Notes from a bibliophile

It’s like Hollywood suffers from the same post-holiday stupor as the rest of us. They’ve had too much turkey all year and finally have to put on their stretchy pants before falling asleep in the BarcaLounger in front of whatever sports game they happen to be interested in. Hardly anything of interest comes out in January. Here’s what I could scrape together: On January 1st, there’s a French thriller called Glacé which is about a murder in the Alps. On January 12, The Post hits movie theatres. It tells the story of The Washington Post ’s decision to go against White House orders to publish information about the Vietnam War. It may get a lot of airtime,  what with one side bashing it as maybe where journalism begin its foray into “fake news” and the other side peraising it as a shining beacon of journalistic integrity. I’m sure it’ll get lots of nominations too. On Amazon Prime - which now has an app on Apple TV and I apparently have an account ( who knew?!?) - Philip K Dick’s Elec

I struggled to get books read this year, and those I did read were mostly graphic novels. I’ve also read a lot of Brian K Vaughan. I wanted to like his stuff as much as I liked Y: The Last Man, but I didn’t. What’s not so obvious is that a lot of the graphic novels I really liked were by Image Comics. I’m not sure what that means, but I may be checking out more of their stuff in 2018. Here’s what I eventually worked my way through this year: Outcast Vol. 3 by Robert Kirkman & Paul Azaceta The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean Saga Vol 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples The Monk by Matthew Lewis Wolverine: Logan by Brian K Vaughan, Eduardo Russo, & Dean White East of West Vol 2 by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta Pride of Baghdad by Brian K Vaughan & Niko Henrichon We Stand On Guard by Brian K Vaughan, Steve Skroce, & Matt Hollingsworth The Private Eye by Brian K Vaughan, Marcos Martin, & Muntsa Vicente Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin

It’s the end of the year and it’s time to look back on what happened in the previous twelve months. February Kong: Skull Island, which I liked pretty well, and A Cure For Wellness. I’ve already written my thoughts about that in another blog. Short version, meh. March Logan, which I really liked, and Beauty and the Beast, which was pointless. I’m boycotting live action remakes of animated films. April Colossal. Really good! June Wonder Woman Spider-Man: Homecoming Despicable Me 3. Unfortunately. July Dunkirk (LOVE) The Dark Tower Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (biggest disappointment of the year) November Blade Runner 2049 Thor: Ragnarok (probably tied for favorite film of the year) Justice League The Star Murder on the Orient Express Coco December Ferdinand The Darkest Hour The Shape of Water (bizarre but good) Star Wars: The Last Jedi 😢

I was raised Baptist. My grandmother on my dad’s side was very much into church life. She was there every Sunday and Wednesday; she helped serve the Wednesday dinner at the church; she played piano for a long time, then retired so to speak to the pews where she was almost a hall monitor over the kids, who kept moving further and further to the front to escape her. The quote from Shakespeare could have been written for her, “And though she be little, she is fierce.” My dad said I’m a lot like her; I kind of wish that was more true than it is. My family was not into church life so much. We recently watched the film Almost Christmas with Danny Glover, and there’s one part where they’re all in church and the pastor refers to them as CME Christians - they’re only in church on Christmas, Mothers Day, and Easter. That was us. Dad claimed it was because of the hypocrisy he saw in the church, and I totally understood that. I went to a private school that was affiliated with a Baptist church, a

It’s the last month of the year. Finally. We get to the end of the year and we’re just so ready for it to be over, hoping the new year will hold so much more promise. But the end of the year is the time when the Oscar-bait movies come out. Here’s some stuff I’m looking forward to. On December 1st, Netflix debuts the first German language series its carried as an original series. Dark   is a story about a town where two kids go missing. The disappearances hearken back to other missing kids from decades earlier and reveals secrets about the town and its inhabitants. It sounds a little like a German version of IT  but without the creepy clown. It looks like there will be some mind-bending, timey-wimey warping that the characters have to deal with, maybe? Whatever it is, it looks really pretty cool. Also on December 1st, is the decidedly uncool sounding, and yet still intriguing, Voyeur . This is the true story of Gerald Foos, who bought a motel for the sole purpose of spying on the peo

