Fresh Coats

Despite its probable roots in DC’s tendency to pick at the scabs of its patchy continuity, the whole Rebirth thing is feeling like fun. When I was first getting into comics, I read Marvel almost exclusively, and what I’d heard of the Crisis on Infinite Earths sounded abhorrent. I could support the idea of streamlining a  messy, inconsistently managed narrative multiverse, but the execution, which occurred right in the middle of things, seemed to lack any elegant coherency. Rebirth has some of the aspects that contributed to my distaste for the Crisis, and it probably has some wholly original elements of fatuity, but none of that makes it unpleasant as it’s coming to me. 

Incidentally, the incorporation of Doctor Manhattan doesn’t seem like the most sensible move, but it’s only a caber’s toss from the induction of Shade the Changing Man and Stormwatch into Prime Earth, and the former was one of my favourites when I first began reading the New 52. Bring in Morpheus  while you’re at it. Who cares? Dudes in mysterious jackets. Always a good time.

Bonus Question!

Shade versus Joseph! Madness Vest versus Dreamcoat!

One interprets dreams. The other draws power from them. Personally, I’d give it to the Changing Man.

Hot Apollo at Global Village Festival

Hot Apollo's coming to the Global Village Festival at Mel Lastman Square in a blaze of rock-and-roll grandeur. Catch us on Stage 2 at 4:30 on the 24th of June. A Friday! 

And then you can see us do a shorter set at 6:30 on Stage 1 on the same day if you're still around.  

And I think that there are 49 other bands to keep your ears alert until 10:00 or 11:00 on the following day.

But the main takeaway here is our thing at 4:30 on Stage 2 on the 24th. It's at Mel Lastman Square. Aeow!

http://www.globalvillagefestival.ca/program

Noice Gois

“The Nice Guys”. Watched. Shane Black, yeah? “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was probably the first of his movies I saw, though I don’t think that I really knew the name until “Iron Man 3”. The former was also my first experience with Robert Downey, and it could be fair to say that it had the greatest influence on my desire to see this film. A lot of Black’s works contain points of resonance with each other, but “The Nice Guys” felt to me like a particularly worthy successor to the one with the kisses and the bangs. But it’s set in the Seventies instead of Christmas. A fair chunk of it takes place at a discotheque, though, and disco is almost like the Christmas of music. I’m not talking about Christmas music. That’s music about Christmas.

I missed the very beginning. I’m not sure, but I think that it contained a narration of some sort. I say this because the film concluded with one that appeared to be a continuation of a monologue of which I was unaware. Not much was lost to me from this, but it felt momentarily odd.

Actually, the last 90 seconds might have been around Christmas. I think that there were some decorations in that last scene.

Bonus Question!

Hanukkah of music? Jazz.

Ghost Mom

I recently saw. "Mother's Day". I do enjoy these big ensemble holiday films. Never stop making them. If you run out of popular holidays, you can reach back to some old Roman traditions or something. Those guys had loads of holidays. I've heard some theorise that that was what precipitated the downfall of their empire. Make a Lemuria movie or something. Finding love and ritually warding against household ghosts with all the stars who happened to be on hand. It's a good time.

Bonus Question! 

Best nonexistent holiday movie? 

"Leap Dave Williams". Seriously. How was that never made? It had the things that made my kindergarten self a Jim Carrey fanatic. Seeing those brief snippets was like hearing a clip from a fictional song in a movie that wasn't on the soundtrack. Like the B-52's' "Bedrock Twitch". Make that too! Put it on the "Leap Dave Williams" soundtrack! Who even cares? 

Machx10

I was first introduced to Abner Jenkins and his sweet flying armour when he was called Mach-III. This was towards the end of the first Thunderbolts run, and he was temporarily black at the time for some reason, but that's beside the point. Was it some surgical disguise thing? Like that thing with Rob Downey in that war movie? That dude played Iron Man, and that seems to be what Jenkins tries to do. But with wings. Which is weird. He's flown similarly functional suits without them in his villainous Beetle persona.

