NEEEEEEERRRRRRRRD!!!!!!!!! vol. 1

First Look at the cast of WATCHMEN in full costume

Now for those of you who don't know...i'm quite keen on comic books. Sometimes my love of the form causes me irreparable damage, both to myself and my love of the medium. Putting up with mind-boggling continuity headfucks (MARVEL), title-to-title crossovers that amount to little more than really colorful gangbangs (DC), Flat Style and Fluff-Under-Gore substance (IMAGE), and Rob fuck Liefeld.

The most frustrating thing though is not the books themselves, but the more often than not half hearted excursions into film and television. now for every Batman Begins or Sin City there is 4 Electras, 3 Ghost Riders, and several half-ass Justice League centric episode of Smallville. I used to think these incidents, while embarrassing and more than a little pathetic, were relatively harmless. the good stories were always going to be there to remind me that there was once something pure and good before the Watchowski Bros. got a hold of it.

this is different, though...because none of these books are Alan Moore's WATCHMEN.

Moore's multi-layered, richly complicated dissection of culture, both comic book and real world, is an island unto itself. Each book is not just part of some overall framework, but works as a stand alone. There's the issue detailing the life of Dr. Manhattan, the Otherworldly Protector of Earth. There's an entire issue devoted to the harrowingly grotesque psychological profile of Rorschach, the book's primary narrator/stubborn vigilante/poet of disgust. At first Rorschach seems to be of the Batman variety, but as the book goes there's an even more vile and sad kind of sordid lonliness to the character that reveals Rorschach to be Dexter in a white mask. Then there is the Comedian, whose amoral nonchalance, near-hateful black humor, and frighteningly gleeful fascism make him more akin to an 80s Action Film villain than any sort of heroic crime-fighter to ever grace four colors. and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of WATCHMEN. there is so much going on and so many stories within the story that it's the perfect love-letter to both comic book fans and the medium itself. it's also a scathing inditement of the medium. it raises the question of how much is enough? what gives people who are so obvioulsy unbalanced the carpe blanche to do and go as they please? is being all powerful enough of a reason to put other people's lives in your hands? is having a fucked-up child hood or an inordinate amount of disposable income or running around in a colorful costume with a self-christened moniker, enough of a reason? what if these individuals are no better than you? what if they are worse? what if in reality, it's all about making themselves feel better rather than helping the tired and poor and defenseless masses?

After viewing the pictures of Zack Snyder's upcoming film version i have to say this; i can already feel something will be lost in the translation. The characters look enough like their funny-paper counterparts (save for Nite Owl and Ozymandias, who look SCHUMACHERED), but even so, i fear that the scope of the story simply can't be condensed into a 2 and half/3 hour movie (and that's if we're lucky). that's been covered ad nauseum though. truth is i don't know what to think. i think if done right, this can be the comic book movie to end all comic book movies. if done wrong, this will be the comic book movie to end all comic book movies. either way... the end is nigh.

Who Watches the Watchmen? we'll have to wait...

Tired of Haulin' Oats! vol. 8

CDs;

Ashes - Wisconsin Avenue Tour
Bjork - Homogenic
Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer
Cobalt - War Metal
Creation is Crucifixion - In Silico
D.R.I. - Dirty Violent LP
Dodheimsgard - Supervillain Outcast
Gallhammer - Ill Innocence
Goldfrapp - Supernature
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante, California
Oroku - Living Through the End Times
Playing Enemy - Cesarean
Poe - Haunted
Test Dept - Tactics for Evolution
Univers Zero - 1313
Grunsplatter - Chronicling the Famine
Cranes - Wings of Joy, Loved
Gasp - Drome Triler of Puzzle Zoo People
In Slaughter Natives - Enter Now the World
Idiot Flesh - Nothing Show
Acme - To Reduce the Choir to One Soloist
Flaming Fire - Songs from the Shining Temple
Looking for Answer - Extinction

7 inches;

Hip Cops/Gate split
Stapled Shut - s/t

DVDs;

Dust Devil: the Final Cut
Mark 13: Hardware
Lady Vengeance
Books;

Sandman vol.1 by Neil Gaiman
Paradoxia by Lydia Lunch

Song for the Week of 3/3/08

IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES - "You are the Dead"



You are the dead. You are the shelter. You are the sacred. You are the silent. You are the flames. You are the dead. Heal before me you are the nations. Heal before me you are the dead. Heal before me you are the shelter. Heal before me you are the plague. Heal before me you are the sacred. Heal before me you are the dead. You are the dead. You are the hunger. You are the silent. You are the flames. You are the dead....

