Now, when it comes to comics, I’ve always been more of a Marvel kid, though I’m relatively familiar with the Distinguished Competition, and have been sort of keeping up with the news about the latest reboot over at DC, where they’re starting the universe over at square (or issue number) one for all the characters, ideally as a jumping on point for new readers.

Some characters aren’t changing much at all (my understanding is that Batman is pretty true to all his central themes), though other characters have been changed up pretty radically.

And, there’s been a lot of complaining from established fans. This is not a surprise. Comic fans complain about everything. It’s what we do.

Still, I think some complaining is warranted. Feels like DC missed th boat on one particular character; one that hadn’t really been in the comics for years, but thanks to a cartoon from a couple of years ago has a big built in fan base – Starfire. There’s been LOTS of complianing about that one. However, the best piece, that gets to the heart of why the changes don’t work, empirically, or as a means of drawing in new readers, has best been captured in the words of of a seven year old girl, as interviewed by her mother:

“Do you think the Starfire from the Teen Titans cartoon is a good role model?”

*immediately* “Oh yes. She’s a great role model. She tells people they can be good friends and super powerful and fight for good.”

“What about this new Starfire?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s not doing anything.”

“Is this new Starfire someone you’d want to be when you grow up?”

*she gets uncomfortable again*”Not really. I mean, grown ups can wear what they want, but…she’s not doing anything but wearing a tiny bikini to get attention.”

Draw your own conclusions (though do take a look at the Shortpacked comic included in the article, which hits the mark perfectly).

I saw this piece, “Performing Motherhood”, over at slacktiverse, and well, it resonated.

For many reasons.

Go forth, and read it*.

_____________________

*-Also, check out the comments, where someone talks about this anecdote, and eloquently describes what’s so creepy and wrong about the adulation heaped upon this (probably totally fabricated) piece of glurge.

In case your computer doesn’t understand what the average week feels like for me, your typical upper-middle class wage slave:

10 Monday
20 Tuesday
30 Wednesday
40 Thursday
50 zip -a -ex weekend.zip Friday Saturday Sunday
60 Goto 10

Apologies if this doesn’t conform to the syntax of any particular programming language, it’s a metaphor (though I’m pretty sure I got the options for the zip command line right).

This edition hit some interesting notes – two of these records, it turns out, end up defining particular eras in my lifetime, even if I didn’t realize it. The others are just really cool records. Also, I this is another one of those mixes where I’ve all the artists live a lot, which to me is just kind of neat. And, I have tickets to see entry #4 next week, which I am greatly looking forward to. Especially the puppet show.

♦ Indigo Girls – Shaming of the Sun: This disc was more-or-less the soundtrack to a transitional period of my life, filling out the background of the spring of ’97, a time when I’d truly given up on teaching and started trying other things for a couple of months before grabbing hold of an opportunity in a strange new city and really starting my “adult” life. I say transition, because there are parts of this record that I associate with Pennsylvania, and parts I associate with Virginia – “Get Out The Map” with it’s plucky banjos will forever remind me of the dumpy little corporate server room I temped in for a while, babysitting a dozen-and-a-half DOS boxes downloading and converting prescription data. the XPN morning show played it every morning…in fact, I think it was playing when I took the call offering me my first “real” job (I think there’s a metaphor there). “Shame On You,” the big radio single, hit Richmond radio stations that summer, and was inescapable, which I didn’t mind, because it’s a great pop record. I don’t know if it’s one of the Girls’ best records, or just one of my favorites because it connected with a big life change for me. Either way, though, “Scooter Boys” simply, undeniably, rocks.

♦ Barenaked Ladies – Maybe You Should Drive: For me, this is another one of those “desert Island discs” I talked about a few cutouts ago. It’s the Ladies’ second full-length record- a much more mature and “grown up” sound after the whimsy of Gordon. It was also the first release that really caught my attention after being introduced to the band by one of @fairiemom’s housemates. When I imagine what “Barenaked Ladies” sounds like, I hear this record: “Alternative Girlfriend.” “Life In A Nutshell.” “Am I The Only One.” The vocal harmonies. The percussive acoustic guitars. The all-Creegan rhythm section. As much as I grew to like Kevin Hearn in the band, there’s just something about Andy Creegan’s piano, and the way it meshed perfectly with Jim’s upright bass that’s been missing in the band’s output since. It’s really beautiful stuff, and kind of intangible, but when you listen to the organ on “Great Provider,” you notice it immediately. This just one of those records I keep coming back to, and I probably always will. It’s really just that good.