Anyway. The number in the name didn't really mean much to me at the time. It seemed random. I didn't see why a number was necessary, and that particular one seemed less authoritative than 1 or something. But 1 was indeed where it started. Apparently, he kept changing his name to keep up with the iterations of his suit. That includes the ones that happened even during his absences from comics. This means that he's been called Mach-VII despite the fact that he's never appeared as Mach-VI. And those Roman numerals can really get messy when they're part of a name that's already less succinct than it should be.

But now he's Mach-X. Which . . . That could solve things? Maybe? It's not necessarily a number. Wolverine was Weapon X for ages before Grant Morrison decided that that was actually a number in reference to the tenth iteration of the Weapon Plus program, and it still sounds iconic. Actually, that might've been revealed in the first Morrison comic I ever read. I think that I picked it up in a convenience store on some road trip because choices were slim.

But anyway. Mach-X. If you don't say "Mach-Ten", it sounds decent enough. Maybe that's in a way that harkens back to the indulgences of the Nineties, but that's acceptable. Just . . . Just leave it there. If you can't bring yourself to drop the numerals altogether, you've got to end it there. You seemed to skip VIII and IX to get to this point. Just be the best Mach-Ecks you can be, and leave it at that. We don't even have to talk about that thing with your wings and doors.

Nick Spencer might, though.

Bonus Question!

Best redundant wings?

Seraphs, man. You don't need three pairs of those things. Even if you need one or two to hide your face, you still have spares.

Gods of Wherever

"Gods of Egypt". I saw that business. I don't really speak to the politics of it, but I can imagine that the casting of a bunch of white dudes could have been encouraged if this film came about in an attempt to make something in the tradition of those fantastical Greek epics with a fresher roster in place of the relatively pale Olympians everyone knows. And then they just used the cast they would have employed for those guys. Perhaps evidenced by the presence of Gerard Butler? Catapulted to the higher tiers of fame by his epitaphic portrayal of a royal Spartan legend? Oh, and he was also in "Olympus Has Fallen", but I think that that title was largely allegorical. It's actually about Washington or something. If it's not, the recently released sequel "London Has Fallen" seems like a serious downward move. London's a great city, but Olympus is the home of gods, and while Buckingham may be gorgeous, deification of royalty isn't much of a relevant thing at the moment. 

Anyway, that casting theory may be an overly convolute one.

More probable is the attempt of some racist aspect of the universe to twist karmic workings around in order to compensate for use of a black actor in the role of a deity who was known as the White God even among pasty Northmen. But Idris Elba rocked Bifrost with his Heimdall. And Set's persona is filled with similar aplomb by Kurt Russell. Or whomever.

Bonus Question!

Most colourful flesh of Egypt?

I always thought that Osiris looked good in green. It might have even made up for the textural damage a couple of deaths must have done.

But that mess is emphasised here by a morbid pallor instead. Oh, well.

Actually, I was brought to mind of Hades in Egyptian cosplay. That works too.  I suppose that it's only fair. Horus seems to have raided Zeus's laundry hamper for this outing. Seriously, that stuff'd be fit for releasing some krakens after a light wash.

All the Biomes

Zootopia actually looks like a delightful place. That city had all the biomes, man.

And the film had Jason Bateman in an uncharacteristically roguish role. But he's not the first Bluth to change his surname to "Wilde". There was that Will Arnett series "Running Wilde", which took its title from Arnett's aspiring philanthropist. Maybe he and Bateman still bear some familial connection across worlds. 

I also happened to watch "Teen Witch" recently. That can probably be related back to Jason Bateman too. I remember hearing that it was supposed to be more closely linked to "Teen Wolf", and the sequel to that masterpiece gave the dude one of his first big roles. But I only saw the briefest snippet of that while I was flipping through channels years ago. Flipping through channels happens to be something I last did years ago.

Anyway, I noticed that the older witch, Madame Serena, was played by an actor by the name of Zelda Rubinstein. There's nothing wrong with a witch called Serena, but "Zelda" has always seemed to stick out as a default name for female practitioners of magic. It feels like a slight shame to disguise that. 

