1554! Queen Street West! It's a Sunday, baby!
Music starts at 8:00. That'll open with our fabulous hosts in Mr. Jr.
We'll be on around 10:00. The remaining time will be filled by two other bands. Mysterious!
Come on out and do a thing with us, humanoids. It'll be a show.
I started with the new “Daredevil” season. Suitably amazing. But one aspect I really love is the confrontational conversation between the titular hero and Punisher. It’s like watching Batman from the Seventies argue with Batman from the Eighties.
On one side, there’s the grimly flamboyant pursuer of justice who makes some sort of effort to maintain ties with humanity. On the other, there’s the psychopath who won’t come out of the dark for anything, existing solely to assault criminals with maximum brutality.
Frank Miller’s largely responsible for the latter portrayal, which can be seen at extremes in the form of Punisher. But the same author is also credited with bringing greater depth to Daredevil, who more closely resembles a version of the Bat that predates Miller’s involvement.
Then I suppose it’s also like watching Frank’s adopted son argue with someone who’s dressed up like his godchild.
Which might seem slightly weird too. In part because Miller specifically set out to create a version of Batman who was older than he. But that can happen with these sorts of things sometimes. I went to camp around fifth grade with a boy who was already a godfather at the time. He slept right near me.
Bonus Question!
Punisher versus Miller! Frank against Frank!
It’s not hard to imagine that they’d agree on all sorts of things, but both seem vituperative enough about their opinions to find something to quibble violently over. But things’d probably progress over the course of hours and beers to a relatively amiable place from which a friendly outing to a shooting range could seem like an option. And in that scenario, Frank Castle would have to take the win.
I've been watching the televisual adaptations of "The Magicians" and "Lucifer". The former feels slightly darker in tone than its source while the latter is far lighter. Actually, it seems mildly disingenuous to market"Lucifer" with explicit claims of its basis on the Vertigo comic. It would be more accurate to say that it's based on the Miltonian characterisation of a figure that's somewhat compatible with Vertigo's interpretation.
Oh. And the latest "Supergirl" episode featured Martian Manhunter quite heavily. His Oreo fixation's back! I mean . . . They were called Chocos instead, but that's the DC name for Oreos when they're feeling inclined towards that sort of obfuscation. So. You know. Alien cookie love. Good times.
Bonus Question!
Manhunter versus Cookie Monster! Cookie Contest!
I don't think that the Martian really stands a chance of eating more unless the competition only includes Oreos. Or Chocos. Then it might at least be close.
My brother invited me out to see "Deadpool" shortly before I was planning on going out to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies". In the end, the day contained both. They seemed to fit together quite nicely. One's about a dude who can't die, and the other featured a horde for whom death didn't take. Both were dissonantly romantic.
I remember hearing that shawarma sales shot up across the continent after "The Avengers" was released. I wonder if "Deadpool" had a similar effect on chimichangas.
Is Martian Manhunter going to be in the Justice League movie? Will that influence the Oreo market? Hm. He's in the Supergirl show right now, but I haven't seen him touch one.
He did it all for the cookie.
Bonus Question!
Tacos! Hard shell or soft?
Hard. I feel that the soft variety is somewhat redundant in a world with several essentially similar concoctions. There's not much to separate it from all sorts of other wraps. The hard shell is an identifier unique to the taco, which is why it shall always be the canonical type to me.
I’ve been reading the new “Ultimates” series. It’s a solid tale. Al Ewing’s a massive force of wit and ingenuity, and his Loki series was the top. This volume of “The Ultimates” doesn’t have any tangible connection to the previous books to bear that name; rather, it’s more like an elevation of his work on “Mighty Avengers”, transposed from the street level to a cosmic scale with a similar cast.
The old book, a version of the Avengers in the recently deceased Ultimate universe, was developed by Mark Millar, who did much to pioneer cinematic storytelling in comic books. If there’s any resonance to be found between Ewing’s “Ultimates” and Millar’s creation, it’s there. That cinematic sense is even more explicit in Al’s series, wherein every issue’s credits are laid out in a satisfyingly bombastic facsimile of an action film’s opening.
Though it might not be deliberate, the sensibilities Ewing employs on the book seem like a solid way of implying a touch of continuity to the monumental and entirely disparate series from which it takes its name.
Bonus Question!
Most egregious transition from streets to cosmos?
Spider-Man's Captain Universe stint. That can't have been comfortable for him.
In fairness, that dude's rarely comfortable.
