(Beware, spoilers) Despite one or two credulity-straining moments, Iron Man may be best superhero film ever. It's right up there with Spider-Man 2 and Batman Returns.
For a change, Robert Downy Jr makes the secret identity every bit as entertaining as the hero identity. Tony Stark has a distinct and engaging personality, which will be all the more crucial when we start getting crossover movies. If you haven't heard, they are coming – after Thor and Captain America get introduced in their own films, they'll be teamed up with Iron Man and who knows who else in The Avengers. Which could be a disaster, or it could be film's biggest leap forward on the path to sophistication already blazed by certain superhero comics. I'm optimistic. More and more, the films are getting it right. You have to take the material seriously.
I know how that sounds. I'm embarrassed to even type "superhero." But there is something deeper than Adam West at work. Read Douglas Wolk for what's really behind the goofy names and spandex.
The superhero myth is tailor made for a Hollywood blockbuster, and mostly they go by the numbers. Act 1; the secret origin. Act 2: adjusting to the new powers and the first big bust. Act 3: the arch-nemesis puts the love interest in danger and showdown ensues. Iron Man follows the formula, but twists it just a bit. The whole film is really the origin of Iron Man- he becomes fully formed only with the last line of the movie. That last line is a triumph, fulfilling Tony Stark while surprising. Not to mention it segues beautifully into the inevitable but happily restrained Black Sabbath song, you know the one. A song that is alluded to throughout the score but never trotted out for campy effect. Thank Frith.
Juno Reactor has gone in a very different direction with their latest album, Gods and Monsters; most notably, actual singers singing actual lyrics. The reviews on iTunes are not kind. Fans feel betrayed. The new sound belongs on a Massive Attack chill album, they say, nothing like the high adrenaline goa we expect from JR. Based on the sample clips, I was inclined to agree. Soulful singing, ponderous beats, bleargh. I considered buying just the higher energy instrumental tracks, but wound up buying the whole album. I try not to let the critics think for me, plus I am a collecting completist. Plus the cover art is to die for.
The surprising thing is, I like it. All of it. Sure, there's nothing to equal Ice Cube or Giant or Kaguye Hime, tracks that get me so pumped I can't even sleep hours after listening. But JR includes a couple chill songs on every album. Insects and Solaris, two low-key songs, are high points on Shango. So the idea of taking it down a notch is not so alien.
Gods and Monsters is as epic and cinematic as anything JR has done, maybe more so. The contrasting slow songs give the fast songs a stronger impact. The geographical touchstones, while spread across three continents, pull the whole piece together. It's like a soundtrack for a cyberspace experience shared by individuals scattered all over the globe. It makes me feel like I'm flying a spaceship instead of driving my car. In my ongoing quest for hallucinogenic music, Gods and Monsters performs admirably.
The one track that does nothing for me is Mind of the Free, which just wallows in the slow and simplistic vocals. What blows me away is how much I enjoy the last song, Pretty Girl. This is not a techno track of any variety. One reviewer called it "embarrassing." The iTunes sample clip seems to teeter on the brink of R & B, which I can't stand. But I don't hate Pretty Girl. I really dig it. I suppose it puts me in mind of that other hallucinogenic concept album act, Pink Floyd.
Stumptown Comics Fest 2008 was the best yet. Sales of Island of the Moths continue to climb. The Introvert Manifesto stickers ran off into the wild. Made some new friends, caught up with old ones, saw lots of familiar faces from previous classes and 24 hour comics. Marcie user-friendlied up our table and kept me stocked with Cyclotoon cards. Our under the table kinomatograph show dazzled once again. I had a nice little conversation with Brian Michael Bendis. In fact I was having such a good time in the exhibition hall on Saturday that I practically forgot there were panels and spotlights going on across the way, all of which I missed. Sigh. However, I made a point of not missing the parties, award ceremonies, and Comic Art Battle, a spontaneous creative face-off Eminem wishes he could approximate in 8 million miles. It was an exhausting weekend, but now that it's over I can't stop poring over every blog recap and flikr photo on the web.
The high point: for me it was my workshop, Instant Graphic Novel. This was an experiment in high-speed collaborative story generation I had never tried before (nor had anyone else as far as I know), and it worked out beautifully. 14 people cranked out 21 pages in under 2 hours. Check it out.