Bonus Question!

Zelda Spellman versus Princess Zelda?

The Spellmans are a venerable clan, and there'll be no denying, and Zelda was particularly assiduous in her studies, but the princess is a recurrently reincarnated goddess in humanoid form. Giving her the win.

May 14th Show at Saving Gigi

At 8:00 on the 14th of May! Saturday night, babes! We'll be bringing our tempestuous rock-and-roll to the stage of Saving Gigi for a charity event of some sort. There's no cover charge, but donations are going to support cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital. That's the department where my mother works! I didn't even know that when I agreed to play this show!

I mean . . . I knew that my mother worked there. But I didn't know that this was a cancer benefit show. So. Bonus.

Anyway, the address is 859 Bloor Street West. Right near Ossington Station. Oh, and there's a raffle!

And I just made new Hot Apollo garments to throw out to you guys at random points during the show! Catch!

Inexplicable Hair

I heard that Michael Keaton's been cast to play the villain in Marvel's first proper Spider-Man film in their movie universe. It's got to be Norman Osborn, hasn't it? I think that the hair has to be the prime reason. Right? Spidey's new suit looks as though it fell straight out of a classic comic, and something about Keaton's follicles makes me think that it's the closest natural approximation of whatever was meant to be on Norman's head in the original books. Because I'm pretty sure that a crazy white businessman created in the early Sixties wasn't actually meant to be wearing cornrows.

Remember when Alan Cummings was going to play him in the musical? That could've been a thing.

Bonus Question!

Loki versus Dionysus! Battle of the gods Alan Cummings has played!

I'm reasonably certain that "The Bacchae" wouldn't have been a significantly different play if the lead god hadn't been switched out with the Norse one. Well, I suppose that the title might.

Dimensional Hair

As I was progressing through the Annex recently about my business, a stranger stopped me. This was apparently due in large part to my hair and his belief that it should be captured on his 3-D camera. That desire turned into an interview, and this was the result.

In 3-D!

Bonus Question!

Top 3 D's?

Sunny, Tenacious, and Snider.

Dawn's Dimly Lit

At the very least, "Dawn of Justice" delivers on a promise. That promise to answer the question of "What is this thing going to be?" Honestly, I was even enjoying its asking of the question in the first place.

Eisenberg's Luthor was easily my favourite performance in the film. Dude shone like kryptonite. That casting is around the level of Michael Caine in Nolan's Batman films. But . . . More divergent.

Incidentally, for a movie that features the oldest filmic Bruce Wayne, this one seems to have the youngest Alfred. The one on "Gotham" looks older, and his Bruce is a kid.

Anyway, I've heard some liken Jesse's Luthor to the Joker, but it felt more akin to Jim Carrey's Riddler, although that in itself was probably trying to be the Joker. And his costar Two-Face might have been trying for a Joker angle too. Lex's manic mane was even slightly reminiscent of early Nygma's. And that of young Doom from the last "Fantastic Four". So . . .  You know. Very good company.

In a film that had the puffiness of a marshmallow, Jesse Eisenberg was the element that evoked the taste of one.

Also, amid all of the focus that was placed on the sharing of an appellation between the mothers of the titular heroes, there was no mention of the fact that Lex and Clark bear the same middle name. They couldn't have bonded over that? Then Bats and Supes could add a third segment to the world's finest friendship pendant. You know the kind? With the split hearts? He could have the middle part.

 

He has the same hair too.

Bonus Question!

Batman versus Superman! Best Christ allegory!

Jesus was known in large part for sacrificing himself for the good of all. Superman's more about the good of all, whereas Batman tends to place a bigger focus on self-sacrifice.

17th of April at The Tennessee

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.

Bat out of Hell's Kitchen

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.

Moreos

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.

Mercs and Martians

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.

Ultimate Might

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.

 

Missing Links and Lost Sequels

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.

3rd of March!

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!

Darthur Rimbaud

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.

Love Thickness

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.