it hurt us, Did Not Win.

On Sunday I was back on Long Island, and from the other side of Manhattan played a much shorter procession. On the way home, I stopped at my dad's lot to lug six garbage bags full of weeds from the garage to the curb for pick up this week. And as I write this, I have a load of laundry going. So I definitely could use a break and little fun, which I hope to find next weekend in Atlantic City. For now, I'll settle for the fun of PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) Once upon a time, on the set of Inception, a photographer caught a candid photo of Leonardo DiCaprio strutting. The internet being the internet, it wasn't long before Strutting Leo was Photoshopped hilariously in a ton of pictures. A similar thing happened with a Prancing Michael Cera. I love the internet.

(2) How do your favorite female action heroes rate, fashion-wise?
Hat Tip: J-No, whose fashion sense includes a Pickle Suit. :)

(3) Speaking of fashion, take a trip down memory lane past the various costumes Spider-Man has worn over the years. The original really is a unique and awesome design, although I also liked the black suit.

(4) Even if they're cartoons, bears are still bears. That may be the greatest all-inclusive cautionary tale I've watched since Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
H.T.: B13.

(5) Is the Tractor Beam close to becoming science fact?

(6) Use Pokémon fusion to combine two Pokémon into one. You know you want to.

(7) I loved the series, so I'm fairly stoked at the news that The Dark Tower is going to be adapted as both a film trilogy and a regular television series. I am somewhat surprised/concerned by the mention of an 8th book though, since I liked the way things ended.

(8) See how the passionate speaking of Phil Davison, GOP candidate, gets my vote. I particularly like this remix with epic Transformers music.
H.T.: B13.

(9) A horrifying situation when a little one stumbles in and sees too much of her parents is made funnier when remixed as the “Mommy and Daddy Song”.
H.T.: Krispy.

(10) ”Zombie Apocalypse” by Kirby Krackle references everything from Clerks to Edgar Wright movies, with an awesome appearance by zombie Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 60

2010-09-12T00:03:00.002-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 60th WWW:

1) Lone Wolf & Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx:
The journey continues in the second film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. Ogami Itto's enemies are more determined than ever to put the ronin down, as evidenced in the film's first fight sequence. Itto nails one of his attackers dead center of his head with his sword, and the guy uses his own skull to make sure the sword stays put while a second attacker leaps over the first's shoulders. The blood, which looks like paint in many scenes, flows even more freely in the sequel, but underscores the whole notion of honor and the code of warriors. That first guy was as good as dead, but he tried to make his death mean something. Later, a shinobi warrior tests a clan of female assassins to see if they have what it takes to defeat the Lone Wolf. He looses fingers and keeps fighting. Then an arm. Then another arm. Then his legs. By the time he's just a torso, he's still trying to win the challenge and get past his foes. Soon, Ogami is beset by more attackers, and this time around his son Daigoro starts to take a more active role in his defense, occasionally activating some of the hidden spring-loaded blades in his baby cart. These distractions don't keep the ronin from his latest job, helping a village before they lose their wealth when one member goes rogue. He is being escorted by three deadly assassins, coming in by boat, known as “gods of death”. These are not the expendable men and women who have been attacking all along the road, but honorable warriors who recognize and respect their potential opponent. They kill, but only with provocation. There seems to be a theme of sympathetic villains, from the leader of the female clan who questions her actions when her employers threaten Daigoro, to three worthy foes you come to like, even though you know they're fated to battle Ogami. He himself shows compassion to at least one enemy, though in the guise of practicality. And still he roams, a man with dead eyes and a deadlier blade, juxtaposed with a precocious little boy, who is both his soul and his humanity. I can guess where the story is going, but if it ends up being nothing more than six movies about a masterless samurai walking with his son and cutting down his enemies with his sword, I'll be just as entertained.

2) Batman: Under the Red Hood:
In a remarkable feat of storytelling, this animated adaptation recounts the startling events of A Death in the Family before the opening credits roll. It manages to do justice to the first Batman graphic novel I ever owned, while making it accessible to newcomers. The subsequent tale which unfolds five years after those events comes from more recent comics, and it's hard for me to review without spoiling too many key plot details. From what I've read on message boards, the film's approach to the story makes a lot more sense within the Batman universe than in the source material, where these events resulted from a character from a parallel world punching reality. Comics, folks. Instead we focus on a gritty, street-level Batman voiced by Bruce Greenwood dealing with a very personal and emotional new foe in the Red Hood(Jensen Ackles). He is assisted by his original sidekick, now Nightwing, voiced with just the right amount of confidence and sarcasm by Neil Patrick Harris. The movie gets the dynamic between these two just right; they fight like clockwork, their years of training and partnership evidenced by how fluidly they work together. But Batman also pushes him away, focuses on being a loner. It's not explicitly stated, but since he already lost one sidekick, he's clearly protecting his first one. The animation is on par with the level of quality in recent DC animated features, and there's a nice balanced use of the rogues gallery beyond the enigmatic newcomer taking over the gangs and killing any bad guys that get in his way. No Batman film would be complete without a Joker, and John Dimaggio steps up to the plate and does an admirable job, getting a few laughs and, faithful to the character, laughing where a sane person would not. In the end, we get a nice personal tale about the heroes and villains under each of their respective masks, and the shades of gray for those characters who walk a fine line between good and evil. For fans worried that Jason Todd's history might be rushed, the movie works in plenty of milestone flashbacks, and chooses to end perfectly on one happy memory, powerfully tragic in hindsight. This DC animated film will certainly be remembered as one of the better ones, and the closest any modern film has come to the quality and tone of Batman: The Animated Series.

3) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades:
By the third film in this series, I really had a strong sense of these characters, even as Ogami's abilities began to border on almost superhuman. Slaying an entire army? That's from John Rambo's repertoire. Concealing firearms in unexpected places? We saw it with guitar cases in Desperado. The thing is, this film came out in 1972, so you really start to see the Eastern influence on Western cinema in the ‘80s and ‘90s examples I cited. The samurai genre was the equivalent of Westerns, with sword wielders walking the same dangerous path as gunslingers portrayed by the likes of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. It's not a pretty world Ogami Itto lives in, even if he wasn't a disgraced samurai being hunted by his former masters. These movies depict, often graphically, rapists, murderers, and thieves. It's a harsh place to raise an innocent like his son Daigoro, but perhaps that's what sets these movies apart. Some of the best scenes between the two principal actors don't even require words. Daigoro drops his rice while eating, considered wasteful in ancient Japanese culture. Ogami need only give the boy a stern look for him to pick up his food and eat it, and then he gives him an approving nod. I haven't mentioned these moments in my reviews of the previous movies, but they permeate all of them and they're nice bits of character, quiet interludes between fights. As with the second film, we also get some sympathetic foes. Along the way Ogami encounters a Watari-kashi, a hired sword, who himself was also once a noble samurai. He, like Ogami, still has his honor, though he believes it to be lost. Ogami proves that he can be a teacher to more than just his son. It's interesting that, while he constantly insists that he and the boy are living the lives of “demons”, he never stops imparting wisdom or earning respect from those he encounters. Would a demon spare an honorable opponent? Would a demon take a beating to save a prostitute? Daigoro continues to develop into more of an active player, often luring enemies into position to be vulnerable to his father. There are also some impressive camera techniques and effects for 1972, including one beheading which we see from the point of view of the victim, the camera spinning as “our” head rolls along the ground. Itto continues walking, continues his journey as a ronin, continues his work as an honorable assassin, and I'll continue watching this series.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

MCF's Perilous 5.III Questions

2010-09-11T00:30:00.001-04:00

MCF's Perilous! is a quiz in reverse. Yesterday, I posted ten answers. You had to come up with the corresponding questions. Here's the scoring system:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

And here are the results from Series 5, Round 3:

B13: 51

Spockgirl: 12

As the only participant in this final found, B13 was pretty much guaranteed to rack up the points. Knowing me in real life probably gives him some advantage. Fortunately, the points mean absolutely nothing. B13's Goro answer to #6 was the one which cracked me up and earned the bonus. I think question #3 was probably one of the more obvious ones I've written, and this may be the first time someone guessed what I was looking for. I'll have to look back at some of the old ones as I don't recall if that ever happened before. Thanks to all who ever participated in any round of MCF's Perilous!; I hope you had as much fun coming up with questions as I did thinking up answers. Here are the questions I had in mind for this week's game:

1. Fourteen years.
For approximately how long has my mom raised her cat Cubby?

2. It ripped open, and I limped out of there.
What happened to the blister on my left heel after I ran seven miles in the gym the other day?

