Nik's Picks '04, continued: My top five CDs of the year. Sometime before 2005 gets too far along I'll throw up my television and comic book picks of the year, and then we'll all move on with our lives.
#1. Green Day, “American Idiot”
The punks are older, but they’re still angry. Ten years ago, Green Day helped spur a punk revival. Now, they’ve put out a fierce, loud manifesto, an epic “punk rock opera” about alienation, loneliness, drugs and broken hearts — or, being a confused teenager in 2004. “American Idiot” takes as much influence from The Who and The Clash as it does The Ramones, with a soaring epic feel married with pounding punk attacks and songs as catchy as TV commercial jingles. Toss in two soaring, magnificent 12-minute-long multipart songs, and you’ve got a modern-day version of The Who’s “Tommy.” Ambitious as heck, and their best album yet.
#2. Björk, “Medulla”
Icelandic chanteuse Björk steps back from the electronica trip-hop feel of much of her earlier work, and unveils an album of sounds almost entirely created by the human voice. You hear a variety of sounds here — ululating cries, looming choirs, bizarre “beat box” grunts and bass beats, even a “human trombone” in one song — all mixed with Björk’s floating croon. It’s utterly alien, not for everybody, yet this experiment really works at creating a whole new world of music. And Baby Peter absolutely digs it, too.
#3. TV on the Radio, “Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes”
This New York-based group is a fascinating cultural mix. Caucasian and African-American members come together to create industrial-strength alternative rock crossed with doo-wop and gospel sounds. The result is hypnotic and soulful, a record filled with grand, epic singing and a tense kind of passion. Songs like “Staring At The Sun” or “Dreams” combine great pop imagery with an urgent funky feeling. A captivating debut album, one that makes you eager to hear what sounds this artsy combo comes up with next.
#4. The Pixies, “Live in Eugene, Oregon, 4/28/04”
The alt-rock forefathers, one of the late 1980s and early 1990s’ finest bands, reunited this year for a hugely successful tour. Their uniquely skewed, raw surf-punk fusion, influential on countless bands ranging from Nirvana to the aforementioned Modest Mouse, hadn’t aged at all, as they proved at a stellar two-show stop at Eugene’s McDonald Theater. Best of all, the band contracted with a company called DiscLive (www.disclive.com) to put out “official bootlegs” of all the shows on their tour, recorded on the spot. The audience was able to buy discs burned and produced right after the show, a triumph to modern technology and a great souvenir. Hopefully other bands will catch on.
#5. Modest Mouse, “Good News For People Who Love Bad News”
Paranoid, catchy and diverse rock from this Northwest-based band, which struggled unheralded for years before breaking through with the hummable, hopeful single “Float On.” Lead singer Isaac Brock always sounds like he’s on the edge of a nervous breakdown, but his twitchy angst brings great power to a record that springs from guitar balladry to jam-band singalongs to screaming rage-filled metal. It almost sounds like a mix tape featuring several different bands.
Honorable mention: Franz Ferdinand, “Franz Ferdinand”; Elliott Smith, “From A Basement On A Hill”; The Arcade Fire, “Funeral”; Death Cab for Cutie, “Transatlanticism,” Tom Waits, “Real Gone.”
Friday, December 31, 2004
Thursday, December 30, 2004
OK, finally, here's the next installment of Nik's Picks for 2004: My 10 favorite movies of the year!
Unfortunately, as usual, many of the most anticipated Hollywood films of the year wait until the last minute to come out. So at this writing, I haven’t seen “The Aviator,” “Sideways,” “The Life Aquatic” or several other big Oscar-bait movies. Today's top 10 could be entirely different a month from now. But for now, here's my picks of '04:
1. Spider-Man 2
“Spider-Man 2” is just about as perfect as summer movie blockbuster sequels get, with returning director Sam Raimi balancing action, drama, intelligence and humor. Peter Parker doesn’t live the glamorous life of Batman’s Bruce Wayne, and gets beaten up left and right as he tries to do the right thing in this thrilling sequel. A combination of great storytelling, screen-shaking action and subtle acting by Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina as the villainous Doctor Octopus.
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A brain-twisting love story, a head trip and a strange science-fiction film. Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) are star-crossed young lovers who break up, and Clementine uses the technology of a half-baked “memory-erasing” company to rid her mind of any thoughts of Joel. But when Joel decides to have the procedure done too, he has second thoughts. This incredibly creative, vivid funhouse of a movie, from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the mind behind “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation,” pushes the limits of storytelling. Featuring a subdued, deeply powerful performance by funnyman Carrey, it’s the romance of the year.
3. Collateral
Here’s the pitch: Slacker taxi cab driver picks up fare. Fare is a contract killer. Sit back and watch sparks fly. Michael Mann’s beautifully shot, gritty ode to Los Angeles soars with Tom Cruise as the hitman and Jamie Foxx as the hapless cab driver. Whoever would’ve thought Foxx, from TV’s “In Living Color,” would become such a fine, restrained actor? He balances well against Cruise’s scenery-chewing psychopath in this tense battle of wits. A smart thriller full of unexpected depth, gorgeous cinematography and some incredibly tense sequences. Not groundbreaking, perhaps, but at the top of its class for what it is.
4. The Incredibles
Pixar Animation scores again, with its best animated comedy yet, and the year’s second-best superhero flick. The Incredibles are a family of superheroes who have been put out of business by lawsuits and the government. When Mr. Incredible has a midlife crisis and wants to do good work again, he suits up in the spandex and becomes involved in a conspiracy that soon drags his whole family along. Sidesplittingly funny and from a more adult perspective than “Toy Story” or “Finding Nemo,” with breathtaking computer animation and characters worth rooting for.
5. Shaun of the Dead
There was already one near-great zombie movie in 2004, the “Dawn of the Dead” remake, but this British import goes it one better, balancing horror, comedy, drama and gore to make a splatter/action flick that’s also packed with metaphor and Monty Python-esque humor. Slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a bit of a loser who doesn’t even notice at first when the dead start to come back to life. But he soon discovers hidden depths of courage and ability as he and a rag-tag group of family and friends struggle to survive in an overtaken London. Are zombies any different than the crowds you see at Wal-Mart? “Shaun of the Dead” is a zombie flick for the ages.
6. Kill Bill Volume 2
Quentin Tarantino’s two-part revenge epic wrapped up with a bang and a sword slash or two, but it was also quieter and suprisingly thoughtful compared to the colorful blood-soaked chaos of last year’s “Volume 1.” The baleful Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her vengeance against her former employer Bill and his assassins, while flashbacks continue to fill in the Bride’s back story. While a bit slow here and there compared to the frenetic pace of part one, “Vol. 2” has more heart and soul. Plus, there’s an utterly magnetic performance by David “Kung Fu” Carradine as the strangely likable killer Bill. Put together, the “Kill Bill” series nearly equals Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” peak.
