Big, Bouncy, Shiny and Whiney

On the eve of the Silver Surfer's debut as a movie character in the second Fantastic Four movie (and with the Surfer's simonized dome protruding from the tops of billboards all over SoCal), Marvel has issued the SILVER SURFER OMNIBUS, which collects all 18 issues of the Surfer's late-sixties early-seventies comic book series -- plus a frequently-reprinted Surfer solo story from a FANTASTIC FOUR annual, and a Surfer parody story from Marvel's satire comic NOT BRAND ECHH -- into a substantial, 570-page color coffee-table hardcover.



The book retails for $75 (although I bought mine for $60 at my local comics emporium; and you can get it for about that price at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online). That's actually a pretty fair price, since Marvel's "Masterworks" reprint books run about $60 for ten issues' worth of reprints (with less quality). Plus, the Surfer comics featured longer-than-normal stories; and the Omnibuses, unlike the Masterworks editions, feature the letter columns from each issue.

The comic series is a fascinating slice of comics history from the era of the King and Bobby Kennedy assasinations, of Vietnam and demonstrations. Writer/editor Stan Lee used the comics as a vehicle for his most philosophical writing -- resulting in lots of panels in which the Surfer sails around the outer atmosphere, gesticulating like a ham Shakespearean actor, whining about man's inhumanity to man, interspersed with kick-ass action sequences. The stories in general take a dark view toward humanity, emphasizing the menace of mobs, intolerance as the normal human condition, and paranoia vying with greed.

This mix does not necessarily result in uniformly well-written stories. Lee's forte was and is not necessarily brilliant plots -- indeed, most of his Marvel stories consisted of loose plots or discussions with the artists, leaving the artists to essentially plot and lay out the story before Lee stepped in and wrote the dialogue. Here, Lee must contend with a protagonist who is powerful enough to rearrange the molecular structure of matter with a gesture. About the only limit to the Surfer's power is the barrier that his former boss, Galactus, placed around the Earth to pen the Surfer in -- the cause of much of the Surfer's kvetching. Faced with trying to create challenges for such a puissant main character, Lee makes the Surfer's nemesis no less than the Devil Himself -- personified as Mephisto, whom artist John Buscema depicts as a red, muscular man with a leonine face. Since Mephisto moves in mysterious ways, his plots don't always have to make strict sense -- and they don't. One has to read the two-part story in which Mephisto turns the Flying Dutchman into a claw-handed cyborg (???)to appreciate the loopiness of the story.

Where Lee's writing shone, however, was in his language. Lee is a writer who, like Bradbury and Vonnegut, is in love with the music of the English language. Working in the clipped vernacular endemic to comics, Lee nevertheless uses rhythm, alliteration, bardic appellations, and a sparkling vocabulary to make the abundant dialogue sing. There are phrases in these stories that pop into my head at times decades after I've read them, such as Mephisto's description of his negotiation technique: "Now, where CAJOLERY has failed -- let CARNAGE succeed!"

The best run of the series comes early, in issues 3 through 5. Issue 3 features Mephisto's New Testament style attempt to first tempt, then beat, then extort the Surfer into giving up his soul -- including using the Surfer's girlfriend from his home planet, the Barbara Feldman lookalike Shalla Bal, as a bargaining chip. Issue 4 is a beautifully-drawn battle between the Surfer and the Marvel versions of the Norse Gods, including Thor. Issue 5 is a convoluted yet intriguiging story, in which the Surfer is faced with raising a lot of money in a hurry. Being an honest soul, he goes out in a trenchcoat, sunglasses and slacks -- looking unsettlingly like Michael Jackson would thirty years later -- and tries to get a job; but can't land one without experience or a Social Security card. He tries to rob a bank, but his conscience gets the better of him. He finally acquires the money by cheating his way through a rigged craps game, letting the thugs who ran the game roll him, and then stealing the money back!

The art for these issues is, without exception, excellent -- some of the best Marvel has produced. John Buscema drew every issue except the last (which Surfer creator Jack Kirby illustrated), and his art before and after was never as superb in its spectacle and storytelling as it was here.

The letters columns are a treat in themselves. In light of its philosophical bent, the column attracted correspondence from college students across the nation, themselves engaged in the societal soul-searching of the time. The letters definitely do not toe any line of political correctness. In issue 5 of the series, physicist Al Harper befriends and aids the Surfer. When SS asks Harper why, Harper -- who is black -- muses, "Mebbe it's 'cause I know how it FEELS to be pushed around!" In issue 8's letter column, a correspondent from North Carolina apparently takes this comment personally. "That was uncalled for!" he protests. "For months you've been knocking 'us' (you know who I mean). It sounds as if we were all big, bad murderers who liked hurting minorities." The writer insists, "I'm not a racist," but states he doesn't want Marvel "ruined" by something "that really doesn't concern you as comic publishers" -- i.e., a "civil rights protest." The response to the letter replies that "such matters as racism and equality do concern us . . . as human beings."

The SILVER SURFER OMNIBUS is worth checking out -- not just as a time capsule, but as a fun example of what made Marvel Marvel.

More on Cat's Eye's and Orguss's US TV Debuts

Imaginasian TV will begin broadcasting its block of TMS shows -- including my fave, CAT'S EYE, and '80's gem ORGUSS -- on June 5. Further, anime retailer Right Stuf has landed the exclusive retail rights for the DVDs of the shows. The DVDs will be printed-to-order, and feature extremely low price points -- the starter sets for the first volumes (including a case for the remaining DVDs) will be $12.99, and subsequent volumes will be $9.99 each. (By comparison, most DVDs of anime TV series are $24.99 to 29.99 MSRP, and starter sets run in the $35-50 range.) Right Stuf announces that the first volumes should be ready in early July -- which, I believe, should be just in time for Anime Expo.

I'm there, dude.

Wi-Fi Watering Holes: Venice Grind

This WFWH is easy to find if you're driving or riding down Venice Boulevard in Culver City near Bundy -- it's between Bundy and Grand View, and sports an enormous red "COFFEE" marquee reminiscent of the '30's or '40's. Inside, you'll find an enormous fiberglass-and-aluminum sculpture behind the counter of a phoenix, with a coffee cup instead of a head. Not only is there the typical local-artist art on the walls, but there are galleries on either side. The location is particularly bicycle-friendly, with Venice's generous bike lanes on either side of the street and a bikerack nearby on the sidewalk. The espresso drinks are pretty good, as is the chai; and it has a nice selection of teas. There's a sectional sofa and a bunch of hassocks in front, under the front window -- a substitute for the mis-matched living room furniture one often finds in coffee- houses. There's also a back porch with tables -- a nice feature for SoCal when the weather's nice. They also have thoughtfully placed electrical outlets liberally next to the tables.

One minus is that the wi-fi signal could be faster and stronger -- Blogger is occasionally choking as I type this. The hours are both a blessing and a curse: It opens earlier than most WFWHs (7 am on Sunday, 6 am every other day) but closes earlier than many (10 pm each day).

Beach Blogging Part Deux

I had a terrific ride along the beach. I rode the Santa Monica Beach Bike Path from Venice Boulevard up to Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades (about 6.1 miles), then back south to Pico. Next to the Santa Monica pier there's a ramp with 180-degree switchbacks (forcing you to either walk your bike or ride it very short distances) that takes you up the seawall to street level.

The bike path is terrific. It's flat and clear (except for the other users -- and there were a lot), and you feel like you could ride forever on it. It's for all levels of experience (it has to be, with all the bike-rental stands along the way), so you'll encounter all ages of bicyclists out there. And although the path is periodically marked with "Bikes Only" legends, this being SoCal people flagrantly ignore it. They blade; they walk; they stand absently in the middle of the damned path with a vacant expression on their faces.