Dermot Mulroney has a face and a name that I vaguely recognise, but I never connected the two elements until I recently saw a movie in which he played the son of Robert Deniro and the father of Zac Efron. Honestly, that seems like the perfect use for his face. Zac and Rob bear no obvious resemblance to each other at all, but Mr Mulroney’s visage somehow manages to look like a combination of the pair
On another note, I remember seeing "City of Bones" at the cinema a while ago. It was that urban fantasy thing with Johnathan Rhys-Meyers and that guy who's basically a younger Johnathan Rhys-Meyers. Is that redundant? The dude hasn't really aged.
Anyway, it's a good genre, and I like seeing that stuff in theatres, which is why I wasn't excited to hear that the film's lack of financial success precluded cinematic adaptations of the numerous sequels to the novel whereupon it was based. It's like a repeat of that whole situation with "The Golden Compass". But now both are being adapted into television shows with fresh starts and new casts, and the bone city one is out. It's fine, but I still would have preferred to see the big screen battles between the evil forces of Johnathan Rhys-Meyers and the opposing team with that younger Johnathan Rhys-Meyers guy.
Bonus Question!
Best city of bones? Litharge.
Hot Apollo's playing a thunderous acoustic set of wild majestic rock-and-roll at Nocturne on the first Thursday of March.
550 Queen Street West. $5. There are other bands too.
Kap!
http://www.facebook.com/kap1492
Etherift!
http://www.facebook.com/etherift.music
From Beyond the Sky!
http://www.facebook.com/frombeyondthesky
You should come by?
You should come by!
I recently heard that Leo DiCaprio turned down the role of Anakin in the prequels. Something about his thoughts of feeling unready to take a role in such a monumental franchise.
But he basically played that part already. It was one of the first things he did. Remember?
That Rimbaud movie basically tells the story of Obi-Wan and Anakin with poetry instead of the Force. And it's that Remus Lupin guy instead of Obi-Wan.
Oh, and their sexual relationship is more explicit. Who needs fan fiction when you have bardic romance? Am I right?
Often.
I am often right.
Bonus Question!
Rimbaud versus Anakin?
Well, Rimbaud did die somewhat ignominiously at a fairly young age, and he abandoned poetry at an even earlier one, but Anakin forsook the light around the same time, which was its own death after a fashion, and that really didn't work out well for him at all.
Um . . . I suppose that the French guy scrapes by here, for he didn't enable the tyrannical oppression of an entire galaxy when he strayed from his path.
The vein runs deep with passion’s flow.
Love’s ichor seeps toward the core.
Liquid lust reveals a spoor
Wherein its viscous vice may show.
Alight with scents of ebon tar,
The straits of sensual fury boil.
With oily gleam, their torrents roil
Through steaming streamlets fast and far.
Traced in tracks of treacly tricks,
Swirls of slickest passion stir.
Ferocious seas of sick allure
Seethe in sin of vicious mix.
A sanguine sluice sends the urge
To every nerve but never slakes.
In full the venom’s vigour wakes
Where runs of wanton will converge.
A lot’s been said about toxic relationships, but I think that many people are only toxic in specific situations. Otherwise they’re good. You know? They’re like lead. You don’t want to line a reservoir with them, but when you’re getting an x-ray at the dentist’s office, you’re just going to wrap yourself up in them and get quite cozy. Yeah? Maybe lead’s just not great to bring to a party. It’s not just poisoning you. It’s also preventing you from absorbing all of that lovely party radiation. Not acceptable, lead. But maybe you’d like to go for bagels together. That could be alright.
Bonus Question!
Eddie Brock versus Pat Mulligan. Most toxic Toxin?
Brock. Mulligan seems like a pretty decent guy.
"The Good Dinosaur" was basically like a rendition of "Ice Age" for anybody who might have balked at the high number of mammals in the older film. If you prefer cold blood in the veins of your protagonists, you should feel comfortable here. Just full of saurians.
In fairness, the mammals that do appear seem to have better hair on the whole than the ones from "Ice Age". That might be important. Hair's a key feature for mammals. It's right up there with endothermic metabolism and live progeny.
Bonus Question!
Best dinosaur of "The Good Dinosaur"?
Sam Elliott plays a cowboy tyrannosaur. I'm probably going to have to go with that.
He should've kept the moustache, though.
Because time travellers need outfits that are truly timeless. By "timeless", I mean that there really is no good time for this outfit.
Black Bolt had a son. A precocious princeling by the name of Ahura. I was first exposed to the dude in the pages of Mike Allred’s work with the Fantastic Four. Great costume. A lightly urban take on his father’s classic look. And that king really set a high bar for Inhuman fashion in his day.