7. Garden State
Zach Braff, the star of TV's superb “Scrubs,” turns in a strong, melancholy big-screen debut as writer and director of this quirky independent-film romance. Braff stars as Andrew “Large” Largeman, a struggling actor numbed by his life and medications. Large returns to his native New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Stumbling into a romance with a sassy local girl played by a dazzling Natalie Portman, Large starts to come back to life. By equal measures witty, surreal and sweet, with a sincerity that can’t be faked, “Garden State” isn’t perfect but it’s heartfelt. Anyone who’s ever returned to their old hometown to catch up with the people they left behind will emphasize with Braff's skewed take on the world.
8. Before Sunset
A sequel without shooting or gunfire? Richard Linklater’s follow-up to his 1995 cult hit “Before Sunrise” is a movie about words, about possibility and potential. In “Before Sunrise,” Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were Jesse and Celine, young, single travelers who met on a train in Europe and spent one talk-filled, incredible night together, the kind of conversation you only have rarely in this life — and then they parted. “Before Sunset” picks up the story 10 years on. The movie is basically a single conversation, filmed with beautiful Paris as a backdrop. It’s also richly involving, thoughtful and truer to life than most movies ever are.
9. Fahrenheit 9/11
You already know by now whether you hate or love Michael Moore. Calling this a “documentary” isn’t quite right — it’s more of a filmed editorial, obviously slanted toward Moore’s views, but no more biased toward a viewpoint than any episode of “The O’Reilly Factor.” Political opinions are radioactive these days, with the media pushing the whole “red state/blue state” divide as if we aren’t all still Americans under the skin. Moore’s movie pulls no punches and certainly has an agenda, but as a provocative, compellingly filmed argument, it’s something all Americans should see — if only to utterly disagree with it.
10. Hero
This Asian import by director Zhang Yimou is hands-down the year’s most attractive film. It riffs off Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” with a tangled tale of assassination and nobility, told multiple times through different viewpoints in ancient China. Similar to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” it’s kung-fu chopsocky wrapped in a gorgeous skin, with simply amazing feats of stunt work, color photography and scenery. Structured with the depth of mythology, but with emotions that can’t be denied, it turns combat into art.
And three of the worst movies from 2004…
1. Dogville
Avant-garde “art” film at its worst, a cynical, bleak and hateful three-hour meditation on small-town American corruption by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. Despite an interesting look and an excellent performance by Nicole Kidman as a woman on the run abused by a small Colorado town’s hospitality, it’s basically a movie without hope and no other message than “gosh, people are bad.”
2. Van Helsing
Video game junk cinema that desecrates the fond memory of the 1930s Universal monster movie flicks, with a sleepwalking Hugh Jackman as the titular monster-slayer. Terrible computer special effects overwhelm the incomprehensible plot, and by the end of it all, you just feel pummeled and exhausted.
3. The Punisher
While “Spider-Man 2” rocked, this Marvel Comics adaptation sank without a trace. “The Punisher” is basically “Death Wish” in spandex, with no soaring superpowers to really wow the audience, some of the most annoying supporting characters in recent memory, and another truly rotten villainous John Travolta performance. It’s also revoltingly ultraviolent, with none of the satire or insight of the best “Punisher” comic books.
Unfortunately, as usual, many of the most anticipated Hollywood films of the year wait until the last minute to come out. So at this writing, I haven’t seen “The Aviator,” “Sideways,” “The Life Aquatic” or several other big Oscar-bait movies. Today's top 10 could be entirely different a month from now. But for now, here's my picks of '04:
1. Spider-Man 2
“Spider-Man 2” is just about as perfect as summer movie blockbuster sequels get, with returning director Sam Raimi balancing action, drama, intelligence and humor. Peter Parker doesn’t live the glamorous life of Batman’s Bruce Wayne, and gets beaten up left and right as he tries to do the right thing in this thrilling sequel. A combination of great storytelling, screen-shaking action and subtle acting by Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Alfred Molina as the villainous Doctor Octopus.
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
A brain-twisting love story, a head trip and a strange science-fiction film. Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) are star-crossed young lovers who break up, and Clementine uses the technology of a half-baked “memory-erasing” company to rid her mind of any thoughts of Joel. But when Joel decides to have the procedure done too, he has second thoughts. This incredibly creative, vivid funhouse of a movie, from screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the mind behind “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation,” pushes the limits of storytelling. Featuring a subdued, deeply powerful performance by funnyman Carrey, it’s the romance of the year.
3. Collateral
Here’s the pitch: Slacker taxi cab driver picks up fare. Fare is a contract killer. Sit back and watch sparks fly. Michael Mann’s beautifully shot, gritty ode to Los Angeles soars with Tom Cruise as the hitman and Jamie Foxx as the hapless cab driver. Whoever would’ve thought Foxx, from TV’s “In Living Color,” would become such a fine, restrained actor? He balances well against Cruise’s scenery-chewing psychopath in this tense battle of wits. A smart thriller full of unexpected depth, gorgeous cinematography and some incredibly tense sequences. Not groundbreaking, perhaps, but at the top of its class for what it is.
4. The Incredibles
Pixar Animation scores again, with its best animated comedy yet, and the year’s second-best superhero flick. The Incredibles are a family of superheroes who have been put out of business by lawsuits and the government. When Mr. Incredible has a midlife crisis and wants to do good work again, he suits up in the spandex and becomes involved in a conspiracy that soon drags his whole family along. Sidesplittingly funny and from a more adult perspective than “Toy Story” or “Finding Nemo,” with breathtaking computer animation and characters worth rooting for.
5. Shaun of the Dead
There was already one near-great zombie movie in 2004, the “Dawn of the Dead” remake, but this British import goes it one better, balancing horror, comedy, drama and gore to make a splatter/action flick that’s also packed with metaphor and Monty Python-esque humor. Slacker Shaun (Simon Pegg) is a bit of a loser who doesn’t even notice at first when the dead start to come back to life. But he soon discovers hidden depths of courage and ability as he and a rag-tag group of family and friends struggle to survive in an overtaken London. Are zombies any different than the crowds you see at Wal-Mart? “Shaun of the Dead” is a zombie flick for the ages.
6. Kill Bill Volume 2
Quentin Tarantino’s two-part revenge epic wrapped up with a bang and a sword slash or two, but it was also quieter and suprisingly thoughtful compared to the colorful blood-soaked chaos of last year’s “Volume 1.” The baleful Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her vengeance against her former employer Bill and his assassins, while flashbacks continue to fill in the Bride’s back story. While a bit slow here and there compared to the frenetic pace of part one, “Vol. 2” has more heart and soul. Plus, there’s an utterly magnetic performance by David “Kung Fu” Carradine as the strangely likable killer Bill. Put together, the “Kill Bill” series nearly equals Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” peak.