The low point: looking like a doofus in front of Carla Speed McNeil. The book I asked her to sign was already signed and dated 2007. It was signed when I bought it, I'd seen her dated signature in there, but somehow it didn't register. What a doofus. She took it in stride, signed another page with the current year, "starting a yearbook."
The big score: first edition hardcover of Beanworld 1, signed and numbered with unique Larry Marder bookplate drawing. Larry created the art for our badges this year, and signed mine, adding multicolored Sharpie dots.
Other highlights: Mike Russell's discussion of what makes webcomics successful was thrilling, grounding and encouraging. Tom Biby and Jonathan Fetter-Vorm's ridiculously gorgeous and big enough to sleep in adaptation of Beowulf. Angela Melick's stunningly accomplished 24 hour comic, Stuffed Afterlife. Rocket-throttling squid and anxious long-eared Beasties. The ever growing Portland comics community, tight-knit, all-inclusive, whimsical, heartfelt, vulgar, profound. I am overgorged on cartoony wonderment and only want more.
On April 5 & 6, I attended my 5th 24 Hour Comic session. This one took place at Cosmic Monkey Comics on Sandy Boulevard. Over 20 people participated, including Jim Valentino and David Chelsea, who completed his 10th 24 hour comic and holds the record. Top Shelf will be publishing a collection of David’s 24 hour comics soon. Leigh from Top Shelf was also there, shooting video and running online commentary. This was the liveliest 24 hour comic event I’ve ever been to. Only about half the people stayed through the night, but it never settled into the graveyard calm that usually comes after midnight. It occurred to me last week to use this session to work on my webcomic, with the goal of drawing 24 episodes. Not my usual, purist approach of going in with no ideas about the subject matter, but much more challenging because I’m already invested in the characters and story of The Introvert Manifesto. I couldn’t charge forward with random shifts on every page; I know the two main characters pretty well already, and while the story remains largely open, there are certain essential touchstones I have in mind. I also drew on larger paper, and averaged almost twice as many panels per page. Basically, none of my normal tricks for finishing 24 pages on time would apply. I worked hard not to rush the story along, not to arrive at the scenes I had in mind in a way that violated the internal logic. This process was more draining than my standard flying-by-seat-of-pants approach. At 10 pm Leigh announced that we’d reached the halfway point, and it became clear that I wouldn’t finish 24 pages. An hour or two later I thought seriously about quitting. I could still get a night’s sleep and have half a weekend. But I stuck it out and wound up with 14 pages. I’ll be posting them one per week for the next few months, episodes 7 through 20. 24 pages would have given me six months of strips, maybe enough to get me to the next 24 hour session at PNCA. It’s an attractive proposition, doing the webcomic all in semiannual 24 hour marathons. I really seem to do my best work that way. This weekend I made some crucial connections in ways I’m quite happy with, made enough progress to establish a real trajectory, and learned more about the characters. (Cole is turning out to be such a militant, Leif will have to discover certain things himself instead of getting them from his buddy.) But right now I’m thinking I’ll go back to freewheeling improv for my next 24 hour comic. Maybe I’ll do another stretch of TIM in 24 hours, but I’ll go back to drawing episodes weekly before then.
There’s no way to do this without playing into the hands of the enemy, which just goes to show how far the discourse has devolved. I’ll just blunder forward. I’m fed up with Pollyanna patriotism. Why is it that any criticism of America makes you a traitor, a hater, a terrorist sympathizer? The whole point of America is that we can criticize. The point is that we all have a say in what the country does. That means we all have blood on our hands. That means America’s crimes are my crimes and your crimes. That’s why people say things like "God damn America for killing innocent people." Not because they want to fly a plane into a skyscraper, but because the country has gone off the rails and they want to get it back. Think Reverend Wright is an America hater? Is he sending his congregation out to bomb federal buildings? The only newsmaker to come out of his church is trying to bridge gaps and erase the hate. I can understand Wright’s sentiments. I’m taking this somewhat personally. Every time someone questions Obama’s patriotism based on this out-of-context quote by a former associate, I feel myself being questioned. I am outraged at what our country has become under L’il Bush. That makes me a hater? No. That makes me sane.