3. 162 pounds.
How much do I weigh right now?

4. With the filing cabinets removed, we all had big holes under our windows.
What was the temporary downside of having new carpeting put in our offices at work, beyond losing the landing space provided by several filing cabinets?

5. Canon Powershot S2 IS 5.0 mp.
What kind of camera have I been using for the past four or five years?

6. Daigoro.
What is the name shared by both the child in the Lone Wolf and Cub series and a dog in Final Fantasy X?

7. An enchanted mace.
What kind of weapon, with which he shares his name, is the source of the hero Thunderstrike's power?

8. “Fiendish”.
How would one describe Dr. Wu?

9. Multiple.
What kind of Santa(s) did The Tick once battle?

10. October 13th.
When will this all end?

MCF's Perilous 5.III

2010-09-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oh, hello there! Are you here for MCF's Perilous!, my game of answers and questions? If you are, then you know this is a game in which I provide ten answers, and you try to guess the questions. As hard as it is to guess what I'm thinking, I still have a scoring system that will allow you all to get points just for playing by the rules:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

The “Best Question” is the funniest or most creative one that, though it doesn't match the one I was looking for, deserves to be rewarded. This is series 5, round 3, and for those of you keeping score at home, since no one participated in last week's round, the scores are the same as they were at the end of round one:

B13: 25

Spockgirl: 12

This is your LAST CHANCE to play this game, so put those quizzical caps on one final time, and good luck! Here are the answers:

1. Fourteen years.

2. It ripped open, and I limped out of there.

3. 162 pounds.

4. With the filing cabinets removed, we all had big holes under our windows.

5. Canon Powershot S2 IS 5.0 mp.

6. Daigoro.

7. An enchanted mace.

8. “Fiendish”.

9. Multiple.

10. October 13th.

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 5

2010-09-09T00:07:00.002-04:00

Cloakfest 2K10 lives on! With April 2010 reviewed, let's turn our sights back to what I was writing about in May and June of this year::

May, 2010

UN
-sure why this is here.

Nocturnal Electrician
That's right, it's another one of my weird dream posts, this time involving a hostage situation at the mall and a taser that proves that my improbable luck carries over into my subconscious.

Spoilers
I don't ruin Iron Man 2 for anyone. I wish I could say the same for some of the young people in the theater with me....

PBW: The Mother of All Days
My mom gets to spend Mother's Day with my dad, who survived his heart surgery, and revisit a place she hadn't visited since the 1960s.

Here Today...
It's the story of an elderly coworker's last day, in more ways than one.

Better to Burn Out
Maybe networks need to give new shows a chance. Maybe television series need to have shorter story arcs. Maybe I need a vacation from even my leisure activities.

My 2010 Summer Show Five
...and maybe I won't even get a break from television this Summer.

Vwls r vrrtd
n whch wrt n ntr pst wtht vwls.

I once was LOST
...but now I found my review of the series finale of LOST.

Broken
Things get worse for my mom's 14-year-old blind cat Cubby, as a bladder infection leaves him in bad shape.

Finale Time
LOST isn't the only show to wrap things up, and I look at the series finales of 24 and FlashForward as well as the season finale of Chuck.

Phantasmic Links 5.31.10
It's not the links that are essential, but rather the update on the fate of Cubby after a long holiday weekend....

June, 2010

Worry About the Other Guy
The health problems of my dad, my mom's cat, and others remind me that when we focus on other people, it's an ideal distraction from our own problems.

PBW: All About Cubby
Take a look at Cubby in his youth, and more recent pictures of a too-soon ailing senior cat.

Puppy in the Road
What happens when a little dog is spotted wandering and confused in the middle of a busy road on a hot Summer day?

Yet Another Mental Health Day
I finally take a real vacation day, something I apparently do once a year or so. I make it to the movies. I think nothing of my dad taking his sister to the hospital at the time other than admire how he's up and about and helping other family members after his own hospital stay. I get some photos and catch some new shows. For about 17 hours, I escape routine and reality, and life is good.

PBW: JDRF Walk 2010
For me personally, a repeat celebrity sighting pales in comparison to the sight of my old man playing a gig once more.

Natural Outcomes
I experienced various causes and effects on or around 6/11/10, so I wrote all about them.

They Don't Serve My Kind.
Once upon a time, being a musician at a feast meant certain perks, such as free food and/or beverages. Once upon a time....

Burned at Both Ends and in the Middle
I spend my morning at a conference in the city, my afternoon taking pictures and subsequently rushing to catch a train after a time miscalculation, and my evening playing a feast. And it's only Wednesday...

Ribs, for your pleasure...
There are so many good rib places near where I work, but the discovery of one new location sets off a new Summer tradition.

Some MCF Math
2+2=OMGMCFSBRAINISODD!

Triple Trouble
Uno: My dad's lingering heart problems combined with his stubbornness. Dos: A litter of kittens under some pipes near my job. TRES: Chirp, our other cat, has a lesion under his tongue, explaining what we had thought was a cute habit of him sticking it out all the time. Resolutions and/or updates to these situations wouldn't be forthcoming until July....

PBW: MCF Takes Manhattan
It's part one of why I enjoy taking photos in New York, and why I almost missed my train after attending a conference for work.

* * *

And that's what I wrote about in May and June 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will continue....

PBW: Prey & Predator

2010-09-08T00:00:00.004-04:00

A few weeks back, I was greeted with the body of a large, dead moth in my tub. Rather than rinse it down the drain or throw it away before taking a shower, I of course had to take a bunch of pictures of it. Some were blurry, but a few were sharp enough to share. It wasn't until the other day, when I spotted an Orb-weaver spider spinning a web on my roof, that I knew I'd found the perfect thematic companion for the moth in this Photo Blog Wednesday:

MCF vs. the L.I. Universe

2010-09-07T00:09:00.000-04:00

”Hey, mister! MISTER! Who ya textin'?”

“Shut UP, Sebastian! It's none of our business...but really, who you texting, mister?”

I just ignored the three miscreants who'd walked in to the theater, and continued scrutinizing my phone. I couldn't believe my luck. For weeks I had been trying to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. On one attempt, several friends from work canceled and we rescheduled for the following week. The next time we tried, I couldn't make it because I had to go to my dad's lot after work to load garbage bags into the car. Finally, there was a night when everyone could make it, but the film was no longer playing at any theater near our job. I couldn't believe it. After three weeks, though it had good buzz and positive reviews, it apparently wasn't doing well enough at the box office to stay out in theaters. No one wanted to drive in to Queens, or head out East to the one theater on Long Island where it was playing. It looked like we'd have to wait for the DVD.

I'd had a rough weekend. On Saturday night, I played a four hour stage gig at an Italian feast which wouldn't have been so bad except for the cold and the wind, which was kicking up a lot of dust. On Sunday, I spent several hours with my folks cleaning the lot some more, and by Sunday night I was wiped out. I had considered a matinee or an afternoon show, but the yard work had devoured the day. The more I read how badly the movie was doing though, the more I wanted to support it. So I summoned the energy and the impulse to head out into the night and attempt a 9:20 show. I hoped I'd stay awake on the way there. I hoped I'd stay awake through the film.

Things were looking up as I found I had the theater to myself. I figured I wouldn't have to worry about kids at such a late show, and certainly not a crowd when newer, more popular movies were playing. With 40 minutes to kill, I settled in to a nice central seat and surfed the net on my phone to pass the time. That's when the silence was broken. They sat a few rows ahead of me, jabbering away and playing games and music on their respective mobile devices. They were the worst kind of teenagers, all wanting to be the center of attention and thinking they were cool while lacking all self-awareness of what those around them perceived. A couple of girls around their age came in, followed by a couple in their 20s. One of the girls asked the three brats how old they were, and they all answered “13”. “You seem 13,” said the girl, wise for her years, while the 20-something guy with his girlfriend chuckled, “That explains it.” The trio were nonplussed, even as one explained to the others that the girl had insulted them. They took to bopping their heads to some song that, from what I could hear, was probably Jizz in My Pants. I wondered if they knew what the song was about. I wondered how three unattended 13-year-olds got to a movie theater in the middle of nowhere. I wondered when I got old enough to be called “mister”.

