She can burn you up in bed just like she said

Some time ago I watched an episode of Saturday Night Live. Even then it was a distant rerun, from Jean Doumanian's ill-fated run. You could sort of tell things were going badly. The cast was kind of spotty, although the late Charles Rocket was always an underrated performer. Malcolm McDowell said in his monologue that he was only hosting to renew his work visa, and it was easy to believe him. The tone of the sketches was frequently off.

Doumanian did, however, get the Captain. That makes up for a lot.

Note that the "Fire! Fire! Fire!" thing was way before Beavis and Butthead.

A tidbit about me

That deep nasal twitch, you know the one. Like some gnat flying around in your nostril.

When I get that feeling* I can't not sneeze. And with me, there's no such thing as sneezing quietly. People at work found this out today, if they didn't already know it.

It's a family thing. Me old Nanna was much the same way. Could send sleeping birds flying a mile away.

Rarely imitated, never duplicated

Through messing around with that Google "I'm feeling lucky" button, I just found out that there's a recently made remake of Tod Browning's Freaks. Boy, does that sound like a bad idea. Anyone who's seen the original will never be able to accept a substitute, one where most of the freaks seem to be special makeup FX. On the other hand, those who've never seen Browning's movie--which is too close to its subject to be called exploitation--probably won't get it this way either.

Fun with a magic lasso

Hasen sketch courtesy of Wonder Woman Museum


After much buildup and delay, Gail Simone has taken over as the writer on DC's Wonder Woman monthly. The changing of the guard came with issue #14, which I think hit the stands the Wednesday afore last. Didn't buy comics that week, so I just saw it for the first time today.

Simone is--at least in recent memory--the first woman to take on scripting chores for Wondy on an open-ended basis. Novelist Jodi Picoult did write her for a few months recently, but that was always meant as a limited run, and wound up getting overshadowed by the soul-draining "Amazons Attack" storyline. Men can write the character well; any author should be able to take on characters different from themselves. But the fact that for most of her existence only men were writing/drawing/editing her has probably skewed the character.

The obvious question, of course, is how does Simone do? Quite well I'd have to say. #14 does take place in the framework of decompressed storytelling. And if you interpret that as "nothing much happens" you've pretty much got it. But what we do see shows that GS gets the character.

For instance, before going mano-a-mano with a unit of albino gorillas (and that phrase in itself should establish some interest) Wondy says, "You're fighing me to see if you can defeat Superman? I'm honored. Shall we?" It's cocky, but an unflashy kind of cockiness. Her Amazon warrior training appears to include minimizing tiresome bluster.

More importantly, after fighting the apes to a standstill, she talks to them. She comes to an agreement with them. They, in fact, wind up crashing at alter ego Diana Prince's apartment. This is the kind of action that should define her. Justifiability aside, breaking Max Lord's neck isn't characteristic of her, or at least it shouldn't be. So yes, raise a glass to strength and mercy, and let's hope it lasts.

Fans of the Amazon Princess may also be interested to know that Etta Candy has been worked into the continuity again. She's a fed now, apparently assigned as a kind of Internal Affairs shadow on Wonder Woman herself. In a way I wished the company had kept the obese chocolatier/therapist Etta that Grant Morrison introduced in his Zatanna miniseries. But this one is a little different-looking in comics context. She's frumpy-sexy (frexy?) in a kind of Midwestern way. She also susses out that Sarge Steel has more chemical dependencies than Pete Rose and Gregory House put together. Smart girl, shows potential.

There's also a scene of Hyppolita, WW's mom, back on Themyscira. As long as we don't go back to Amazons assassinating random ten-year-old boys, their involvement is a good thing.

Two shots of Todd and a chaser of Blood

Are video posts a lazy cheat? They sure are! But you know what? I've spent about a decade as an office temp in my life. You learn to look busy when you're not.

Here's the lovely(?) and talented Todd Barry in the ed-film role of a lifetime.