7. Garden State
Zach Braff, the star of TV's superb “Scrubs,” turns in a strong, melancholy big-screen debut as writer and director of this quirky independent-film romance. Braff stars as Andrew “Large” Largeman, a struggling actor numbed by his life and medications. Large returns to his native New Jersey for his mother’s funeral. Stumbling into a romance with a sassy local girl played by a dazzling Natalie Portman, Large starts to come back to life. By equal measures witty, surreal and sweet, with a sincerity that can’t be faked, “Garden State” isn’t perfect but it’s heartfelt. Anyone who’s ever returned to their old hometown to catch up with the people they left behind will emphasize with Braff's skewed take on the world.
8. Before Sunset
A sequel without shooting or gunfire? Richard Linklater’s follow-up to his 1995 cult hit “Before Sunrise” is a movie about words, about possibility and potential. In “Before Sunrise,” Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were Jesse and Celine, young, single travelers who met on a train in Europe and spent one talk-filled, incredible night together, the kind of conversation you only have rarely in this life — and then they parted. “Before Sunset” picks up the story 10 years on. The movie is basically a single conversation, filmed with beautiful Paris as a backdrop. It’s also richly involving, thoughtful and truer to life than most movies ever are.
9. Fahrenheit 9/11
You already know by now whether you hate or love Michael Moore. Calling this a “documentary” isn’t quite right — it’s more of a filmed editorial, obviously slanted toward Moore’s views, but no more biased toward a viewpoint than any episode of “The O’Reilly Factor.” Political opinions are radioactive these days, with the media pushing the whole “red state/blue state” divide as if we aren’t all still Americans under the skin. Moore’s movie pulls no punches and certainly has an agenda, but as a provocative, compellingly filmed argument, it’s something all Americans should see — if only to utterly disagree with it.
10. Hero
This Asian import by director Zhang Yimou is hands-down the year’s most attractive film. It riffs off Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” with a tangled tale of assassination and nobility, told multiple times through different viewpoints in ancient China. Similar to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” it’s kung-fu chopsocky wrapped in a gorgeous skin, with simply amazing feats of stunt work, color photography and scenery. Structured with the depth of mythology, but with emotions that can’t be denied, it turns combat into art.
And three of the worst movies from 2004…
1. Dogville
Avant-garde “art” film at its worst, a cynical, bleak and hateful three-hour meditation on small-town American corruption by Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier. Despite an interesting look and an excellent performance by Nicole Kidman as a woman on the run abused by a small Colorado town’s hospitality, it’s basically a movie without hope and no other message than “gosh, people are bad.”
2. Van Helsing
Video game junk cinema that desecrates the fond memory of the 1930s Universal monster movie flicks, with a sleepwalking Hugh Jackman as the titular monster-slayer. Terrible computer special effects overwhelm the incomprehensible plot, and by the end of it all, you just feel pummeled and exhausted.
3. The Punisher
While “Spider-Man 2” rocked, this Marvel Comics adaptation sank without a trace. “The Punisher” is basically “Death Wish” in spandex, with no soaring superpowers to really wow the audience, some of the most annoying supporting characters in recent memory, and another truly rotten villainous John Travolta performance. It’s also revoltingly ultraviolent, with none of the satire or insight of the best “Punisher” comic books.
What I Did Over My Christmas Break
...Whew, OK, glad that's over. So we had a most excellent Christmas, Baby Peter enjoyed his first holiday and got lots of cool toys, caught up with lots of old friends, and ate ham and drank egg nog. It all went so well, that Avril said it was one of her "best Christmases ever."
Which of course jinxed us. Our return trip to Oregon Sunday became a 36-hour epic, rather than the usual 7-8 hour drive, thanks to a massive snowstorm between Redding and Medford. We arrived in the Redding area around 1 p.m. and it was lightly raining. Before we knew it, we got stuck in a huggggggge five-mile-long backup of traffic on Interstate 5 for chain control in the mountains north of Redding. We spent three hours there because yours truly still foolishly believed we could make it home, even as the snow began to fall and got thicker and thicker. Anyway, to make a long story short, once we finally got past chain control checkpoints we realized the snow was worse than we thought, Baby Peter wasn't happy after hours in the car seat, and it was getting dark. So we turned around and went back to Redding with hundreds of other angry travelers, found a Best Western and checked in for the night.
The first time in my dozens of times traveling through snow I've actually been stranded, but with a 10-month-old baby in the car it wasn't worth taking chances (they actually closed I-5 entirely soon after we turned around). Peter enjoyed his hotel room experience and we ate Mexican food and he tried tortilla chips. Called in stranded to work for Monday which wasn't great since we were already down several key editors. Monday morning, I-5 was still closed and it was still raining/snowing and we decided rather than hang around for hours in Redding, get stuck in massive backlog whenever I-5 opened, we'd take the long way around, all the way over land to the coast at Arcata from Redding, up from Arcata to Crescent City and then over across the border to Grants Pass and back onto I-5, with all the mountains behind us. Basically added 200 miles to the trip.
However, it was a beautiful drive through some of the country's finest scenery, and fortunately the snow was left behind even if the rain wasn't. Hadn't traveled that route in years, and Avril never had. Would have been nice to drive that way when I wasn't in a rush to get home, but in a twisted kind of way it was actually a fun little adventure, and Baby Peter was about as good as you can expect after his ordeals. Finally arrived back in Roseburg at 6 p.m. Monday night, 33 hours after leaving my parents' house 450 miles away. Collapsed into pile of goo.
And am still catching up with huge backlogs at work -- this of course being the week I write my annual gigantic 2,500-word roundup of the year in music and movies for the paper. And I lost my time Monday to work on it. Ack thppp.
Anyway, will post some more of my Nik's Picks later today, and transmissions should gradually resume a normal schedule.
...Whew, OK, glad that's over. So we had a most excellent Christmas, Baby Peter enjoyed his first holiday and got lots of cool toys, caught up with lots of old friends, and ate ham and drank egg nog. It all went so well, that Avril said it was one of her "best Christmases ever."
Which of course jinxed us. Our return trip to Oregon Sunday became a 36-hour epic, rather than the usual 7-8 hour drive, thanks to a massive snowstorm between Redding and Medford. We arrived in the Redding area around 1 p.m. and it was lightly raining. Before we knew it, we got stuck in a huggggggge five-mile-long backup of traffic on Interstate 5 for chain control in the mountains north of Redding. We spent three hours there because yours truly still foolishly believed we could make it home, even as the snow began to fall and got thicker and thicker. Anyway, to make a long story short, once we finally got past chain control checkpoints we realized the snow was worse than we thought, Baby Peter wasn't happy after hours in the car seat, and it was getting dark. So we turned around and went back to Redding with hundreds of other angry travelers, found a Best Western and checked in for the night.