Just Needed to Share vol. 10

NP: Bjork - Volta

i got my weekends back.

it's weird...it's almost like the previous year has been violently shoved into a single bad day. i can remember every bad moment clearly, and they seem like one shitty day when in reality it was several hundred shit-minutes spread out over the course of a year.

with fear of "speaking too soon", everything seems to have aligned in a perfect trifecta. arranging the stones was a maddening, psoriasis inducing hellride, but here it is...the work. the music. the girl. work goes to the music, and after the music sucks up all the finances and burden, there is the girl to wipe up the remainder and rebuild the mess into something appropriate for work, which will burn and melt and form a monster for the music again. blech...this is me forcing out the poetry and failing.....

....what am i talking about? it's just a job...and i finally got one. i now have a place to go for those dead-hours during the week. a place where i occupy my time with things that matter little to me, but will enable me to relax on the weekends...occasionally splurge with the girl and the boys and myself. maybe help them all out once and a while.

i dunno where this is going or if it makes sense. i guess i feel good to finally have what i consider to be "it all".

just needed to share.

Double You, Tea F. vol. 24 (now with FAIL.)

Double You, Tea F. vol. 23

Garfield minus Garfield

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?
Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against lonliness and methamphetamine addiction in a quiet American suburb.

Song for the Week of 2/25/08

OL' DIRTY BASTARD - "Got Your Money"

Ohhh baby
I dedicate this to all the pretty girls
All the pretty girls
Its on (echo)
All the pretty girls, in the world
And the ugly girls too
Cause to me your pretty anyways baby

Hey, dirty, baby I got your money
Don't your worry, I said hey.
Baby I got your money
(Repeat)

1. You give me your number, I call you up
you act like ur pussy dont interrupt
I don't have no problem with you fucking me
But I have a little problem wit you not fucking me
Baby you know ima take care of you
Cause you say you got my baby, and I know it ain't true
Is it a good thing? no its bad bitch
For good or worse, makes you switch
So I walk on over with my crystal
Bitches, niggaz put away your pistols
Dirty wont be having it in this house
Cause bitch I'll cripple your style
Now that you heard my calm voice
You couldn't get another nigga, hoochie wont get moist
If you wana look good and not be bummy,
girl you better give me that money
Aooow...

Hey, dirty, baby I got your money
Don't your worry, I said hey.
Baby I got your money
(Repeat)

2. Yo! so I glanced at the girls, girls glanced at me
I whispered in their ear, wana be with me?
You wana look pretty though, in my video
Ol' dirty on the hat and I let you all know
Just dance! if you caught up in the holy ghost trance
If you stop! ima put the killer ants in your pants
I'm the O-D-B as you can see
Every eye, don't you be watching me
I don't want no problems cause I put you down
In the ground where you can not be found
I'm just dirt dog trying to make sum bunny
So give me my streaks and give me my honey
Radio, yes all day, everyday
Recognize I'm a fool and ya luuuv me!
None of you nmph better look at me funny
Nmph you know my name now give me my money!

(HOOK)
Sing it, sing it girls!
Just shake it right now!
If dirty want his money
I think ya'll should give him his money
That's how I like giiiiiiiirlllll
Sexy, sexy, sexy!
Sexy, sexy, sexy!
Sexy, sexy, sexy!
Sexy, sexy, sexy!
3. Yo, yo! Nigga playing in the club like this all night
Bitches put your ass out let me hold it tight
You looking at my wrist saying "its so nice"
The price bitch is diamonds shining disco light
You better help me solve this problem
Or ima get this money and rob them
Lucky dig when I won the lotto
Ran up on my car for carrying ryllos
You can call me dirty, and then lift up your skirt
And you want some of this dirty, god made dirt and dirt bust yo ass
Stop annoying me, yeah! I play my music loud
It takes the bastard ol' dirty, to move the crowd
They say he had his dick in his mouth
Eddie Murphy told me that back in the house
But give me my money!