· entertainment

#188 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

August 8, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment | 3 comments

Oy. The good news is, this event caused me to solve the age old problem I’ve been whining about over here on 1979 Semi-Finalist…namely, why is it kind of sometimes good, but mostly horrible when people give you nice compliments in public? (Unn!)

Well, at least for me, the answer is, if it’s a stranger, who I will likely never see again, whether it be pedestrian, construction worker, truck driver, etc., that compliments me (or yells UNN!) then I’m mostly okay with it. It may be uncomfortable for a brief moment, but it’s fairly painless and I am generally left with a nice warm fuzzy feeling or ego boost. However, when it is someone you have to see frequently, a guy who runs a comic book store, a clerk of a store you frequent, a construction worker you are going to have to walk past on your way to work for six months, or a cabbie you are trapped with for 20 minutes, then it’s just plain uncomfortable. You can’t help but realize that you are maybe going to have to deal with something like this everytime you see this person, and while you can elegantly (or casually) come up with a way out of or around one compliment, how do you elegantly get through 20 or 50 compliments…it becomes a whole other thing.

And in the comic above, this is exactly what happened. This very nice older gentleman that either works, or owns, or just loves to constantly hang out in the comic book store around the corner from my house complimented me like three weeks ago when I went in to pick up some books before I left for Hawaii. I kind of blew it off and forgot, but I went in this week and it happened again, and the way he left it made me feel like it is going to happen everytime I go in there. Which makes me never want to go in there again. Which is pretty freaking inconvenient. It’s not a great comic book shop, but it’s the only place I can easily pick up new weekly comics. Curses!

#186 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

August 6, 2008 in book reviews, books, boyfriends, cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, relationships | 3 comments

That’s right, and not only did I get an awesome “Tuesday present for no reason whatsover” but Adam remains the Michael Jordan of gift buying (are we still using Michael Jordan as an example of awesome things? I so need to catch up on my pop culture – sigh) – as he got me a book by an author I love that I didn’t even know was out. Yay! The book, for the record, is The Girl On The Fridge by Etgar Keret. It’s a collection of short fiction and if it’s half as awesome as the first collection of his short fiction that I read (The Nimrod Flipout) then it will blow my mind (again).

Here’s a picture – since the cover is also awesome.

#184 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

August 4, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, movies, travel | 2 comments

Yes, this would be Flawless (see previous “review”).

Man, what the hell was Demi Moore thinking with that accent? Just terrible. The thing I really can’t figure about this movie is how anyone – producers, writers, directors, even actors, thought this was actually going to be an intriguing mystery. It’s a period piece heist movie…and let’s just face it, a heist movie these days is only as good as its obstacles…of which there weren’t that many in 1960’s London. I mean if it had been brilliantly done it could have been really interesting as a historical look at how early heist pioneers paved the way for modern day heisters (word? I think not), but since it is poorly done, it’s more like watching paint dry than watching a heist movie.

I should also go on record here as saying that I’m not a super fan of the escalating measures we have to take our heist movies to (i.e. I thought Ocean’s Eleven was a decent film, almost despite the ridiculous hoops our criminals/heroes have to jump through; but I find most heist movies today annoying with absolutely ridiculous hoops that have a suspension of belief not unlike seeing Clark Kent in glasses and not knowing that he’s Superman…which I’ve always found annoying). So I support what this film was TRYING to do, but it just failed miserably. Too bad.

#183 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

August 1, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, travel, vacation | 2 comments

I know it looks like I won in that last panel, but I didn’t. I came real close though and was ahead for about the first half of the game, my brother Scott always close on my heels. But I screwed up two not complicated holes, and added about five unnecessary strokes to my game…I lost (to Scott) by three strokes and tied with my dad. The rest of the group (Adam, Dave, Mom, and Shelti) were close on our heels with I think one stroke separating each of them…it was a close game, and some good air conditioned fun.

Oh, and you’re seeing a crocodile and a giraffe on the front of the building with the mini-golf is pretty correct…for some reason the “glow in the dark” mini-golf was also “safari themed”…my best guess is that someone had some glow in the dark safari crap lying around and thought “Hey! Let’s just use this!”. Bizarre.

Let’s ask the real question of the day…for all the Hawaii travelers that have to check out of their hotels at 10am/11am/12pm on a Saturday…why oh why do all the Maui flights leave in the evening? I sense a tourism conspiracy. A way to get us to spend cash at malls and movies and lunches, and yes, Glow In The Dark Mini Golf…

Everyone have a great weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday

#182 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

July 31, 2008 in anna paquin, cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, movie reviews, movies, travel, vacation | 4 comments

Yep, you’re pretty much looking at what I did for six days.