But then the mostly mute monarch abandoned his heir to Kang the Conqueror in hopes of saving his son from an impending apocalypse. It was one of those days.
But the kid didn’t take it well, and his feelings of loss and loneliness were sculpted into resentment, loathing, and revenge by his new caretaker, who impressed himself upon the lad as a firm new father figure. Now Ahura’s striking back at his parents across time by erasing their entire race from reality. But the crime that really struck me was one of fashion.
Where he once wore the royal raiment of his true parent, he now adorns himself in attire that attests to the tastes of his villainous surrogate. That’s a steep step in the downward direction. That’s a stairway and a half.
But this stylistic sin and the comparatively minor misdemeanour of temporal genocide share a common cause. The dude’s just too dependent on the presence of a strong male role model, and he doesn’t discriminate. Good? Evil? Chic? Grotesque? He seems to lack the wherewithal to make such distinctions.
This is how monsters are made.
Bonus Question!
Best Black Bolt homage by a costume outside of comics?
Gene Simmons.
He’s honest about his inspiration.
Admittedly, he’s also appeared like that in comics, and in that format, I think that Ahura still comes out on top. I haven’t heard Ahura sing yet, though. If he inherited any of his father’s vast vocal power, he could probably stand up against the Demon there too.
Allred's Ahura
It was good. You know this. Obviously, I shall enjoy the next episode, but I think that “The Force Awakens” actually made me more excited for the next season of “Girls”.
Adam Driver probably gives my favourite performance as a villain in the entire saga. The heroic Anakin Skywalker probably wins out overall, but the fact that Vader sometimes comes off as a crippled old cyborg makes him somewhat less formidable and less flamboyant. He rarely had a chance to revel in his evil. Palpatine certainly did despite his more decrepit appearance. But Ani got some bad turns at the end of “Revenge”. Like . . . It obviously had to end in that way. There was never a question. But there was a part of me that just wanted Anakin and Obi-Wan to hug it out and continue on their galactic adventures. Otherwise, he could have just gone on as the Darth Vader he was at the start of the Mustafar ordeal. All the power of being a young, mostly intact Skywalker with the addition of shiny gold eyes! I had a similar feeling when I saw Tim Roth in that Hulk movie. It was great to see the Abomination on the big screen, but I loved watching Roth run around and fight the Hulk as an enhanced human.
But no. Emil Blonsky had to become that monstrosity, and Anakin had to lose the rest of his limbs, his wavy, dark locks, and a fair bit of impetuous fire. It doesn’t make Darth Vader a lesser antagonist. It just makes him appeal to me less.
It’s one of the weird dichotomies of those movies. The stoic Jedi Order is primarily represented by Luke, who clearly craves adventure and excitement despite the preferences of the monastic tradition he endeavours to continue. The Sith, a philosophy that places a premium on the power of emotion, is championed by Vader, who strives to suppress his passions and gives himself over in large part to his robotic side.
Kylo doesn’t have to endure such troubles as Vader did. He’s closer to the kind of “Star Wars” fan who might not have even noticed Vader’s infirmity for all of his tenebrous grandeur. He puts his grandfather on a pedastal that should be familiar to many people who grew up with the original trilogy, and he’s desperate to live up to that reputation. But in some ways, he might be more capable of achieving it. He’s not weighed down by unwelcome machinery. He’s not saddened by the loss of what he valued most in the world because what he values most is being what he is. Anakin fell to corruption in tragedy, but Kylo Ren’s really trying to savor the Dark Side. That’s a kind of villainy that plays more to me.
Bonus Question?
Best opening to a narrative crawl?
This one comes close, but I still think that "Revenge of the Sith" pulls ahead in this category.
War!
Playing a shiny acoustic show at the Micro Time Cafe on the 14th of January. That's 25 Wellesley Street East. You know. Directly across from Wellesley Station. Convenient!
Thursday!
I just had a recurring dream that was limited to one night. Each rendition brought distinct variations, but the general plot was the same.
In reality, my brother invited the family out to see the new “Star Wars” film. He booked the tickets in advance, and he was quite insistent against tardiness. Punctuality’s not my main suit, but I was willing to put forth the effort.
But this dream came up on the night before the viewing. Despite the fact that the movie wasn’t happening till the evening, I was incapable of leaving in time largely because I couldn’t wake up. I’m not the best at early rises, but this seemed excessive. And the dream just kept happening with all sorts of permutations. In one version, the theatre wasn’t even involved. We were watching it in my room for some reason, and I still showed up late.