I love Rowan Atkinson. I think he’s a comedy genius, but I’m not sure how well known he is here in the US. I think we’ve mostly seen him in some bit parts like in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and maybe Mr. Bean, but that may be it. While I love Mr. Bean, which shows off his enormous talent at physical comedy, I first became aware of him thanks to a friend who introduced me to his series, Blackadder. If you have never seen this, I hope you do yourself a favor and seek it out. The series tells the story of several generations worth of scoundrels. The story begins in the Dark Ages, where Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh. It starts out with the Battle of Bosworth Field, where a kindly Richard III is killed and succeeded by Richard IV. Edmund is the second son and so not favored at all. His inept attempts to redeem himself continually fail, until he eventually decides to scrap the idea and just become a bad guy, adopting the nickname The Black Adder, which all of his offspring adopt. From there

Parts of this blog were previously posted on the website I used to write for, but it's been tweaked a little. The men in my family were big into war films. They were also big into westerns, but some thing's just don't take. But war movies can be so much more than just about the battles. Some of the films I've listed here may not be really considered war films, but there is an element of war about them. These are some of my favorite films, in no particular order. Five Came Back I can't stop talking about this documentary series on Netflix. It relates the story of five big name Hollywood directors - Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler - who, like so many actors at the time, volunteered for the army. They immediately began making propaganda films. The films were used to get the American public to back the war in multiple ways - by signing up, by buying war bonds, etc. What began innocuously turned into some of the most amazing, gri

We live in an age where people are shouting about freedoms everywhere. And it's great to be able to live in a country where we are so free, but one thing we often forget is that other people are also free to disagree with us. Just as we are free to shout our beliefs and opinions from the rooftops, we have to allow others to do the same, no matter how wrong we feel they are. Freedom is hard won and difficult to foster. But it's beautiful just the same. One of the most discussed freedoms (especially now) is freedom of speech and press. I've only recently gotten interested in comics/graphic novels, so the history of the genre is lost on me. I'm not surprised though to learn that comics have suffered the same strong-arm tactics that face controversial novels. It just seems sillier. To arrest people for selling comics that have boobies drawn in it seems truly a waste of law enforcement's time. That's one of the scenarios addressed in this collection of comics, w

October had a lot of amazing shows that came out, and I was able to catch quite few of the that I had wanted to watch. November appears to be a much quieter month, but there’s still a few things I hope to be able to see. First off, on November 3rd (or November 2nd if you have advance tickets) is Thor: Ragnarok . I’m obscenely excited for this. The trailer I’ve linked here is the first I’ve seen with Korg. Reviews have been really good, and it’s been called one of the funniest Marvel movies in a while. I think that’s excellent! I’ve been excited since the first strains of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” came blasting out of my speakers months ago. This looks like such a kick-ass film, and I bought my tickets last month for a 7:45 viewing on the 2nd. This is the earliest I’ve ever seen a film. I hate crowds but for Thor (and Loki), I’m going to brave it. Also on November 3rd, over on Netflix, there’s a Margaret Atwood adaptation called Alias Grace . It’s a fictionalization of the tru

The thoughts start to weigh her down again. They come from nowhere sometimes. A song on the radio, an offhand remark, something she read on Twitter. Suddenly sadness overwhelms her, but on the outside you'd never know. At least she hopes you'll never know. She's always felt alone in the world. Like it twirls around her, mocking her, in some sort of dance, while she stands there wishing she could belong. But she gets passed over too much to feel like she can belong. It was always like this. Her father drove into her that children should be seen and not heard. Now she feels she's neither. Can a person actually be invisible? There have been times she's wondered if she was. She knows there have been times her voice has been drowned out by the crowd. By the time she has found a place to say what she wanted to say, the conversation has changed. So what's the point in trying to talk? She's even afraid to say things on Twitter. People say the craziest things on