I found myself hating Long Island as the theater filled in. There were more kids, though more restrained than the first three. There was a father and son, and a couple of older boys who stepped out for a minute, one tapping a pack of cigarettes and asking the original three brats to watch his seat while the girls in the upper row sighed, “Finally, boys our age.” An usher came through collecting money for cancer research, though the girl at the cash register had already collected. Some of the people said they had donated at the earlier show, when the reel broke. I realized that if I'd made it to the 6:30 show, I would have been in the same boat. It explained why some of the kids were out so late, and why they had muttered something about having to “see the same crappy trailers all over again”. I had just assumed they were there to see the movie again because they liked it. I just hoped I'd be able to hear it.

Miracle of miracles, everyone quieted down when the trailers ended and the movie began. It was a little slow at first, but once dialogue gave way to rocking music and comic book stylized on-screen type sound effects, it became the film I heard it would be. I haven't read the graphic novels on which the movie was based, but the comic sensibilities were definitely there, and in a good way. Frames overlapped and the pace was amazing. There was no risk of attention deficit. Michael Cera played the title character, a hip slacker bass player in his early 20s dealing with a bad breakup by dating a high school girl. He then meets the literal girl of his dreams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Ramona Flowers, and falls for her. The drama comes with the revelation that, if he is to be with her, he must defeat her seven evil exes. Each ex paramour has some unique quality, and some stand out more than others, particularly Chris Evans as an over-the-top skater-turned-action-hero or Brandon Routh as a psychic-powered Vegan. You could tell those guys had a ton of fun with their roles.

Reality is swiftly discarded as elements of video games bleed over in to the real world. Is any of it really happening? Do characters die and turn into piles of coins while a score flashes in the air? Do people survive being hurled great distances? Are slackers secretly gifted martial artists? None of it really matters, because the ride is too fast and fun to ask these questions. The movie is chock-full of video game and comic book references, from the the name of Scott's band, Sex Bob-Omb, to fashion statements like the X-Men patch on his jacket or his Franklin Richards' “4 1/2” t-shirt. The “X” isn't merely ornamental, and careful viewers will notice tons of X's littered throughout the film, foreshadowing the arrival of the Exes. Even the placement of numbers is deliberate, hinting at which battle will be next.

In the end, I could best sum the unique experience up as a mashup of Mortal Kombat and Some Kind of Wonderful. Kieran Culkin stole the show several times with his observations and one-liners as Scott's sarcastic gay roommate. Jason Schwartzman made you love to hate him as Gideon, the 7th evil Ex and architect of most of Scott's misery. And in a film that could jump from Seinfeld references to Dragon Ball in a matter of minutes, there was something for everyone. If it's not the best new movie I saw this year, it's a close second, but it's unequivocally the most FUN movie I've seen. It kept the attention of the three Long Island teens I was most worried about, and indeed the entire audience, right up until the end. Not everyone stayed through the credits to be rewarded with some interesting graphic design, the full extent of Beck's musical involvement and contributions, and a nice little bonus animation at the end. It is a shame that Edgar Wright's first American film didn't do well at the box office, but I can almost guarantee that this movie will be a huge success on DVD and other home media. After all, in the world of video games, there's always a 1Up waiting to give you a second chance...

Phantasmic Links 9.6.10

2010-09-06T00:10:00.000-04:00

Perhaps selfishly, I'm kind of wishing for a labor-free Labor Day. I don't know if it will happen. I spent about four hours actually freezing at an otherwise fun Italian feast out in Eastern Long Island on Saturday night, got up early to go to church with my dad on Sunday, then went with my folks to my dad's lot to trim hedges, mow the lawn, pull down vines, and fill lots and lots of bags. I'm not complaining so much as venting, and I don't need a day off so much as a chance to catch my breath before an even busier week and weekend. Is it the middle of October yet? At any rate, let me at least take a mental break to peruse some PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) Rendering art with a permanent marker such as a Sharpie® is impressive, but doing so on a curved surface like a styrofoam cup is really impressive.
Hat Tip: B13.

(2) Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver debate the question, “Which is scarier, Alien or Halloween?” Their answers might surprise you.

(3) Will Eric Kripke bring Neil Gaiman's Sandman to the small screen as an ongoing series? It sounds like a possible dream come true to me...

(4) This artist has collected 600 Hanna-Barbera characters into one massive infographic. It is huge and it is spectacular.

(5) These time-lapse videos will actually let you watch mold and fungus grow, if you're into that sort of thing. My favorite is the Chia Homer.

(6) Homeless and/or frugal? This site explores the top five “bum wines”.

(7) Heroes and their villains come together in minimalist merged graphics.

(8) Will the Fantastic Four, the ultimate status quo team, become Three(again)?

(9) After 10 minutes, you'll know everything you need to know about J. Jonah Jameson of the ’60s(or any subsequent decade, really).

(10) Clash of the Olympians! Choose your hero, level up, and defend the temple against increasingly agressive hordes.

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 59

2010-09-05T00:03:00.001-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 59th WWW:

1) Lone Wolf & Cub: Sword of Vengeance:
Ogami Itto was an honorable Shoganate executioner. He felt haunted by the spirits of those he sent to death, shockingly taking the life of a young boy at the start of the film. When a corrupt clan turns on him and takes the life of his wife while framing him for disloyalty to the Shogunate, he discards loyalty in favor of vengeance. Ogami becomes a ronin, a masterless samurai, and sets out on the road with the only other surviving member of his family, his infant son Daigoro. I had never read the manga on which the film was based, and oddly enough my first exposure to the concept was in a spoof published in the fourth issue of Marvel's What The--?! entitled “Lone Wolvie and Chris”. Wolverine, dressed as a ronin, pushes a baby cart with a little Chris Claremont inside. When surrounded by ninjas, Claremont begins speaking, creating a growing blank word balloon, until Wolverine slashes it with his claws, unleashing a flood of Claremontian dialogue. It was more highbrow than the usual spoofs, and sparked my curiosity as to what it drew its imagery from. Indeed, the notion of a warrior with a baby cart is a unique one, and definitely the hook of the concept. Ogami doesn't seem like a threat, and the kid is adorable. The ronin even sported a slight double-chin in the film which reminded me of John Belushi's Samurai Futaba. But this was a true traditional Japanese samurai film, so when it came time to draw his blade, Ogami would draw plenty of blood. Throughout the first movie there is plenty of beheading and belimbing and he certainly be stabbing. We see his origins in flashbacks, while in the present he takes on an assignment to take out a gang of criminals who have settled in and terrorized a bathhouse town. His reputation precedes him, but by the time the master of the criminals realizes why he seemed so familiar, they have already been treating him and their hostages with great disrespect. There is great contrast between the father and son. Ogami's eyes are cold and dead, while the boy still has joy, laughter, and curiosity in his. One is dead inside, while the other's life is ahead of him. There were five more films made about these characters, and I look forward to watching them in the coming weeks.

2) The Babysitters:
For some reason, I expected this independent film to take the route of satire, black comedy, or coming-of-age story. But it swiftly goes to some very dark and disturbing places. Katherine Waterston(Sam's daughter) plays Shirley, a shy and awkward high school Junior with OCD. Everything in her life must be neat and in order. As she explains at one point, if any one thing is out of place, then everything is out of place, like setting off a domino reaction. She has a crush on John Leguizamo's character, the father of some kids she babysits for. He still has a youthful spirit not shared by his wife(Cynthia Nixon), who has become a very different person from the girl he met in their youth. And so the movie sets up a very basic cliché, of a girl being attracted to an older man over her immature male classmates, and a man in a mid-life crisis trying to reclaim some part of his youth. Once a line is crossed, and he slips the girl some extra money for her “services”, the movie goes even further into a fantasy scenario, as Shirley eventually becomes a high school madam, pimping herself and her friends out to “babysit” other lonely middle-aged husbands. At first, this seems to be an enterprise without consequence, as the girls discuss their new business in class, not really paying attention to the STD slideshow the teacher is presenting. But there are consequences, from loss of innocence to greed and tension between friends. As things get more and more out of control with drugs and violence, Waterston and the set designers do an excellent job portraying the change in Shirley. Her room becomes as chaotic and disorganized as her thoughts, as she goes from shy and sweet to calculating and ruthless. Leguizamo keeps things low key, though you see his obsession grow, while the other clients are increasingly creepy husbands. It's not a fantasy; it's a corruption, and it all culminates in one very tense scene on the roof of a parking garage. Waterston, around 20 at the time of filming, played a solid lead and held the piece together through her character's arc. I would hope we'll see more of her in the future. The plot may seem contrived at times, and it's not a film I could watch more than once, but it's well-acted and succeeds in creating tension and drama. It's hard to say what lessons each character learns by the climax, but easy enough to recognize that they'll all be scarred for life by their experiences.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

MCF's Perilous 5.II Questions

2010-09-04T01:06:00.001-04:00

MCF's Perilous! is a quiz in reverse. Yesterday, I posted ten answers. You had to come up with the corresponding questions Here's the scoring system:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

And here are the results from Series 5, Round 2:

B13: 25

Spockgirl: 12

If those scores look familiar, it's because they're the same from last week. Neither new nor returning players took a shot at this week's round, so perhaps I made this one too challenging. Remember, as long as you even post a question with a question mark, you get a point. Next week will be the final round of series 5, so there will still be one more opportunity to rack up some more points. Here are the questions I had in mind for this week's game:

1. Ravitronics.
While watching The Wrath of Khan with some of my friends, what partially obscured writing on the set triggered an in-joke because it contained a friend's name?