♦The Badlees – River Songs: Two desert island discs in one batch…that’s gotta mean something. This one’s so significant I probably ought to give it it’s own entry, but since I’ve already started, I’ll just keep going. It feels like this record, or it’s live equivalent, was playing in the background through my entire college experience, but couldn’t have been, since it didn’t actually get released until 1995. It did come out the year I was finally able to start going to rock shows in music venues that served alcohol, which opened up more opportunities to hear live music, and at that time, and in that place, there was a lot of good live music to be heard. I went to a lot of shows, and most of them involved these guys – I tend to hear this record not in CD order (which starts with “Grill the Sucker” no matter what Polydor re-issue says), but in the order it usually fell in the live set on stage at the Metron or the Chameleon. I hear the extra long breakdown in the middle of “Bendin’ The Rules.” I hear Jeff’s vocals much further out in the mix on “Fear of Falling” (the only rock video with the distinction of having me in it). In my mind, there’s a hell of a lot more yodelling in “I Liked You Better When You Hated Yourself.” Like good music is supposed to do, it seeps into your head and gets inextricably entwined in your memories. This record conjures images of good times out with friends, of spring afternoons and the scent of the University President’s flowers through my dorm window on a Friday afternoon. It captures the feeling of falling in love. You can have this disc when you pry it from my cold dead hands, and even then, I’ll still have the memories burned into the cold, dead synapses of my brain. In the years since this record came out, I’ve had many a conversation with various members of the band, but until now, I never thought to thank them for being part of so many great memories I’ll always treasure. Thanks, guys.

♦They Might Be Giants – Flood: TMBG is one of those bands that I came upon gradually. My first experience, I’m pretty sure, was that episode of Tiny Toon Adventures that had videos in it for “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (not Constantinople),” both of which are on this record. In college, a dorm floormate set me up with copies of Flood and Apollo 18 and I listened the hell out of them. Then I fell off for a while, occasionally running into their stuff over the years, but never quite clicking, even if it’s exactly the kind of thing I should be listening to. Then some of the kid records came out and caught the attention of my offspring when I borrowed “Here Comes Sceince” from the library, and then I dug in. I saw one of the infamous “Flood shows” last year (with Coulton opening) and rekindled my fandom. This is a great, eclectic band that you really ought to be listening to – and Flood is probably the perfect record to dive into – there’s no filler here, it’s all great, front to back (or back to front, as they played it live last year). It really grows on you, and not just “Birdhouse in Your Soul,” which is an unmitigated classic…my personal favorites are “We Want a Rock” and “Road Movie to Berlin.” We all want prosthetic foreheads on our real heads, don’t we?

So, I was a schoolbus this morning, because one of my children couldn’t get her stuff together on time. We can’t make a habit of this. Anyway, here’s some tunes for a rainy schoolbus morning:

1. Honestly – Zwan
2. Stories Last Call – Patty Griffin
3. Kiss – Prince
4. Batbox – Miss Kittin
5. Damn You Look Good and I’m Drunk (Scandalous) – Cobra Starship
6. Birdhouse in Your Soul – They Might Be Giants
7. Drop in the Ocean – The Spirit Room
8. Call and Answer – Barenaked Ladies
9. Get Up (live) – Dropkick Murphys
10. Nada – The Refreshments

In between bouts of wrangling paperwork today, I noticed several mentions on twitter that R.E.M. has ended its run.

For me, this is a sad and surprising development, but at the same time, it kind of feels natural. The last two records aside (Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are both VERY GOOD), R.E.M. has been kind of languishing in elder-statesmanlike semi-obscurity since Bill Berry left for health reasons in ’96. They’d indelibly influenced the world of popular music, serving for many years as the very definition of “alternative rock,” though as time passed, that same world of popular music had largely passed them by.

I actually kind of feel cheated out of the opportunity for further discovery, because I came upon R.E.M. relatively late into their career. They were there in the background for me, since Document in ’87, but as I wrote in this blog’s precursor upon the release of a greatest hits disc from the I.R.S. years back in 2006, I was a little too young, too trend following**, and thus, too into hair metal exclusively to really “get” it, and as a result, I kind of missed out on the experience of being into something underground (and perhaps having something to talk about with that cute bookish girl in the back of Honors English).

The story changed when I got to college and met some new friends to point me in new directions. I discovered other bands and followed them down different musical rabbit holes, invariably finding R.E.M. at the bottom of the warren. Through my twenties and thirties I really started digging them, especially the early stuff, and listened to it often. It just took some time and experience until I was “ready” to really appreciate how interesting and innovative their music is.