I somehow managed to watch several movies, between the LONG plane trips and a day stuck in due to either a sun or chlorine allergy and I’ve done a “witty” one/two sentence summary of each below for your edification (I love the word edification…isn’t it great?)…anyway here they are:

Step Brothers: Funnier than Semi-Pro, less funny than some of the other Will Ferrel vehicles, it’s a bit lacking in plot, like all of ‘those movies’, but with some choice lines you’ll find yourself repeating probably for the rest of your life. A solid 3 Stars.

The Namesake: A beautiful and poignant film, with an ending that slightly let me down, and previews that kind of led me astray, and ultimately made me want to read the book, which I bet is at least ten times better. A good 3.5 stars.

Married Life: A lovely looking period piece about relationships, friendships, and marriage, with excellent performances by everyone except the bootleg Parker Posey (Rachael McAdams for the uninitiated), with the especially brilliant Patricia Clarkson driving the heart of the film, as always. 3.5 Stars.

Sidenote: McAdams wasn’t TERRIBLE, I’m just a little biased and she’s not good here, just acceptable.

Flawless: A hideous film that I never would have finished had I not been belted in at thirty thousand feet and coked up on too much caffeine to fall alseep easily, Demi Moore’s accent is atrocious, and while Michael Cane is pretty solid, as always, the plot and writing are dry and horrible, and the ending is atrocious. I don’t know why anyone would have thought this film could/should be made. 1 Star.

Blue State: An equally hideous little film, that I was tricked into watching by the beguiling Anna Paquin. Breckin Meyer is the lead, who I feel lukewarm about in general, but hated with a firey passion here where he is devoid of chemistry with Paquin (how can you be devoid of chemistry with Anna Paquin?! Even I would have chemistry with Paquin for christ’s sake!) and he is not aided at all by the horrible plot, script, and direction. Yay. 1 Star.

While not technically viewed on my trip, I watched my Netflix rental of Green Street Hooligans upon my return to New York. It was pretty good, and by that I mean that it was sometimes awful and sometimes pretty great in alternating turns. I did expect more from it and found it hard to become to emotionally attached to what was going on considering that the main characters were basically in gangs (called ‘firms’) based on local football (US=Soccer) alliances. Silly. I know it’s true and accurate that many people feel so passionate about sports, and particularly in Europe it has become a problem with violence and alcohol, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about the film The Wind That Shakes The Barley that I watched late last year, and which was so painfully about REAL war, war that can’t be avoided…I don’t know, it just seemed ridiculous to care to much that these kids (and adults) were so stupid to be killing over something so silly as sports loyalties. That said, how is Charlie Hunnam not a HUGE star by now? Gorgeous and very talented. Even standing next to the pretty much always solid Elijah Wood he was a powerhouse in the acting category. I was totally in love, with him, if nothing else. And based largely on that love, I’m giving it 3 Stars.

I also read two excellent books that I’ll be posting hopefully later this week…in case you’re looking for an excellent book

#181 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

July 30, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, movie reviews, movies, The Dark Knight | 5 comments

That’s right. If you want to fucking text, stay at FUCKING home. Really, why do you want to pay eleven bucks to text anyway?

Also, if you think you’re some kind genius Sherlock Holmes because you figured out that Harvey Dent’s two-headed coin, was in fact two-headed, only shortly before it was “revealed”…let me say this, have you really never seen Harvey Dent ever in a Batman comic book…or cartoon…or even (heaven forbid) Batman & Robint (#3) with Val Kilmer? I mean really, it’s not like this was a huge reveal dude, this is completely common knowledge to anyone with the most basic BASIC knowledge of Batman. We pretty much all know know about the god damn two-headed coin, and if for some reason you don’t, the movie didn’t exactly make it not obvious…so please, just keep your brilliant revelations to yourself next time okay? You just end up looking like a super moron when you go, “OH. It’s a two-headed coin…” to your idiot girlfriend in the middle of the theater as if you are letting us all in on a little secret…guess what…we’re all like an hour and a half (or several decades) ahead of you…moron.

[Spoiler Warning]

Okay, on to the actual The Dark Knight “review”. I have to say, I’m going to fully jump on the bandwagon here…this movie was just incredible. I’ve been thinking about it since last night, and it is definitely one of the best action movies I have ever seen, it also may be the best comic book movie ever made – the fanboy in me probably got more excited about X-Men I and X-Men II because I was so attached to those characters as a kid – but this was an even better film. So far, in thinking about the film, I really can’t find a flaw. The performances were all extraordinary (Ledger most especially); the script was tight and well crafted; and the direction was beautiful and effective. It all came together into a perfectly constructed film.