My ride to, from and on the beach afforded me my expected portion of stereotypical SoCal sights: One old bag-lady who laid a curse on me as I rode by; one young woman roller-blading in a bikini; one young man strumming an electric guitar with no amp attached; one meditation class; one setup for a beach wedding; several beach volleyball players, in various stages of scantily-clad-ness; and lots and lots of views of that big blue wet thing that's always present just west of here.

Beach Blogging

I'm writing this entry on my Treo at the famous Sidewalk Cafe in Venice. I'm starting out my holiday weekend by realizing one of my SoCal dreams: riding my bike down to Venice and then biking on the beach bike path. I've already rode my bike down the path to this point. We'll see how far on it I go fortified by a hearty breakfast. The weather is perfect: The sun is out and the temp is in the low '60's. I've brought my internal thermo up high enough to make that comfortable. I'll post photos when I get home.

A Landmark in My Backyard

Today's LA Times featured this article about the new 12-screen Landmark Theater that's being built at the intersection of Pico and Westwood, replacing the former "Westside Two" section of the Westside Pavillion. (Angelinos might recall that the Pickwood theater used to be approximately at that point.) The theater is not literally in my backyard, but it's close enough that I can see the parking lot from my front porch.

When I heard that it would be running "independent films" only, I wondered how it could possibly find enough current indies to fill 12 screens. (I thought that it might end up with "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" running on 4 screens every month.) Apparently, I'm not the only one wondering about the programming. "Exactly what kind of movies the Landmark will play is in dispute," the article notes. The Chief Operating Officer states that, were the venue open today, "Spider-Man 3" might be playing on as many as three Landmark screens. But as the article notes, the company has repeatedly told the theater's neighbors (i.e., us) that it would not run big, wide-distribution movies like that.

The article comments that the success of theaters in Century City has threatened those in Westwood, traditionally a mecca for those who want to see movies on big screens that dwarf those in multiplexes. (Of course, there's just one theater in Century City now, the AMC Century 15 -- the theater at the former ABC Entertainment Center died with the Entertainment Center a few years ago.) Now the Landmark will have to contend with the Century 15 for bookings in the area -- a daunting prospect, given that AMC is a national chain with tremendous clout; and given that the Century 15 has a screen set aside for independent movies.

I will welcome a luxury theater (with a lower ticket price than The Bridge and the Arclight, my current favorite movie venues) within walking distance of my house. But I will not welcome it so much if it draws loud, rowdy crowds. Or if it goes out of business, leaving a multi-story abandoned hulk a couple of blocks away.

I Want to Ride My Bi-See-Cull, I Want to Ride My Bike

I've been working on taking my new bike farther and farther from the house, to build up bike-riding chops that rusted after riding only stationary bikes for over twenty years.

Yesterday (one day after Bike to Work Day, but still within Bike to Work Week), I rode it from my house to my office in Century City. I discovered the bike lane (bless bike lanes!) on Santa Monica Boulevard, starting around Veteran, which provided a fast and relatively hassle-free ride for a few miles Eastbound. Only one problem with the lane: It ends abruptly in mid-Century City; and it terminates with a lane of car traffic between it and the sidewalk! So it left me stranded in the middle of the street during rush hour. The cars in the lane to my right were very understanding . . . .

This morning, I was scheduled to donate blood at 9:30. Exercising after giving blood is verboten. So I woke up at 6 (Yes! On my day off!), hopped on the bike before 7, and rode 4 1/2 miles to Maxwell's Cafe in Culver City/Marina Del Rey. The place is usually packed on weekends, with lines stretching out the door; but that early in the morning I was able to walk in and sit right down at the counter. I had the basic diner breakfast (listed in the menu as the basic breakfast): Two perfectly scrambled eggs, home fries, and toast (dry sourdough for me). Biking early in the morning, riding by the grocery stores loading up for the day and the bakeries with the pastries and bread in the oven, reminded me of riding my bike to Garrison Junior High when I was a kid, and occasionally stopping into Fleenors Grocery Store, where they served day-old maple bars to the customers gratis. (Yes, I ate them. No, I didn't gain weight. I had the metabolism of a shrew. Back then.)

From Walla Walla to the Bada-Bing

At various times in my life, I've wanted to become an actor, a novelist, a comic-book writer, etc. I did not become any of those things; but I'm amazed at how several of the people I've known have wanted to become a figure in the arts -- and then went on to do it. They did become published novelists, successful comic book writers -- and yes, actors.

Into the latter category falls a friend of mine from Sharpstein Elementary School and Walla Walla High School, Mike Walsh. When we were in Sixth Grade together, Mike was into films, theater and cartooning; and wanted to be an animator and an actor. Several years ago, he worked as a TV animator in LA; and he is now living in New York and acting under the stage name of Mickey Pizzo.
I saw him in the credits of last Sunday's episode of the Sopranos (you know, the one where Tony Soprano establishes that he is the most selfish bastard ever to be depicted as the lead of a TV show, one who will do anything to eliminate an inconvenience . . . . ) It's always a shocking paradigm shift for me to see someone I actually know join the little people inside the glowing TV box.

Lloyd Alexander, R.I.P.

Lloyd Alexander wrote high-fantasy novels for younger readers that never quite achieved the stature of Tolkien's works, but which had legions of fans. I read several of his books when I was in Junior High, and I found them vastly entertaining. His writing was the best kind of writing for kids: Simple, yet full of music. I've never watched the Disney animated film made of one his Prydain novels, THE BLACK CAULDRON, because I've heard bad things about it; and one thing I don't want to see is bad movies made from good books.

Catch-22 RIP

It was with moderate sadness that I observed the demise of Catch-22, a wi-fi watering hole in the Japanese neighborhood on Sawtelle in West LA. Catch-22's predecessor, Cafe Paradaiso, in the same space is where I first had a jasmine boba milk tea -- and the rest is history. I also recall fond Saturday and Sunday afternoons spent plugging away at my laptop there. The replacement: "Baby Waffles." I guess with the Pinkberry outlet around the corner in the Olympic collection, dessert places are absorbing boba palaces.

Comic Wars

In this age of movie DVDs that issue a month after a movie debuts in theatres, novelizations and comic-book adaptations of films are essentially anachronisms of the pre-Betamax era. Yet such tie-ins once played an important role in publicizing films, as well as serving as a souvenir of the flicks.

The current issue of ALTER EGO, a magazine about comics history edited by longtime comics writer/editor Roy Thomas, features a fascinating article by Thomas about how the comic-book adaptation of STAR WARS came to be. Folks may recall that the novelization of STAR WARS (by Alan Dean Foster, ghost-writing as George Lucas) came out in paperback about a year before the movie; and the six-issue STAR WARS movie adaptation began running a few months before the movie came out -- raising fears at Marvel that the adaptation would be a fiasco if the film bombed. Lucas and his assistants approached Thomas with the project, since Lucas, a comics fan, specifically wanted Thomas to write the adaptation and Howard Chaykin to illustrate it. The plan was to raise consciousness of the film using the comics miniseries.

The movie, of course, did not bomb. Whether the comic book helped add to the movie's bottom line may never be known. But the project certainly helped Marvel; once the movie started going gangbusters, the comic sold in prodigious amounts -- especially after Marvel reprinted it several times, in multiple formats.

Grist for the Grindhouse

We saw GRINDHOUSE yesterday. This tribute by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino to the cheap, nasty '70's movies of their youth reminded me of when I was in grade school, and kids (generally boys) who had managed to see R-rated films (probably through the expedient of the local Drive-in) would enthuse about the nastier scenes they saw -- like a POV shot of a man falling out of a window, or an ill-advised use of a shotgun on a human body. The two movies were uneven, to say the least; and did not quite capture the spirit of the '70's flicks. The Rodriguez movie was far too well photographed, and had far too nicely-done special effects, to qualify as a trash-flick. And the Tarantino movie interspersed its excellent car-wars scenes (and the tremendously-charismatic Kurt Russell) with endless scenes of women talking with each other -- scenes that went on so long that they seemed parodies of similar bits in Tarantino's earlier movies.