And now, they’ve called it a day. And, I guess I can’t blame them. They’ve left their mark on popular music, and are going out, at least creatively, on top. Singer Michael Stipe left the following comments on the band’s official site today, and I can’t say that I disagree with the reasoning:

A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

All good things come to an end, and for R.E.M., it was time.

Doesn’t mean my twelve year old daughter isn’t going to be heartbroken. She’s a big fan.

_______________

*- This post shall not, and never will be titled “it’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)”

** – For certain values of “trends” anyway – in more worldly environs than small town Pennsylvania, R.E.M. was was the trend. Where I found myself in the late 80s, though, it barely registered.

Like a lot of things, in the exclusive <cough>, elite <coughhack> world of the pre-release movie screenings, once you’re in the system, you’re in the system, and more opportunities to participate find you without you spending a whole lot of time looking for them.

For example, last night, I had managed to find myself holding passes for two different press screenings happening at the same time across town from each other. Decisions had to be made.

The movies? Moneyball, featuring Brad Pitt and a script by Aaron Sorkin, passes to which I acquired as a consolation for not quite getting in to Straw Dogs last week, and Killer Elite, a mid-budget action flick starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and DeNiro, that I snagged via the usual means of web site lottery.

Now, as I knew, and learned first-hand last week, the organizers of these things overbook to ensure a full house (I suppose that they feel reviewers will be kinder to a film they see with an audience, who is undoubtedly excited that they were getting to see the movie for free), and given the number I saw being handed out last week, there were a lot of Moneyball passes in the wild. Also, Moneyball is a film of higher profile and prestige; a review outlet, many of which have limited resources, is going to be more likely to send a body to the Oscar-bait picture. And I wouldn’t blame them, it looks like it’s going to be quite good.

But, I wanted my waiting in line to have the best chance of ending with a movie, so I played the odds and went to see Killer Elite, figuring there’d be more seats up for grabs at the low-class genre picture.

And there were.

The screening was in a REALLY large auditorium at a theater so far NW that it was almost in Maryland – a small urban shopping center with some high-dollar department stores (and a Filene’s Basement in the, well…basement, if you’re into that sort of thing). A longer Metro ride than I was used to, but worth it fo a free movie.

So, as for Killer Elite itself, I’d call it an action film with aspirations: smarter than your average 80s Canon/Golan-Globus actioner, but not exactly up to the standards of a good Bond or Bourne film. It stars Jason Statham as a reluctant mercenary in the early 80s, stuck taking “one last job” in order to spring his mentor (Robert DeNiro, essentially playing Captain Shakespeare from Stardust without the cross-dressing) from captivity. Throughout, Statham is pursued by Clive Owen, a principled former special forces/wetworks guy working for the shadowy conspiracy pulling the strings, and his sweet porno ‘stache. You’d not be surprised to find that in the end, everybody is being set up by someone else. It’s that kind of movie.

The leads play their roles well, with Statham being sufficiently stoic and Stathamesque, Owen brooding effectively behind the ridiculous moustache, and DeNiro (in what’s really not much more than an extended cameo) playing the grizzled old vet/father figure with some sly humor. The secondary players are usually comic relief (with more comedic late 70s facial hair), speak largely in genre cliches, and are there largely to make the leads look better.

Being an action movie, there’s quite a bit of that sort of thing – car chases, gun fights, gratuitous explosions, fisticuffs, a superfluous scene in a boxing ring, and some parkour-style stunts. A lot of the big set pieces are very cool (the fight where Statham’s tied to a chair is a highlight, as is the car chase in the middle of the film), though most of the fights suffer for being done in the trendy shot up close, quick cuts style, which makes it honestly very hard to see what’s going on (which when you’ve got two sexy british guys in your film that the ladies like to see is a problem). Also, the director made the choice to use some documentary-style shaky-cam work, surely to try and impart a “you are there” sense of tension and intimacy, but it ends up being mostly distraction.

All that said, I had a good time with it, and if you’re in the mood for some not-entirely mindless action, it’d make a great rainy Saturday afternoon matinee.

Fred just totally nails this one:

…Say what you will about the late Jerry Falwell, but at least he always worked to keep his lamentations up-to-date. When Teletubbies were a thing, he preached against the gay menace of Teletubbies, but he wasn’t still going on about Tinky Winky five years later. The standards for right-wing jeremiads are really slipping.

Read the whole thing over at slacktivist – ‘Heather’ is pushing 30. You’ll be glad you did.

I don’t have a particular thesis for today. My mind is swimming with all kinds of random stuff, and none of it is coalescing into one coherent point. But, it still needs to get out, so I’m going to take the shotgun approach and try getting out some thoughts on a handful of things; and see what sticks.