The first time in my dozens of times traveling through snow I've actually been stranded, but with a 10-month-old baby in the car it wasn't worth taking chances (they actually closed I-5 entirely soon after we turned around). Peter enjoyed his hotel room experience and we ate Mexican food and he tried tortilla chips. Called in stranded to work for Monday which wasn't great since we were already down several key editors. Monday morning, I-5 was still closed and it was still raining/snowing and we decided rather than hang around for hours in Redding, get stuck in massive backlog whenever I-5 opened, we'd take the long way around, all the way over land to the coast at Arcata from Redding, up from Arcata to Crescent City and then over across the border to Grants Pass and back onto I-5, with all the mountains behind us. Basically added 200 miles to the trip.
However, it was a beautiful drive through some of the country's finest scenery, and fortunately the snow was left behind even if the rain wasn't. Hadn't traveled that route in years, and Avril never had. Would have been nice to drive that way when I wasn't in a rush to get home, but in a twisted kind of way it was actually a fun little adventure, and Baby Peter was about as good as you can expect after his ordeals. Finally arrived back in Roseburg at 6 p.m. Monday night, 33 hours after leaving my parents' house 450 miles away. Collapsed into pile of goo.
And am still catching up with huge backlogs at work -- this of course being the week I write my annual gigantic 2,500-word roundup of the year in music and movies for the paper. And I lost my time Monday to work on it. Ack thppp.
Anyway, will post some more of my Nik's Picks later today, and transmissions should gradually resume a normal schedule.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Man of the world!
Baby Peter got a special package today -- his official citizenship papers for New Zealand. Now he's a dual citizen of both the U.S. and of his mom's homeland, which makes life easier for the future day we plan to move there for a while. (Yeah, I know all the good liberals are going to Canada, but honestly, we planned to move to NZ even before Bush got re-elected...)
That's it for blogging until the 27th or so, so Happy Holidays to all and to quote the Ramones,
"Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight
Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight
Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight with you"
Cheers!
Baby Peter got a special package today -- his official citizenship papers for New Zealand. Now he's a dual citizen of both the U.S. and of his mom's homeland, which makes life easier for the future day we plan to move there for a while. (Yeah, I know all the good liberals are going to Canada, but honestly, we planned to move to NZ even before Bush got re-elected...)
That's it for blogging until the 27th or so, so Happy Holidays to all and to quote the Ramones,
"Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight
Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight
Merry Christmas, I don't want to fight tonight with you"
Cheers!
Nik’s Picks 2004: Favorite Books Read
...And so we kick off the “list-o-mania” that comes with the end of every year. I’m a total sucker for the “best of” lists that multiply like rabbits on crack this time of year, and always enjoy throwing my own two cents in there. Since I now have my own little corner of the Internet to blog and blather on in, I’ll be posting my periodic ”Nik’s Picks” (catchy, eh?) over the next few weeks on movies, music, comics, et cetera ad infinitum.
To kick it off, here’s a look at my favorite books I read in 2004. Most of my lists will concentrate on things that came out during 2004 (like movies, f’r instance) but in the case of books, I don’t discriminate because heck, there’s a mighty lot of good books out there written before this year. Actually, most of the books I read came out before this year. Anyway, without further ado, the five favorite books I read in 2004, complete with mind-numbing Appendix.* So hang on, this is a long post (but probably the only one for the week, as we’re off to California Wednesday to visit the folks).
“The Dark Tower” by Stephen King, Book 6, “Song of Susannah,” and Book 7, “The Dark Tower.” King’s impossibly epic, 30-years-in-the making magnum opus draws to a close, the tale of Roland the Gunslinger and his quest for knowledge at the Dark Tower in a ruined world. Sure, King went on a bit -- more than 3,000 pages for the whole series -- and there are those who will quibble with the fateful, startling ending to it all in Book 7, but overall, the heart and soul of this series stands with fantasy classics throughout the ages. It’s King’s crowning statement.
“Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World,” by Haruki Murakami I love all the books I’ve read by this thoughtful, surrealist Japanese author, so almost any of them could go here (and his enormous epic, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” which I read in 2003, is a great place to start). This early work is more cyber-punk and labyrinthine than his later novels, but it’s a fascinating tale of dual natures and reality. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator engages in a strange high-tech conspiracy set deep under the city, while in alternating chapters, an entirely different story seems to be taking place, set in a fantastical, prison-like village. How the threads come together under Murakami’s exquisite prose is strange indeed, but it all makes a twisted kind of sense. It’s the sort of book that’s really hard to describe, but haunts you for weeks after you finish.
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” Volumes 1-3, by Robert A. Caro. I’m still reading the 1,100-page third book, “Master of the Senate,” and the fourth and final book isn’t even written yet, but this remains one of the finest political biographies of modern times. What’s striking is that the central figure, LBJ, really is an unknowable, driven near-sociopath with an immense lust for power, with little to redeem him; yet he accomplished many good things, and Caro’s incredibly well-researched, smoothly-written prose is compulsive reading. More than just a tale of a future President, it’s really a microcosm of the entire American political system in the rags-to-riches tale of LBJ and the century he lived in. Few writers could make election intrigue, Senate parliamentary procedure and Texas wheelin’ and dealin’ read so well.
”Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota” by Chuck Klosterman As written about just a few weeks back, this is a quirky, borderline profound piece of pop culture criticism, using ‘80s hair metal as a metaphor for growing up confused in a small town. Even if you’re not a fan of the bands he writes about, Klosterman’s mix of humor, trivia and memoir will ring bells for anyone who’s ever been a passionate fan of something. (2002)
The Known World by Edward P. Jones. This first novel won the 2004 Pulitzer prize for fiction, and tackles a controversial subject -— black slaveowners in the pre-Civil War South. It’s something rarely acknowledged in history books -- how could a black man own slaves? -- but it did happen, and author Jones, a black man himself, does a stunning job reimagining this strange subculture and its conflicts. “The Known World” takes us into the plantation owned by freed slave Henry Townsend, and over nearly 300 pages we learn his past, his fate, and what happens to his plantation after he was gone. Jones grapples with slavery in ways I’ve never seen in fiction before, with some lyrical yet not overblown prose reminiscent of Toni Morrison or “Cold Mountain.” It’s a complex book filled with dozens of characters, a grand, sprawling, sad and thoughtful success in historical fiction.
Also....
*Appendix A
And to truly get wordy, if anybody’s actually interested, the pool from which I drew, here’s all the books -- excepting comic books, graphic novels, that sort of thing -- that I read in 2004. Yes, I do keep track of such things religiously, and yes, I have never known the touch of a woman.