I had to agree with friends who told me the absolute best part of GRINDHOUSE was the faux coming-attraction trailers, by Rodrieguez (doing a satire of blaxpoitation trailers) and guest directors like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie.

Those who follow Rodriguez's films will recall that Tarantino often appears in them; and that when he does, his character usually meets a bad end. This movie continues the tradition; and Tarantino's nasty rapist mercenary meets about the worst, nastiest fate ever shown in cinema.

My New Wheels

One of the consequences of being a middle child was that I never had a new bicycle. I only obtained my own bike during college, when I bought a used bike from a friend who was heading back to Europe -- and I only enjoyed that purchase for two weeks before the bike was stolen from the UCLA campus.

Now, in my '40's, with two car purchases under my belt, I'm finally ready -- to buy a new bicycle.

Here it is. I picked it up at Helen's Cycles in Santa Monica (which has great service) yesterday. It's a cruiser-style mountainbike. Since I've little intent to actually bike in rough terrain, I had test-drove a couple of cruiser-style street bikes (which reminded me of the Huffy bike I first rode as a little kid); but I found this one the easiest to handle.

My ambition and plan is to ride the bike down the Santa Monica Beach bikepath on beautiful weekend mornings. That, for me, is one of the ultimate Southern California living experiences.

Pulpy Heroes

Anthony Tollin is doing wonderful work. Working with Nostalgia Ventures, the longtime comic book production man and radio/pulp historian has brought back to print the adventures of the two greatest pulp-magazine superheroes: Walter Gibson's THE SHADOW and Lester Dent's DOC SAVAGE. Better yet, he is releasing them in luxurious 7" x 10" editions (the approximate size of the original pulps), two novels to an edition, using the original typesetting, two-column layout, and text illustrations.

Doc Savage is most notable for having touched off two publishing phenomena. His original magazine from the 1930's and 1940's was a best-seller. In 1964, Bantam Books began reprinting his adventures in a series of numbered paperbacks, with magnificent covers by James Bama. (Bama created the look most readers of that time associate with Doc -- a vaguely-Lee-Marvin-looking bronze giant, with rippling muscles and that utterly bizarre widow's peak crewcut.) The paperback run continued through 1991, and racked up tremendous sales, with millions of Doc Savage paperbacks in print.

As a kid in the late '70's, I'd pick up Doc Savage novels by the handful, and inhale one in a Sunday. They feature some of the most engaging pulp writing of the era (outside of the Hammett-Chandler school of hard-boiled detective prose). True, it's purple as a two-day-old bruise, and bereft of subtlety and subtext. But it's colorful, compelling, fast-paced, humorous, and delivers the goods on action and atmosphere.

Much the same can be said for the SHADOW books. Whereas Dent's inspiration was international explorers and adventurers (of which Dent himself was one), Gibson's influences were his own career as a stage magician and escape artist, along with ninjas, mystics, and other Asian men of mystery. The result was a hero who operated more like a villain -- he dressed in black, he melted into the shadows, he blasted opponents to oblivion with long-slide .45 automatics, and his trademark was a sinister laugh.

The Shadow's pulp adventures were also reprinted in a series of paperbacks -- most notably, in a run with covers by comic book writer-artist Jim Steranko.

The Nostalgia Ventures editions feature covers taken from some of the original pulp paintings. But a variant cover to the first Doc Savage edition reprints the magnificent Bama cover to the paperback reprint of THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (yep, Doc had the fortress before Superman did) -- complete with the funky '60's-font logo.

The Media and Me

An article about an appellate case I'm working on -- one that includes some quotes from me.

Comics Adaptions in Review

In honor of the release of SPIDER-MAN 3, Rottentomatoes.com, the Web compendium of movie-critical mass, lists the 100 best-reviewed comic adaptations of all time ("best" being, of course, a relative term when you discuss movies at the bottom.) The list ranges from "Son of the Mask" and "Elektra" at the bottom of the barrel to "American Splendor" and "Spider-Man 2" at the top. The lesson: A good comic-book adaptation, like a good book adaptation, must be, first and foremost, a good movie.

No Mouth to Mouth?

I took a class today in infant and child CPR, and the teacher (a nurse) gave me some startling information: Mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing, according to the nurse, is no longer recommended. Instead, in 2006, the standards for CPR changed: They now focus almost entirely on chest compressions, with a couple of breaths every 30 compressions primarily to make sure the airway isn't obstructed. The nurse stated that studies showed chest compressions themselves drew oxygen into the body and circulated it to the brain. Further, the air that the compressions draw into the body are outside air, which contains much more oxygen (the stuff the brain and body needs) than the exhaled air breathed into the mouth. CPR guidelines have also been simplified greatly -- in part because under stress, people are unlikely to remember complicated guidelines; and in part because getting the procedures exactly right is not as important as starting them in the first place.

You can find out more about the American Heart Associations CPR guidelines here.

The Reruns All Become Our History

This week's LA Times featured an article that appeared to take as a given that the American electorate is really, really stupid.

Fred Thompson is a very conservator former senator. He is also an actor, who has been working in movies and TV for decades. One of the roles he played, on the Stephen Cannell series WISEGUY, was a demigogue named Knox Pooley who led a neo-Nazi group of malcontents. I watched the story arc back in the eighties. It was most memorable -- to me -- for the whacked-out follower of Pooley who took hostages and then demanded, in quavering tones, "I ... wanna see ... Knox ... POOOOley!" A friend and I took to saying "Knox POOOOley" to each other as a punch line for weeks afterward.

This footnote in TV history has come to the forefront now, because folks are talking about fielding Thompson as a presidential candidate. And, believe it or not, people are wondering if opponents will use Thompson's WISEGUY role against him.

"How does a performer eyeing a presidential run deal with a video history that can be downloaded, taken out of context, chopped into embarrassing pieces and then distributed endlessly though cyberspace?" asks the article.

The reporter distinguishes Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting history as a killer robot, on rather snide grounds: "In some ways, Thompson is too good an actor and looks too convincing in the part — a problem Schwarzenegger never had."

The Wired Supreme Court

Although the Roberts Supreme Court is viewed as potentially one of the most conservative in recent memory (as shown by its partial-birth decision a few weeks ago), an opinion this past week, Scott v. Harris, featured a startling innovation: the court put a video that was crucial to its decision on the court Website.

In the Scott case, a police high-speed chase of a speeding motorist ended when the police chase unit rammed the speeder's car, sending him off the highway and crippling him. He sued the officer and the police department under the federal civil rights statute (42 USC section 1983) for violating his fourth amendment right to be free from excessive force.

The officer moved for summary judgment. Summary judgment is a device for terminating a case (or part of it) before it goes to trial. Generally, when a party moves for summary judgment, if the court determines that there are no disputed facts that matter to the judgment, and under the law as applied to the undisputed facts the moving party is entitled to judgment, the court will grant that judgment. If there are any issues of material disputed facts, the court has to deny the motion without ruling on the merits. A federal civil rights statute case like this, where a public employee defendant moves for summary judgment, has a slightly different standard: Fact issues will not by themselves defeat the statute. Instead, the court resolves all factual disputes in the plaintiff's favor; and decides under those facts (1) whether the defendant violated the plaintiff's civil rights; (2) if so, whether the right was clearly established in the law and facts; and (3) if so, whether the defendant made a reasonable mistake as to the facts or law. A no answer to the first two questions, or a yes answer to the third, entitles the defendant to summary judgment.

