Forget Assembling The Avengers!

It's time to Merge the Mutants! Okay, so that's not actually a catch phrase...anywhere. 

I just really wanted it to alliterate.  

If you're at all a Marvel fan, you're loving the revitalization of the X-Men as they are poised to full on join the MCU.  And my goodness, does the MCU need the new blood, even if it is mutant blood.

It isn't a stretch to say that the most recent run of Marvel movies and tv shows have amounted to a big, collective shrug in the fan community.  We still pay to see them, generally, and for the most part they're still making money.  Still, the honeymoon is most definitely over.

But.

Not all that long ago, Disney bought a little outfit called 20th Century Fox.  As part of that deal, they got a HUGE chunk of the Marvel Comics universe that had been sold off to 20th Century during a fire sale at a time when Marvel Comics was almost driven out of business by poor sales.  Selling the cinematic rights to the mutant and Fantastic Four catalogue meant that even though Disney owned Marvel, they couldn't include beloved Marvel Comics characters like the X-Men and Silver Surfer in the MCU.  

Wisely, Marvel has only introduced these characters in dribs and drabs in brief cameos and post-credits scenes.  Until now.

As a group, I've rarely seen comic fandom as united in their hopeful anticipation as they seem to be for the MCU debut of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

   

Let's fuckin' go.

Jackman's tour de force in Logan was thought to be the character's swan song.  Jackman himself repeatedly said as much.

Somehow, Ryan Reynolds convinced him to pop the claws this one last time.  At least, I think it'll be the last.  What do I know?

What I do know is that if ANY film will get me to set foot in a theatre again, this one would be it.  Dang, but this does look awesome.

I mentioned the X-Men, not just their poster boy.  The classic 90s cartoon has also come of retirement and it's been glorious.  X-Men 97 brought back enough familiar voices and used a few of the more beloved comic book story lines to craft a worthy successor to the best loved animated version of the X-Men.  There's talk that the rebooted cartoon may even find its way into the canon of the MCU itself.  

Finally, there's a huge "cast photo" from Marvel Comics celebrating the 700th issue of The Uncanny X-Men, even if it's getting published as X-Men #35 thanks to the current vogue of rebooting from #1 every few years.

This:

 

I truly hope you can see this full sized.

I would pay good money to have that as wallpaper in my den.  Like, floor to ceiling, all the way around the room.

Could the Uncanny X-Men be poised to swoop in and save the MCU?

And it's not "Merge the Mutants".  I have the line!  Say it with me (it only works out loud and only if you pronounce "the" as "thee"!):

Uncan The X-Men!

The Ultimate Selfish

What would you do if you saw bear cubs in a tree?

Take some pictures?  Sure, from a safe distance.

Watch out for Mama Bear?  Damned right.

Drag the cubs out of the tree and take selfies with them?  Only if you are a fuckwit of epic proportions.

Sure enough, a group of about half a dozen epic fuckwits in North Carolina did just that.

I contemplated posting video on this, but I decided against it.  It's out there if you search and I think these dumb-asses have already gotten enough internet fame, even if it's entirely negative.  They make the shit heads filmed destroying rock formations at Lake Mead this week look positively...well...actually they're massive fuckwits as well.

If you google "idiots taking selfies with bear cubs" the videos will appear.  The footage is honestly difficult to stomach.  Given the state of the society we inhabit, I don't doubt these dinks are thrilled to bits at how many clicks their profiles have gotten because of this.   

This kind of colossal stupidity put the humans at risk from Mama Bear.  More importantly, they could have hurt the cubs or possibly separated them from their mother at a vulnerable age.  There appears to be a fence between the trees and the people, so Mama was probably foraging for food back in the trees and once the cubs were on the other side of the fence, they're likely doomed.

Apparently, the local wildlife agency rescued one cub and confronted the group.  I hope there will be consequences for these morons.  Potentially harming or even killing a beautiful animal for the sake of a lousy selfie.  The selfishness is staggering.

Humans.  We can be so horrible for such ridiculous reasons.

Lines. Not Crossing Them Is Called "Being Civilized"

I don't read many comics anymore.  I am occasionally made aware of a new take on an old character that interests me or reminded of a series I always meant to read.  It's fairly rare these days.

Mostly, I like the art from my youth, DC and Marvel comics from the 70s to about the early 90s.  Most of the new stuff doesn't really do it for me and that's okay.

I may have to pony up some dough for a comic or two written by a guy named Tom Taylor.

I'm not considering buying his work because I'm really interested in the current state of Nightwing and Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl.

It's because this poor guy is getting burned in effigy because certain cretinous idiots think that death threats and effigy burning is an appropriate response to a writer taking a character they care about in a direction they don't agree with.

Let me repeat that.  These people are burning pictures of this man on video and posting death threats to this comic book writer because they are upset that he doesn't have Barbara Gordon back in her wheelchair in her "Oracle" persona but out kicking butt as Batgirl.

What.  And I ask this seriously.

The fuck.  No, really, I'd like an answer.

Is wrong with these people??  

I'm trying to imagine a reality in which a rational person's devotion to a FICTIONAL CHARACTER and their misplaced conviction that they have the right to dictate the direction that character's story is taken, justifies this kind of criminal, inhuman, horrific attack on another human being.  I can't do it.

There is no justification for this.  Full stop.

This is what comes of internet anonymity.  People who might once have simply stopped buying the book, perhaps with a short angry rant to the long suffering comic book store part-timer unfortunate enough to be stuck serving them that day, now feel that it's their right, perhaps even their duty, to expand and flesh out that rant and share their opinion with the world.  

In Ratatouille, Anton Ego reminds us "...the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."

So to those out there inclined to let their criticism turn into incivility, hatred or violence, I challenge you to cancel your DC Comics subscriptions and go and write something better.  

 I only hope that your critics are kinder to you when you do.

The Ultimate Selfie

It was sadly quite cloudy during the totality phase of today's eclipse.  

 

If you can tear your gaze away from my giant head, 

there's an eclipse behind me.

Anyone, anytime, can get beautiful, professional, clear and highly detailed pictures of the totality phase of today's (or any) solar eclipse.  Somehow, for me, this fuzzy picture eclipses them all, pun fully intended.  I saw this one, admittedly through clouds, with my own eyes.  I was able to take those silly looking glasses off and marvel at the firsthand experience of the sun completely covered by a full moon.  At my age, I have begun to realize that there's a chance that this may be the last time I get the opportunity to see an event with this kind of rarity, so I treasured the moment.

Nature, science and humanity's ability to appreciate the wonder of both were on full display today and I hope you were able to enjoy the experience.  It was awesome, in the fullest sense of the word.