“A Short History of Nearly Everything,” by Bill Bryson
“Dude Where’s My Country,” by Michael Moore
“Monster Of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and in the Mind,” by David Quammen
“Stiff: The Curious Life Of Human Cadavers,” by Mary Roach
“Reefer Madness,” by Eric Schlosser
“The Life of Mammals,” David Attenborough
"What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias And The News”, by Eric Alterman
“Cheaper By The Dozen,” by Frank B. Gilberth, Ernestine Gilberth Carey
“The Mosquito Coast,” by Paul Theroux
“American Sphinx: The Character Of Thomas Jefferson,” by Joseph Ellis
“40 Ways To Look At Winston Churchill,” by Gretchen Rubin
“The History of Murder,” by Colin Wilson
“Belles on their Toes,” by Frank B. Gilberth, Ernestine Gilberth Carey
“Deadlines Past” by Walter Mears
“Strangers on a Train,” by Patricia Highsmith
“Heavier Than Heaven: A biography of Kurt Cobain,” by Charles Cross
“Personal History,” by Katherine Graham
“Drop City” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
“Clinton and Me,” by Bill Clinton’s “joke writer” Mark Katz.
“Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the ‘90s” by Jim Derogatis
“The Known World” by Edward P. Jones
“Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World,” by Haruki Murakami
“The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time,” by Mark Haddon
“The Secret Lives of U.S. Presidents" by Cormac O’Brien
“Paper Trails” by Ellen Goodman
“Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs” by Chuck Klosterman
“Dress Yourself In Corduroy and Denim,” by David Sedaris
“The Dark Tower Book 6: Song of Suzannah,” by Stephen King
“My Life,” by Bill Clinton
“Oracle Night,” by Paul Auster
“The Elephant Vanishes,” by Haruki Murakami.
“Down and Dirty Pictures” by Peter Biskind
“Comic Creators on Spider-Man,” edited by Tom DeFalco
“Taboo Tunes, A History of Banned Bands And Censored Songs” by Peter Blecha
“Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden and the Stolen Election of 1786,” by Roy Morris Jr.
“Surviving The Extremes: A Doctor’s Journey To The Limits of Human Endurance” by Dr. Kenneth Kamler
“Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night Live’” by Tom Shales
“The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde
“The Dark Tower Book Seven: The Dark Tower” by Stephen King
“Give My Regards To The Atom-Smashers: Writers on Comics,” edited by Sean Rowe
“The Plot To Destroy America,” by Philip Roth
“Slipping Into Paradise: Why I Live In New Zealand” by Jeffrey Masson
“A Galaxy Far Far Away: Writers and Artists on 25 years of ‘Star Wars,’” edited by Glenn Kenny
“Star Trek: The Return” by William Shatner
“Coast of Dreams, California on the Edge, 1990-2003” by Kevin Starr
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path To Power” by Robert A. Caro.
“Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined A Generation,” by Chris Turner
“America: The Book” by the staff of “The Daily Show”
“Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004,” edited by Mickey Hart
“All I Did Was Ask: Conversations With Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists” by Terry Gross
“What’s The Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won The Heart of America” by Thomas Frank
“Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota,” by Chuck Klosterman
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent” by Robert A. Caro
“South of the Border, West of the Sun” by Haruki Murakami
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate” by Robert A. Caro
...And so we kick off the “list-o-mania” that comes with the end of every year. I’m a total sucker for the “best of” lists that multiply like rabbits on crack this time of year, and always enjoy throwing my own two cents in there. Since I now have my own little corner of the Internet to blog and blather on in, I’ll be posting my periodic ”Nik’s Picks” (catchy, eh?) over the next few weeks on movies, music, comics, et cetera ad infinitum.
To kick it off, here’s a look at my favorite books I read in 2004. Most of my lists will concentrate on things that came out during 2004 (like movies, f’r instance) but in the case of books, I don’t discriminate because heck, there’s a mighty lot of good books out there written before this year. Actually, most of the books I read came out before this year. Anyway, without further ado, the five favorite books I read in 2004, complete with mind-numbing Appendix.* So hang on, this is a long post (but probably the only one for the week, as we’re off to California Wednesday to visit the folks).
“The Dark Tower” by Stephen King, Book 6, “Song of Susannah,” and Book 7, “The Dark Tower.” King’s impossibly epic, 30-years-in-the making magnum opus draws to a close, the tale of Roland the Gunslinger and his quest for knowledge at the Dark Tower in a ruined world. Sure, King went on a bit -- more than 3,000 pages for the whole series -- and there are those who will quibble with the fateful, startling ending to it all in Book 7, but overall, the heart and soul of this series stands with fantasy classics throughout the ages. It’s King’s crowning statement.
“Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World,” by Haruki Murakami I love all the books I’ve read by this thoughtful, surrealist Japanese author, so almost any of them could go here (and his enormous epic, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” which I read in 2003, is a great place to start). This early work is more cyber-punk and labyrinthine than his later novels, but it’s a fascinating tale of dual natures and reality. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator engages in a strange high-tech conspiracy set deep under the city, while in alternating chapters, an entirely different story seems to be taking place, set in a fantastical, prison-like village. How the threads come together under Murakami’s exquisite prose is strange indeed, but it all makes a twisted kind of sense. It’s the sort of book that’s really hard to describe, but haunts you for weeks after you finish.
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” Volumes 1-3, by Robert A. Caro. I’m still reading the 1,100-page third book, “Master of the Senate,” and the fourth and final book isn’t even written yet, but this remains one of the finest political biographies of modern times. What’s striking is that the central figure, LBJ, really is an unknowable, driven near-sociopath with an immense lust for power, with little to redeem him; yet he accomplished many good things, and Caro’s incredibly well-researched, smoothly-written prose is compulsive reading. More than just a tale of a future President, it’s really a microcosm of the entire American political system in the rags-to-riches tale of LBJ and the century he lived in. Few writers could make election intrigue, Senate parliamentary procedure and Texas wheelin’ and dealin’ read so well.
”Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota” by Chuck Klosterman As written about just a few weeks back, this is a quirky, borderline profound piece of pop culture criticism, using ‘80s hair metal as a metaphor for growing up confused in a small town. Even if you’re not a fan of the bands he writes about, Klosterman’s mix of humor, trivia and memoir will ring bells for anyone who’s ever been a passionate fan of something. (2002)
The Known World by Edward P. Jones. This first novel won the 2004 Pulitzer prize for fiction, and tackles a controversial subject -— black slaveowners in the pre-Civil War South. It’s something rarely acknowledged in history books -- how could a black man own slaves? -- but it did happen, and author Jones, a black man himself, does a stunning job reimagining this strange subculture and its conflicts. “The Known World” takes us into the plantation owned by freed slave Henry Townsend, and over nearly 300 pages we learn his past, his fate, and what happens to his plantation after he was gone. Jones grapples with slavery in ways I’ve never seen in fiction before, with some lyrical yet not overblown prose reminiscent of Toni Morrison or “Cold Mountain.” It’s a complex book filled with dozens of characters, a grand, sprawling, sad and thoughtful success in historical fiction.