♦ Of vague, non-specifically personal interest, I’m hitting a point in my career that I expect a lot of people hit; I’m fast approaching the point in my working life that I need to either accept that the current career path will be, more or less, what I’ll be doing for the next 25 or 30 years and be okay with that, or, if I want to try something else, I need to seriously get on to doing that. The thing is, despite the fact that I’m in one of those cyclical periods of general dissatisfaction with the work, most of the time, I like what I do – I just don’t find it as personally fulfilling as some people around me, and I’m not completely okay with that. But, at the same time, in defiance of the current national media narrative, I have a well-paying, secure position that’s not likely to go away any time soon. The fact that I’m in a position to mull over my vague dissatisfaction when one in ten of my fellow working stiffs aren’t working at all (I suspect the stress isn’t necessarily helping the other thing either) is causing me a little bit of guilt. Oh well; it’s an ongoing low-level concern that I just have to figure out how to deal with; it’s part of being a more-or-less grown-up adult…doesn’t mean I have to love the process.

♦ Related very tangentially to the previous item on a larger, national (and less personal) scale, I caught a story on the news this morning about the President’s latest proposals to address the federal deficit; specifically, the so-called “Buffett tax,” where tax rates would be raised on those with annual incomes greater than $1 million. It’s a mostly reasonable compromise on the original position of increasing rates on those bringing in more than $250k annually, and I’m okay with that. I would have also been okay with an increase on tax rates on brackets a lot closer to mine, assuming the increased revenue would be used wisely. I am a big fan of civilization, and I don’t mind paying for things like infrastructure or education, because those things benefit everyone. What I’m not okay with is the Republican response to said proposals – Rep. Paul Ryan, for example, called such a move “class warfare”, which is kind of par for the course for Republican candidates, who when chastizing the distinguished competition for doing something, are usually guilty of doing such themselves. In this case, the constant tax cuts for the rich and cuts to social programs they propose, which merely increase the actual financial burden on the lower and middle classes, pretty much fits my definition of setting the classes at odds with one another. The only difference is, that thanks to some clever social engineering* the right has managed to convince a large segment of (low information) voters to vote against their own self interest, and then ask for more. That’s probably a post in itself, but I can’t contain the idea in my brainspace right now.

♦ Amanda Marcotte had an interesting piece in Slate this week regarding the right-wing crowing about how The Girl Scouts of America has a “radical feminist lesbian agenda”. As someone with a little bit of experience with several corners of scouting, the GSA is certainly more liberal and secular (at least on a national level) than the Boy Scouts. Amanda makes the case that the GSA grew out of a more foreward looking philosophy (the idea of providing girls with new opportunities to succeed), than thhe BSA (which started as a way of looking back and re-kindling old fashioned masculinity). I think the theory works at the national level, though individual units vary widely (I’ve seen some exclusionarily Christian Girl Scout units as well as some very Gay and Atheist friendly Boy Scout Troops over the years). Of course, the hysteria the article describes is based on complete misinformation. Besides, anyone with experience with modern Girl Scouting can’t help but see it built on the model of entrepreneurial capitalism – it’s largley a cookie-delivery business with cheap labor in the form of middle school girls/MBA wannabes earning badges – exactly the kind of thing you’d think old-money conservatives would applaud.

♦ This Netflix thing that everybody’s talking about today with the spinning off of DVD mail service as a separate enterprise (unfortunately) named “Quikster.” It’s a pretty awful name, and the hassle of splitting it off, and thus creating the headaches of two billing entries for customers and all that, is probably going to cause a large subscriber drop-off for the disc service, especially when combined with the previously publicized price increases. I’m also pretty sure this is exactly what Netflix wants. To anyone who’s been watching for the last however many years, Netflix has never really wanted to get stuck with the DVD rental by mail model. It’s right there in the name – “Netflix” implies over-the-internet delivery of content, not a mail-based service; it’s always been their eventual goal, and reaching that goal has been a long game – get people with a convenient rental model (which, in the end, pretty much killed Blockbuster), ease them into using a streaming service and hook them, while getting the hardware and software for access into a wide variety of devices most people would have anyway. The idea has always been to ditch the mail-order model and go streaming. It’s working (I’m probably going to be dropping my disc plan soon – I don’t turn over discs fast enough anymore). They’ve got the infrastructure and subscriber base in place for delivery. Once the studios give up the dream of owning the means of delivery for their filmed entertainment (they’ve got to know that people aren’t going to subscribe to half-a-dozen different services to have access to everything they want), Netflix will be there with a turn-key solution for distribution. It’s really been interesting to watch this play out; someday, someone will right a kick-ass dissertation on it.

