Great TV

My favourite show at the moment is Classical Star on BBC2 on Tuesdays. To say it's X-Factor meets classical music is to really under-sell it, as it is such a classy programme. 9 highly talented young classical musicians all competing for a record deal. It's so, so good, and there have been some shocking departures each week (Ben the flautist in week one, who arrogantly thought he was the Robbie Williams of the classical world, and tonight the young Russian violinist who was so, so good). Best moment so far was Emily playing the funeral piano song to a group of youngsters and one member in the audience bursting into tears.
So I reckon Tyler to win, or the Irish pianist girl.
Just two weeks left - try and catch it next week.
And I don't just watch TV - I did do some O Men tonight.

Looking Better

YOu may recall a 'post' a few weeks ago about how poor the L Word has got of late.
Well they turned it around! They finally replaced all the characters that they lost - and the replacements are great. We have 'Papi' the latino lez who is such a gruff slut, we have got Cybill Sheppard who still only gets shot from the shoulders up, and we have got a big black butch lez who is such a great character (altho not great enough for me to remember her name). Oh, and a cool deaf character, altho she does sound a bit funny.
So well done The L Word!

Being preached at

I just watched Crash yesterday - the Sandra Bollock movie that won the Oscar.
Er...right.
I mean, it was okay and it kept me entertained, but jesus, stop preaching at me in every single scene! everyone stop getting so worthy and haughty about where you're from!
It was kind of a mess of a film - every scene was just so annoying and 'challenging'. And was it really that worthy? Is the best thing to happen to Sandra's character to fall down the stairs? And yeah right, so everyone just bumped into each other like that.
And what's with the pop videoes at the end? And did Thandie Newton tell her hubby about her 'explosive' day? He didn't seem that bothered that she almost got blown up.
I didn't really get this film - and I think it could have benefited from an extra hour maybe.
But that crap beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Film? C'mon...

The trouble with comics

You see, this is the problem. Reading New Warriors last night, the new issue - i had no idea who ANY of the characters were, barely any idea what was going on, and pretty much didn't care. In fact, the only thing I liked about the comic was the cover - which was nice and unusual (as a brief aside, I loooved the unusual 1602 covers and really wish Marvel had been brave enough to make the guy do the interior art too, instead of horrible old Kubert).
So back to New Warriors - yeah they have the recap on the first page, but it doesn't explain enough and it doesn't say who the characters are - which would help.
Also read She Hulk - which was okay - but it was really hard to decipher what was going on thanks to the backgroundless artwork (something you could never accuse O Men of, obviously). Standards have slipped!
And finally, flicking thru Previews - and what a state the X-titles are in. I think the problem is that the teams are so badly defined at the moment - they're all over the place. Just focus them down, make it less confusing. New X-Men is the worst culprit - how big is the cast? Like, 30 characters? It's sad that Marvel have pretty much ignored the X-titles in favour of the Avengers.
I honestly, honestly think comics could be doing so much better with minor tweaks here and there.

Heroes season two (no spoilers)

Heroes season two is really testing my patience at the moment. I've just watched episode 5.
A review of the first episodes in Entertainment Weekly recently was hilarious and so true. 'Hiro's in feudal Japan. Claire's trying to fit in in High School. Peter is in ireland. Which week is this? Every fricking week.' It has been a bit monotonous, with only a few decent flying scenes waking me up from time to time...
What are they doing??
And some of it just isn't very well done. I'm not gonna even mention the Irish scenes/accents, which are beyond appalling. New character Monica (I think) has a great power, but it's coming across a bit laughable. Hiro is becoming a bit irritating. And why do they do the white-eye thing when you can clearly still see their pupils? And some of the 'new' powers - well I don't like that idea...
And where has this virus story come from all of a sudden? And where are half the characters in each episode? And why does Dania Ramirez keep pulling funny faces?
Mohinder needs to go - his acting is appalling. And Matt is making me laugh so much. He's all very gay - living with Mohinder, and then just having a 'sweaty session' with Nathan in this episode.
Also, part of the story is too Watchmen (as last year's was too Days of Future Past - and the writers still claim not to be comic fans).
I'm not sure why it's not working this year so much. I'm hoping it's gonna pick up soon. At least Kristen Bell is in it now...
Oh and I have come under so much flak on Facebook for writing Statuses like 'Martin is glad Simone is dead, she is so boring' and 'Martin is sad that Eden is dead'. I mean, c'mon, this is season one! Everyone's seen it!! Jeeez! I wait til it's been on BBC2! It's not as if I give away a season two spoiler like '**** is gonna *** in episode **!!!'

A remarkable achievement

Well with around 20 Essentials and Showcases on my shelves - all unread - I finally got round to reading one of them. Batman and the Outsiders! it was very funny! I love how they move in with Bruce Wayne, see him in the Batcave, and then have no idea that they are one and the same.
The best bit was when Geo Force's sister Terra had died and he was very upset - so his team-mates turned up and told him to 'warm up the ouija board' (honestly).
but no, it was all good fun, and i enjoyed it. i didn't particularly learn anything about Metamorpho, and Katana seemed slightly more interesting than she seems to be now (I wonder if her sword still talks to her). Halo is such a fun character, and it was a shame Looker didn't debut in this volume - she looked cool (I think she died in infinite crisis :-(
Hmm so next up i think will be Essential Moon Knight 1 (the 2nd book looks amazing - all Bill Sienkiviecz - classic stuff) and I quite fancy Green Lantern showcase too.

A very very good comic

I'm not a fan of Black Canary by any stretch of the imagination - but I have to say, the first issue of Black Canary/Green Arrow was very, very good. Best comic I've read in ages. Great art, really good writing and a couple of scenes that really stuck with me. Well done DC!

