Open Thread

[filkertom]

Have fun, play nice. New Girl Genius today! -- Hey. When the heck did it get to be June?

Comments

I Hate It When I HAVE To Upgrade

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Joy. I've got a couple of recording projects I have to get done today, and my computer speakers have died. At least, that's what it seems like -- sudden volume spikes now and again for the past few weeks, and then this morning everything just went stupidly loud and stayed there. Even when I disconnected them from the sound card, I can hear the loud background hiss on the lowest volume level. And headphones plugged into the card work just fine.

Fortunately, it looks as if the Labtec Arena 675 5.1 speakers are an absolute steal -- good sound quality for thirty bucks. So, off to CompUSA.

[jss]

> When the heck did it get to be June?
Um, yesterday, around midnight local time, I'd wager.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

And June is National Smartass Month.

I begin celebrations with THIS post!

[(Anonymous)]

And a smart one is better than the alternative!

Hey, Moe! Hey, Moe!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Say, you're all intelligent imbeciles. Here, lean inta this. *smack* *poke* *skran-an-ank* *slappity slap slap slap*

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Dammit, got there before I could!

[braider.livejournal.com]

Please tell me there's not really such a thing as national smartass month.

[mneme]

Today?

Aren't comics shipping tomorrow this week?

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Now that you mention it, I don't know. And no one's answering at my shop.

BTW, the new speakers work fine. A bit tinny -- the Creative had a really great bass -- but they do the job, for about one-fourth what I thought I'd have to pay.

They ARE delayed

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The comics'll come... tomorrow....

[andrianna.livejournal.com]

Well, that's when you buy a bass-boost system for your computer speakers.
*evil grin*

And it comes out the same way!

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

I was watching "The 100 Most Metal Moments" on VH1 yesterday, and one of the "moments" mentioned was when David Lee Roth would bring out on stage...

Are you ready for this?

A statue of SATAN that URINATED JACK DANIELS!

This is usually where I'd add a witty comment, but.... How do you top that?

Anyhoo, I was wondering "What would the FILK equivalent of that be?", closest I could come up with was a statue of Gene Rodenberry that sweats JOLT! cola.

Whaddya think?

Re: And it comes out the same way!

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Snort! Maybe make that J. Michael Straczynski for the younger generation.

Re: And it comes out the same way!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Okay, VH1 has gotten weird. Didn't they used to be, like, respected for Behind the Music?

Shameless Self Promotion

[eleri.livejournal.com]

sorta...it's more shameless something else promotion, and since there's a plethora (I *love* that word) of adventurous gamer types in here, I figured a Tom Smith Open Thread (tm) was the place to put it...

http://home.comcast.net/~urufandemo/

Re: Shameless Self Promotion

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

"Hefe? What EES a 'plethora?'"

Re: Shameless Self Promotion

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Bulbous bouffant. Plethora. Macadamia...

http://www.wepsite.de/bulbous_bouffant.htm

Myst, Uru In Big Trouble

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I'll have to try that later. You might also want to have separate BitTorrent streams for the component files, for people who haven't got CD-writing.

And, I'm pretty sure "plethora" is one or more of the following:

a) a North African dish made with sticky rice rather than couscous
b) somebody or other's wicked stepsister
c) an enchanted land where everyone always had enough of the creme inside the cookies... until the arrival of the Dark Lord Keebler
d) next season's alien hottie on Enterprise
e) an alcoholic beverage made with Bacardi, Sprite, and an entire bag of M&M's
f) what it sounds like when someone sneezes while saying "Bless you" to someone else who sneezed
g) One of the new Ages in Myst IV: Revelation
h) Harry Potter's soggy new house elf

Re: Myst, Uru In Big Trouble

[eleri.livejournal.com]

Working on that bittorrent thing. I have no idea how it works! Would that I had server and bandwidth of my own.

Uru makes a good word for a filk, really ;)

New "Polar Express" Teaser Trailer

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Right here (http://polarexpressmovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/teaser2/index.html).

Ratza Fratzin "Bold New Direction"s

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

In the past several years, and especially the past few months, several comic book characters I am very fond of have been... what's the term du jour? Reintroduced. Reimagined. Given an exciting/bold new beginning/direction.