Also....
*Appendix A
And to truly get wordy, if anybody’s actually interested, the pool from which I drew, here’s all the books -- excepting comic books, graphic novels, that sort of thing -- that I read in 2004. Yes, I do keep track of such things religiously, and yes, I have never known the touch of a woman.
“A Short History of Nearly Everything,” by Bill Bryson
“Dude Where’s My Country,” by Michael Moore
“Monster Of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and in the Mind,” by David Quammen
“Stiff: The Curious Life Of Human Cadavers,” by Mary Roach
“Reefer Madness,” by Eric Schlosser
“The Life of Mammals,” David Attenborough
"What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias And The News”, by Eric Alterman
“Cheaper By The Dozen,” by Frank B. Gilberth, Ernestine Gilberth Carey
“The Mosquito Coast,” by Paul Theroux
“American Sphinx: The Character Of Thomas Jefferson,” by Joseph Ellis
“40 Ways To Look At Winston Churchill,” by Gretchen Rubin
“The History of Murder,” by Colin Wilson
“Belles on their Toes,” by Frank B. Gilberth, Ernestine Gilberth Carey
“Deadlines Past” by Walter Mears
“Strangers on a Train,” by Patricia Highsmith
“Heavier Than Heaven: A biography of Kurt Cobain,” by Charles Cross
“Personal History,” by Katherine Graham
“Drop City” by T. Coraghessan Boyle
“Clinton and Me,” by Bill Clinton’s “joke writer” Mark Katz.
“Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the ‘90s” by Jim Derogatis
“The Known World” by Edward P. Jones
“Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World,” by Haruki Murakami
“The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time,” by Mark Haddon
“The Secret Lives of U.S. Presidents" by Cormac O’Brien
“Paper Trails” by Ellen Goodman
“Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs” by Chuck Klosterman
“Dress Yourself In Corduroy and Denim,” by David Sedaris
“The Dark Tower Book 6: Song of Suzannah,” by Stephen King
“My Life,” by Bill Clinton
“Oracle Night,” by Paul Auster
“The Elephant Vanishes,” by Haruki Murakami.
“Down and Dirty Pictures” by Peter Biskind
“Comic Creators on Spider-Man,” edited by Tom DeFalco
“Taboo Tunes, A History of Banned Bands And Censored Songs” by Peter Blecha
“Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden and the Stolen Election of 1786,” by Roy Morris Jr.
“Surviving The Extremes: A Doctor’s Journey To The Limits of Human Endurance” by Dr. Kenneth Kamler
“Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night Live’” by Tom Shales
“The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde
“The Dark Tower Book Seven: The Dark Tower” by Stephen King
“Give My Regards To The Atom-Smashers: Writers on Comics,” edited by Sean Rowe
“The Plot To Destroy America,” by Philip Roth
“Slipping Into Paradise: Why I Live In New Zealand” by Jeffrey Masson
“A Galaxy Far Far Away: Writers and Artists on 25 years of ‘Star Wars,’” edited by Glenn Kenny
“Star Trek: The Return” by William Shatner
“Coast of Dreams, California on the Edge, 1990-2003” by Kevin Starr
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path To Power” by Robert A. Caro.
“Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined A Generation,” by Chris Turner
“America: The Book” by the staff of “The Daily Show”
“Da Capo Best Music Writing 2004,” edited by Mickey Hart
“All I Did Was Ask: Conversations With Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists” by Terry Gross
“What’s The Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won The Heart of America” by Thomas Frank
“Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota,” by Chuck Klosterman
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent” by Robert A. Caro
“South of the Border, West of the Sun” by Haruki Murakami
“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate” by Robert A. Caro
Sunday, December 19, 2004
"Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff."
I watched the great movie, and I think, very overlooked comic book adaptation, "American Splendor" again this morning. What a wonderful little flick this is, and how perfectly it captures the quixotic life of Harvey Pekar. Its oddball nature, though, kind of left it in the ghetto frequented by movie critics and alternative comics fans.
On a second viewing, "American Splendor" might just be one of the best comic adaptations of all. It takes Pekar's consciously mundane autobiographical comics and translates them into a kaleidoscope of a movie, putting animation, reality and re-creation all into a blender. The structure of this movie, which many critics put on their best of 2003 lists, amazes me. It takes real advantage of the comic book form to play with our perceptions of reality -- the real Harvey and actor Paul Giamatti as Harvey switch places throughout the film, making you wonder what's "real." Harvey's just a file clerk at a VA, a luckless cynic who's left failed marriages and is borderline obsessive-compulsive. But his sideline of doing an infrequent autobiographical comic book has somehow transformed his ordinary life into something emblematic of us all. Although I know I should know better, it depresses me a bit to see all the yahoos on the IMDB message boards talking about how the movie is "boring" and wondering why Pekar "deserves" a movie about him. They totally miss the point.
Topped off with that marvelous, frowning, clenched performance by Giamatti (also drawing applause in this year's "Sideways," which I have yet to see) as Pekar, "American Splendor" is the kind of movie I can watch over and over again, and get something a little different from it each time. I know we all like our heroes, our Batman and Spider-Man, and I like 'em too, but in the end most of our lives are a hell of a lot more like humble file clerk, curmudgeon and cynic Harvey Pekar than we'd care to admit.
I picked up Harvey's latest graphic novel, "Our Movie Year," this week, too, and have enjoyed flipping through it. It's kind of a grab-bag compared to some of his other books -- as you can guess from the title, it focuses on his life post-movie and how having an acclaimed film and touring the world to promote it has (or hasn't) changed the ol' grouch's life. Some really good work here, but there's also a little redundancy in this collection, as it comes mostly from various newspapers and magazines rather than Harvey's own comic book. We get several scenes repeated in different strips (three times we see the movie winning a Sundance Film Festival award), although it's not done enough to be truly annoying. I also would've liked to see credits telling me where pieces were reprinted from. Also, there's a lot of Pekar's music biography strips about obscure early 20th century artists and musicians, which I dig. They are very different in tone from everything else in the book, though. Still, all of Harvey's work has this shaggy dog quality to it, messy and untamed and rambling -- kinda like life.
I watched the great movie, and I think, very overlooked comic book adaptation, "American Splendor" again this morning. What a wonderful little flick this is, and how perfectly it captures the quixotic life of Harvey Pekar. Its oddball nature, though, kind of left it in the ghetto frequented by movie critics and alternative comics fans.