Try this, Rush and Anne and all your ilk. Imagine you have an uncle---let’s call him, ummm, Sam---who is well known as a pillar of the community. He helped you out as a kid, he gave your family a leg up, he worked hard to foster education and decent wages and did innumerable things to make your neighborhood one of the best places to live in the world. But now he’s hooked on meth. He’s stealing anything that’s not nailed down to feed his habit, his behavior is erratic and aggressive, his face is ravaged and unrecognizable. What do you do? Do you say, "He’s my uncle, he’s the greatest uncle in the world, we need to stay united and support my uncle" and let him destroy himself and the community? Or do you stage an intervention? Which course of action demonstrates real love and support? Which honors his contributions earlier in life?
I don’t even care about patriotism. I’ve never considered myself a patriot. Maybe I equate patriotism too much with nationalism, maybe I lack a real understanding of everything my country has done for me. What I do understand is that I have a say in what my country does, and I’ve been powerless to stop the worst foreign policy debacle in our history, and it drives me absolutely crazy. I understand that my country has become an aggressor, a torturer, a war criminal, despite my votes and donations and petitions and blogs and cartoons. And I want it to STOP.
Currently
listening
:
Welt
By
OhGr
Release date: 20 March, 2001
If there was any doubt left, there isn’t anymore. In his speech on Tuesday, Obama not only dives deep into the race issue with intelligence and generosity, he torpedoes the gross simplifications and de-contextualizations that have become standard practice for our politicians and our media. We have GOT to elect this guy. The video is long (37 min). The first 12 minutes or so are enough, but the whole thing is worth watching.
There’s the problem. David Reinhard spelled it out in black and white (Democrats for a Day, 3/16): "This is politics. What’s ethics got to do with it? When is it unethical to act in the best interest of the nation?" So that’s how Reinhard can continue to defend the Bush administration’s endless ethical lapses. Is that how the Republican party justifies swift-boating Democratic candidates, gerrymandering voting districts, and rushing disputed elections to a questionable close? Not to mention sacrificing soldiers’ lives and the nation’s economy to a pointless war? The president clearly feels he knows what’s best for everyone, despite the law, the Constitution, and common sense. Democrats have trouble with ethics too, but I feel like Reinhard has hit upon a key difference here. Which party has been so self-righteous as to place it’s own people and their hairbrained schemes above the law?
I've said before, we'd be better off without political parties. Case in point; our current situation.
It occurred to me that without a Democratic nomination, we'd be in a three-way race that could well go to McCain. That's no good. But look at how many Republicans have big problems with McCain. If they weren't required to unite behind a candidate, Huckabee would still be in the race.
What if everyone who had run for nomination was still in it, all running against each other? Sure, it would be loud and confusing, but the race would go to whoever can appeal to the largest number of voters, not who can game the system.
Also, the protracted primary battle highlights the problematic nature of entrenched political parties. Take Michigan and Florida, demanding a say in the nomination after the party said their votes don't count. Now, obviously you can't deny anyone the right to vote for president, that'd be unconstitutional (Florida 2000 notwithstanding). But the Democratic party is a private organization that can set whatever rules it wants. Same with the Repubs. They are accountable to no one, yet they are now so entrenched they might as well be the 4th and 5th branches of government.
The scuttlebutt is, if the superdelegates select a candidate that did not win the majority of votes, it will be Florida 2000 all over again. Technically it won't be, because nobody's rights will be violated. Ultimately the decision belongs to the party, not the people. But, Democratic party higher-ups, come on. If you're going to pretend to be an official branch of government, don't abandon the pretense just to subvert the will of your supporters. Not only is that arrogant, it's stupid. It doesn't matter what the rules are, you'll wind up with a deflated, demoralized constituency, just when we need mobilization the most.
Yes, the subtext here is screaming "Obama." I never claimed to be objective.
Yay! Last time I expressed an opinion here, I was pulling for Hillary. Now I'm swinging toward Barack. The suspense can be awful, but I'm glad it wasn't all settled yesterday. This is just the kind of thing that has been sorely lacking for the last seven years; a nice, long, in-depth national discussion.
