I’m feeling slightly guilty about not having huge amounts to say in this space. Suffice it to say that life and otherwise is keeping me occupied largely in meatspace. Running kids around and stepping up to cover for the spouse as she’s currently mired in some pretty intensive responsibilities lately, vehicle maintenance, headaches of electronic commerce, and the occasional snowstorm have all reared their ugly (but not always unwelcome) heads at one point or another. You know, the usual.

There’s been stuff, though. Stuff I guess worth blogging about. Here are some of those things, in bulleted list form:

• Last night, thanks to the magic of Netflix, I wandered down the memory/nostalgia hole and watched The Wraith, a neat little low-budget supernatural revenge flick from 1986 with a *very* 80s pop-metal soundtrack (“available on Scotti Bros. records and tapes!”) starring a pre-Tiger Blood Charlie Sheen and a pre-Twin Peaks Sherylin Fenn (as a just this side of porny blonde, no less). If anyone remembers it at all, it’s because the real star was the Dodge M4S/PPG Turbo Interceptor, the concept car used as a very stylish murder weapon throughout. it’s low budget cheese, but it’s a lot of fun, and I recommend checking it out if you’re into that sort of thing.
• I’ve picked up a couple of new records the last couple of weeks. The first worth mentioning is Devo Spice’s I Am The Doctor, a nerdcore hip-hop tribute to Doctor Who, featuring a tune for each of the current 11 doctors, plus the title track. Devo is a con acquaintence who’s one of the driving forces behind The FUMP (The Funny Music Project), and is always entertaining. This one’s also gotten me on a bit of a hip hop and (especially nerdcore) jag lately, with me spending an inordinate amount of time spinning MC Frontalot and Girl Talk way too loudly while driving.
• The other disc worth talking about is a bit more mainstream – Lorde’s Pure Heroine. As I tend to listen mostly to independent radio, I missed the initial pop radio rampage of “Royals” a couple of months back, but got sucked in enough to purchase when I heard “A World Alone” on WNRN a couple of weeks back, and really dug the whole retro-modern singer/songwriter vibe (the same itch that Lana Del Ray and the last Tegan and Sara record scratch for me). It’s good stuff, and not worth dismissing simply because of the artist’s teenage-ness and initial corporate radio exposure.
• To swing into an entirely other direction: Witness my State Senator, ladies and gentleman, being made a nationwide laughing stock by characterizing women as less than human. The worst thing is that this kind of thing continues to play in this part of the suburbs, despite the ample evidence of a population of which at least half of have, will have, or have had the potential to be one of Mr. Martin’s “hosts” at some point in their lives. And this guy runs unopposed around here every cycle. One of these years, everyone else is going to catch on to my ongoing write-in campaign for my wife.
• Swinging right back, go check out the full trailer for Marvel’s next big comic book extravaganza, Guardians of the Galaxy. come for the machine-gun toting raccoon, stay for the total embrace of the ridiculous and quirky space opera tone. This one’s going to be a bit of a risk for Marvel, as these guys, despite a relatively popular book out there right now, aren’t exactly household names (yet), but I thik they’ll pull it out in the end and have a hit on their hands this summer.
• Speaking of comic books, I’m in the midst of re-jiggering my pull list, thanks to a couple of new interesting books on the horizon. the much talked about new Ms. Marvel, from G. Willow Wilson and Sara Pichelli, had a great first issue, which captivated me with the art and humor, and really appealed to my teenage daughter as well. Also, a new She-Hulk run just kicked off, by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido, which I quite enjoyed. As you may be aware, I’m very fond of Ms. Walters, Esq’s adventures in general, as well as Dan Slott’s run on the title in particular (which are perhaps my favorite comics in the history of forever). This new run seems to carry a lot of the same charm as that one. I like it. These, along with the upcoming Moon Knight from Warren Ellis, are going to knock several books off my monthly list, including the adjectiveless X-Men and DC’s Masters of the Universe, the former of which is just losing me by being too insider X-Men, and the latter, which just isn’t hitting my happy place since Pop Mhan stopped drawing it. I’m also likely going to be dropping Superior Spider-Man Team Up (which lacks the fun of the flagship), as well Fantastic Four, which (along with companion title FF) just wrapped up an excellent run by Matt Fraction, which seemed like a fine place to drop off. I might also drop the aforementioned Guardians, which, while good, is really Bendis-y, and I think I’ll need to make room for Dan Slott’s Silver Surfer, which should probably satisfy my cosmic Marvel itch a bit more.

And finally, I apologize for missing this one when it came around on the calendar. Maybe twelve is too old for this sort of thing, but I kind of have fun taking the time to hunt for the pictures:

So, that’s the bits of life I’m going to talk about. I hope you’re satisfied.