However, as I write this, I’m fairly confident in my ability to get to the cinema with reasonable promptness tonight. The Force may be with me, but I’m pretty sure that I won’t even need it.
Bonus Question!
What alternative band would Kylo Ren sing for?
Pixies. Then they wouldn't have to break up after Black Francis's departure, and Kylo might not have turned evil. Music can be a good outlet for the Dark Side.
Light on a leaf brings a spark of relief
To lands unattended and pale.
Let hollow terrain now swallow its pain
Neath winter's immaculate veil.
A vasty white cloak might threaten to choke
Vitality's mote from the earth,
But there's hope to be found through the chills that surround
The seeds that precede a rebirth.
A barren disguise hides the immiment rise
Of vibrancy's stubborn return.
It's hanging on still with the flickering will
Of a candle's resilient burn.
Under frigid veneer, a new reign is near.
It stirs as its spirit grows strong.
Naught's fully lost in the fastness of frost,
And nothing is fallow for long.
Strike your lips against the sky.
Shake the haze out with your cry.
Trample on in boots of suede.
Celebrate a raving raid.
Your hair's the match of any crown.
Berserker beats are bearing down.
Swing the blade of screaming style.
Whip across with whirlwind wile.
Shatter sieges with your strut
For fetes of fame and glory's glut.
Sing to bring the thunder out.
Lightning rides upon your shout.
Superfine fury's on stage.
Rage beyond bonds of the age.
There’s something about these film series that release around this time of year. For me, it probably goes back to
“The Lord of the Rings”. I seem to recall feeling vaguely odd after “Return of the King” because it marked the end of an annual tradition that had been going on for a fifth of my life. I definitely remember the unmet expectation of a cinematic sequel to “The Golden Compass”. I don’t think that I even fully realised that it wasn’t getting one for a year or two. In retrospect, I’m not too disappointed, for that first novel was the trilogy’s high point for me anyway. Peter Jackson’s recent return to Middle-earth with his tripartite adaptation of “The Hobbit” obviously brought the feeling back in force, which is just another reason for acceptance of its arguably grandiloquent expansion of the relatively brief book upon which it was based.
The impending arrival of a new “Star Wars” triogy, moved to the holiday season from the springtime debut that its predecessors favoured, brings this to mind. But all of those ended. Even “Harry Potter”, which lasted for most of a decade and popularised the strategy of splitting final books into multiple films, ended eventually. But Disney makes the big plays. They have plans, and they own “Star Wars” now. They’re not just planning to turn the venerable space opera into a Christmas tradition for a few years. There’s no reason for it to stop, and in their hands, it actually will go on forever. It’s rather heartening.
And now I’m also putting this beside the imminent arrival of a “Harry Potter” spinoff movie and thinking about what this could mean for it and other franchises. Like . . . I’d never fight against the creation of more good stuff. Things like those split adaptations and the rise of cinematic universes attest to a growing willingness to draw from these vast reservoirs, but right now it’s starting to seem as though some of the faucets may never turn off.
Bonus Question!
Lightsaber of the week?
If you need an extra dose of fantasy in your space opera, this'll bring a pleasant touch of Middle-earth to that old, distant galaxy. An elegant weapon from a different civilised age. And it doesn't even need orcs around to glow!
I just saw "The Night Before". In part, it's an exploration of one dude's desire to relive his supposed roseate past with his friends. But when the film flashed back to that earlier, ostensibly halcyonic era, the only thing that seemed better was the hair. Maybe he was subconsciously yearning for his quondam coif. For friends who bravely bearded the bounds of fashion to do intriguing things with their facial follicles. That wouldn't be the worst moral. Don't get trapped in nostalgia. Just get a better barber.
Bonus Question!
Best night before a thing? That one before Christmas.
I woudn’t readily say that “Pan” was a film I explicitly craved, but the guy who thought that mixing fairy tales with the sensibilities of “Moulin Rouge!” was a good idea could easily be an acquiantance I’d enjoy making. The thing even opened around a diegetic rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by a crowd of pirates, which is doubly welcome for
being the best song from the Lurhmann film to be conspicuously absent from both of its soundtracks. I’ll admit that featuring a dude named Hook who has no hook on his person feels almost like having a Wolverine without claws. In fairness, my favourite performance in the movie came from Hugh Jackman, whose keratin deficiency here includes
his scalp in addition to his declawed hands. But any lack of ferocity or follicle is easily balanced by sheer flamboyancy.
Bonus Question!
Best song that wasn't excluded from both of the "Moulin Rouge!" soundtracks?
"Lady Marmalade". That cover is also my preferred version of the song.