Friday, December 17, 2010

The cultural genome: Google Books reveals traces of fame, censorship and changing languages | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine

What ca we learn by sorting every word ever printed? Can we achieve a concordance to the known universe? Not yet, but here's a good start.
The cultural genome: Google Books reveals traces of fame, censorship and changing languages | Not Exactly Rocket Science | Discover Magazine


Interesting that "The Great War" was discarded in favor of "The World War" and then "World war I" in 1938, when it must have been obvious we were headed into World War II.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

"The Novel" or What's wrong with Marvel?

I'm not sure of the background of this writer, but he hits plenty of nails on his head with his claim that the innovation of the Marvel Age of Comics ended in 1991. I read the phone-book compendium "Essential Fantastic Four" a while back, collecting #1-#20 of the magazine, and was impressed at how, even in the early days, the Lee/Kirby issues showed the characters actually growing and developing, especially with the Thing and Johnny Storm only squabbling for a few issues before they realized how much they respect each other.
(Although by contrast, "Essential Avengers" could show just how turgid Stan's writing could be. Five or six throwaway plots in every book–the group recovered Captain America from that iceberg while searching for the Sub-Mariner AND helping an alien fix his spaceship on the ocean floor; rather shallow characterization of minor characters–if I was Ant-Man, seeing the Wasp flirt with every Norse God in the vicinity, I'd slap her around, too.)
But once Stan stopped writing and Kirby left, characters experienced arrested development. Johnny and Ben were the equivalent of Monk and Ham, arguing in the last "Doc Savage" story the same way they did in their first. But, partly because the Fantastic Four never had as many spinoff books as Spider-Man and the X-Men, their story could follow a progression, as when Reed and Sue moved out for the sake of their child, and Ben Grimm proved to have developed enough to take over its leadership. But starting around 1991, every significant change in a character's life gets retconned away by the next writer. Why have Johnny's wife Alicia turn out to be a Skrull impostor so the real Alicia can pine over Ben Grimm again? Why not let the story of their marriage progress to it likely dissolution? because that would be another CHANGE. Anyway, that's partly why I dropped Marvel a few years before I quit comics cold turkey. That and the excess of spin off titles.

The author is basically designing a line of computer games based on classic novels, and I'd never heard of him before. But he makes a lot of good points.

Monday, November 01, 2010

‘Plaster Caster’ Mounts Mayoral Campaign « CBS Chicago – News, Sports, Weather, Traffic, and the Best of Chicago

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2010/10/27/plaster-caster-mounts-mayoral-campaign/#

Finally, someone who's proven she's not afraid to get her hands dirty!
I actually met her once, when the Chicago Psychotronic Film Society was going on in the 80s. Don't remember if she was part of the program, or just showed up because she knew the hosts. One of those showings did run the film "Groupies" with her making a cast, but I think she appeared at a different one.
Noticing that she was not much older than I was, I started thinking about how hard it must have been to date her, knowing that at some point she'd be telling you, "You;re no Mick Jagger."

Thursday, August 26, 2010

One for my homiez!

This past week, my parents were out to visit us. Largely because my dad, well retired, still looks for projects to work on, and we settled on replacing the very wobbly wood handrailing on our concrete deck. The deck over the attached garage, so one side has a ten-foot plunge onto asphalt if the railing gives way.
The result was a great deck reinforced with lots of steel bolts and set screws. The old railing were attached to their wobbly posts by some thin wood screws driven in diagonally. The posts are now fastened with some extra brackets driven into the concrete.
But there was a wild animal attack while I was off at work Monday. Apparently, as my dad was working, a baby squirrel must have thought his leg was a tree, and it scurried up to Dad and ran up his leg. In the ensuing confusion, my father managed to get the squirrel off, but accidentally stepped on it. Dead squirrel.
Vanya sees this and immediately makes up a story about how that squirrel was his friend: "His name was Bob... we was the only squirrel friend I had." But he seems to have left it alone by the next day. The carcass has hidden in the woods behind our yard in hopes the local fox will remove it.
But then, that night, after I hear the story at home, I went out the front door and found a chestnut left on our front stoop. It had a hole gnawed into it and the nut inside eaten out.
Apparently, the squirrel's friends had followed the urban ritual of pouring out a bit of a 40 onto the sidewalk in honor of their dead homie.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Seattle boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day | Seattle Times Newspaper

Local News | Local boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day | Seattle Times Newspaper

Great story, although one might what a character named "Moonshine Maid" might be doing with a DeLorean when she's not crimefighting. Bet those extra tanks in the rear aren't for gasoline!

Friday, April 16, 2010

You have NEVER seen this cartoon before!

Unearthed after nearly 60 years, a "lost" UPA cartoon, the first directed by Gene Deitch. It was a pilot for a proposed theatrical cartoon series to star Howdy Doody, but Buffalo Bob is said have hated it. Too bad. A successful series of cartoon would have kept the character popular today, as I don't think there's a lot of footage of the TV show around. Thanks to the Cartoon Brew website for hosting this incredible coolness!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Julia Goes Up the Wall

Sunday, we took Julia to Hummer Park in DG. For the first time, she decided to try out the climbing wall on the toddler jungle gym set, and just scurried right on up. This cell phone video is actually her third time going on up.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

I started a meme!

Check the article by the Tribune's Maureen Ryan on "Lost." In the Comments section, I remark on the similarity between the pool the Others tried to revive Sayid in, and the "Lazarus Pit" used by Batman's nemesis Ra's al Ghul. See how the comments since all refer to the Lazarus Pit.

The 'Lost' season premiere – Smokin'!