2. His pants.
When my friend's wife asked us to close the door to his movie room so their daughter could sleep, what was hanging on the door preventing me from doing so?

3. Four.
What are two or three beers too many at night when I have to be up for work the next morning?

4. Five-and-a-half minutes.
How long did I wait at a traffic light after midnight before it finally turned green?

5. Kirstie Alley.
Which currently 59-year-old actress looked amazingly hot back when she starred in such films as The Wrath of Khan or television shows such as Cheers?

6. To start exercising, at some point in the future.
What has my weight loss inspired a friend to do?

7. Three bookshelves and a lounge chair.
What did I help a buddy move in exchange for beer and pizza?

8. Quizno's.
What awesome sandwich chain doesn't suck like Subway, but still seems to be closing multiple locations in my area?

9. Meetings.
What interruptions keep me from getting work done during the day?

10. “ou”.
In Canadian versions of my company's mailings, what does “o” often get replaced with in words like “color”?

MCF's Perilous 5.II

2010-09-03T00:57:00.000-04:00

Welcome to MCF's Perilous!, a game of answers and questions that's barely anything like JEOPARDY!, or perhaps entirely like it! This is a game in which I provide ten answers, and you try to guess the questions. As hard as it is to guess what I'm thinking, I still have a scoring system that will allow you all to get points just for playing by the rules:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

The “Best Question” is the funniest or most creative one that, though it doesn't match the one I was looking for, deserves to be rewarded. This is series 5, round 2, and for those of you keeping score at home, here are the scores so far based on last week's game:

B13: 25

Spockgirl: 12

Remember, it's never too late to get into the game, and there will be at least one more round in this series. See what questions you can come up with for the following answers:

1. Ravitronics.

2. His pants.

3. Four.

4. Five-and-a-half minutes.

5. Kirstie Alley.

6. To start exercising, at some point in the future.

7. Three bookshelves and a lounge chair.

8. Quizno's.

9. Meetings.

10. “ou”.

My Plate Runneth Over

2010-09-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

I'm sure I either say or think a similar sentiment at the start of every month, but I can't believe it's September already. This was a very busy Summer between my race, a plethora of band jobs, and some particularly busy times at my day job. We're a little stretched thin right now, due to some special projects and our busy season, when we send out more mailings in conjunction with television campaigns. So I think I took maybe 3 days off the entire Summer, two of which were to play gigs. Only one day was to rest and recuperate. I hit all my deadlines, and kept my head above water, and I know easier times are ahead, probably around the time I need to start my Christmas shopping.

Even though the Summer is unofficially over, I'm booked every weekend between now and the middle of October. On one weekend in September, I rescheduled a dental appointment and actually told a band leader I couldn't make a gig, clearing the way for hopefully a return trip to Atlantic City. I need to squeeze in some kind of a vacation. I might also play paintball on another weekend, and depending on how long my annual Columbus Day obligations last, I might sneak away for a few hours to ComicCon. I still can't believe they moved that to a holiday weekend; it was so much better in February when nothing else was going on.

In times of adversity, I've always been fond of the idea that God never gives us more than we can handle. Of late, I've been feeling at my limit. And it's not because I've been busy at work or with my bands or with any of the stuff I normally do. I've got that routine down. I can handle all of that, and still find time to blog, watch a few movies, and run a few miles in the gym. No, there's one extra thing on my plate right now, one burden that's escalated beyond reason.

I've mentioned the story of my father's lot before, a 50' x 100' plot of land my grandfather bought for my grandmother back in the 1940s. It was across the street and up the road from where they lived, and had a garage on the property. To this day, fig trees, grape vines, a cherry tree, and a pear tree still grow, though only the figs and grapes still thrive. I never knew my grandparents, but take comfort in that things they planted are still alive. After my grandfather passed away, a legal dispute between my dad and his oldest sister resulted in a settlement in which his sisters ended up selling the family home while he and my mom acquired the lot. I was born a few years later, and grew up helping them tend to it on weekends. I used to hate the hot hours in the sun pulling weeds by hand, and it wasn't until we got the use of the garage back that I suggested we keep an old lawnmower there, and the job got much easier.

That garage, for many years, was rented to a local landscaper. Unfortunately, he fell behind in paying his rent, and my dad was a nice guy and didn't press him about it. But then the guy put a sign up on the garage with the name of his business, which caused the property to be re-zoned, which made our taxes go up. Since the guy was now costing us more money, and not paying rent, my dad had to ask him to leave. With the garage back, we were able to store that aforementioned lawnmower, as well as other gardening tools, and eventually old clothes and furniture that didn't fit in our basement at home. Life was good.

I always thought someday I might build a house there, or maybe a business. I could put in a building from which to run my own design firm, and maybe rent apartments out upstairs. Any of those ideas would take a tremendous amount of initial capital, as well as an investment of time that I just don't have. Between work and gym, I rarely get home before 9 PM during the week. Still, since getting a job in that town 3 years ago, I have thought about how nice it would be to have a much shorter commute. Sometimes I drive past there on the way home, to check on it for my dad, and think “If I lived here, I'd be home by now.” It's not a bad neighborhood, save for a warehouse on one side, and therein lie our current woes.

The lot is bordered by three neighbors: a residence behind it, one to the right of it, and that warehouse on the left. For years a moving company was located there, until they went out of business and sold it to a roof/gutter repair guy. For a time we let the moving company keep a few trucks in our driveway, until they settled in to their new place. The owner retired, but still kept in touch with my dad. As for the new owner of the warehouse, he was initially friendly. But as the fence between our property began to collapse, and my dad asked him to fix it, tensions slowly grew. He refused, and said it wasn't his, even though the previous owner put it up and it was on his property. One day, someone busted down a section of the fence and had a party, leaving broken bottles, cups, and metal frames as evidence for us to clean up. We patched the fence as best as we could. Still the neighbor refused to help.

Over time it got worse. No one else trespassed, though we'd still find the odd bit of litter and to this day I still find broken glass when we weed. One day, a coworker who lives on the block told me sections of the fence were down entirely, lying on our side of the property. I went and propped them back up, the next day they were down again on our side. My dad had tried to get through to this guy, and called city hall for his next course of action. They referred him to the number “311”, which the old man called. It turned out to be a code enforcer, who checked out the situation, and made the guy take down the fence. That should have been the end of it. We didn't want to get the guy in trouble, nor did we want a legal battle. My dad had a heart operation earlier this year, he's 80 years old, and he has better things to worry about.

When the neighbor called my dad after taking the fence down, he said, “I did you a favor. I took your fence down.” My dad reiterated that it wasn't his fence, and asked why would he build a fence that went around the guy's property(it continues past where we border him). “I don't know what you would or wouldn't do.” said the guy. He then “warned” my dad that a code enforcer was driving around checking things, at which point the old man was honest and said he was the one who called the code enforcer. The gutter guy blew up, and threatened my dad about some wall that was five feet into his property. We had no idea what he meant. It turned out to be a retaining wall made of about three railroad ties, stacked along the warehouse driveway where their ramp dips lower than our lot. Like the fence, this was built by the previous owner when the warehouse was dug out. And like the fence, it was on their property. A few days later my dad got a warning from the same code enforcer he had called, giving us 5 days to remove the unsightly “excess vegation”. It's okay that there are always three full dumpsters and various landscaping trucks in the neighbor's yard; God forbid we have weeds higher than a few inches.