That's where the video came into play. The officer gave a version of the chase in which the plaintiff's driving endangered those on the road. The plaintiff gave a version in which he drove safely. The lower courts ruled that on summary judgment this dispute had to be resolved in plaintiff's favor -- even though the video of the chase, according to the Supreme Court, supported the officer's version.

The majority of the Supreme Court ruled that where the record (here, the unimpeached video) flatly contradicted the nonmoving party's version of events, the court did not have to resolve the dispute in the nonmoving party's favor. The Supreme Court therefore accepted the video as true; and decided, based on the video, that the officer did not violate the plaintiff's constitutional rights.

That was the innovation in the law. The innovation in technology was the Court's footnote inviting readers of the opinion to judge the video for themselves; and then putting the video on the Web. For a court that still refuses to let its arguments be televised, it was a surprising move -- and yet another sign of the coming of the Youtube age.

Spider-Man: Third Time's Charming

Last night, we went to The Bridge to see SPIDER-MAN 3. Although the theatre had been showing the movie on multiple screens round-the-clock since midnight, the 10:30 p.m. showing was packed. That augers well for a movie that has apparently been scheduled to jump to the head of a summer season packed with sequels. (The other two big #3's -- SHREK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN -- are also scheduled to open this month.)

As for the movie, I was primed for dissapointment, based on the reviews by Kenneth Turan (for the LA Times and NPR) and Owen Glieberman (for Entertainment Weekly). Fortunately, I was disappointed in my disappointment: It was pretty damn good. In fact, the three Spidey movies have set a benchmark among superhero franchises in maintaining a high level of quality through three movies. (Remember SUPERMAN 3? Or, if your memory doesn't go back that far, last year's X-MEN III?) A large chunk of the credit must go to keeping the same visionary director (Sam Raimi) and the same excellent cast across three movies.

This, of course, is the movie where the creators broke from the previous two movies' format of one bad guy per movie (each of whom dies in the movie -- cinema villains seldom go to jail); and instead had multiple bad guys. Even revealing how many they had would be giving away good sections of the plot. Even so, the plot does not just focus on the external hero vs. villain battles (although those are some of the most spectacular ever captured on film); this is a movie about relationships in trouble. All kinds of relationships. Current boyfriends and girlfriends. Past boyfriends and girlfriends. Guy-guy friendships. Guy-guy-girl friendships. Work rivalries. Even a broken relationship between a guy and a black puddle of goo from outer space. (Hell hath no fury like a symbiote scorned.)

It also features Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) either out of costume, or wearing it like a pair of power underwear, through several conflicts -- both emotional and physical. Even when he's in the Spidey-suit, the director finds every excuse to either rip his hood off or tear it open. Part of it is his desire to focus on that expressive hounddog-puppy face of Maguire. But I can also see the logic in staging some of the battles in civilian clothes: A scene of two guys whaling the tar out of each other feels a lot more personal when they're clad in mufti than when they're wearing face-concealing masks.

The movie loses some of the benefits the previous two drew from having a single villain, who could be developed in depth. The second one also had the asset of a screenplay by Michael Chabon. The lack of these assets no doubt set off a lot of the critics who loved the first two. But I still walked away feeling I had received my umpteen dollars (The Bridge's tickets are expensive) worth.

Don't Panic

Don Burr and Pam Gross, two of the friends who came to my birthday party, have posted party reports on their respective blogs. Both blog about the movie I showed at the party, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY -- a must, since the party celebrated my 42nd birthday.

Watching a 2005 HHGG movie was definitely an odd experience. Back in the early '80's, HHGG was initially a British radio show, then a series of books that everyone was reading (my sister, who was definitely not an SF fan, was reading the first book, if that gives you a clue), then a BBC TV miniseries. The miniseries was the first way I enjoyed the story; the books and radio show came later.

So a couple decades after the radio show, the books, the TV show, and even the comic book series, we have a movie that reiterates a lot of the punchlines and bits from the other media. Of course, punchlines that convulsed me with laughter 25 years ago now merely provoke a pleasant glow of nostalgia.

Apart from the recycled bits, the story has changed every time it's been told in a different medium -- even though the same writer, Douglas Adams, was behind every iteration. That's what amuses me about the folks who despised the movie, on the ground that it's not faithful to "the story." To which story should it have been faithful?

Just another Wonderful Birthday Week

I haven't been posting much this past week because the penultimate week in April (which T.S. Elliot called "the cruelest month") is traditionally the hustle and bustle week of my birthday, which was Tuesday.




On Tuesday night, Amy and I went to the wonderful La Cachette restaurant in (sorta) Century City.



This is the sort of French restaurant where they pile on the sauces, where you can have sauteed frogs' legs as appetizers and a "hearty" multi-meat cassoulet as the main dish, where the waiters are obsequious and the chef works the dining room, autographing his cookbooks. We had a great time.




The rest of the week was a blur of court appearances and party preparation. At last, we had folks over on Saturday for the birthday party proper. Guests came from as far away as Santa Maria. This party was quieter than some (the guest list of my 40th birthday party was exploding, but the guests were choice.

Eureka! We're Idiots!

While I have to tender kudos to Adult Swim/Cartoon Network for airing the exceptional anime SF series Eureka Seven with, on the whole, few edits, the channel had to forfeit a bunch of those kudos based on its inept handling of the final episode of that series' 50-ep run early Sunday morning. The creators of the series designed the ending episode with a touching epilogue that provided an emotional payoff for an often intense series.

Adult Swim cut the coda.

Clumsily, too. They sliced it off right after a card that read (in Japanese, granted) "One Year Later . . . ."

They also cut a monologue at the beginning.

All of this was after the standard warning card the network ran at the beginning of the series, warning about the "extreme violence" in the episode, and bragging about how they were running the episode "uncut" because "we are American cowboys."

Their definition of "uncut" appears to differ from mine.

So I did what, likely, numerous viewers did: I went to YouTube and watched an illegal, fan-subtitled copy of the episode. Coda and all.

Adult Swim made me do it.

****Update on 5/1/07*******

Adult Swim says it will re-run the episode on Saturday, May 5, with the cut bits restored. A representative called the cut "not intentional." How you inadvertently cut several minutes out of a TV show is unclear to me.

Dreamy Sundays

I had the strangest dream on Sunday.

I was back at UCLA, walking into a lecture hall at Young Hall. I was late. The class was in progress.

Except, instead of a professor, there were a bunch of pundits sitting at the table in the front of the classroom. And sitting among them, speaking as if he were their leader, was my cousin, Tod Goldberg.

As I walked down the aisle, Tod worked me into his opening remarks. He directed everyone's attention to me.





Then, after the lecture, he took me to this table just below Janss Steps. There, they sold me a literary journal with a cover story by Tod. The story was written from the viewpoint of a possibly psychotic young man who opened a Starbucks franchise in his home.




Oh. Wait.

That was the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

It's a Stimulant! It's a Depressant! It's a Stimulant and a Depressant!

From Japan -- the elixir for black-clad sullen coffeehouse dwellers worldwide.

Wi-Fi Watering Holes Can Be Treacherous Waters

The LA Times today ran an article about the hidden dangers of using public wi-fi spots without adequate security. It isn't all that scary -- basically, if someone hacks into the spot's router, they can see a list of sites that you visit. Still, anyone using a computer that isn't hard-wired into a wall should be aware of the potential of having your little packets of info snatched from the air.

Walla Walla, My Sweet

My brother Mike posts on his blog that the Walla Walla Sweet Onion has been declared Washington State's official vegetable. The governor has apparently realized that an onion is a many-layered thing. All I can say is, "Sweet."