Koo Koo For Cocoa

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but chocolate is about to become a LOT more expensive.

Crop failures in West Africa and bug borne disease are driving cocoa prices through the roof.

I'm predicting $5.00 chocolate bars before the end of the year.  

I hope I'm wrong, but I have seen this on multiple platforms and I get the feeling it's pretty damned real.

I'm gonna miss chocolate.

Star Wars - The Acolyte. Setting Up A Major Villain?

This one's a LOOONG shot.

The soon to drop (June 4) Star Wars prequel series, The Acolyte, will introduce a new set of characters from a time around a century before the events of Star Wars - Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.

One of my favourite young talents, Daphne Keen, will star as the Padawan, Jecki Lon.

 

Jecki Lon.  Star Wars names.  Seriously.

The silly name aside...

The 100 year time jump is the ONLY thing that leaves me uncertain.  Now, there's no reason that a Star Wars alien couldn't live hundreds of years (Yoda was 900 after all), so it's not impossible.

If this was set 20 or 30 years before the birth of Anakin Skywalker, I'd be putting real money on this possibility.  As it is, no money, but I'd bet a nice dinner that the plan is for Keen's Padawan to one day turn to the Dark Side and become...

 

Asajj Ventress.

If you're not familiar, she was introduced in the animated Clone Wars series.  One of the most interesting villains in Star Wars lore, Ventress has a cool backstory and gets betrayed by her evil mentor and becomes weirdly sympathetic, yet still totally, evilly badass.

I can totally see Keen playing her as a young woman.

My New Hope...

The Inner Light

I have said it often and loudly.  Surprisingly, I've never said it here.

Ask me what episode of Star Trek, any series, is the best of the lot and there's only ever one answer.

The Inner Light.

Picard lives the life of a simple citizen scientist in an agrarian community on a planet that's been destroyed by a nova some thousand years ago.  He awakes on an unknown planet as himself, lives for years among the locals, has a family and experiences all the joy and pain that entails, for all intents and purposes leaving Jean-Luc Picard behind as a memory and living as Kamin until old age.

The make-up is as good as any aging make-up I've seen on television.

Margot Rose provides a believable, if long suffering, wife to Sir Patrick Stewart.

Most importantly, there's zero action, no fighting, no phasers (much to Worf's chagrin) and no enemy to defeat.

What you have here is some of the greatest science fiction ever filmed.  The people who launch the probe that eventually finds Picard do exactly what we here on earth do every time we launch something beyond our gravity well.  They send a message to the unknowable future and an unimaginable recipient that says "this is who we were, remember us, please".

Stewart acts up a storm, easily his greatest work on the show.  The writing is tight, the direction intimate and the creators keep the 24th century portion of the story to a minimum.  It's a tour de force across the board.  

Don't even get me started on the flute.  Whoever added that little detail deserves an Emmy of their own, just for that.

The writers stuck with "less is more" for the important bits. It would have been so easy to over write the death scene of Kamin's wife, but instead, Margot Rose's Eline reminds Kamin one last time to put his shoes away...

 

I promise.

 It's so real.  So quiet.  So...perfect.

Even after seeing it at least half a dozen times over the years, I tear up every single time I see it.

Like just now.

 

 

The rest of us have been gone a thousand years...

Now we live in you.  Tell them of us, my darling.

 

Every. Single. Time.

Disturbed - Down The Rabbit Hole I Go...

On at least a couple of occasions, I've spent an evening on YouTube chasing videos down the rabbit hole. One on night about 2 or 3 months ago, this activity was sparked by someone reminding me of this cover of the classic folk tune, The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle. I had heard and loved Disturbed covering the song, but that was it. Then I watched this video and really listened to the vocals. This guy is an unbelievable talent.  His range and control are truly impressive.

I watched dozens of covers, some very good, of this song that night, but I kept coming back to this one.

  

Seriously.  Just a stunning four and a half minutes.

Somehow, after posting my baseball related post below, I ended up watching (and I've never watched one of these before) a reaction video to this song tonight.  In this case it was a vocal coach who had never heard the cover version.  Her reactions were priceless and I even learned a little about vocal technique and why this song is so impressive on so many levels.

This is her:

 

The first of many!

I gotta admit, watching her reactions was a blast.  I have always looked a little down my nose at the idea of watching reaction videos, but I kinda get it now.  At least for this cover of this song.  People who know nothing about Disturbed or better yet only know of them as a metal band, who are then totally stunned and then stunned some more and then even more as they watch are simply fun to watch.  It's almost as good as being able to go back in time and watch the video for the first time myself.

Anyhow, some of the reaction videos were great, some not so great, but hours later, here I am.

I gotta go to bed!

I'll leave you with this last one I just watched.  It's another vocal coach reacting to the cover, this time the live version Disturbed performed on Conan O'Brien a few years ago.  He sums up not only my reaction to the cover of the song, but what he says about his own prejudices pretty much slaps me upside the head for being such a snob about reaction videos in the first place.

Enjoy!

 

"I apologize for being a pretentious Philip Glasshole about this song."

Yeah.  Reaction videos, too.  That's on me.

They Say That When You Go To A Baseball Game...

...you always stand a chance of seeing something happen on the field that you've never seen before. 

I wasn't at the game, but I have NEVER seen this happen before, even if many, many defenders have thought that it happened to them. 

The ball actually went through the glove. Broke the webbing of the pocket right open and kept on going. 

 

Serious Bugs Bunny baseball move there.

More than once, I've seen a player whiff on a catch and look at his glove as if to ask if somehow the ball went through the leather.  This is the only time I've ever actually seen that happen.

This happened in the opening game of the season, played in Seoul, South Korea between the Dodgers and Padres.  There's still 160 games to go!  Gawd, I love baseball!

Will James Bond Be Kick-Ass...or Vice Versa?

The latest rumour in the ether is that Kick-Ass star Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a lock for the next iteration of James Bond.

If I'm honest, he's not the first name I thought of.

After a quick look for pix for this article, I think I've come around to the idea.  He's British for a start, so that's a plus.  I didn't realize that until now, assuming his accent in Kick-Ass was his natural one.  

He's also a big, fit dude.  He stands 5'11" and if the latest shots of him in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter movie, he's jacked.  Also a plus.

He's also 33 or 34 years old, so he could play Bond for the next decade or more and that could mean 4 movies or more, so again, that's a plus.  Resetting Bond to a 30 something and having his skills grow over a decade could be a great way to go.

Finally, there's the eyes.  Check out the poster below.  Ignore the silly mask and look at his eyes.

 

James Bond needs eyes like that.