Worse, a few days later we got a summons giving us 45 days to address the failed retaining wall. It was littered with personal pronouns, stressing “...YOUR wall has failed...”, so now that's in writing. But my research, and the advice of a lawyer, says that we need to have the property surveyed, which will establish definitively where the wall is. That should resolve the problem, or at the very least give us a solid defense should we have to go to court over this. Meanwhile, we're all stressed and snapping at each other. We spend the weekend doing a massive cleanup of the weeds, and I'm pretty proud of the way it looks right now. We got an estimate from a surveyor, so hopefully we'll have that taken care of soon as well. My dad tried speaking with the previous owner to see if he had any record of building the fence, but he did not. The guy he sold the place to is his neighbor, and I'm starting to not trust the old owner either. He mentioned something about us not having a Certificate of Occupancy, and now I'm afraid they might make us tear down the garage. There's no plumbing, heating, or electricity. We certainly don't live in there and it's not a store or a restaurant. I don't think a standalone garage needs a C.O. by the definition I've read, but this is another question for a lawyer. If we do need one, it will require a series of inspections, and may require some work to bring it up to code should it not meet whatever standards it needs to meet. More agida.

So, we'll be spending a lot of time, money, and stress on this thing, all because of a lousy fence. Garbage pickup is one day a week, so we had to put everything else we bagged this weekend in the garage rather than leave 30+ bags out at the curb. On Monday and Tuesday, I went after work and took as much as would fit in the car, and brought it home so we can throw it out here. The less ammunition we give this guy the better. He's apparently still fighting the fence thing, and in the meantime he's going after us with a vengeance. The previous owner told us that the new guy is under the false impression my dad is also responsible for making him take down an illegal tower that was on top of the warehouse. We didn't even know about that until one of the local residents told us. People in the neighborhood complained anonymously, but because my dad admitted to reporting the guy over the fence, he made himself a target. Maybe we should have just put up our own fence alongside the old one. There's a lot of points in hindsight where all this could have been avoided. My mom joked bitterly that we spent the weekend at our “Summer home” and said it wasn't what normal people did. I figure it's all good practice for the things I'll have to deal with when I become a homeowner and/or when I inherit the family property.

I guess people deal with having a full plate every day, some moreso than others. I'm not used to being consumed with worry every second. Worrying about my deadlines distracts me from worrying about my family being sued and losing everything, and that distracts me from worrying about long drives on highways to various gigs. I guess I shouldn't worry so much, and learn to just go with the flow. We'll get through all of this. We've gotten through illnesses, we've gotten through tough real estate situations at home, and we'll get through this. God never gives us more than we can handle.

Right?

PBW: Light Show

2010-09-01T00:00:00.003-04:00

A friend of mine has been doing some genuinely cool things with his digital SLR, not the least of which is playing with shutter speed and exposure to get streaking lights from traffic whizzing past. He’s also done this technique where you swing the camera in front of some light source to get streaks and waves. My camera isn’t nearly fancy enough to do stuff like that, but I did find that by leaving the camera stationary on a 15-second exposure and moving a keychain lamp around in the dark, I could achieve a similar effect, “painting” with light for this week’s Photo Blog Wednesday. I’m definitely going to experiment with this technique more in the future, maybe even try to “write” something in the air.

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 4

2010-08-31T00:21:00.002-04:00

Cloakfest 2K10 isn't over yet! Last time we reviewed the highlights from February and March 2010, and now we'll take a look at the essential posts from April 2010::

APRIL, 2010

T.I.L.T. Things I've Learned Thursday MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
My Things I've Learned Thursday feature takes a very strange turn, for some reason...you there, what day was that?

My Comic Book Movie Wishlist Five
There are some very cool, if obscure, comics I've read that will probably never become movies, and these are my top five picks.

Self Edit
My restrained nature and ability to not say aloud the things which should stay in my brain keep me out of trouble. More people could use that self edit feature.

Not My Beautiful Room
My Aunt Rose doesn't adjust well to her new room at her assisted living facility, and when we visit on Easter, she refuses to get out of bed or eat. She gets some tough love from my father and my Aunt Josie, and Aunt Josie does manage to feed her sister some watermelon. Afterwards, we visited my mom's brother, my Uncle Jerry, at his nursing home, then I took my folks to the beach and took some photos in case my dad's upcoming bypass surgery didn't got well and it was our last Easter together. Months later, as I reread this story, two family members have made great improvements, and another one is gone forever. If you asked me then who I would have thought would be in what condition, I would have been way off in my prediction. Life is unpredictable.

PBW: The Easter Choice
And here are some photos from that Easter.

Other Places
What implications does a new scientific discovery in the realm of quantum physics hold? Probably not the ones I'm hoping for, but it's still fun to speculate and fantasize.

The Big Day
After years of suffering, and months of anticipation, my dad finally reaches the day of his heart surgery.

Bye Past
I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again for your prayers, thoughts, and comments through some scary times. The day of my dad's surgery was a long one for my mom and I, but mercifully went much quicker for my dad who spent most of it under sedation. The first hurdle was behind us, but there were still a few more ahead....

"How did you make that so real?"
My father's recovery progresses and he moves to a new wing, but he doesn't react well to pain medication. Among his prominent hallucinations: kicking me repeatedly for being the “director” in charge of the hallucinations. At the time, when his feet were moving under the bed sheets, I just thought he was dreaming about running.

PBW: From the Heart
Behold the return of my father, complete with an enlarged heart(which in this case is a good thing).

Over this past week...
...that is to say, the second week of April, many things happened, including my dad's successful surgery, a promotion at work, a high tax bill, and one of my trademark near-death experiences....

Dreamcasting Five
Because I like franchising, dreaming, and thinking ahead, here are my picks for the cast of a West Coast Avengers movie.

Kick-Ass Kicks Ass
The title is fairly self-explanatory, and headlines a positive film review.

Bracketers Welcome
I apply the bracket formula to popular television characters.

One of THOSE Days
“Some weeks, I really feel the burden of working five days. Some weeks, a Thursday should really be a Friday. This Thursday was one of THOSE days.”

Resilient
We're all tougher than we think. We can get stressed. We can get hurt. We can get sick. But, through the example of my parents, I realize we don't have to let any of that stop us.

PBW: Toe, No! Toe, YES.
For example, I didn't let a black toenail stop me from running, and nothing stopped me from posting before and after photos from the initial damage to the time it finally began to separate and finally came off entirely. Gross? Yes. Offensive? Yes. Essential...?

I Have No Idea....
...why I'd relink to that toe post. Here are some other things I had no idea about.

* * *

Busy month! And that's what I wrote about in April 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will continue....

Phantasmic Links 8.30.10

2010-08-30T00:32:00.002-04:00

This was a rough weekend. The guy who bought the warehouse next door to my dad's lot refused multiple times to remove or replace his crumbling fence, even though it was put up by the previous owner and not us. When my dad was eventually forced to have a code enforcer make him take it down or risk a fine, the guy struck back twice, first with the same code enforcer sending us a citation for excess vegetation, then with a summons regarding a retaining wall that's failing. Mind you, this wall is a stack of 3 railroad ties that flank both sides of the driveway to the warehouse, and are clearly on his property, but he's saying the wall on our side is our responsibility. So now my folks are looking into having a survey done, which will then allow a lawyer to defend us once it proves the wall isn't on our side. Meanwhile, not wanting to risk further escalation, both my folks and I spent a total of over ten hours doing major weeding, filling dozens of bags. The place looks pretty clean now, certainly better than the dumpsters and landscaper trucks parked in this guy's driveway.

I did escape my labors for a few hours on Saturday night to watch some UFC matches with my friends at a Hooters, which was an interesting experience. Flatscreen televisions all over the place aired the fights, while one friend got an extremely positive reception from our waitress. He's a professor at our old college, and she turned out to be one of our students. After she jumped up and down shrieking, I casually asked my friend if he knew her or if that was a standard practice. I of course knew of the chain, but never actually ate at one. The beer was good, the nachos were good, the waitresses were attractive, and I don't know what meat was on the nachos but it wasn't steak. So the experience was mostly positive. Occasionally, things happened to remind me of how old I am, like when the waitress told us she couldn't drink while working and wasn't 21 yet anyway. Also, she mentioned at one point that they did have an “old” waitress who was 30 but she was still hot. It was said with such incredulity, like anyone over 30 was instantly a senior citizen. I remember thinking that way, and in a sobering moment realized that my friends and I may have reached the same age that a lot of our professors were back when they taught us. Getting old is rough, although as I struggled on Sunday on 3 or 4 hours sleep to continue my landscaping responsibilities, I had to admire my parents. Sure, they were feeling the heat, but they were working a lot harder than I was. Someday, the waitresses of Hooters might realize that three old guys in a booth watching some fights weren't as old as they thought. That day will come fifteen years from now, and those 15 years will fly. None of us think that far ahead though, at least I don't, so I'm not even thinking about my 40s or people who are 40 and over now. I'm thinking about PHANTASMIC LINKS, and about the major sunburn I got while doing yardwork. But mostly about the links:

(1) A Texas state fair served fried....BEER?! Urge to overcome resistance to travel...rising.