On a second viewing, "American Splendor" might just be one of the best comic adaptations of all. It takes Pekar's consciously mundane autobiographical comics and translates them into a kaleidoscope of a movie, putting animation, reality and re-creation all into a blender. The structure of this movie, which many critics put on their best of 2003 lists, amazes me. It takes real advantage of the comic book form to play with our perceptions of reality -- the real Harvey and actor Paul Giamatti as Harvey switch places throughout the film, making you wonder what's "real." Harvey's just a file clerk at a VA, a luckless cynic who's left failed marriages and is borderline obsessive-compulsive. But his sideline of doing an infrequent autobiographical comic book has somehow transformed his ordinary life into something emblematic of us all. Although I know I should know better, it depresses me a bit to see all the yahoos on the IMDB message boards talking about how the movie is "boring" and wondering why Pekar "deserves" a movie about him. They totally miss the point.
Topped off with that marvelous, frowning, clenched performance by Giamatti (also drawing applause in this year's "Sideways," which I have yet to see) as Pekar, "American Splendor" is the kind of movie I can watch over and over again, and get something a little different from it each time. I know we all like our heroes, our Batman and Spider-Man, and I like 'em too, but in the end most of our lives are a hell of a lot more like humble file clerk, curmudgeon and cynic Harvey Pekar than we'd care to admit.
I picked up Harvey's latest graphic novel, "Our Movie Year," this week, too, and have enjoyed flipping through it. It's kind of a grab-bag compared to some of his other books -- as you can guess from the title, it focuses on his life post-movie and how having an acclaimed film and touring the world to promote it has (or hasn't) changed the ol' grouch's life. Some really good work here, but there's also a little redundancy in this collection, as it comes mostly from various newspapers and magazines rather than Harvey's own comic book. We get several scenes repeated in different strips (three times we see the movie winning a Sundance Film Festival award), although it's not done enough to be truly annoying. I also would've liked to see credits telling me where pieces were reprinted from. Also, there's a lot of Pekar's music biography strips about obscure early 20th century artists and musicians, which I dig. They are very different in tone from everything else in the book, though. Still, all of Harvey's work has this shaggy dog quality to it, messy and untamed and rambling -- kinda like life.
Quick comics reviews!
Madrox #4 (of 5)
This X-Men spinoff miniseries has managed to be the second-best of the 328 X-titles currently going (Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men" being the best). Peter David picked fifth-tier mutant Jamie Madrox to focus on here, and his unusual power to create duplicates of himself. This noir-tinged miniseries has a most offbeat murder mystery -- one of Madrox's own "dupes" is killed, and he has to find the killer -- and the hook of it really is a man who can be in two, or ten, places at once. David's done a great job exploring Madrox's unusual power, which is going off the rails as his dupes develop distinct, conflicting personalities (one of his dupes tries to kill him this issue). Moody, dry humor and a really interesting take on superpowers; I don't know if Madrox could sustain an ongoing series but this mini has been a great read. Grade: A-
Shaolin Cowboy #1
Boy, this is weird. I picked this up on the recommendation of my comic shop guy and because I love the insanely detailed artwork of Geoff Darrow (his influence can be seen in "The Matrix" movies). But this comic really is more of a portfolio of Darrow's awesome art and ultraviolence rather than a real story or anything. I can sum it up in one sentence -- mysterious loner cowboy monk rides into canyon, is attacked by a zillion bad guys, killing most of them in immensely gory ways. End of issue. No real explanation for anything. What little dialogue is mostly riffing and jokes. The main character never talks. Kind of zen, ain't it? But wow, that art. You know Darrow's kind of goofing when there's an amazing, impudent ten-page single panel of art, an unbelievably long pan across a gallery of bad guys, each rendered in astounding detail. Courtesy of Jog's Blog, check out the first few pages of it here and marvel at the purty pictures. The craft here is undeniable, but being more of a story man than an art man, I don't know if I'll pick up a second issue, though, unless there was more to it for my $3.50. But you have to marvel at Darrow's chutzpah with this comic. Grade: D for story, A+ for art
Ocean #3
Am still enjoying this latest Warren Ellis sci-fi miniseries, about a mission to Europa and a mysterious long-asleep civilization buried under the ice, although I still feel like not a lot has really happened with the main plot halfway through. Great technobabble and a really intriguing point here, where workers for a corporation voluntarily give up their free will to receive "downloaded" programming and work instructions, in exchange for a huge paycheck at the end of their service. Notions like these are what keep me coming back to Warren Ellis, comics' own Harlan Ellison. Grade: B+
Madrox #4 (of 5)
This X-Men spinoff miniseries has managed to be the second-best of the 328 X-titles currently going (Joss Whedon's "Astonishing X-Men" being the best). Peter David picked fifth-tier mutant Jamie Madrox to focus on here, and his unusual power to create duplicates of himself. This noir-tinged miniseries has a most offbeat murder mystery -- one of Madrox's own "dupes" is killed, and he has to find the killer -- and the hook of it really is a man who can be in two, or ten, places at once. David's done a great job exploring Madrox's unusual power, which is going off the rails as his dupes develop distinct, conflicting personalities (one of his dupes tries to kill him this issue). Moody, dry humor and a really interesting take on superpowers; I don't know if Madrox could sustain an ongoing series but this mini has been a great read. Grade: A-
Shaolin Cowboy #1
Boy, this is weird. I picked this up on the recommendation of my comic shop guy and because I love the insanely detailed artwork of Geoff Darrow (his influence can be seen in "The Matrix" movies). But this comic really is more of a portfolio of Darrow's awesome art and ultraviolence rather than a real story or anything. I can sum it up in one sentence -- mysterious loner cowboy monk rides into canyon, is attacked by a zillion bad guys, killing most of them in immensely gory ways. End of issue. No real explanation for anything. What little dialogue is mostly riffing and jokes. The main character never talks. Kind of zen, ain't it? But wow, that art. You know Darrow's kind of goofing when there's an amazing, impudent ten-page single panel of art, an unbelievably long pan across a gallery of bad guys, each rendered in astounding detail. Courtesy of Jog's Blog, check out the first few pages of it here and marvel at the purty pictures. The craft here is undeniable, but being more of a story man than an art man, I don't know if I'll pick up a second issue, though, unless there was more to it for my $3.50. But you have to marvel at Darrow's chutzpah with this comic. Grade: D for story, A+ for art
Ocean #3
Am still enjoying this latest Warren Ellis sci-fi miniseries, about a mission to Europa and a mysterious long-asleep civilization buried under the ice, although I still feel like not a lot has really happened with the main plot halfway through. Great technobabble and a really intriguing point here, where workers for a corporation voluntarily give up their free will to receive "downloaded" programming and work instructions, in exchange for a huge paycheck at the end of their service. Notions like these are what keep me coming back to Warren Ellis, comics' own Harlan Ellison. Grade: B+
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Friday miscellany...