Magicplay is Dancing

Excellent news for folks who, like me, are fans of 1980's anime from studio TMS: Imaginasian TV (Channel 157 on our cable network) has announced that beginning in June it will begin broadcasting a daily block of three subtitled TMS shows from the '80's. Best of all, one of those shows will be my all-time favorite TV anime series, CAT'S EYE. It will also be selling the three series as subtitled DVDs.

That CAT'S EYE is being picked up for broadcast and video is something of a minor miracle. Even though the series was broadcast through most of the rest of the world in the '80's, it was never picked up here, so most anime/manga fans have never heard of it. (By contrast, another anime series based on a manga by the same creator, CITY HUNTER, has had numerous episodes issued on DVD in the US, through ADV.) Actually, TMS tried to market the series to American TV in the '80's, even taking out ads in Variety and Hollywood Reporter; but for some reason, the syndicators weren't too eager to broadcast an animated series in which the main characters are, well, thieves.

Further, the commercial prospects for CAT'S EYE seemed dim now, 24 years after its debut, since (a) the series doesn't have giant robots, ninja, samurai, or magical-powered high school girls, and (b) the fashions, hairstyles and music are all extremely early-'80's vintage. Plus, while the series is delightful, funny, and exciting, with engaging characters and great art, one has to deal with the obviously-silly aspects of the plot. In a nutshell, three sisters find out that pieces from their artist/art collector father's collection have been showing up in the hands of various ne'er do wells. So the ridiculously talented ladies set out to steal all the items, in hopes that they will provide a clue as to their missing pop's whereabouts. Do they do so surreptitiously? Do they keep a low profile? Of course not. In the tradition of "gentleman" thieves, they brashly leave metal cards announcing their next heist. Sometimes they shoot the cards into police headquarters. And they call themselves (or at least, middle sister Hitomi) "Cat's Eye." Further, they maintain a coffee shop -- across from police headquarters. And the coffee shop is named -- uhm -- Cat's Eye. And sister Hitomi's boyfriend is -- wait for it -- a police detective. The one whose primary case is, yes, tracking down Cat's Eye.

Sure, it's a high-concept series that Aaron Spelling would have loved, but it's great. Trust me.

Another one of the TMS series being broadcast/sold is ORGUSS. (No, it's not what you think.) This series holds a place in anime history not only as a neat science fiction/time travel/giant robot series, but also as an unofficial sequel of sorts to a much more lionized series from that era, MACROSS. Although MACROSS was produced by another studio, Tatsunoko, ORGUSS ended up with much of the same creative personnel -- most notably, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. ORGUSS, unlike CAT'S EYE, was partially released in the U.S. back in the early '90's, under the auspices of U.S. Renditions (whose principals included an old acquaintance of mine, David Riddick); but that was when the U.S. anime market was in its infancy, and only the first 17 episodes were released, with a fairly disappointing dub job.

I can only hope this new incarnation, and its sister series, have a better fate.


The images (if they ever appear above) are copyrighted by TMS and Tsukasa Hojo/Coamix.

One Piece Salvaged

Once upon a time, in the mid-nineties, a manga called ONE PIECE debuted in Japan, and was wildly popular. A couple of years later, a TV anime series adapting the manga debuted, and its popularity knew no bounds. Both are still going strong today in Japan -- supplemented by original animation videos, theatrical movies, and more merchandise than you can sail a ship at. When I visited Japan three years ago, there was a whole chain of mall stores devoted solely to One Piece merchandise; and convenience stores in small, rural towns were stuffed with One Piece plushes and manga volumes.

The manga begin selling in the US, in translated form, in 2002, and has been fairly successful. Then 4Kids Entertainment brought the One Piece anime to American Sat-Am TV -- and it tanked. It was cancelled from Fox after a few months, and moved to Cartoon Network. Eventually, 4Kids, which had translated up to Episode 144 of the series (although it did not show all the preceeding episodes) stopped translating new ones.

A big reason why it tanked was that 4Kids slashed it to pieces. Although it is aimed at all ages, it has more blood than one is used to in American animated shows. Lots of that was axed. Characters drink and smoke. All that was taken out -- sometimes mysteriously (for instance, a character who smokes two cigars constantly had two plumes of smoke suspended before his face; the cigars were digitally removed). Voices were often wildly inappropriate and grating. Worst of all, deaths crucial to the plot were written out (even though the prologue to each episode spoke of a pirate being hung from the gallows). A main character's central motivation was the murder of her foster mother before her eyes. The American version showed the foster mother's gravesite; yet in it the villain simply consigned her to a dungeon for the rest of her life.

The general consensus was that the American version of the One Piece anime was doomed. Who'd want to pick up a property that had bombed commercially?

Fortunately, Funimation -- one of the best American licensors of anime -- has announced it has picked up the license. It will be producing episodes for Cartoon Network beginning where the 4Kid episodes left off. It will use a new voice cast, and will avoid grating voices. Although the TV version will still be edited (Cartoon Network rules), they will purportedly cut it with a lighter hand. And best of all, Funimation will be selling unedited translated episodes on DVD.

Sometimes Neptune smiles on sailors and pirates alike.

Wi-Fi Watering Holes: Java Man

I had a surprise lunch today with two friends who were in the neighborhood and decided to kidnap me for a nosh. I mentioned that I planned to go to a WFWH in the South Bay today; and they referred me to Java Man Coffee House in Hermosa Beach. It's within a short walk of the beach (which would be even better on a day that isn't as cloudy as today); and is ensconsed in a homey-looking green house-like diner on Pier Avenue, with lots of bumper to curb parking in front. (Alas, it's meteredand limited to three hours; and the restrictions are enforced until 10 pm.) The free wi-fi is courtesy of the City of Hermosa Beach, which has blanketed the area near the ocean with wireless Internet. The drink menu is large, and the cappucinos are pretty good.

My friends were concerned that if I reviewed this place I'd "give away the secret." Judging by how packed the joint is on this Saturday afternoon, I don't think there's a secret to give away.

Sakura-Con Wrap-up

Sakura-Con is obviously long over. I was going to post a con report right after getting home; but as usual, life got in the way. Or more precisely, illness got in the way -- a sore throat and a 100 degree temperature as soon as I got back. I dealt with the fever by spending a day home from work -- and incidently working over eight hours that day. (Hey, it wasn't physical work, so technically it was relaxing.)

Anyway, Sakura-Con. At 10,000 attendees (about), it was much bigger than Anime Vegas or Anime LA, and much smaller than Anime Expo. There was no shortage of stuff to do, and everything was on the whole neatly organized. (This was the first time I'd seen one video room devoted entirely to subtitled videos, another to dubbed videos, another to movies, and a fourth to anime music videos.)

The attempts at organization fell down sometimes, however, and one of the most egregious examples was on the last day. Japanese manga creators Kohta Hirano and Yasuhiro Nightow were offering autographs/sketches. A sign advised that prospective recipients of sketches would be given lottery tickets to determine who would be able to go into the undisclosed locations and obtain the sketches. It also said that there were no lineups before 2 pm. (You might see where this is going.) Staffers, alas, advised fans to, yes, line up before 2; and issued them lottery tickets. Shortly before 2, however, a rather loud and rude staffer chewed out the line occupants for lining up before 2 pm; and made them give back their tickets! (You can imagine the calm with which a couple hundred tired, low-blood-sugar-afflicted, hyped up young people took this information.) The atmosphere got sufficiently threatening that security guards or police officers were called. Worst of all, when the new tickets were being brought out for distribution, someone yelled, "Go! go!" The fans began stampeding toward the ticket bowls; and I, observing from the sidelines, began to get that sick feeling of watching a train wreck in motion. Fortunately, a loud-voiced burly staffer stopped the mayhem before anyone was (physically) hurt.