I have one real complaint, and it’s only because as a woman that loves superheroes and especially superheroines, or at least strong female characters in all films superhero or otherwise, I felt a little ripped off. Rachael Dawes is not a bad character, she’s good and strong and full of passion, but in this movie (and the last) she is the typical damsel in distress needing to be rescued, falling from buildings, getting tied up and blown up, getting exposed to ‘fear gas’ whatever…there’s nothing new there. And then the only other female characters are Detective Ramirez (who anyone in the know thought was Detective Renee Montoya until her name was revealed near the end) who turns out to be a low level bad guy here; and Gordon’s wife Barbara (another innocent victim/woman in distress). So not only are the women in this film portrayed pretty poorly, but Nolan had the perfect opportunity to throw us a bone in the film…by at least showing us young Barbara Gordon instead of silly Jimmy Gordon. Who the F cares about Jimmy Gordon, when young Barbara Gordon (just waiting to become BATGIRL!) is right there…just off screen?! It kind of made the movie a cock fest…in the worst possible way, which made me a bit disappointed in Nolan. But he can redem himself by living up to the foreshadowing of a possible Catwoman for the next film…

(below is paraphrased)

Bruce Wayne: “Will it stand up to dogs?”

Lucius Fox: “Rotweillers or Chihauhuas?” [laughter] “It’ll stand up to cats”…

YES! Redeem yourself to the women of the world Nolan and give us a Catwoman worthy of your film. Michelle Pfeiffer was an excellent Catwoman (the only truly good thing going on) in Burton’s 1992 Batman Returns, but Halle Berry’s horrible nightmare performance/movie has erased for the current population, everything that was right about Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle…we’re dying for a new and improved version as invisioned by you…and now you owe us…

For the record:

The Good: Pretty much every single thing.

The Bad: The role of women in the film.

The Ugly: Not a goddamn frame. It is GORGEOUS.

The Dark Knight – 4.5 Stars.

#176 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

July 14, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, movies, not quite religion, psychics, religion | 3 comments

Wow. A very rushed weekend filled with way too much work from…well, work. Plus it was my last weekend to get my life in order before Hawaii, and I utterly failed at that, so it’s going to be an interesting week ramping up to that. Wish me luck.

Also, Thursday is the one year anniversary of 1979 Semi-Finalist…which seems kind of crazy…I can’t believe a year has passed since I started doing this. Wild.

I hope you all had a good weekend. I saw Hancock on Sunday and it was pretty good, a solid three stars. It kind of fell apart at the end but overall it was funny and engaging and likeable, and with the exception of some really great ones, better than most superhero movies…and ironically it isn’t based on a comic book…funny.

#172 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

July 8, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, craptastic, entertainment, not quite religion, psychics, religion | 4 comments

That’s right, tune in tomorrow for the woman’s (now seemingly) sage words…

#170 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

June 26, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment | 5 comments

So there’s the mystery. Solved, sort of. I mean, we know what happened, but I doubt we’ll ever know why. The bottles were not new, and not old, we’d had most of them a little over a week, probably including the one that exploded. It wasn’t a particularly hot day and the bottle didn’t appear faulty or damaged (although it’s kind of hard to determine if something is damaged AFTER it has exploded I guess) so it will remain a mystery. I just hope it never happens again. It scared the crap out of us and after spending almost three hours cleaning the apartment I was treated to another half hour of cleaning up…and then more cleaning up on Sunday…yay!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend, this will be the last comic this week as I’ll be out of town Thursday night and Friday for work and unable to post. Also, I added up how many hours I’ve worked so far this week…and between Sunday and Wednesday when I got home (very late – or very early depending on how you look at it) and I’ve worked 49 hours this week…and I still have Thursday and Friday to go. Yikes. Suffice to say I’m worn out. Also, it’s my birthday this weekend, so I just kinda don’t feel like forcing myself to draw comics…you mind?

I’ll be back Monday though in full not funny, not talented force…and one year older. Yay again. whoo.

#169 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

June 25, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment | 2 comments

That’s right people…the mystery continues. And if Adam and I seem a little “problem solving deficient” I can only say that I hope we offer all our illustrious problem solving skills to our job, thus leaving us a bit brain dead on a Saturday afternoon when forced to deal with our own problems.

Of course, as artists and “creative types” we were never very good at the kind of problem solving that involved “if a bus leaves Chicago traveling at 60 mph…”…or in this case, “If a full two liter of soda was all over your floor an hour ago, and you have four 2-liters that all appear full…” so maybe there was no hope for us anyway.

Tune in Thursday (I hope) for the mysterious conclusion.

entertainment

Blogroll