_________________________

* – This social engineering is largely handled by certain elements of conservative religious organizations with a combination of fearmongering based on homophobia and abortion legislation, as well as (at least in megachurch circles) by the growth of concepts like “proseperity theology,” which contends (via interestingly twisted interpretations of biblical scripture) that rich people are favored by God, better than the masses, and should get rewarded. And of course, if you revere exactly the right God in the right way, you’ll get rich, too! It’s a kind of “feel good” Calvinism, and of course doesn’t hang together logically (it doesn’t even work as Calvinism), but unfortunately it works in getting people to vote for their fantasy “if I win the lottery interests” instead of supporting policies that would help them and their families now.

♦ Bret Alexander – Gentleman East: In a lot of ways, this one is probably the best of the half-dozen or so Badlees side projects that came out during the great post-UTDH hiatus, even if it’s not my favorite (that would probably be Perfect Smile). The foundation of what makes(made?) the Badlees great was the songwriting, and this record is Alexander’s songwriting distilled to it’s purest form; the instrumentation is spare, keeping the focus on the lyrics and melody, especially on quieter tracks like “No One Hears Me Singing,” “I Want to Win In This World” and the excellent story-song “Memphis Restroom.” It’s a great, listenable disc that diplays the best of influences (Springsteen, Dylan, Robertson, Waits, Westerberg), in a wry, introspective fashion, even if it feels like it’s missing some of the humor and sense of fun you get with a Badlees record. But then, that’s what solo projects are for, trying out new avenues of expression. Sometimes those avenues go to really interesting places; which is the case for the best (hidden) track on the record: “These Are the People That Own the World” was kind of a forgettable track on the Badlees Renew record, but here, with a few change-ups in presentation and tone, it becomes an essential classic.

♦ Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians – Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars: This band was one of those good, workmanlike acts that played out in late 80s, hitting largely through videos, thanks to a charismatic lead vocalist, who was expressive, hippy-cute, looked great in a pair of high-waisted 80s jeans, and managed not to look too silly while squatting in the big video. I was a fan. “What I Am” is, of course, the classic track from this record, a slouchy, jam-band-esque track that everybody knows and likes, if not loves, and continues to live on as a minor nostalgia classic. That song, and the rest of the record, are really defined by the sound of simple, clean, Knopfler-esqe electric guitar lines interwoven with an equally meandering fretless bass. It’s a shame they only released two records before mostly disbanding. For my money, the best track on the disc is “Circle,” which was a follow-up single (I actually have the cassingle! of this one someplace), which has a great melody, a nice jazzy bassline, and some really interesting and understated guitar feedback effects. Halalalalalala plink plink.

♦ Johnny Lang – Lie To Me: In the mid-90s, there was kind of a run on scrawny white teenage boys with real guitar chops putting out SRV-style blues records. Mr. Lang was one of them (Kenny Wayne Sheppard was another), and he really, really tries to sound like a grizzled old bluesman, and almost manages it. But, just like Taylor Swift or Justin Beiber singing about heartbreak or love gone wrong, the lack of actual life experience with such things comes through in the end (he was 17 when this record was released). Lang had (and continues to have) amazing guitar chops, as evidenced on the title track and “Back for a Taste of Your Love,” but it all kind of feels like an incredible simulation of the blues rather the real thing. I haven’t heard as much of his later stuff, admittedly, though I expect as he’s aged, it’s gotten more authentic. As it was in ’96, having him cover Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Good Morning Little School Girl” just feels like a stunt that went terribly, terribly wrong.

♦ Lita Ford – The Best of Lita Ford: I suppose I bought this one as a symptom of my being an 80s hair metal/hard rock completist. That said, it’s really a better record than one would expect, if you’re looking for a decent driving rock song performed by a former member of the Runaways who didn’t get any lines in the movie and who popularized the pointy abomination that is the BC Rich Warlock electric guitar. The big hits are here, those being MTV and middle school dance staples “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close My Eyes Forever,” the duet with Prince of Effing Darkness Ozzy Osborne. And funnily enough, those two tunes still really work. What you don’t necessarily expect are the big arena-sized rock anthems like “What Do Ya Know About Love?” and “Larger Than Life,” which are certainly not high art, but are exactly the kind of high-energy tunes you want when you’re driving home down the interstate after wrapping up the work week. Just watch out for the lead foot some of these tunes seem to inspire.