As long as the democratic fight says relatively clean, it can only be a good thing. The two candidates are highly similar in their policies, and over and over you hear democrats say they'd be happy with either one. Everyone is agonizing over whether to elect the first black president or the first female president – if one or the other was a white male, it'd be all over by now. That, and the stakes are too high to make a mistake. We have to reclaim the white house, boot out the neocons, save the soul of America. We have to choose the one who can win.
I think Obama can win. He's energizing more voters, bringing in a new, younger constituency. If race and gender cancel out, Barack represents the stronger break from the past. The Hillary camp always cries inexperience, but I don't see that as a problem. Energy and creativity go a long way. They cry lack of substance, but he's got plans and policies just as detailed as Hillary's.
Speaking as a clueless white male, I think sexism is a bigger problem than racism. A reporter can ask McCain how he is going to "beat the bitch," and everyone laughs it off. If even a black journalist referred to Obama with a racial slur, there'd be a huge outcry. For that reason, I'd love to elect a woman. But Hillary would be up against a wave of irrational Clinton-hatred along with everything else. And all her vaunted years of experience have left her compromised. It's tragic, really. It's Michelle Kwan vs Sarah Hughes all over again, years of hard and honorable work being trumped by some flashy upstart. But let's face it, the upstart delivers the goods, substance as well as style.
As I said last time, the next president will be under an endless barrage of yellow mud and petty prosecution from the right. Hillary knows how to dig in and withstand the information siege, but I don't think that's what we need, despite the sweet satisfaction the impotent paroxysms of hysterical Clinton-haters would bring. We need a leader who can get us past the poisonous tribal hatred that turns every policy decision into a game of gotcha.
In any case, it's great to see so many people so invested in the process. The longer the primary race goes on, the more people participate, the worse it will go for the neocons. Li'l bush needed a close and muddled race to elbow his way in. This time around, let's have an actual election.
Barack and Hillary are mostly playing it cool, from what I hear. They are keeping the debates amiable, keeping the attack ads at a civil tone. I'm glad. Democrats can never compete with Republicans when it comes to mudslinging, and personally I wouldn't want them to. I prefer a party that does not fight dirty.
Not to say the loyal opposition shouldn't oppose. One reason the last eight years have been so soul-crushingly frustrating is how richly li'l bush and his cronies deserve to be dragged through their own muck. Bill Clinton spent his whole presidency dogged by petty jumped-up investigations, and li'l bush has stomped all over international law and the Constitution with impunity. I'm glad the Democrats haven't wasted everyone's time trying to indict li'l bush on drug and alcohol charges twenty years old; however, it would have been nice to address his real, impeachable offenses when there was still time to prevent some of the damage.
I digress. My point is this: the next president, whether it's Hillary or Obama (any other alternative being too awful to contemplate) will be assaulted by Kenneth Starr shock troops the minute his or her hand hits the Bible. The next president will also be wading into the worst foreign policy disaster in modern history, not to mention a crippled economy and a raft of blinkered legislation. The ditto-head swift-boating bile-vomiting screech-howling right wing will waste no time in blaming every IED in Iraq on the new president.
Will the Democrats respond in kind? No. They will not call the screech-howlers on their lies. They will not point out that right wing think tanks are prepared to sacrifice all our lives for their tax-breaking dogma. They will not hurl the American Enterprise Institute's filth back in their faces, no matter how much they deserve to choke on it. That's our job.
There should be no place in politics for the second-grade level smears the Republicans have gotten so good at. So I'm hopeful that the Democrats won't resort to such tactics. But that means the rest of us have a responsibility to fight the smears.
Remember! Remember who got us into this mess. Remember and hold them accountable. Let's put li'l bush and Cheney in jail. Let's drown out Limbaugh and Coulter with FACTS. Let's stand up for a president who is sure to face cheap, dirty attacks on his or her person that have no bearing whatsoever on the ability to govern.
This isn't over. It will not be over in November. It will not be over in January. The neocons are deeply entrenched and will continue to push their shit on us. The president has a duty to rise above, but you and me? I say we give them no quarter. Because they sure won't give it to us.
Currently
listening
:
The Tomita Planets
By
Gustav Holst
Release date: 15 February, 1991