Fucked up.

Both companies.

A small sampling:

I understand some people liked the "Howard the Rat" bit in the new, uncensored version of Howard the Duck a couple of years ago. I just stared at it and tried not to bleed from my eyes.

The Silver Surfer.

Ultimate Fantastic Four.

Swamp Thing.

Master of Kung Fu.

Iron Fist. (That one pissed me off really badly. It's almost unreadable on every level.)

Superman.

And now Firestorm.

I can't go into a lot of detail about this without banging my head against the wall. A troubled youth makes a couple of terrible choices, and ends up as a drug-runner. On his first job, he suddenly acquires super-powers.

Not for any particular reason; they just show up.

I'm presuming this will be explained in issue #3, 'cause it isn't in issue #2, where he kills a couple of guys -- in self-defense, mostly.

Way to maintain that Justice League membership.

Apparently, "bold new direction" translates roughly into "we don't know what to do with this character, so we'll give it to the first chump who comes along and expresses interest, as long as it sounds edgy".

Haven't these companies been looking at their own books?

Judd Winick did it right, first on Green Lantern, now on Green Arrow. GL explored the basic nature of the Power Ring -- the fact that it can do anything. Does absolute power really corrupt absolutely, and do you do anything, even good things, just because you can? GA goes right to the heart of Oliver Queen, a man whose money doesn't really even matter to him, except that it lets him help people -- an angry man who thinks the world can be made better if we all work together, and gets ticked off at the selfishness of pretty much everyone.

Mark Waid did it right, on Fantastic Four. By going back to the roots -- their very first adventure, the rocket trip that sent them through the cosmic rays and took away their humanity by giving them their powers -- and saying, "These people are pioneers (the term Waid coined was "imaginauts"). They kick ass and take names when they need to, and Johnny can be a bit of a jerk, but they are simply four very good people with insatiable curiousity. They save the world as a normal part of their larger job, exploring the unknown."

Joe Straczynski did it right, on Amazing Spider-Man. Turns out much of Peter's abilities have a base in the supernatural, rather than simply the superscientific. Bold new direction? Nope -- just a re-interpretation of a bunch of loose ends that most people didn't even see. It opened a wider world of Spidey adventures, and still left the best parts of Spider-Man untouched.

Alan Moore did it right, with everything he's done. His stories grow naturally from the foundations of comics, of mythology, of the mundane aspects of living in a superworld. Go back and read "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?" and "For The Man Who Has Everything", for my money the two best Superman stories ever done -- just the little throwaway when Robin is all but gaping at Wonder Woman, wearing those short-shorts at the Arctic Circle, and The Batman leans over and whispers, "Think clean thoughts, chum". Go back and reread Miracleman, Swamp Thing, Tom Strong, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and everything in between. New directions, rooted firmly in the old stories.

Firestorm used to be a cool character. Now, within two issues, I hate him.

"Bold new directions" tend to be taken by people so lost they veer off the map.

Fraggin' Bastitches!

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

[SHRUG]

Hey, 'slong as they don't go tryin' to change the Main Man, I ain't complainin'...

And who'd be STUPID enough to try?

Feetal's Gizz

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but they've always played him for comedy, 'cause he's just too over-the-top. I've always had a posh to see a Lobo/Ambush Bug story.

Re: Ratza Fratzin "Bold New Direction"s

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you. We picked up Firestorm #1 'cause he's always been a cool character. (Yay, professor!) But this is totally unrecognizable... he got these powers how, exactly? Not sure whether or not we're going to pick up #2, depends whether we're feeling a little masochistic...

And sdavido just told me he heard they're totally rebooting Green Lantern again, bringing back Hal Jordan, and erasing Kyle Rainer from existence. My head hurts!

Re: Ratza Fratzin "Bold New Direction"s

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

... What!? I despised the Parallax storyline -- but they did one of the great reinventions of all time by making Hal the Spectre! And Kyle has turned into such a good character (thank Winick, in my view).

W.

T.

F.

P.S.: Don't even bother with that Firestorm #2. It'll take you two minutes to gloss over in the store, and even that will make your stomach hurt.