Below is video of the more orderly aftermath, with the still-peeved fans being chosen by lottery for sketches. Alas, Amy was not one of the chosen; but she high-fived the thirty who got sketches.




One of the delights of the convention was meeting veteran Japanese voice actress Sumi Shimamoto, pictured below. Ms. Shimamoto has done numerous voices for Hayao Miyazaki movies, including Clarice, the heroine of his first full-length movie, Castle of Cagliostro; and his (and anime's) most famous female character, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. I also captured some video of Ms. Shimamoto's panel.





I asked her if she had noticed any changes in voice actor styles over the years she had worked. She replied that the cadence of acting had speeded up; that more voice directors were using overlapping dialogue, and background/foreground voices; and that some casting directors were hiring voice actresses more for their looks than their ability.

The final video I'll post from the con is the intro to the dub voice directors panel, with Johnathan Klein and Taliesin Jaffe:

Moving Hellsing

Here's the result of an experiment using my new Pure Digital cheapo video cam and Photobucket's video feature: Video of yesterday's Hellsing Ultimate panel at Sakura Con, from the front row.

The first video is an intro of the panel participants. When the editor of Young King Ours was introduced, Amy held up her copy of the most recent YKO, which she got through her subscription at an LA Japanese bookstore. You'll see the editor look surprised, and bow in appreciation.


In the second video, Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow has joined the panel, and he fields questions along with his fellow Young King Ours manga creator Kouta Hirano.

Photos from Second Day of Sakura Con are Up

I hope to have video up from the Hellsing Ultimate Panel shortly. Meanwhile, here's a photo of the panel.

Photos from the First Day of Sakura-Con Are Up

I'll post a con report later, when I had the time. Best experience so far: The panel for the US premiere of the anime adaptation of Tsubasa:Reservoir Chronicles. Downtown Seattle in April is great, too.

And Not a Drop for Drink

I'm posting this from the lobby lounge at the Seattle Hilton. I'm writing from the lounge because the in-room high-speed Internet does not look. Yes, I can get in-room Internet in any hotel room in any off-highway inn; but here I am in one of the most wired (in every sense of the word) cities in the world, in the very shadow of Microsoft, and I can't access the Web in my room. Wi-fi, wi-fi, everywhere . . . .

(Of course, the in-room Internet costs $10 a day, and the lobby wi-fi's complimentary, so I shouldn't kvetch. But I will.)

******

Update:

The Hilton's tech-guy couldn't solve the wired Internet problem -- so he set up a wireless connection in the room, and didn't charge for the Internet. Very classy.

What's That Now?

From a Japanese file case I picked up in an import shop.

I'm thinking of making it my personal mission statement.

A Conventional Guy

We've been making plans to attend several comics, anime and science fiction conventions this year. The most exciting trip (for me) will be to Yokohama/Tokyo around Labor Day Weekend for Nippon 2007, the World Science Fiction Convention. We were last in Japan in 2004 for Anime Expo Tokyo -- the first fan-run anime convention in Japan -- which was apparently a try-out for hosting the Worldcon. Also, all of the Worldcon's I've attended (in 1984, 1996, and 2006) have been the Anaheim ones, largely run by LA-area fans; so I'm looking forward to one in a different country, run by different folks.

We have our hotel reservations in Yokohama. We're planning to spend about a week in Tokyo after the convention, and we've got a travel agency working on our accommodations there. There's Internet everywhere in the Tokyo area, so I hope to be blogging about the experience.

A con that is coming up sooner is Sakura Con, an anime convention in Seattle that we decided to attend fairly suddenly. I'm not sure how attendance will be, since it's being held (a) Easter weekend and (b) the same weekend as Norwescon, a large regional science fiction convention. True, not all anime fans are SF fans, or vice versa, but it seems like there'd be an overlap.

Other cons we've arranged to attend are Anime Expo 2007, to be held in Long Beach; and (of course) Comic-con International: San Diego. Believe it or not, this will be my 22nd San Diego Comic-Con. It was fairly big when I attended my first one (with my father and older brother) in 1980; but it's become unimaginably huge, with an attendance that topped 114,000 last year.

In Outer Space Scenes, Are They Holding Their Breaths?

When I was a young kid, I heard or read somewhere that TV shows were filmed on a "stage." Since my parents had always been active in community theatre, my conception of a "stage" was a theater stage, with a curtain, a proscenium, and an audience. The misapprehension was amplified by the voiceovers that used to run after the opening credits to sitcoms ("_____ was filmed on stage before a live studio audience!") and variety shows like The Carroll Burnett Show, which showed the actors on a traditional theater stage.

One show that perplexed me was the late '60's Irwin Allen epic "Land of the Giants." I wondered how they were able to show giant people on a theater stage. Since I knew nothing of double-exposure photography, giant props, or forced perspective, I thought they used giant mechanical puppets. (I was an imaginative child.)

What brought all this to mind was cousin Lee Goldberg's blog post about conversations he had with members of the public at a library event -- including this one:

A woman asked me if she could visit the set of MONK when she's in Los Angeles with her family. I said it wasn't open to the public.

"You mean it's not filmed in front of a live audience?" she asked.

"No, it's not," I said. "Haven't you noticed that it's shot outdoors as well as indoors and that you don't ever hear anyone laughing or applauding?"

She shrugged. "I just thought they were being very quiet."

Marshall Rogers Originals

As promised below, here are photos of my three Marshall Rogers original art pages. The top one is from a circa-1981 Doctor Strange story from the anthology series MARVEL FANFARE. It's written by Chris Claremont, and features Rogers's only (to my knowledge) collaboration with artist P. Craig Russell, who inked this page. In the middle is a page from Rogers's run on the regular DOCTOR STRANGE comic, also circa 1981. This page is from DOCTOR STRANGE #50, and features the time-travelin' sorcerer supreme meeting his old STRANGE TALES roommate Nick Fury (and one of his Howlin' Commandoes) in a blitz-period London pub. The inker is Terry Austin, and the writer is Roger Stern. The third is one of the gems of my collection: The splash page from the first issue of Rogers's 1977-1978 run on DETECTIVE COMICS with inker Austin and writer Steve Englehart, hailed as one of the best depictions of Batman in the character's multi-decade history.

All three pages show many of Rogers's strengths: His expressive faces, his cartoony touches, his skill at depicting architecture and stage settings, and his marvelous ability with comic-book storytelling. Each panel communicates more story than most artists can fit in an entire page.

The Doctor Strange pages are copyrighted by Marvel Comics. The Detective page is copyrighted by DC Comics/Warner Communications/Etc.

Marshall Rogers, R.I.P.

This one hit me in the gut. Marshall Rogers was one of those rare comic book artists who (a) had a style all his own and (b) carried it off brilliantly. His versions of Batman and Doctor Strange, along with the characters he created or co-created (Coyote, Scorpio Rose, Cap'n Quick, the Foozle) were unforgettable.

He didn't make it out to the West Coast much, but he did appear at an LA convention in 1991 and I had a nice chat with him. I also have three of his original art pages up on the walls of my house. I'll post pictures of them soon.

The only fortunate part is that he and writer Steve Engelhart were able to create one more Batman story together, last year, before Rogers succumbed at the far-too-young age of 57.

The Spoilers of War

Older folks like me will recall that TV Guide, back when it was a force in the publishing world (and before there were 10,000 stations) would have a capsule description of the plot of each TV show; and often a cast list for prime-time shows, set forth in its own indented paragraph. There is obviously an art to writing those summaries in such a way that they intrigue the potential viewer, without giving away the plot points of that show.

When I record shows on my DVR, the shows are organized by their TV Guide online capsule summaries, so that in order to start the show I have to see the summary. One would think that the summary writers would therefore practice circumspection in writing their blurbs. One would think.