Tonight the Astros begin playing the L.A. Dodgers for the World Series. You can’t imagine what this means to Houston. We are perennial also-rans in the sports world. To have a team in the ultimate showdown is nothing short of miraculous.  I’ve lived in Houston all my life. My dad was a big fan of football and baseball, and only slightly interested in basketball. Every year I had to listen to every man in my family talk about how this was “their year.” Sometimes they were right because there was a line drawn through my family between Houston fans and Dallas fans. Oh, the quarrels that ensued. But every year, the Houston teams failed to make it “their year.”  It wasn’t for lack of trying. I remember one year, listening to an Oilers game, back with Bum Phillips as coach and Earl Campbell as running back. The announcers talked about how the defense was one of the best in the league, and how strange it was that they had never won. The same with baseball. I can’t tell you the number

Every now and then a show comes along that's so original it stands out like a rare gem from the muck of the rehashed shows around it. Those viewers that are lucky enough to find it are amazed at how no one else seems to get it . You cheer the little guy on but watch in dismay as it inevitably sinks beneath the mire. Pushing Daisies is one of those shows. Everything about it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I don't know how so few people found this show, but those who did praise it to the skies, and for good reason. Created by Bryan Fuller, it is the story of Ned (Lee Pace) who, as a young boy, discovers that he has the ability to bring dead things back to life, first his dog Digby, then his mother. Like with all good things, though, there are consequences. He tragically discovers that if the person (or creature) stays alive for longer than a minute, someone else in close proximity has to die. By unwittingly letting his mom stay alive, his best friend and childhood c

Last month American Vandal was one of the shows I blogged about that was coming out in September that I really wanted to see. I binged it this weekend and so here's what I thought. First, let me explain what this is on the surface. American Vandal is a mockumentary spoofing the recent multitude of true crime shows (a few more of which are coming to networks this fall). True crime as a genre (across all media) seems to be on the rise, maybe since Ann Rule published The Stranger Beside Me about her friend, serial killer Ted Bundy. Our fascination with true  crime goes much further back, I suppose to when Jack the Ripper was terrorizing Whitechapel, but now with TV and movies, we seem to be reaching a glut in the market. It is, therefore, the perfect time for a parody. The story is about Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro). Dylan is not the sharpest crayon in the box. He's continually disruptive in class, and he and his stoner friends make ridiculously awful YouTube videos. He als

Well, it's been awhile again. I keep telling myself that I'm going to write more on here, but I never seem to follow through. I have been writing though, it's just not something I'm confident enough to share yet (or ever). But now that that little project is done, and it's almost a new month, I'm going to write about the things that I'm really looking forward to next month. This fall seems to be packed with stuff I want to watch, almost more so than the summer. The first thing I'm anticipating is Bladerunner 2049 . I love the original, and this looks like it retains that film's style and visuals. It's one of the films I've been looking forward to for a really long time. I just hope that Denis Villaneuve doesn't let me down the way Luc Besson did with Valerian . That comes out on October 6th. Also on the 6th is The Mountain Between Us . I love Idris Elba. Kate Winslet's good too, but IDRIS!! It looks pretty intense. Idris is a doct

This article was originally published on another website, but I'm placing it here for posterity. It's taken me a while to come to grips with the fact that I'm a nerd. It's not always the best niche to find yourself in when you're in high school. So when I saw the ads for Chuck , I was thrilled on a number of levels. First, I remembered the lead actor, Zachary Levi, from another sitcom called Less  Perfect . Second, his character Chuck Bartowski works in retail, and ever since Clerks came out, I love finding anything that shows what a retail worker goes through. And the theme song is by one of my favorite bands, Cake. Sold! Chuck is your basic every-nerd, spending his nights playing Call of Duty and his days working an underpaying job that he's way overqualified for. Change Call of Duty to Sid Meier's Civilization and Chuck is me. Everyone wants to see themselves represented in the media, and that's no different for nerd culture. At the time, we w

I finally finished a book with no pictures. Holy cow, I sure didn't think I'd do that this year, the way I've been going. But I'm not surprised it's Hornby that's broken my funk; I'm surprised it's a book about music. Anybody with a passing familiarity with Nick Hornby knows he is a music fan. Perhaps that's putting it lightly really. Hornby seems to be a music fan the way people are fans of oxygen. He knows his shit and it works its way into a lot of his novels. I am not a music fan to this level. That's not to say I don't like music; I love it. But I don't breathe it the way Hornby does. I'm not even sure I would be classified as an enthusiast. I'm like the John Cleese character from a Monty Python sketch that says, "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like." This book is a series of short essays about just that, songs that Hornby likes. Songs that meant something to him at some point in his life. It