(2) This just in: People don't really like unselfish colleagues. Hmm....

(3) ”Hot Nerds Reading Comics” is exactly what it sounds like.

(4) Nike may be making the Air-Mag sneaker featured in Back to the Future II. That's all well and good, but I'm still waiting for someone to invent a working hoverboard. The future is NOW, people!

(5) Here is an excellent response to a political ad which implies reading comics is a negative side effect that could result in a loss of teachers.

(6) Meanwhile, I totally missed Read Comics in Public Day! It's a good thing those uneducated kids were there....

(7) Together is a peaceful little journey through the stratosphere, to the depths of the ocean, to space, to anywhere this couple can fly. Collect hearts; avoid the beast....

(8) I'm sure everyone has seen the Bed Intruder Song which remixed a serious newscast in hilarious and awesome ways, but I don't think I ever linked to it, so here it is.

(9) Jamie Roberts is an artist with a pretty excellent take on superheroes, using vector art.

(10) You knew it had to happen: Robot Wants Fishy! I would think this is the last in a trilogy, but I haven't played this one through to the end yet...

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 58

2010-08-29T02:42:00.002-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 58th WWW:

1) From Paris With Love:
For a variety of reasons, I was skeptical when the drummer in one of the bands I play for recommended this film. With his tastes, I took it with a grain of salt. More importantly, I'd seen the trailer, and it looked like some dumb tongue-in-cheek spy spoof. I wasn't fooled by John Travolta's new “bad-ass” look, sporting a shaved head with a goatee. I'd never seen Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in anything before, but he was clearly playing “random affordable young guy #7 as a foil to the established veteran actor playing against type”. Still, every time I played a gig, this drummer asked if I'd seen it yet, so I finally put it on my queue. Going in with low expectations, I was surprised to see Luc Besson's name attached in the opening credits. Could this actually be...a good story? While he's done better, I was pleasantly surprised that it was more of a drama with comic relief than a solid comedy, and there were some truly shocking moments and occasional graphic violence. Travolta really plays a supporting role here, and over the course of the film you see he's less of a loose cannon and more of an experience CIA agent. Rhys-Meyers is a little rough at first, but makes for a good lead. He's working undercover, given minor assignments like planting bugs, but yearns to get more into the game. Complicating matters is his beautiful French girlfriend, and how their relationship is affected by all the cloak and dagger stuff once Travolta ropes him in is the meat of the film. It starts out as a simple drug bust, and somehow ends up being about taking down a terrorist cell before they take out the president. Don't make the same mistake I did and judge the trailer at face value; I watched it again after the movie ended, and was amazed at how a little editing can change the tone of any subject matter. It's probably not something that will stand the test of time, and certainly won't win any awards, but did show Travolta has some versatility and the new kid has some potential. All in all, I'd have to settle on giving this a resounding better-than-expected.

2) The Blind Side:
~~REVIEW TO COME LATER TODAY~~. UPDATED:
There's a little football anecdote at the start of the film, wonderfully narrated by Sandra Bullock(“One Mississippi”...hey, I just got that...), which purportedly explains the title of the film. I have a different theory, in that the name comes from the fact that you tear up so many times, it's hard to see the film. Maybe that's just me. Even though most of these little “D-awwwgotalumpinmythroat” moments were in the trailer, they still got to me. Michael Oher, or “Big Mike”, was removed from the care of his crackhead mother and bounced around from foster home to foster home, more often than not crashing on a friend's couch. When his friend's dad tries to get his son in to a better school on athletic merit, he also makes a case for Big Mike. So it came to be that the gentle giant, who preferred “Michael” to “Big Mike”, attended a mostly white Christian school with kids from affluent families. Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, and while the kid playing her son exemplifies everything that's annoying with precocious child actors, his outgoing personality allows him to reach out to Michael. Eventually, the Tuohy's would take Michael in, initially for one night, but eventually on a more permanent basis. It wasn't long before he was a part of their family, and officially adopted. Michael had a rough road ahead, struggling in school, but with the help and encouragement of his new family, he eventually got his grades up. And the one area he tested highest prior to coming to a new school was “protective instincts”, which translated well not only to family, but also on a football field. It's an inspiring and heartfelt story, and a lot more than just “kid from the projects makes good because he's athletic”. Quinton Aron does a great job portraying Oher, a role that often requires him to a convey a lot with silence and facial expressions. By the end of the film, when it becomes more about his football career and less about him bonding with the Tuohy's, I almost lost interest, but the drama soon returned, especially when his choice of school attracted the attention of a suspicious NCAA. And Bullock is outstanding as a woman who has it together, stays strong in the face of danger, and is extremely protective as both a mother and an adoptive mother. The cast did a great job bringing real people to life on the big screen, making you care about and like all of them, and overall it was a very enjoyable experience. I'm not a big sports fan, but this is so much more than a sports movie. Any one of us, with the right opportunities and right support, can use our strengths and bolster our weaknesses to excel at anything. Very inspiring.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!

MCF's Perilous 5.I Questions

2010-08-28T00:00:00.001-04:00

Don't call it a comeback! Or do. MCF's Perilous! made its return yesterday and got some great questions in response to the answers. I'll probably do a few more of these in the near future.

MCF's Perilous! is a quiz in reverse. I posted ten answers. You had to come up with the corresponding questions There was even a scoring system:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

Here are the results from Series 5, Round 1:

B13: 25

Spockgirl: 12

Everyone who participated got a point for each question. No one forgot a question mark, so there were no deductions. No one had the same questions as mine exactly, but Spockgirl managed to get in the ballpark with the limited information provided and catch where I was alluding to Joss Whedon and Michael Cera. So I gave her an extra point for each of those questions, bringing her score to 12. It was B13's very first question that cracked me up the most, giving him the 15 point bonus. Still, there will be at least two more rounds and, if history has taught me anything, it's still anyone's game. Even if you didn't participate in this round, you could still potentially play the next two and sweep our current players. It's happened before.

OK! Let's see what my questions were:

1. PRND HC FE
What are some of the letters which appear on my car's dashboard?

2. “Excess Vegation”
What absurd(and misspelled) violation notice did my dad receive when the guy with the warehouse next to our lot sought vengeance for my dad finally reporting him to a code officer after he repeatedly refused to repair or take down his toppled fence?

3. Mostly ones I already knew or could figure out with the information I'd been presented.
What questions did an extra 12 minutes of LOST answer for me?

4. Fish Biscuits
And what were Polar Bears rewarded with on that show?

5. Because I was in my underwear at the time.
Why did discovering myself in the background of a photo I recently took require heavy editing?

6. Mark Millar.
What comic book writer seems to have a lot of his graphic novels turned into movies, sometimes while he's still writing them?

7. Because he's known for writing such strong female characters.
Why did it surprise me to learn that Joss Whedon is only using one female hero for the cast of The Avengers?

8. They sent me the third one first.
Why haven't I watched the first Lone Wolf and Cub movie I rented from Netflix yet?

9. It would have been very awesome, but then they would probably have killed him in the first scene and someone like Jesse Eisenberg would have had to step in.
What if The Expendables played the “Seven Evil Exes” that Michael Cera had to battle in the Scott Pilgrim movie?

10. Beer.
”Hey MCF, what would you like for lunch on Friday?”

MCF's Perilous Series 5.I

2010-08-27T00:21:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time, there was a game I dubbed MCF's Perilous!, and it was good. I thought so, anyway. It started near the end of 2006, and throughout 2007 evolved into something with very confusing numbering. I believe I used arabic numerals to denote series of posts, and roman numerals to denote individual posts(or rounds) within each series, which would make this the start of a possible 5th series(or season). It's been three years since I retired this feature.

MCF's Perilous! is a quiz in reverse. I post ten answers. You get to come up with the corresponding questions and post them on your blogs, leaving a link to your post in the comments below(or if you prefer, just comment with your questions directly). If that sounds suspiciously like JEOPARDY!, I can only say, “Hey, what's that over there!” and move on when you look away.