This morning, I watched a DVR recording of the episode of EUREKA SEVEN, a science fiction anime series that is being broadcasted on Cartoon Network at one a.m. Sunday mornings (and anyone who did not watch that episode from this morning should stop reading now. I'll even put in a few extra carriage returns to facilitate it.)







The episode features a surprise plot development in which one of the protagonists, Eureka, who had strange luminous growths on her arm, suddenly sprouts wings! That is, it would have been a surprise had not the TV Guide summary read something like: "Eureka, nursing Renton's wounds, sprouts wings . . . ." The summary went on to list every other plot development in that episode.

The quality of writing program summaries is not strain'd.

Sgt. Leonidas and His Howlin' Spartans

I've seen three recently-made war movies in the last few weeks: 2006's LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA and JARHEAD; and, this morning, 300. All from different eras (WWII, Desert Storm, Ancient Greece); yet all with striking similarities. Indeed, if LETTERS and 300 were not based on historical events, they might be criticised for the similarity of their plots. Both feature groups of soldiers facing invading forces. In both, the defending soldiers have no hope of victory; their plan is to make the invasion as costly as possible. In both, soldiers assert a "no retreat, no surrender" approach to warfare. Both feature resolute commanders who fight undermining forces from without and within. Both are filmed with a dark, brooding work -- the work of filters in LETTERS and wholly-artificially-created scenery in 300.

As for JARHEAD, its depiction of the Marine training and ethos harkens back to that of the Spartans in 300, who have provided an inspiration for fighting men for centuries. Parallels can be seen in the training scenes: For both the Spartans and the Marines, rough training can cost lives.

The differences are striking too. In 300, most of the movie is battle. In LETTERS, we see bits of the battle, but the focus is on the Japanese soldiers' reaction to the battle, both in anticipation and during the fighting. In JARHEAD, the Marines are trained to kill, come under fire, and see the horrible results of war -- and yet never really get to fight. Further, in JARHEAD, the Marines are the invading force, rather than the defenders.

Another important difference is how the "no surrender, no retreat" philosophy is depicted in practice. In 300, it is a mark of honor; the Spartans succeed in turning their sacrifice into an example which fires Greece (sorry) with the will to defend. In LETTERS, the Japanese soldiers who respond to the order to retreat and regroup (which if obeyed might have resulted in a more effective defense) by committing suicide, blowing themselves up with grenades, are shown as dogmatic and foolish, accomplishing nothing. Further, the sacrifice of the Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima, from the perspective of history, accomplished little except persuading the Allies to try out the atomic bomb on Japan rather than risk an invasion.

As somebody who read the 300 comic book miniseries by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley when it came out in 1998, I have to laugh at some of the criticisms leveled at the movie. Although the film seems to be commenting about the current situation with Iran (aka Persia) and Iraq (and the scenes added in the film version involving Sparta's legislature add to that image), the story is really another chapter in Miller's ongoing obsession with tough folks. He therefore focused on the toughest warriors in the history of western civilization (the Spartans), and on the toughest Spartans in history (the 300). The speeches -- many of them taken directly from the comic -- about the defense of western civilization are inherently political; but nearly all of Miller's work (excepting maybe some of his DAREDEVIL and SIN CITY stories) are inherently political.

The silliest criticism I've heard is that the foes the Spartans battle are nonwhite, while the Spartans are all white. I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any history of the Spartans being a melting pot of ethnicities; they were all Greeks. It might make a more politically correct story if they were like SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLIN' COMMANDOS -- which, as comics fans will recall, contained one Irishman from Boston, one Jewish soldier from Brooklyn, one Italian soldier who looked like Dean Martin, one African-American soldier who played a bugle, and one Englishman who wore a beret and used an umbrella as a weapon -- but that's not this story.

Wi-fi Watering Hole: Synergy Cafe II (Sepulveda)

Synergy on Overland, which I previously posted about, now has a satellite location on the much busier Sepulveda Boulevard (4437 Sepulveda Blvd), from which I'm now blogging. I like it better than the other location: it has two rooms, both of which have ample-sized tables with outlets. One has the stage. The live music is pretty good. The panini are impressive, and the espresso drinks (from Groundwork) pretty good.

Idle Thoughts

Today's Los Angeles Times Calendar section features an essay by Monty Python's Eric Idle about the adaptation of his Broadway musical, SPAMALOT -- itself adapted from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL -- for Las Vegas. I think Idle's humor works better when spoken than written (an attempt to play off the similarity of "pawn shop" and "porn shop" falls flat in the absence of Idle's English accent), and he strains with jokes like, "Sadly Terry Jones can't make it. He is wrestling with chemo. Pity, I rather hoped he would be here wrestling with keno." Still, it's fun.

It also got me thinking (always a dangerous prospect): Is there any hit Broadway musical that wasn't adapted from another source? The only one that comes to mind is Meredith Wilson's THE MUSIC MAN. Musicals have been adapted from films (SPAMALOT, THE PRODUCERS), animated films (THE LION KING), comic strips (ANNIE), short stories (SOUTH PACIFIC, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF), songs (MAMMA MIA), biographies (THE SOUND OF MUSIC), and other, non-musical plays (MY FAIR LADY, HELLO DOLLY, WESTSIDE STORY). There are even musicals adapted from books that are adapted from other books that have themselves been turned into musicals (WICKED). What is it about musicals that is so inimical to original ideas?

Ninja-ing the Bestsellers List

Not that long ago, English translations of Japanese manga were mere curiosities -- particularly those that were "unflopped," that is, printed from back to front, with the panel flow running from right to left (requiring a bit of mental retraining to read) as in the Japanese original. Such translations probably sold, at most, a couple thousand.

Flash-forward to today, and the Los Angeles Times' So Cal bestsellers list for fiction paperbacks. Ensconced at Number 6 is the latest English-translated volume of Naruto, the fantasy ninja manga currently being printed in the American version of SHONEN JUMP magazine, and the animated version of which is playing Saturday nights on Cartoon Network. I can't recall many, if any, American graphic novels (apart from collections of newspaper comic strips) that have acheived the same rank.

In the Desert, Remembering My Name

This past weekend, Amy and I made our annual pilgrimage to the desert (specifically the Palm Springs environs) to visit family. And visit we did: Along with Dad and Regina (who live out there during the colder parts of the year), we got to see Uncle Arny and Aunt Carol (bottom two photos), visiting from the Seattle area; and lunched with desert inhabitants Tod and Wendy Goldberg (top), in the process giving Tod a framing device for one of his insightful blog posts delving into the psychology of readers of Parade Magazine.

What else does one do in the desert? Why, one watches movies! I managed to catch two cable flicks with Dad, along with a theatrical release with the whole family:

-- DONNIE DARKO: One of those movies that everyone would think I'd have caught when it came out, instead of on cable six years later. An entertaining film, but one that fails to live up to its premise. The journey is much more satisfying than the destination.

-- PHFFT!: A screwball comedy from 1954, with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holiday as a formerly married couple struggling futilely to keep their divorce alive. One of the few American movies to be named after a vowel-less sound effect. The only other one I can think of is SSSSSS, which starred a pre-Galactica Dirk Benedict.

-- AMAZING GRACE: The theatrical film. The story of abolitionist MP William Wilberforce. Nicely acted and filmed, if a little too earnest for its own good. I wonder if star Ioan Gruffudd -- who has also played Horatio Hornblower and Reed Richards -- has a proviso in his contract requiring that he play heroes with alliterative names.

The Language of War

This magazine ad urges parents to "Find out how you can help your children become an Army officer."

Apparently, not by teaching them subject-verb agreement.

Arnold Drake, R.I.P.