I enjoy James Bond movies.  I've liked every Bond actor in one way or another, so I'm sure I'll enjoy him in the role should this rumour pan out.

I guess I'll have to give up hope for Kick-Ass 3...

This Will Either Stink...

...or it will be the best Suicide Squad movie ever. I'm literally 50/50 on this.

The voice acting is tough to rate given the scattershot nature of the trailer, but the visuals are pretty great and the action looks impressive. 

  

That is either the creepiest or the silliest take on the Joker...ever.

I'm rooting for awesome but I'm betting on another stinker like Batman: Ninja.  It's a great idea to marry the crazed visuals of anime with the great story potential of Suicide Squad.  It was also a great idea to set a Batman story in Japan with a ninja story line.  

Great ideas don't always equal great product. Fingers and baseball bats crossed.

Shogun. 1980.

I am very much looking forward to watching the new version of Shogun, currently spooling out on HULU.

I'm waiting until all 10 episodes have dropped so I can watch it as a binge on a weekend.

In the meantime, I'm revisiting the original mini-series from 1980.  I've read all of James Clavell's Asian Saga (except the less than great final novel, Whirlwhid, which I just couldn't get into) and very much enjoyed them.  Gai-Jin and Tai-Pan are particular favourites, but Shogun is a great novel.

The 80s mini-series was quite an event in its day and it holds up pretty well four decades later.  The acting is solid, the writing is crisp and the settings are impeccable.

 

Dun-dun-dun.

Then there's the music.  No one would have noted it back in 1980, but this adaptation suffers badly from a case of "dun-dun-dun"-itis.  The whole score is just so...70s.  Maurice Jarre had worked on films like Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, but I think he'd been watching a little too much American TV when he composed the music for Shogun.  

Every time there's a dramatic event, it's punctuated with a painfully cliche "dun-dun-dun" stinger.  

Every. Single. Time.  

Dun-dun-dun.

I swear you could lift the whole musical score and lay it over an episode of Barnaby Jones or Quincy and it would fit just fine.  How do you score a movie set in Japan, telling the story of Japan with a huge portion of the cast being Japanese and use a score that would have worked for an episode of Dallas? There are a few little Japanese flavour strokes in the music, but for the most part it's as American as apple pie.

Anyhow, if you can ignore how crappy the music is, the rest of the production is totally worth your time. 

I'm almost positive that the 2024 version is going to be great, but there may be aspects of this 1980 version that are still the better of the two.  My money is on the music being better this time around.  It could hardly be worse!

The Invisible Man. Visibly Cool.

Moebius Models has made some of the coolest figure models on the planet.

None cooler than their Invisible Man.  

Figure models are rare and a lot of the ones that are out there are...mediocre.

I own most of the kits that model superheroes and generally have little interest in any of the other figure model kits I've seen.  The Invisible Man is the one exception to that.

The figure is impressively posed, ripping his bandages off to reveal his secret.  The kit builders achieved this by simply making his head hollow with enough holes to show the empty space beneath the bandages.  I chose to put him in a simple black suit with a white lab coat, but there are builds out there with him in a pinstripe suit, one very impressive tartan build and even entirely black and white builds that pay homage to the 1940's movie directly.  It's one of those kits that really lets the builder use their imagination to make the build unique.

 

If you can, zoom in.

 

Bottles, books, and a translucent rat. Oh and the Invisible Man!

This is one of the most complex, detailed kits I've ever seen.  There are a dozen or so glass (clear plastic, two halves glued together) bottles and jars, a couple dozen books, a chemical apparatus (really, really fiddly to put together) and almost no set places for any of it.  Usually there are holes for pegs for each part, but with only a couple of exceptions, the layout is left to the builder.  Even the placement of the figure, the table and the bookshelf are entirely left to the discretion of the builder.

I started the build years ago.  Seriously.

I had seen versions of this where the clear glass bottles appeared to be filled with actual liquid and decided I could make that happen.  Turns out, putting liquid inside tiny plastic bottles that are two halves that need to then be glued together is more difficult than you might imagine.  The liquid tends to find the seam between the halves while the glue is still wet and by capillary action the liquid inside the bottle gets pulled into those seams.  At that point, the glue often fails.

I was able to make one test work and then watch dozens of attempts fail.  I put the whole kit aside and kept looking at it in its corner, thinking I'd get to it one day.

This week was that day.  

I found a half decent way to make the bottles look like they were full of liquid, then fussed and finessed everything into place, built the whole kit and even filled the chemical apparatus with real salt to give it a different look than the rest of the bottles and jars.  With a lot of patience, I got all the book spine decals in place as well.  Those spine decals didn't come with the kit, but it turns out there's a nifty custom decal set out there for this model - apparently I'm not the only fussy builder who knows there's no way they could paint book spines that would satisfy their critical eye. 

I think it came out just wonderfully.  I wish I'd had the presence of mind to take pix as I went, but this one was an exercise in multi-tasking, with a lot of "okay, while that's drying, I'll do...x...and then by then I can assemble...y..." so there just never seemed to be a free moment for photos.

You'll just have to enjoy the two pix above.  Zoom in if you can.  There's some incredible detail in the background on that table and bookshelf.  I chose to have some bottles lying down, I used Testor's clear parts glue with food colouring in it to fill jars with "liquid" and even painted the "carpet" in GB-esque purple and green.

This one was a LOT of work and I think it was worth it...eventually.

A Great Poster For A Superman/Flash Team-Up Movie

For a Godzilla Vs. King Kong movie?  Not so much.

 

This just looks...terrible.

I told you about the very best Godzilla movie I've seen, Godzilla Minus One.  Terrible title, but a great film with a mediocre poster:

 

This poster is the weakest thing about the movie.

The Godzilla and Kong movie (and what is with the pink scales on the G-Man?) just looks like another Hollywood buddy cop film with less dialog.

Star Trek Under Glass

So, you might recall that I bought a new glass topped table for my kitchen when I finished the comic book floor.  It seemed a shame to put a wooden table in the middle of all that comic book glory.

Underneath that table there's a little smoked glass plate that I had a plan for, pretty much from before I even ordered it.

 

Plans!  I always have plans!

 

Years ago, I built a model of the original Enterprise bridge. It's a circular model, about 12 inches in diameter.  That smoked glass plate is...you guessed it.

Back when I built this model the first time, I never did assemble and paint the three figures that came with it.  Spock, Sulu and Kirk were the only ones supplied with that version and I was always annoyed that the whole crew wasn't included.

 

Back then, I considered buying another one, just to get enough figures to make up a bridge crew.