• Between the disappointments of some comic I won't mention again and the comedown that was "Ocean's 12" (doesn't suck, but was hoping for more), it was good to find something that was as good as I hoped, Michael Mann's "Collateral," which I watched the other night and dug the heck out of. Moody and stylish thriller supreme. And when did Jamie Foxx actually become a good actor? Wow. Check it out if you like thoughtful movies about people who kill people.
• Sometimes I wonder exactly what it will take for Bush to dump Donald Rumsfeld. Now even Republican senators who don't feel the need to toe the party line on every issue are dumping on the man, whose incredible tomfoolery and unprecedented arrogance in running our armed forces should really dismay conservatives and liberals alike, and anyone concerned about the men and women on the ground who get hurt the worst. I think my favorite comment lately came from "The Daily Show", which did an inspired bit about how ordinary screwups get booted from the Bush cabinet, but those who rise to a truly extraordinary level of idiocy get to stay. If Rumsfeld screws up much more, perhaps he'll get nominated to the Supreme Court.
• After talking about it for, like, a million years, we finally upgraded all the Macs we use at work to OS X, and while we were at it Quark 6, this week. Entertaining in the extreme to hear all the usual complaining from the slow-to-embrace-change crowd, and dealing with the various bugs that come out of these upgrades. I've been using OS X for more than a year now at home so it wasn't too big a transition for me. Finally decided to give Firefox a spin too while I was at it and am enjoying it so far, have been using Safari at home for several months but while it's definitely better than IE, it has a few bugs and speed issues that so far Firefox doesn't seem to have. Will see if it lasts over the long haul.
• Some quick comics reviews coming tomorrow, including Shaolin Cowboy #1, Ocean #3 and Madrox #4. Onwards.
• Between the disappointments of some comic I won't mention again and the comedown that was "Ocean's 12" (doesn't suck, but was hoping for more), it was good to find something that was as good as I hoped, Michael Mann's "Collateral," which I watched the other night and dug the heck out of. Moody and stylish thriller supreme. And when did Jamie Foxx actually become a good actor? Wow. Check it out if you like thoughtful movies about people who kill people.
• Sometimes I wonder exactly what it will take for Bush to dump Donald Rumsfeld. Now even Republican senators who don't feel the need to toe the party line on every issue are dumping on the man, whose incredible tomfoolery and unprecedented arrogance in running our armed forces should really dismay conservatives and liberals alike, and anyone concerned about the men and women on the ground who get hurt the worst. I think my favorite comment lately came from "The Daily Show", which did an inspired bit about how ordinary screwups get booted from the Bush cabinet, but those who rise to a truly extraordinary level of idiocy get to stay. If Rumsfeld screws up much more, perhaps he'll get nominated to the Supreme Court.
• After talking about it for, like, a million years, we finally upgraded all the Macs we use at work to OS X, and while we were at it Quark 6, this week. Entertaining in the extreme to hear all the usual complaining from the slow-to-embrace-change crowd, and dealing with the various bugs that come out of these upgrades. I've been using OS X for more than a year now at home so it wasn't too big a transition for me. Finally decided to give Firefox a spin too while I was at it and am enjoying it so far, have been using Safari at home for several months but while it's definitely better than IE, it has a few bugs and speed issues that so far Firefox doesn't seem to have. Will see if it lasts over the long haul.
• Some quick comics reviews coming tomorrow, including Shaolin Cowboy #1, Ocean #3 and Madrox #4. Onwards.
Holy Moses on a stick, I should write about DC's "Identity Crisis" and my profound disappointment in it every day. Yesterday's hits went through the roof here, with more than 160 visitors Thursday -- not a lot to most, probably, but consider this humble little nub of the blogosphere usually pulls 30-40 hits a day. Many thanks to links I got from Near Mint Heroes and All These Worlds. I feel so loved.
Friday, December 17, 2004
A review of Identity Crisis #7, or, how I got screwed out of $3.95 by Brad Meltzer.
Alert for the uncautious -- SPOILERS LURK, by gum!
Wow, what a huge disappointment this issue is. The most disappointing comic book epic conclusion since... well, since Brian Bendis's equally incompetent but less odious Avengers #503 last month. Not a good year for world-changing overhyped storylines. Thing is, as I've said before on this blog, I've enjoyed the first 6 issues of this "whodunnit" murder mystery set in the DC Comics universe, but parts of it -- the unsettling violence toward women, the sense this might come to nothing -- left a bad taste in my mouth. I held out hope it would all come together in a powerful, sensible ending.
Enter #7. The killer of Sue Dibny, the mastermind behind the murder of Jack Drake, is revealed and ... it's Jean Loring (who?), the ex-wife of the Atom, who's gone all crazy because she can't get enough of that Atom love, and who "accidentally" killed Sue Dibny in an attempt to drive the Atom back into her arms by spreading fear and discontent among the loved ones of superheroes everywhere.
That sentence sounds like poorly written fan fiction, doesn't it? It's hard to believe this issue is written by the same Brad Meltzer. How hard is it to end a story well? The climax here is insulting, contrived and inconclusive. It feels like a trailer to an inevitable sequel, "Identity Theft" or somesuch, so many plot threads are left untied. Never mind the countless red herrings that come to absolutely nothing here, including the highly controversial rape and "mindwipes" we saw several issues earlier -- those have absolutely nothing to do with the murders. Clear out the filler, and about 50% of the plot over seven issues actually goes somewhere. The sheer cynicism that oozes from every page of this series is stunning.
And then there's the misogynism. I don't raise that charge lightly, and refused to jump on the "DC hates women" bandwagon that some folks were on from the start with this intense series. But looking at the whole, how can you NOT see it? A woman is beaten, burned and killed in #1; in #2, to top it all off, we learn she was pregnant, oh, and by the way, she was raped once by a supervillain. In #7, we learn the culprit is ALSO a woman, driven crazy because her man done left her. (Never mind that in comics I've read over the past 20 years, the Atom's wife has actually been shown to be a pretty stone-hard chick who actually cheated on the Atom and left him, ending their marriage. Not the type to suddenly go wacko with remorse.) I'm not saying Meltzer's a misogynist, because I can't read the man's mind, but the comic is certainly not women-friendly. And they wonder why few women read comics.
I don't mind "dark" comics. Some of my favorite superhero comics have taken a dark eye to the cape genre. But this is WALLOWING, gratuitous and over the top darkness, darkness that sheds little light on the theme. What irks is there is talent behind "Identity Crisis." I've found the first six issues entertaining in their knack for juggling suspense, some very nice character moments and dialogue, and some dynamic art by Rags Morales. But the ball gets dropped hard here, so hard that my very faith in good superhero comics -- and I'm a believer, honest -- is a bit marred. Grade: D- (the pictures are pretty)
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