Mark Evanier's blog contains the sad news that comics writer Arnold Drake has passed away. Drake is little known outside the comics world (and to some degree within it), because the famous characters he worked on (like Little Lulu) he did not create; and the characters he created generally did not become famous. The one exception was Beast Boy, a supporting character from his DOOM PATROL comic who gained a measure of fame on the recent animated TEEN TITANS cartoon. Not that his characters weren't clever. DOOM PATROL was an offbeat comic about a group of freaks led by a genius in a wheelchair. Yes, the concept was amazingly like X-MEN. That isn't sarcasm; it is amazing, because Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's X-MEN appeared almost simultaneously with the DOOM PATROL. The DOOM PATROL also became a group that lived up to its name: In the final story, the entire team died, sacrificing themselves to save others. (Alas, it didn't last; they came back.) DEADMAN was another clever concept: His name was literal. He was a murder victim who hunted for his killer, as a ghost who could possess people. Although Deadman was executed (sorry) to perfection later by writer Jack Miller and artist Neal Adams, Drake conceived him.

Drake had recently become a familiar sight at the San Diego Comic-Con, wandering around with his walker or his scooter, delivering some well-weathered wisdom at panels and awards presentations. He was always easy to spot with the colorful, African-looking skullcaps he wore. He'll be missed.

Captain America -- Dead Again

So Marvel has cannily managed to land on the front pages of newspapers around the country -- and incidently sell out of the latest issue of Captain America's comic -- by printing a story in which the Star-Spangled Avenger gets assassinated, a la Oswald, on the way to his arraignment.

One comics scholar reacted to the news by reprinting the Jim Steranko cover to the Captain America comic from 1968 in which The Living Legend of WWII was supposedly ventilated by bullets and killed -- complete with a funeral -- only to come roaring back (on a motorcycle filled with explosive fuel, no less) in the middle of a graveyard. That storyline only took one issue to bring Winghead back to life; I suspect this one will take months or years -- much like the storyline in the early '90's in which Superman was temporarily killed off.

As all long-time comics fans know, Superhero Heaven has a revolving door.

Since this is the Era of the Pundit, lots of editorials took this opportunity to crank out op-ed pieces on Cap, what he means to America (and what he has meant at various times in the past, his character shifting as the definition of patriotism shifts), and (invariably) why we need him more than ever. And radio shows have used the occasion to dust off the cheesy theme to the cheesy 1960's CA cartoon -- the one where comic panels were shown with a character's lips or leg moving to give the illusion of animation.

Will this create any new comic buyers (besides the ones who bought CA #25)? Maybe, but not likely in any numbers. The public is going to forget this; it probably already has. But sometimes comics marketing needs an adrenaline shot like this.

Lemme Eat Fries, with My Burger in the Sun

This morning, I heard a radio commercial for the latest Wendy's Old-Fashi0ned Hamburger's monstrosity (something like mozzarella lover's heart attack on a bun) accompanied by the instrumental bridge from "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes.

This has to be the most appropriate pairing of product and anthem since the cruise line commercials started using "Lust for Life." After all, what's more appropo for a family outing to Wendy's than:

"When I'm walkin'
I strut my stu-uff
And I'm so strung owwwwt
I'm high as a kite
I just might
Stop to check you out."

Not to mention the appetizing pictures conjured by:

"Body and beats
I stain my sheets
I don't even know why.
My girlfrie-end
She's at the end
She is starting to cry."

Has somebody told the Wendy's folks that junkies don't eat lots of burgers?

Wi-fi Watering Holes: The Rumor Mill Coffee & Laundry

This WFWH on Washington Boulevard in Culver City has two storefronts. One holds the coffee/food bar, tables and chairs, and a bay of about five desktop computers. The other holds a coin laundry. Not that important to me (because I have a washer and dryer at home) but probably a godsend to anyone who has to labor on the computer while doing the laundry.

Pluses: Nice facility. Very busy on a Saturday afternoon (i.e., now). Nicer decor than many; the place did not merely throw a bunch of eclectic couches, chairs and tables together for a faux homey effect. There's the usual art on the walls, and the condiments sit on an antique white stove. The espresso drinks and tea are very good. Open from the morning until 10 p.m. During the week, it has an open mic night (although I have not seen this yet). Lots of outlets, and the tables are located convenient to them. The Wi-Fi signal is strong. The free desktop computers are a nice touch.

Minuses: The concrete floor and bare-joist ceiling translates into a noisy space. This afternoon, the PA was playing Jack-FM, complete with commercials, unlike many WFWH which either play satellite radio, CDs, or their own Ipod playlists. Plus, the radio had some interference at one point, leading to irritating static and distortion. Parking is mainly on the street.

Babylon 5: The Return

I don't know how this flew under my pop-culture radar. My Google search for the correct spelling of J. Michael Straczynski's name for the blog post below pulled up the information that JMS is writing and directing a series of 20-minute direct-to-video films about characters in the Babylon 5 Universe. Apparently the box sets of B5 DVDs have been selling briskly, stoking Warner Brothers' interest in making more moola out of the franchise. The link goes to JMS's own photos from the set.

Buffy's Four-Color Season

Tomorrow's LA Times has an article (available on the Website today -- another sign of the Times' announced commitment to focus its attention on its Website instead of its paper) about Joss Whedon's plans to produce the eighth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in a 30-episode comic book series from license mavens Dark Horse.

This isn't the first time that TV creators have supplemented TV series with comics miniseries; J. Michael Straczynski wrote or co-wrote several comic books that told side stories concerning his BABYLON 5 TV series; and Whedon himself wrote the comics miniseries FRAY, a story about a future vampire slayer that dovetailed into the final TV season of BUFFY.

But this series is innovative both in continuing the plotline of a finished TV series; and in Whedon's plan to produce the series like he show-ran the TV series: He will write the first five issues, and then have subsequent issues written by staff writers (drawn from his staff writers for the TV series) in collaboration with comics writers.

Comics writers, movie writers, and novelists writing comics series have been the rage for a few years, ever since Kevin Smith wrote a memorable run of DAREDEVIL in the late 90's that in part led to the run's artist, Joe Quesada, becoming editor in chief of Marvel. Some are better at it than others: Whedon took to comics like a natural; Smith started out too verbose, but adjusted; mystery novelist Greg Rucka became a fantastic comics writer; and novelist Brad Meltzer has been hit-and-miss. Comics writing is tricky, in that comics resemble movies and TV (they tell stories through the interaction of words and pictures, and the rules of panel-to-panel storytelling resemble those of movie directing and editing) but are ultimately different (comics stories must be told through a series of static images that give the illusion of action; movement within a panel must be implied; and comics offer the advantages of image juxtaposition and page design which can only be artificially and clumsily duplicated in movies through split-screen). It will be interesting to see how Whedon's staff writers adjust.

The image is from the LA Times Website; and doesn't carry a copyright notice, but I'm guessing it's copyrighted by Dark Horse and Warner Brothers.

Linda Lea's New Lease on Life

When I drive to the Second District Court of Appeal (located in the Ronald Reagan State Office Building -- yes, the Ronald Reagan SOB -- on Spring Street) to argue a case, I usually park in a pay lot just north of Third Street. The lot abuts what used to be the Linda Lea Japanese Movie Theater; and I could just see the back of the theater and the sign from the lot. According to this article in today's LA Times, the theater closed in the early '80's, and has just been demolished (a good thing, too; apparently the facade crumbled when removed).

The property's owners have plans to build a new "Imaginasian Center" in the theater's stead, showing Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian movies. They believe that the current interest in Asian pop culture is strong enough to support the venture.

I wish them luck. Although the home movie market has made a dent in art house and foreign-movie theater attendance, nothing replaces watching a terrific movie -- especially a Hong Kong martial-arts extravaganza, a samurai flick, or an anime film -- on a big screen.