 

This AMT version is updated to include 6 figures with 10 interchangeable heads.  There was one female, obviously Uhura, along with 5 male figures.  The whole crew plus a couple of generic heads are included, but with only 5 male bodies I'd have been one short of the full compliment of Spock, McCoy, Kirk, Sulu, Scott and Checkov.  

 

Even with 6 figures, you still end up 1 crewman short.  

Plus, I really wanted a Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel.

 

Amazingly, I still had the three figures from the old version of the kit kicking around and was able to mix and match to get a complete seven figure bridge crew.  That I held on to these three tiny pieces of plastic for more than thirty years AND was able to actually find them was something of a minor miracle.

Here's the build:

 

This is the base in pieces, painted.

 

The walls of the bridge, initial coats of paint.

 

The bridge crew, headless and pantsless.

 

Some of the decals are quite impressive.

 

Putting Kirk in his place.

 

Walls and figures almost done.

 

Walls finished, decals applied.

 

Chairs and figures ready.

 

Railings installed, turbo lift and display area installed.

 

Close to complete. A couple of walls to go.

At this point, I have to install it under the table.  It won't fit if it's fully assembled, which is why those three wall panels above are not in place.

 

Split in half for installation below the glass tabletop.

 

Walls in place, stairs installed, both halves glued together.

 

At last, a bridge under glass!

 

So this is what I've been up to for the last few weekends.  Painting, assembling, building.  I'm pretty chuffed at this one.  It looks spectacular under my table, like it was made for it.

Which, in a way, it actually was.

Old. I Am SO Old.

I used a phrase at work today.  One I've heard countless times in my life.

My 30-ish co-worker and our late teenage student worker claimed they had never heard it.

 

"Like water off a duck's back"

How bloody old am I that "like water off a duck's back" is an out of date phrase?!?!

So that bugged me for a second.

Then I let it roll off of me.

Like water...you know the rest.

If Crayola Made Mountains...

Okay.  I'm going to show you a picture.  It's real.  

It looks like someone let 1000 kindergarten kids make a mountain range out of Play-Doh or what might happen if those same kids were making mountains in a silly video game.

And it's a place that has shot to the top of my "I wanna go there tomorrow" list, right along with that Korean village with the purple houses and bridges.

Zhangye Danxia National Geopark, Gansu, China

 

It almost looks like it was knit with leftover wool scraps.

 

...or spun from coloured candy ribbon.

Like I said, it's at the top of my list.  Just stunning.

Deadpool & Wolverine - 'Nuff Said.

It's Early February.

And there's a thunder storm happening, right now, outside my house.

In Canada.

In February.

At this very moment, there are snowballs being lobbed across the bowels of hell.

Pigs are flying.

Stones are bleeding.

And I just saw a one legged man win an arse kicking contest.

E, A, E, A, OH!

Consider this simple statement:

"There were more then than there are now."

It's that "then than" that concerns me.

I had a boss once who would have typed that as "There were more of them than then there are now."

Seriously.

Whenever he meant "then" he'd type "than" and vice versa.  An intelligent guy, so at first I thought it was just a texting typo.  Nope.  Consistently typed it that way.  Drove me bananas, but in my elderly wisdom I decided it was not worth correcting, considering he signed the cheques.

I am seeing it all over the place lately.  In comment sections particularly, but even in "articles" by people who appear to be making a living at writing.  It's infuriating.  I have largely stopped commenting on articles, something I used to do quite often, and even when I did comment I'd learned not to correct grammar and spelling, since I'm no true expert on either.

Still, this one is so bloody obvious!  "Then" is for things past in time and "Than" is for comparison.  They sound vaguely similar, but they don't remotely mean the same thing and I can't figure out how they get mixed up.

There are many, many things that get under my skin, but this is one that's buggin' me right now.  

If it never happens again, than I'll be happier then I am now. 

African Grey Parrots. Flippin' Birds!

Long time readers may remember that I love African Grey Parrots.  They're smart, long lived and did I mention smart?

One of the great mimics of the animal kingdom, African Greys are simply delightful.

 

Smarter than most people I know, too.

I once was in a customer's house.  This customer bred some little yappy dogs and there were at least half a dozen of them running around and causing a ruckus.  From out in the kitchen, a voice chimed out to call each of the dogs by name and tell them to "shush".  They did.  All of them.

Turns out that wasn't a human voice but the customer's African Grey.  Simply amazing.

Maybe a little too amazing.  Lincolnshire Wildlife Part in eastern England has a whole bunch of African Greys that have learned a little too well the lessons of their human neighbours.

These parrots don't just talk.  They swear.  A lot.

I can't help but think if I'd ever found a way to afford and care for an African Grey, this would be the kind of bird I'd end up with.

Anyhow...

First there was a batch of five and now three more four letter birds have been "donated" to the zoo.  Their plan is to integrate them in a much larger flock, hoping to water down the foul (fowl?) language among the more mundane noises the other birds mimic.

Me?  I'm hoping the cussin' is contagious and they end up with an R Rated flippin' flock.  I'd pay good money to go to that zoo.

The whole story is here should you care to flip the birds...

As A Certain Vulcan Might Say...Fascinatng.

The James Webb Telescope hasn't made anything near the splash that Hubble made when it started sending back all those incredible images of the universe back in the early and mid 90s.

My guess is that the instrumentation is more geared to scientific inquiry than eyeball level imagery.

In short, Webb isn't as sexy as Hubble.

 

Every one of those dots is a galaxy. Billions of stars in each.

Standing on the ground, you could raise your arm over your head, extend it out as far as possible and cover the pictured patch of sky with your thumb.

One of several "Deep Field" images from Hubble.

Sexy indeed.

That may all be about to change.  It seems that one of those less sexy instruments may just have found the first evidence for life outside of our little blue marble.

See, there's this substance,  dimethyl sulfide, that as far as we know can only be produced by a biological function.  In short, on this planet, if you find dimethyl sulfide, you find life.

It seems that the James Webb telescope has detected the presence of dimethyl sulfide on an exoplanet with the less than roll off the tongue name of K2-18 b.

So...aliens?

Not so fast, Mr. Data.  Just because dimethyl sulfide only occurs through a biological process on this planet, there's years of work ahead to determine if its presence on K2-18 b is due to a similar biological explanation.  There's always the possibility that some unknown to us process is occurring on K2-18 b that is responsible for producing the stuff without biology being involved at all.

Still, can you imagine what this might mean?  A decade from now, we may be able to answer the question "are we alone?" with a big, fat "Nope."  

While Hubble may have brought space down to us, Webb might give us the best reason yet to keep reaching for the stars.

Wolverine Is One Of My Favourite Characters...

...and that will likely never change.  I was originally introduced to the character at a time when his current costume was the brown and orange version.  It's still my favourite look for the character.