Poor old comics

Sometimes I get depressed about the state of comics. Funnily enough, it often happens after reading an issue of Comics International. Things like when I see the Top 100 sales, and the top titles can only muster about 100,000 sales (jesus, I sell more O Men. Not really. I wonder where O Men would come in the chart...). And I look at the reviews and I see how lacklustre everything seems to be. Titles like Countdown, which just make no effort whatsoever to make sense or be self-contained or be value for money. I bought a handful of comix this weekend, treated myself, and I can't say I was blown away really. They just don't seem to be whole packages any more, no letters pages, always aimed at the six-issue collection, making individual comics almost redundant. Leading on from that, you've got the comic shops themselves. Miss an issue and you're stuffed - the back issues sections just don't exist in most shops - it's sad. What is the point? Do the Big Two actually want to just move to trades?
Comics could be so good again, if they just made more of an effort - target them, make them make sense, make them accessible, make them good reads, value for money. Have we all given up? Should we go back to an era of just one X-title or just one Batman title?
But then after getting depressed, I think of how amazingly popular comics are in Japan - so the medium obviously still has legs, thank goodness.
And of course, there's always O Men 2.6, which I started recently lol...

I did a drawing

I did a drawing! My first one since, hm, July, I think. Well done me.
It's kinda based on a shot from the amazing Death Proof movie, and it shows my O-ladies Kelly, Molly, Mary and Grace having a little ride out - and they won't be meeting up with Stuntman Mike, don't worry.
As a car piccie, it's kind of my apology for that abysmal car sequence in O Men 2.4, which was universally panned ha ha (even though I actually used photo reference for it!!)
While I'm on the subject of Death Proof - I was watching Kill Bill earlier today, and in the anime sequence where the Deadly Assassination Squad kick the shit out of the Bride - it's a neat little reference to the cicle-punch ending of Death Proof. Very neat.
Oh and am I the only one to notice that some of the girls from DP pop up in Planet Terror?

Buffy cover

Take a look at this Buffy cover...
Am I the only one who immediately (wrongly) thought that it's supposed to be a pic of Buffy (yeah yeah i didn't notice the Faith stuff lol), and am I also the only one to think it is extremely risque indeed!!!!

Re-evaluating fifty-poo

I hated 52 when it first came out. Too many z-listers, cruddy art, all in all, not impressed. Plus it irked me that they didn't seem to use the full potential of the weekly story device - ie, sometimes only using one or two days per issue.
But now I'm re-reading it all in the trades and I am absolutely loving it. Maybe that's the best way to read it.
Perhaps part of the reason for this is that Countdown is so crap. Really bad art, a very lightweight story, minus-Z list characters, and a story concerned with tying in too much with current events in the DCU. Plus I miss the little next issue preview panels. 52 is such a dense, engaging read, and, sadly, you can't compare Countdown to it.
Maybe 52 is just a one-off classic... I hope not.

The Sob Factor

So the X-FActor final 12 have been decided for this year. Two things surprise me - first, that they're actually doing X-Factor this year, considering last year's was so disappointing, and secondly that they haven't learned from their mistakes. Those wretched sob stories! 'I live at home with my mom!' 'I've got a job I don't like' Shut up!!! And the woman whose father sent the application form in just before he died - stop it! Stop talking about your dad - you're just making a mockery of it.
Honestly, this year's finalists all seem totally on the verge of nervous breakdowns - it's incredible!
MInd you, there's somethign to be said for it, i guess. The finalists are all teh cryers, and we got to know them, while the rejects all seemed generally happy and didn't show much emotion, and maybe they just didn't show they wanted it enough.
So of course now the next stage takes place, and these poor guys get thrown to the wolves. I really don'tt hink Sharon's girls stand a chance, along with people like NIki. Oh dear, more tears ahead...

Death Proof

Finally got round to seeing Death Proof today - and i am still buzzing from it - wow!
It's completely daft, completely irritating (less talk puh-lease!) but when it gets going it's absolutely awesome. That crash scene - you'll know the one i mean - with teh Hold Tight music - is just so stunning.
I think it's a movie you have to be on the same wavelength with. I adored the actors and the acting in this film - it was so un-movie-like, so natural. I adored the silliness of the focus on Jungle julia simply sending a text message (c'mon, don't we all mis-spell stuff lol) and the music in this movie just rocked. Even Vanessa Ferlito's lap-dance scene was superb - and this is a woman whose face has terrified me since 24 season three.
I can't wait to watch it again, and I definitely can't wait to watch Planet Terror!

FOPP is back!

you know when things start to go wrong - and everything seems to go wrong - and then something else adds to the woes - like the awesome record shop FOPP closing.
well i popped into town today and, lo and behold, they've reopened it - yay! i mean, only 6 branches have opened in the UK, but jeez better than none. treated myself to two Sonic YOuth albums - a fiver each - a band i've always wanted to investigate, but never heard them. but now i can, thanks to fopp!!!

James Patterson

I love James Patterson's books - they are very silly but they are very involving, and best of all each chapter is about 2 pages long - perfect for my attention span. The Alex Cross books are great, even though I can never remember who's who in his family and if his wife is still dead or not (that's not a spoiler, she's always been dead).
I'm not enjoying the Women's Murder Clubs Books so much though (or whatever they're called). I don't think he writes women very well, it all seems very forced, and with Cindy, Claire, Jill and Britney (I made that last one up) it feels like I'm reading about the Bratz. But ah well, it's a quick read.
I also love the way he crams in a popular music reference as if he's desperately trying to be trendy. There's always a 'Phyllis puts on a (insert trendy artist) CD as she makes love' reference. He even included Tori once!