Now I like the number 7. Have to use it twice whenever I write my birthdate down. But you should know that the seven colors in the rainbow are a product of Isaac Newton's penchant for numerology, hence the resemblance between blue and indigo. Sh, don't tell the cops.

Here's a whole different side of Mr. Barry.

Ah yes, always exciting to see a healthy checking account.

And now for a tuneful palate cleanser, the intense maybe-bluegrass-maybe-not group Big Blood play their nation-sweeping hit "Oh Country (Skin and Bones)."

Now you don't see drummers playing like that every day. I like to think she's ahead of the curve.

Bold venturing

It's no secret that Hunter S. Thompson had a bone to pick with Garry Trudeau over his representation as Uncle Duke in Doonesbury.

Thompson also was the model for the character of "Uncle Duke" in the "Doonesbury" comic strip. But Thompson strongly disliked the characterization, once telling an interviewer that he would set "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau on fire if the two ever met.

In later years, however, Thompson said he had made peace with the "Uncle Duke" portrayal.

"I got used to it a long time ago," he told Freezerbox magazine in 2003. "I used to be a little perturbed by it. It was a lot more personal ... It no longer bothers me."

And why not? Duke initially appeared in the strip as a fun-loving train wreck who wrote whacked outjournalism: a fair representation overall. But from the character's installation as governor of Samoa, he became increasingly tied to dictatorial power and Blackwater-style mercenaryism. Thompson was a true-blue Nixon hater, and had a sharp eye on the abuse of power, so as a character a clef Duke was pretty wide of the mark.

So what would Thompson react to Hunter Gathers, another character based on him, appearing a couple of times so far on The Venture Bros ? Hard to say. Gathers is a deranged spit and polish secret agent who teaches psychopathic regular Brock Sampson (given likeably dry voicing by Patrick Warburton) in the ways of the assassin/field agent, is an over-the-top shitkicker. He also winds up getting gender-reassignment surgery. On the whole the character arc is so hallucinatory I think the doctor would have to approve.

I got the season two DVD of Venture recently, and I have to say I'm enjoying it a lot. As with season 1, the hand-drawn animation is consistently top notch, even if the stories are hit-and-miss. The latter is probably related to the former, as it may take time for the creators to figure what they can draw well within budget and time constraints. But at the point the hits far outweigh the misses. The lead characters of Dr Venture--a venal and selfish super-scientist--and his weak reed sons remain compelling. And I'm now finding it easier to accept Dr Girlfriend as a woman, even if she does have the voice of a Jersey loading dock foreman.

My favorite episode of the series may be "¡Viva los Muertos!" There's a lot going on in it. Doctor Orpheus, a Doctor Srangely necromancer with a tan, has a South American guru giving his party the Castaneda treatment. Meanwhile the Mystery Machine rolls up, but the riders aren't the nice Scooby gang. No, Fred's a manipulative cult leader, Velma quotes The SCUM Manifesto, and while Shaggy does talk to the dog, he hears much the same thing Son of Sam did.

Of course semi-obscure pop references are all over the place in animation. Much of it ("South Park", "Family Guy") also goes for "Oh no they di'nt!" on a regular basis. But there's an extra level of satire here. Venture has created a zombie from an intruder Brock killed. He needs to make this zombie more docile and pliable to his commands. So he puts the stiff in a "learning bed" and shows him... a WTO-produced prop film promoting child labor.

It may not exactly be Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it's pretty ballsy humor.

Disturbing the dust

I went to the library tonight to pick up a book I had ordered. A Brief Life, by Juan Carlos Onetti, and I hope it's good. At the very least it promises to be different.

One thing that gives me a slight feeling of accomplishment is taking a bbok out that hasn't been borrowed for a good long time. And the last due date stamped in this book is October 27, 1989. So I've struck gold. Okay, so George Bush was president back then, too, but still.

May I never lose the ability to be delighted by simple things.