 

 I had this poster on my wall in my teens.

Over the years, I've come to appreciate the original yellow and blue costume more than I originally did.  It's grown on me enough that I used that colour scheme in my chess set:

 

I'm still pretty proud of this.

So this summer we'll finally get to see Hugh Jackman don the yellow and blue in Deadpool 3.  The rumour is that he's even going to wear the iconic mask at some point.  A pic of that was (maybe) leaked today.  It looked pretty good and you can find it online.  I won't post it since it's not confirmed, at least not anywhere I can find.

It looks pretty much like this:

 

Some of us have waited our whole lives to see this on film.

It's this next image I ran across in a comment section below an article about the leaked mask picture that really made my day, though.

 

I honestly doubt I'll ever be able to un-see this.

You're welcome.

Godzilla Minus One - Terrible Title...

...for probably the best Godzilla movie, ever.

Let me start by saying, I love a good Kaiju film.  Big monsters, big 'splosions, lotsa runnin', screamin' extras and did I mention big monsters?

Fun stuff, simple formula.  Whether it's a man in a suit or millions of dollars in CGI, I will probably enjoy it.

And just as soon forget it.

Godzilla movies struggle with a balance of human vs. monster action.  Too much human stuff and it's not much fun to watch.  Too much monster and it's sexy, 'splosion filled eye candy, good for a couple of hours of mindless fun, but forgotten within a few minutes of leaving the theatre.

Rare is the big monster film that finds the balance.  Does anyone remember much of the "plot" of the last Godzilla vs. Kong flick?  I own a DVD copy that I've watched within the last year or so and I couldn't tell you anything about it except that at one point King Kong starts using an axe.  Or was it a hammer?  I can't even recall if they were eventually on the same side or just kicked each other through a city for a couple of hours.  I remember it was fun, but not much else, obviously.

I remember more about the 90s Matthew Broderick version, not much more.  Again, fun, but not particularly moving or powerful beyond some cool visuals.

 

This changes EVERYTHING.

Enter Godzilla Minus One.

It finds that balance I talked about.  There is just enough human and just enough Godzilla to make this more than just another kaiju popcorn flick.  Even more impressive, there's a real story here that goes beyond "humans create monster, monster attacks humans, humans fight back" plot line of most Godzilla versions.  Not just a tacked on, "we can't just do 2 hours of monsters and 'splosions" backgrounder, but a real, powerful, engaging, human driven plot that is at least as compelling as the giant nuclear monster. 

Godzilla Minus One also doesn't veer into the "Godzilla really is a good guy at heart" territory of most of the versions seem to lean into.  He's the threat from start to finish.

For some, it will be disconcerting to learn that a WWII Japanese Kamikaze pilot is the hero.  That's that "story" part I was talking about.  Writer/Director Takashi Yamazaki backs up the clock to start the story at the tail end of WWII and introduces Godzilla not as the 30 story nuclear kaiju we know and love but rather as a T-Rex(ish) sized creature from a local legend on a small Japanese island.  The bulk of the film is set in post-WWII Japan, right after the war ends and follows the hero as he tries to rebuild a life from the rubble up, only to have a bigger, scarier version of Godzilla emerge to once again try and destroy his life.

Everything hangs together.  Despite the subtitled dialog, the acting is Hollywood level good, the visuals are spectacular, buildings get flattened, there are lots of running, screaming extras and even with plenty of 'splosions, this is the one Godzilla film I can think of that has actual heart.  If you don't find yourself moved by the ending, I worry for your emotional well-being.

If you only see one blockbuster this year (last year?), do yourself a favour and make it Godzilla Minus One.  There's a Hollywood Godzilla movie due this year and I'll see it too, but would wager real money that at this time next year I won't remember a thing about it, but I'll still be able to relate a pretty solid outline of Godzilla Minus One from start to finish.  

That's what happens when you make a movie, not a popcorn flick.

Europa Or Bust!

2 Million plus names will be engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper.  Mine included.

 

This mission is going to Europa to confirm the presence of a liquid ocean.  Think about that.  A liquid ocean somewhere in our solar system, but not on our planet.

If you want to learn more, there are links upon links of things to learn about the mission here.

If you're interested in sending your name, that spot is here. 

That's two places in deep space that will have my name on 'em.  It's my little speck of immortality.

It's A Wonderful Life. Gets Me Every Time.

Every year around this time, I bust out my copy of the Jimmy Stewart classic, It's A Wonderful Life.

Like most holiday specials, it's got an element of the supernatural Christmas miracle as the central McGuffin.  An angel shows the hero what the world would be like if he'd never been born, forcing him to accept that the life he thinks of as a failure is actually a grand success.

A friend once asked me how I could count this among my favourite films when I don't believe in angels.

There are two answers to this.

First the simple, slightly snarky answer:

I don't believe in Superman, but I love me a good Superman film.  I can enjoy a film about angels in much the same way.

The second answer is less obvious and has two facets.

This is NOT a movie about a supernatural miracle.  Oh, there's an angel and a supernatural miracle, but that's the frame, not the picture.  

This is a movie about living.  I've always assumed that John Lennon wrote the line "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" after watching this film.  Real people have dreams and schemes and plans for their future that almost never come true because they have to pay bills, support aging parents, fix the roof or just somehow get through the week.  In a lot of cases, those dreams and plans are all that stand between us and jumping off that bridge George winds up on, at least some of the time.  This is a movie about real people, living real lives while their dreams and hopes slip through their grasp, only to be replaced by more grounded, tangible things like love, friendship and loyalty.

The second, even less obvious point here is that while George is certainly the main character, he is not really the hero.  Nor is Clarence the angel.  The hero is Mary.

 

George Bailey Lassos Hero

While George toils at a job he loathes, Mary makes his life exponentially better.  No sooner are they married than she saves the building and loan by sacrificing their honeymoon,   She is the home maker in the biggest sense of the term.  She literally rebuilds the rotting hulk of a house they move into, cheerfully bears him four (four!) children and helps him with his business and does it all with grace and a smile.

When George finds himself about to be arrested for fraud/embezzling/whatever and can't get out of his own head long enough to think of a way to save himself, she steps in.  She finds out what's happening by calling Uncle Billy, makes the rounds to all the people George had helped over the years, organizes the first Go Fund Me in cinematic history and single handed saves her husband and the day.

This is a movie about a good man who is just smart enough to marry an even better woman. 

If you made this movie in 1974 and took the angel out and had George overdose in a suicide attempt and then had him hallucinate the world without George Bailey, the movie would work just the same.  It might not play as family friendly, but the fact that Mary saves the day and that George's innate goodness radiates invisibly throughout his hometown, bringing friends and relations to his rescue in his time of need would still be the core of the story.