My dad was a huge sci-fi fan. Isaac Asimov was his favorite author. We saw every iteration of Star Wars that hit the theatre. I can't describe how amazing it was to see A New Hope on the big screen for the first time. Even the times Lucas fiddled with it don't bother me. Nothing will ever dampen your first love. We also loved Star Trek . I honestly never thought of them as belonging to two separate camps. They were just two stories I loved, two sides of the same geeky coin. I know the arguments that one is science based and the other is more faith based, for lack of a better term. People have put these two works of entertainment up as icons in the ever-going battle between science and religion. If that's so, perhaps I am of a third group, a group that doesn't find science and religion so incompatible. Maybe I'm a minority. My dad and I would gather around the TV set to watch the re-runs every week. It was one of the few fond memories I have with my dad. A lull

A new month is just around the corner. Soon leaves will be falling along with the temperatures. Pumpkin spice everything is already on the menus. And Halloween candy is already on the shelves. With the fall comes a whole slew of films that I'm itching to see. Here's what's coming out in September that I'll try to catch eventually. On September 15th, Netflix has a series called American Vandal . It's a parody of the investigative/true crime television drama. It takes place in a high school where someone goes through the parking lot drawing dicks on everyone's car. It's sort of Making A Murderer but with penises. It looks juvenile and hilarious as hell. Also on Netflix September 15th is the Angelina Jolie directed First They Killed My Father . This feature length film is based on a memoir about a young girl living in Cambodia in 1975 during the rise of the Khmer Rouge. It might be difficult to watch, since these are children, but it's also something t

In the continuing quest to break myself out of my reading funk, I found this graphic novel on the shelves at my local library. Being a small branch it doesn't have a lot to offer. Mostly I have to know what I'm looking for and then request it from another branch. I know libraries need to purge occasionally, but it would be nice if they wouldn't purge the first volumes of series. However, maybe it makes it possible to have these standalone novels, so like with everything in life, compromise is the key. This is the story of a young boy. When he was born he was sickly, but his dad was a doctor. Apparently at the time, the medical community thought that x-rays were some sort of cure-all for many diseases, so dad treated his son in what was, at the time, the proscribed treatment. No one knew the consequences. Years later he suddenly develops a growth on his neck. They leave it for years, thinking it's just a cyst and that it would go away. Eventually he underwent two surge

I have been a Netflix subscriber for many years, and honestly I'm really impressed with the quality of their originals. I've become a fan of Grace and Frankie, House of Cards, The Ranch, Travelers, The OA, Stranger Things, and probably some others I've forgotten. So when I get an alert that they're releasing a new original, my ears perk up a bit. It could still be crap, but I'll at least give it the benefit of the doubt. They just released a feature-length original called What Happened to Monday. It begins by preying on a lot of fears. Overpopulation produces a worldwide food shortage. Switching to GMOs helps alleviate that shortage, but has the unexpected side effect of boosting fertility, which again, puts a stress on the food supply. To counterbalance this, the government enacts a strict one child policy. Any family with more than one child has to give up the extra so that they can be put into cryosleep, suspended animation until the time comes when they are ab

This one you may not have heard of. Sports Night was a dramedy set in a Sports Center-like setting. The anchormen were played by Josh Charles and Peter Krause. The ensemble also starred Felicity Huffman, Robert Guillaume, Joshua Malina, and later, William H. Macy. It was written by Aaron Sorkin. How could it possibly go wrong? The show was about the relationships between the on-air talent and the production crew. There was the old will-they-or-won't-they trope between Casey McCall (Krause) and Dana Whitaker (Huffman). Casey and Dan Rydell (Charles) had been partners for a long time, and the two actors played off each other brilliantly. In typical Sorkin style, the dialogue was rapid-fire and sometimes overlapping, and incredibly smart and witty. The conferences that included some of the supporting cast generally gave everyone a chance to shine, not just the leads. But as delightful as it was, it was a little odd. The feel of the show is more sitcom than drama, which struck a st