Initially, the points didn't matter. Then I worked out this elaborate prize system in which people won some mysterious JPEG which was in fact one of twelve fragments of a picture of my real face(The Mysterious Master Prize™), some of which were inverted to make the puzzle even more challenging. I lost track of who got which pieces, but I'm pretty sure no one person ever got more than three, and I don't think any readers formed alliances to join their fragments. In any case, we're back to doing this just for fun, so no prizes, lame or otherwise. The points just count for bragging rights.

We'll see what kind of a response this edition gets before I plan other rounds in series five. At this point, I'm sure some of you are wondering just how you can get points when, in many cases, it will be IMPOSSIBLE to guess what question I'm thinking of. Scoring is somewhat subjective, but I do have a pretty simple system:

1 pt=each question
2 pts=each question that matches MCF's
-1 pt=any sentences not in question form, or forgetting a question mark
15 pts=Bonus for the Best Question

The “Best Question” is the funniest or most creative one that, though it doesn't match the one I was looking for, deserves to be rewarded. I remember what you folks came up with back in the day, and I've seen some of that creativity shine through recently in MCF's COMMON. You probably won't guess what I'm thinking, but you get points just for trying, just for even writing a QUESTION, and you might get a lot of points if you think of something great.

Will you face the perils below and attain the maximum points possible? Here are the first 10 answers for this game:

1. PRND HC FE

2. “Excess Vegation”

3. Mostly ones I already knew or could figure out with the information I'd been presented.

4. Fish Biscuits

5. Because I was in my underwear at the time.

6. Mark Millar.

7. Because he's known for writing such strong female characters.

8. They sent me the third one first.

9. It would have been very awesome, but then they would probably have killed him in the first scene and someone like Jesse Eisenberg would have had to step in.

10. Beer.

The Essential MCF: 2K9-2K10: Part 3

2010-08-26T00:05:00.001-04:00

The early Cloakfest 2K10 continues! Last time we reviewed the highlights from December 2009 and January 2010, and now we'll take a look at the essential posts from February and March 2010::

FEBRUARY, 2010

Circles in the Dark
My mom's blind cat will spend the rest of his life walking in circles, while I begin to recognize the circles my own fears and emotions lead me in before, like Cubby, I pick a direction.

The Greatest Comebacks
I love a good comeback, love that it's always darkest before the dawn in some of my favorite movies and television shows. The contrast of some genuinely tragic times make the eventual comebacks even greater. It's a fantastic archetype.

Perspective.
Reminders that I'm not a kid anymore are never easy, but things like being called “Mr.” are probably important if I'm ever going to move forward.

80 Years and Out of Ideas
As my father's 80th birthday approaches, I wrestle with the problem of shopping for a man who already has everything he wants, doesn't want a party, and as I'd soon, realize, probably isn't healthy enough for a trip to a baseball stadium.

Snow Blind
It was good that I had this blog, so I could remember HOW MUCH SNOW WE GOT THIS YEAR. A snow day off from work swiftly results in a day of shoveling, and ultimately isn't much of a day off AT ALL, especially when I find myself in a third round of digging after my dad goes to sleep.

My Future Commercial Star Five
Sure, they're all celebrities now, but where might they land in the future in advertising?

PBW: A Snow Day's Night
Hey, did I mention it SNOWED a lot this year? I had the pictures to prove it....

Turn Turn Turnaround
Sometimes, the universe balances out, and those of us who were down are up, while those of us who knocked us down finally fall themselves.

Up Fate's Sleeve
When a raccoon saves me from a speeding ticket, I ponder recent positive changes in my luck, and wonder if missing a casino weekend due to a sick friend is also part of a larger design of fate.

MCF's Old School 100
It's the first 20 in a very awesome list of memories from the decades of my youth.

Crazy/Lucky
When an ex-college crush targets one of my friends on a social network, sharing her life's crazy problems(which include dating a crackhead), I realize how much of a bullet I dodged when she rejected me years ago. Maybe life does work out the way it's supposed to, but it takes years to recognize the pattern.

MARCH, 2010

MCF's Old School 100: Part II
It's items 21-40 in a very awesome list of memories from the decades of my youth.

Stenty Birthday
Against all odds, my dad makes it to his 80th birthday, and his cardiologist advises an angioplasty with the possible introduction of a stent to keep his clogged arteries open. And in the ultimate jinxing sentence in hindsight, I wrote, “At 80 years old, I don't think he has to worry about bypass surgery anymore because now it would be too risky.” Oops....

While My Black Car Gently Weeps
With my dad facing a surgical procedure, and me facing dental work, the “check engine” light on my dashboard is among the last things I want to see. A truck with “MEDIEVAL WEAPONS” written on the side of it is a different, and mysterious, story....

MCF's Old School 100: Part III
It's items 41-60 in a very awesome list of memories from the decades of my youth.

Never Tell Me the Odds.
Bad news: not only are doctors unable to put a stent in my dad's artery due to the location of the blockage near a branch, but they advise bypass surgery ASAP, to keep him alive longer than their estimate of five months WITHOUT the operation. The old man doesn't take the news well, and is ready to die. I don't take the news well, but I'm not ready for him to die, so I keep my fears to myself and encourage him.

Every Day is a New Day
At my age, every day means another meeting or assignment at work. At my parents' age, every day means a visit to a different doctor, as the list of procedures my dad may need grows....

MCF's Old School 100: Part IV
It's items 61-80 in a very awesome list of memories from the decades of my youth.

Heart Strung
My dad's heart bypass surgery is postponed for a month due to insurance requiring an office visit with the surgeon first, and the surgeon's schedule which includes a vacation. Giving someone five months to live then delaying an operation is strong psychological torture.

Lot in Life
Adding to March's growing list of problems, the fence between my dad's vacant lot and a neighboring warehouse begins falling apart. The new owner refuses to take responsibility for the fence(which is on his side and was put up by his predecessor), so it's up to me to check things out when a coworker who lives nearby notices not only the fence, but that someone opened the gate to our driveway and left it open....

MCF's Old School 100: Part V
It's the final 20 items in a very awesome list of memories from the decades of my youth.

Two Men on an Island
Years from now, I may remember my obsession with a little show called LOST, and the theories I'd formulate as I tried to piece it all together, especially in 2010 during the final season. Also, a new reader shows up and tells me to “get a life”, fitting in with my old readers right away.

POST #2000!!!!!
On my landmark 2,000th consecutive post, I reveal the one horrific secret some readers waited over five years to see: my face. It's all downhill after that....

* * *

And that's what I wrote about in February and March 2010 in my sixth year of doing this.

The Essential MCF 2K9-2K10 will continue....

PBW: Overcast

2010-08-25T00:00:00.004-04:00

There's nothing like a vacation day to recharge my batteries! Sure, I have to work a little late before taking a vacation, and the day I come back to the office is a flurry of catching up before I get back on track, but that day when I can sleep in, catch a movie, and roam with my camera is a day when I have little else to think about. Mind you, the giant cloud that seems to have set itself up over the Northeastern United States since Sunday could put a damper on a Photo Blog Wednesday, but with a little tripod, and a little determination, on Monday I managed to get shots not only in spite of the clouds, but of the clouds too:

Sensitivity Zero

2010-08-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Lately, it seems like a lot of the Italian feasts and processions I perform at with various bands have been celebrating 100 year anniversaries. At the close of one procession a few weeks ago, a society leader spoke for a few minutes on the occasion, relating a story from 1942. Due to Italy's involvement in World War II, the town objected to any ethnic celebration by people from a country we were at war with. They argued back that it was a religious celebration, not an Italian one, but were still outvoted. The celebration was held anyway that year, in the society hall rather than the local school parking lot. And the procession went on as well. The town could keep them off the streets, but they couldn't keep them from walking on the sidewalk.

Things like this seem silly in hindsight. In the year 2010, it's hard to imagine anyone taking issue with an Italian Catholic celebration. Everyone loves zeppole too much! In all seriousness though, time heals many wounds, and with each generation removed from any disagreement, the tension fades if the flames aren't fanned. As a melting pot of many cultures and religious beliefs(or lack thereof), America is often faced with unique challenges. It is human nature to condemn an entire group for the actions of any portion. Intellectually, people from the World War II era might have realized that because the Nazis were German did not mean that anyone who was German was a Nazi. But intellect and emotion may be two different things. Racism can arise when someone looks and acts like others who've committed heinous acts. From the ‘80s on, kids thought Japan was awesome because of their cartoons and technology. Kids who grew up when Pearl Harbor was attacked had a very different opinion of the Japanese. Japanese-Americans who had nothing to do with the attack were rounded up. It came from a place of fear and security concerns, though it was unjust.