And if Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed still played the lead and the hero respectively, I'd probably still get weepy watching it every year at this time

The Best Damned Tomato Soup I Ever Had!

In my post last night, I mentioned that I had suddenly lost my taste and smell senses as a result of Covid.

At the time, I was mildly annoyed by the idea.

Then I did some reading.  

There are people who have lost the sense of taste and smell due to Covid that are still without those senses years after the event. 

I'll be honest.  That terrified me.  The first extrapolation was the idea of a Christmas dinner of texture and no flavour.  What a waste that would be.  Then I thought how awful it would be to have eating become a mechanical chore, performed to survive without joy.  

It was akin to somebody turning off the colour on the world.  

Like I said, terrifying.

Fortunately, I woke up with my senses mostly restored.  Orange juice and coffee were a true joy this morning.

For lunch, I made the most stereotypical sick day staple I had in the cupboard, Campbell's Tomato Soup.  A meal I associate with my childhood more than most.

In my whole life, a can of soup has never been so spectacular a meal.  

So, there's a new addition to the credo I posted last night.

Smell and taste and be grateful that you can do so!

The alternative is almost unthinkable.

Something I Don't Think I've Ever Done...

In the whole time I've blogged (close to 20 years now, if you can believe it) I've rarely reposted a previous article.  I've referenced them, sure, but I can't recall ever reposting one, verbatim.

I'm still down with Covid (feeling a bit better, suddenly seem to be losing my taste buds, but otherwise on the mend, it would seem, even if I am still testing positive) so I have a lot of time and very little physical energy to spend within that time.  I ended up checking my blog stats tonight and saw that someone had scrolled through this particular post today.  I didn't recognize the post by the title (the very vague "Every So Often...") so I ended up rereading it.  I have never been a fan of click-bait titles, preferring ambiguous ones that hopefully pique curiosity rather than force it.  Hoisted by my own petard in this case... 

Turns out, it's a piece I'm pretty proud of and one whose core sharing I still strive to live by.  I've updated the context setter at the beginning to ditch the no longer relevant bits and the number of exoplanets has since exploded from the hundreds to over 5000 in the 16 years since this was first posted, but the basics are otherwise still in line with science.

More importantly, the piece actually has meaning, both to me personally and hopefully in a grander, more general context, to you, dear reader.  16 years ago, I had that luxury of luxury, time.  In a quiet (ultimately not profitable) and quaint bookstore, I had hours on end of time to myself (customers, not contemplation were what I really needed) to think and write, among other things.  I don't often consciously get this deeply connected to my core principles anymore, so re-reading this was eye opening, even for me.

/Begin Repost From June 8, 2007, with minor edits:

Every once in a while, I get caught up in a project like my kitchen reno or this blog. 

It's fun.

But, why is it fun? Because, it's ultimately meaningless. Just a distraction, hopefully entertaining, but just a distraction.

Our lives, the lives of friends and family shouldn't be overwhelmed by distraction.

Perspective and the uniquely human ability to comprehend scale is one of my favourite things and I think it's important to take a step back and see the big picture once in a while.

Given how often I post distraction, tonight I wanted to present something that was actually significant.

I'm going to ask you to look at a picture. It's an almost featureless black surface, interrupted by a thin band of pale yellow light and a very small pale blue dot.

THE pale blue dot.



That's Earth. Yes, Earth. Our planet.

This is NOT a special effect shot from Hollywood. It's the Earth as seen from the Voyager 1 space craft as it passed Saturn February 14, 1990. 4 BILLION miles away. This was the last time that the camera could capture a resolvable image of the Earth and it hadn't even left the Solar System yet.

Look how small. Look how insignificant it seems. Yet, as Carl Sagan points out in his famous Pale Blue Dot speech, that's here. That's ALL of it.

It's difficult to look at this picture for some people. There are many people who don't like to be reminded that if the Earth was an elephant, each human being would be exponentially less significant than the fleas on it's back. They further don't like to be reminded just how tiny we are in relation to our own Solar System, let alone the universe.

Personally, I find looking at this photograph and reflecting upon it's truth to be about the closest I have ever come to a religious experience.

We are extraordinarily lucky to be alive and able to comprehend our place in the universe. Just think that even on our own planet just we humans, a tiny percentage of the life on our sphere, have the ability to process and understand that there are so many more shadows outside of our tiny little caves. We are taking our first collective steps out of the narrow tribalism that has dominated our species for its entire history and stepping into a universe of such immensity and complexity that our technical abilities are barely capable of observing it, let alone exploring it.

Yet despite just how tiny this photograph makes us feel, our lives, our loves, our accomplishments can still lift us to dizzying emotional heights, just as our failures, losses and missteps can throw us into deep, dark pits of despair. We are insignificant, and yet...we are important too.

"If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it still make a sound?"

We are no one, hearing all the trees in the forest of the universe.

So, what's it all about?

I don't know.

Honestly, I have no answers. I'm not a scientist, although I embrace the scientific method and try to apply reason in my life and pursuits. Neither am I a philosopher, although I do spend a great deal of time studying human behaviour and trying to understand just what the hell is going on around us. I'm certainly not a religious man, and I make no apology for that, but I respect the fact that belief in a higher power is one answer to the "What's it all about" question that many people embrace, and if that is an answer that satisfies, I have no argument with that.

What I actually DO know, is that that of all the pictures I've ever posted here, this one is the most important.



What follows is a transcript of Carl Sagan's monologue about The Pale Blue Dot. It is far more eloquent than anything I could say on the subject.

Look again at that dot.

That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.

On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary master of a fraction of a dot.

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is no where else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth his where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994


Here is a link to a YouTube video of the text of the monologue with some wonderful music and pictures.

This one has Dr. Sagan himself reading and with equally fitting music and lovely pictures.

Scientists have found 236 extra-solar (not in our little Solar System) planets in the 12 years since the first one was located. As yet, we haven't found another Earth or even any really likely life-supporting candidates. Not so far. Science took several thousand years to develop to the point where we could identify the fact that Jupiter has moons orbiting it, and it's in our backyard. Given more time, there can be little doubt that our science will identify an Earth-like planet that would have a good chance of supporting life as we understand the concept.

So, what does that mean for us?

Really, the question should be: "What does that mean for you?"

For me, another Earth-like planet would give me hope. Perhaps a potential lifeboat for our species, should we manage to drive ourselves to the brink of extinction. As I contemplate THE Pale Blue Dot, I hope that one day, our species will be able to look into the heavens, point to a star and say "We live there."

Again, I'll ask that question. "What's it all about?"

I'm going to give you my answer.

I encourage you all to find your answer.

Enjoy your life. Embrace it. Don't let distractions get between it and you. Work, play, fight, scream, cry.

Be brave. Be afraid.

Be careful. Be reckless.

Let yourself use your heart.

Hate. Yes, I said "hate".
I hate. I hate racism, war, famine, disease, corruption, pain and a thousand other things. My hatred of them hasn't lessened them one bit. Hatred is as human as love and as full of potential. It's only a negative if you let it be.

Love. Just remember that love comes with it's own potential for negativity.

Live.

Whatever you do, don't hide.

 

/End Repost.

I would add "watch out for Covid" to that credo in the future.  It's a miserable illness that I would only wish on a select few people.  If you read the blog, you're probably not on the list.  If you comment on the blog, you're definitely not on the list.

MORE Blue Eye Samurai!

There's not a lot of happy in my average day as I battle Covid for the last 5 days.  I'm basically capable of "being ill" and little else.

So it was a VERY welcome moment when one of my regular haunts reported that Netflix has officially renewed the best show of the year, Blue Eye Samurai for a second season.  The showrunners apparently plan an arc over 4 seasons.  I'd take 40. 

 

Easily the best show of the year.  Full stop.

 

I'll say it again for anyone still on the fence.  Don't be dissuaded by it being a cartoon.  This is a serious, beautiful, violent, sexy, adult show that is worth every minute to watch.

Not just the best cartoon of the year.

Not just the most beautifully rendered show of the year.

Not just the best action show of the year.

Not just the best female led show of the year.

Not just the best fantasy show of the year.

The.  Best.  Show.  Of.  The.  Year.  Period.

Covid. 3 Shots But Still Got Me.

Friday afternoon, a little unexpected cough.  Maybe 4 times.

By that evening, a nasty sore throat, but a saltwater gargle seemed to help.  I had hope.

Saturday.  I felt like someone had rolled me like dough with a big old rolling pin.  My whole body ached like hell.  The sore throat seemed to go, leaving a little (very painful) cough.

Sleep was fitful and not very restful.

Sunday, the throat is sore again, the cough is back but at least the body isn't sore anymore.

Test for Covid to see if I can go to work in the morning.  Nope.  Positive Covid test.

 

It's a boy.

I like a day off as much as the next guy, but this a terrible way to get time off.  My head is still stuffy (seemingly in my brain as well as my sinuses) and the cough, though infrequent, is seriously painful.

It's still out there, folks.  So far it's not much different than a weirdly roller coaster cold.  One day bad, one better, back to bad.  Today I woke up feeling as bad or worse than yesterday.

Be safe.  It may suck, but consider a mask in big groups.  I was at the staff party on Wednesday and truly hope I picked this up somewhere on Thursday, not among my co-workers.  So far I seem to be the only lucky one, so maybe I did pick it up elsewhere.  

Again, be safe folks!   This is NOT the way to get a couple of days off work.

Ain't She Purdy!

In what looks like a first, a leucistic white alligator has been born at Gatorland, a park in Florida.

 

Hey there, blue eyes!

Leucistic white alligators are not albino.  They have beautiful blue eyes and the white colouring is genetic, not a pigment deficiency.

I think this little beauty is just about the cutest thing going.

If you'd like a little more information, the entire story is on cnn.com, here.

Amy Acker. Happy Birthday!

Today is Amy Acker's 47th birthday.  I don't normally do birthday wishes on the blog, but Amy is special.

 

Back in the day, my first choice for a new

Bionic Woman.  Amy Acker just radiates Jamie Summers.

Her running in slo-mo would to that theme music...I melt.

Not only do I have a crush on her, but her IMDB profile reads like a list of "Movies and Television that GB loves" pretty much top to bottom.  Every second or third project she takes on is a sci-fi/fantasy/super-hero piece and I love her in all of 'em!

Person of Interest

Angel

The Gifted (X-Men spinoff from Fox)

Dollhouse

Human Target 

Justice League Unlimited

Drive (Look it up, another show killed far to quickly)

Much Ado About Nothing

Cabin In The Woods

Guest shots on shows like:

Warehouse 13

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Scooby-Doo - Mystery Incorporated

No Ordinary Family

Once Upon A Time

The divine Ms. Acker even played Lois Lane once in the animated Superman - Red Son.

Happy Birthday Amy Acker!  Here's to another 47 years of you in movies and tv I love!

For All Mankind. What Should Be.

I've been watching the alternate history of the Space Program...program, For All Mankind.

If you've read what I've written about it, you know I like it and that the whole idea of widening the role of women in the program much earlier than actually happened appeals to my sensibilities.

While the show and its central McGuffin are great, it's what it represents that really endears it to me.

I'm a child of the 70s.  When I was a kid, mankind had very recently been to the Moon.  The year I got my LEGO castle for Christmas, LEGO also put out a hugely popular space set that sold about as well as the classic castle set.  In short, space was a big damned deal when I was a kid.  

Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers ALL spin wildly in my childhood memories alongside the Bionic Man, Knight Rider and a lot of other sci-fi shows and films.

The thing is, we expected that a whole lot this space stuff would be real (if more pedestrian than TV made it out to be) in our lifetimes.  

Not flying cars though.  That's a terrible idea.  Drivers have a LOT of trouble managing not to kill each other in 2 dimensions, every single day.  Letting the average driver loose in 3 dimensions is a recipe for horrible, horrible things to happen.

But I digress...

Sure, space tourism is about to get off the ground (sorry, I couldn't resist) but that's only for the hyper rich and only for the briefest of moments.  We expected to walk on the Moon, ourselves,  one day.  Given the option to lay a wager in 1977 or so, I would have bet heavily that we would have a functional base on Mars by 2025, easily.  We'd just been to and from the Moon several times only a few years earlier.  I knew there was a car and flags up there, so it seemed pretty linearly logical to imagine a base and then a civilian town sooner, rather than later.

For All Mankind puts the future we expected on our televisions.  Like any reality vs. fantasy moment, it's not quite what anyone would have expected, but it lines up better with what I would have anticipated as the march of humanity into the wider solar system than what has actually happened in my lifetime.

There's a decent chance I'll live long enough to see someone walk on Mars.  I doubt I will be around to see more than a minimal human presence on the Moon and I hold zero hope of seeing us plant permanent roots on Mars in my lifetime.  For All Mankind just opens a window into how we've pissed away the opportunity to take humanity's next steps for the last 50 years, deciding instead to concentrate on the space right above our heads rather than hurtle ourselves outward. 