Lately, I've been pondering the issue of the ”Ground Zero Mosque”. People have had very strong feelings for and against the construction of an Islamic center so close to the site of the former World Trade Center, destroyed 9 years ago when Islamic terrorists flew planes into the buildings. It was a horrible, horrible day that we won't soon forget, especially those closest to the event. I still remember the reports that morning, the people at my office concerned for loved ones who worked in the city. I remember an e-mail from an ex-girlfriend, who recognized a name among the missing as the husband of a girl we worked with, whose wedding we had attended. They had a little girl, and she was pregnant with their second child when he was killed. If you're a soldier or a cop you know death is a risk when you go to work. If you work in an office, you definitely don't expect to be attacked.

People continue to be affected. First responders who went in to save as many people as they could now suffer from respiratory diseases. I spoke with a music teacher at a gig over the weekend who lived and worked a few blocks from the site, breathing in the air as the wreckage continued to smolder and burn. He attributed a cancerous ailment to that, and recounted several coworkers who had similar problems. Parents lost children, and children lost parents. My friend's daughter will never know her father. These are the physical and emotional realities.

The harder issue is the intellectual reality. The terrorists were Muslims, manipulated by their beliefs into thinking they were dying as martyrs for a sacred cause when they crashed those planes. But all Muslims are not terrorists. In America, we have the freedom to retain our cultural and religious traditions, to practice and worship freely so long as we don't harm others or encroach on their rights. Intellectually, and legally, there should be nothing wrong with building an Islamic center anywhere in New York. If it's about faith, and peace, and not the destruction of the Western world, then they have as much right to be there as Christian or Jewish or any other group.

The problem is, 9/11 is a very fresh wound. Bodies were never recovered, the intense heat and pressure scattering ash and human remains for blocks. One mother described the area as her “son's grave” and opposed a mosque being built over it. Supposedly, a mosque is only one part of the center, which will also include a 9/11 memorial. Healing is needed. German-Americans, Italian-Americans, and Japanese-Americans don't face the same opposition they once did when their original nations fought America. That didn't happen overnight, though. In the end, I guess I can conclude that the building of this structure isn't wrong, but it does seem insensitive. It's too soon. It's too close. And if I've read correctly, the groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for September 11th of this year, the anniversary of the attacks. Of all places, and of all days, why there and then?

It's a difficult issue, and I know I'm too close to it to be entirely objective. It will be easier for my children, and for their children, if history has taught us anything. The terrorists are the bad guys, not Muslims, but people are going to have a hard time making that distinction. Sadly, ignoring that will only make that misconception stronger, and there are so many compromises and options that would help avoid such an increase in tension. I just don’t get it. Do you?

Phantasmic Links 8.23.10

2010-08-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

I am so sore right now. On Saturday, I helped my folks plant about 15 trees at my dad's lot. Long story short, the guy who owns the warehouse next door allowed the fence put up by the previous owner to collapse, insisted it was ours, and refused to put up a new one after finally being moved to clean up the mess. We'd need a permit to put up our own fence, but a natural barrier is a good alternative. The digging took a surprising toll on the back and legs of a guy who runs 4-7 miles every day, but I guess bending down and using a shovel on tough soil required muscles I don't use on the treadmill. I didn't have much time to recover before playing a feast in Little Italy on Sunday, and as the skies opened and torrential rain fell when we'd barely begun the procession, I was sure we'd finish early. We ducked in the basement of the church to dry off, some guys literally ringing out their socks, when one of the society members came in yelling for the band. The rain had stopped(somewhat) and we were moving out. Four hours and a few glasses of wine later, I was glad to be on a train home. I usually defend my career whenever anyone suggests that sitting in front of a computer isn't “real work”, but it's definitely easier than some of the stuff I did this weekend. I'm just glad to be in my room again, in dry clothes, surfing for this week's PHANTASMIC LINKS:

(1) The ABCs of Mediocre Marvel Villainy makes for a great illustrated alphabet, and most of those guys deserve to be on the list, though all were entertaining foes in the comics I read in my youth.

(2) It's hard to believe Summer is almost over, not that I won't miss the excessive heat as it gradually cools down, but new and returning television shows are just around the corner! What will you be watching in a few short weeks?

(3) Seabreacher is a self-proclaimed “Ultimate Diving Machine”, which is a claim that can be substantiated by the fact that this is a BOAT which looks like a SHARK. ‘nuff said.

(4) Sometimes, geeks find love. And when they do, their wedding invitations might look a little something like this.
Hat Tip: J-No.

(5) Geek Mind will measure your knowledge of video games. Are you a true gamer?

(6) Gene Gonzales is an artist with a variety of “little heroes” on his blog, including Etrigan, Martian Manhunter, and Cloak & Dagger. There's a Saturday morning cartoon in this idea just screaming to be made.

(7) These Skeletor redesigns range from sinister to cutely sinister.

(8) Hip hop albums are reimagined through comics in this gallery.

(9) Great Comics That Never Happened Annual #1 reminds me of two things, that there have been twelve of these things already, and that they are AWESOME.

(10) Blast RPG is a catapult game in which you must go the distance, but it is also an RPG in which you must level up your knight and buy weapons and spells to fight off a variety of creatures along the way.

Have a link to a game, movie, article, or anything else you think might be “phantasmic”? E-mail me and it just might appear in an upcoming PHANTASMIC LINKS!

WWW: Weekend Wrental Wreviews 57

2010-08-22T00:05:00.001-04:00

Let's see what I saw this week for Weekend Wrental Wreviews in my 57th WWW:

1) The Life of David Gale:
This wasn't an easy film to watch, certainly not one I could watch twice. On more than one occasion I was nearly moved to tears. But it was an outstanding film with Kevin Spacey in the title role doing what he does better than anyone else, playing a very ambiguous character. David Gale was a professor and a staunch activist against the death penalty. Through a complex series of events, he finds himself on death row for the rape and murder of a friend and colleague. Did he do it? Is he innocent? You're never sure until the last frame of the movie, and even then you're not sure how to feel about certain characters. Kate Winslet plays a reporter with a reputation for protecting her sources, which is exactly why Gale requests her for his final interview. In the three days leading up to his scheduled execution, he tells her his story. Her mind is made up about him, but sways as he paints a very different picture than what the media showed. He was a loving husband and father, and a great teacher. In debating a governor, he proves skilled at winning an argument. But he's still human with flaws, battling both alcoholism and a scandalous encounter with an ex-student. Some look at the movie as being just about the death penalty, but I think the larger theme is that of zealotry, and how far anyone would go for any cause he or she felt strongly about. As the clock ticks down, Winslet and her intern race to piece together evidence that could save Gale. The movie becomes a very tense thriller that zigs, then zags, then zigs again. I was surprised after watching to learn that Roger Ebert slammed the film with a shocking zero stars. The pacing is great, the acting is excellent, and the mystery keeps you guessing, leaving one important loose end to be forgotten until one powerful last revelation. The movie is graphic at times, certainly thought-provoking, and will leave you pondering motives and morality long after the credits and excellent soundtrack have given way to silence.

2) The Book of Eli:
Denzel Washington, as the eponymous Eli, does something in the first scene of this film that made me think I wasn't going to care for his character, or even the film itself. But it quickly becomes apparent that his actions are about survival, and he is a lone individual on a sacred crusade, walking West through post-apocalyptic America with precious cargo, the last known copy of a very important book. No one under the age of 30 seems to remember the war which turned the world into a wasteland, in which the sun is so scorchingly bright that sunglasses must be worn at all times. Eli can take care of himself, at one point smelling bandits lying in wait for an ambush. And though he is outnumbered, he proves more than capable in a fight, literally cutting through his opponents with a very big knife. The movie has a gritty Western feel mixed with Mad Max, and it is a twist at the end, obvious in hindsight, which puts the movie in much higher regard for me. Also great is Gary Oldman, a man ruthlessly obsessed with finding the very thing which Eli protects. Under Oldman's thumb is a blind woman(Jennifer Beals and her daughter Solara(Mila Kunis). Against his wishes, Solara eventually becomes Eli's ally and sidekick. There's a ridiculously stylish shootout that would make Michael Bay envious, as the camera pans 360 degrees around the action, passing through crumbling walls. In the end, this isn't a movie about the end of the world so much as what we'd need to rebuild, and the power of faith and determination when faced with a seemingly impossible quest. Eli was a man with a calling, and after walking for 30 years, wasn't going to stop without a fight.

More reviews to follow next week after I've spun a few more discs!