Maybe we needed that time to get good enough technologically, so we would be ready for the next phase.  I'm only a fan of science and exploration, so I guess I can't offer more than my opinion.  I'd bet that a LOT of the astronauts that spent time in low earth orbit in the last 50 years or so would have been more than happy to take the risk to set foot on Mars rather than orbit the earth a few hundred times.  And aren't we at our best when we push the envelope and travel at the very edge of our abilities as a species?

What could have been, eh?

I'll Say It Again...

Blue Eye Samurai.  Damn.  Just...damn.

I've watched literally thousands of hours of animation in my life.

The last hour of Blue Eye Samurai, (Episode 8) is the very, very best.

There are frames in there that could hang as paintings in palaces and fit right in.

It is simply gorgeous.  And spectacular.

Season 2 through whenever I die MUST be made.  Never stop making this show.

Forget a list of top animation properties.  This show tops lists of top action/adventure/historical dramas with ease.  

I honestly can't recall being more engaged by something on my television in recent memory.  

If you have Netflix, watch this.  Now.

If not, find someone who does and move in.

My only negative note is that in the very closing minutes, what had been a tightly braided cord of story threads has frayed open into at least three seemingly opposing directions.  After 8 superb episodes, I have great faith in this show's creative team that in some way I cannot envision,  will somehow loop those new strands into a weave and continue the tale as a tapestry.  

What they have started here deserves its place among properties with household names like Game of Thrones, Dune and Shogun.  It truly is that good.

A Story About Many Things

At CNN.com today, there's a story about a 9 year old boy, his tragedy, an illegal immigrant, his odyssey and how the two intersected one fateful Thanksgiving day on a desert road in Arizona.

If you can read through this entire story and not feel tears welling up, I would worry for your emotional well-being.  It's powerful stuff.

While it's a story about tragedy, loss, dashed hopes, change, resilience, healing and much more, I think it's really about one thing more than all that.

The simple act of helping when help is needed.

The fact that the hero of the story is a man trying to illegally enter the United States makes it more readily used by the media.  The fact that the victim is a young boy makes it more emotionally "punchy".

The thing is, in the true heart of the story, neither of those facts is truly important.  If it had been a successful businessman hiking the area in the "hero" role and a middle aged woman in the "victim" role, or vice versa, the story would be just as uplifting.  

One human helping another should be headline news every damned day.  In the end, it's truly the only thing in this whole world that is worth reporting or reading about.  Everything else is just noise.

Dead Boy Detectives

Dead Boy Detectives as a property made its television debut as a brief part of an episode of the now finished Doom Patrol. It's basically Hardy Boys with ghosts.

It's since been recast, retooled and rehomed on Netflix.

 

 

Honestly, if this wasn't a DC Comics adjacent property, it 

would be on my "Not a chance in Hell" list. 

The big claim to fame here is "from the author of The Sandman".  For a WHOLE LOT of comic book geeks, that's a huge plus and buys a ton of goodwill upfront.

For me?  Not so much.  Never read Sandman and found the tv series dull and forgettable.

As I have a personal "watch it all" commitment to comic book television and movie properties, particularly DC and Marvel, I'll give this a watch.  I'm not expecting much.

Blue Eye Samurai. Just...Damn...

Back in the dim mists of time, the "mini-series" hadn't been invented yet.

Then came "Shogun" and television would never be the same.

I was 10 when the Richard Chamberlain mini-series hit our televisions and I remember my parents wondering if the story might be too adult for a ten year old.  Thankfully, they let me watch all five episodes as they aired over a week in September, 1980.

Shogun introduced me to the idea that television and movies could be more than simple stories told over an hour or two.  It also is probably the first thing I ever consumed on television that wasn't black and white in its morality.  Shogun showed me that there are shades of grey that make can bring a narrative alive.  It took nearly 30 years for those ideas to really catch on, at least on television.  Every time you binge watch a sprawling, season long arc of any show, particularly one with a case of moral ambiguity, you should give a little nod of thanks to Shogun.

It's coming back.  I saw a trailer for the new "Shogun" just this week.  It looks pretty great.  Unlike the originally aired version, there are handy subtitles.  I'm not certain that's an improvement, but it will make following the story easier.  

I remember that by the third episode of the original mini-series, my parents and I were very proud of our ability to follow what was going on without any subtitles or dubbing of the Japanese dialogue.  It was a gimmick, sure, and they put subs on the reruns, but it really did suck us in to the story in a truly unique way.  We were in the same predicament as the main character, needing to interpret tone and body language in a land where no one spoke our language.  I don't think the same trick has ever been tried on a mainstream show, since.

I'm a fan of the James Clavell novel it's based on, but a bigger fan of his novels, Gai-Jin and Tai-Pan.  Clavell is a master of the sprawling story and he's written half a dozen amazing novels that would make great "mini-series" type television with the right actors and budget.

Or...

Imagine that sprawling, multi-episodic story-telling in animated form.  Something like Game of Thrones meets Shogun, but lovingly crafted in pen, ink and pixels and paint.  Thankfully, not in an anime style.  Most Japanese set animated projects use that style and I must admit, I'm not usually a fan.  There are some great anime projects out there, but for me it's not my go to animation style.  I prefer a more "western" style of animation and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the newest Japanese wandering Ronin animated story has a Japanese influenced western style.

 

Blue Eye Samurai

Blue Eye Samurai gives us the Game of Thrones scale in a Shogun world, with a bit of Mulan thrown in for good measure and it is GLORIOUS.

Blue Eye Samurai is a masterful story told in superb animation.  The voice acting is fabulous and the pacing, direction and visual power are as good as anything I've seen.  

It's also definitely NOT suitable for a ten year old.  Violence, gore, nudity and sex are as much a part of the story as the gorgeous sword fights and subtle details of the story and its telling.

I was sold when, early in the first episode the leader of a gang of boys looks up sharply after their quarry and gives a tiny, sharp "let's go" twitch of his head.  It was totally unnecessary but told me that the creators truly cared to bring the story to full, convincing life rather than just roll out the next Netflix cartoon.

I say this often because it still seems that there's a stigma about adults watching animation, but don't let the fact that it's a cartoon keep you from watching this.  It's probably the best thing you'll see this year.

In my youth, there was a similar stigma around "fantasy" shows and movies.  They were for geeks and nerds, exclusively.  Serious adults didn't watch that kind of stuff.  Then Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings happened.  Now those same "serious adults" are watching and loving shows like The Wheel of Time and House of the Dragon.

Now there are shows like Blue Eye Samurai.  Serious, adult, beautiful storytelling that plays out in pen and ink, pixel and paint.  It feels very much like a beautiful piece of Japanese ink painting, Sumi-e, in motion.

A fitting way to erase another stigma.