COMICS: Quick Comic Reviews!

COMICS: Quick Comic Reviews!

All Marvel comics, all the time! Honestly, I do have fairly diverse comic tastes, but for some reason I'm in a spandex-craving mood lately. Here's a few reviews of recent comix:

Amazing Spider-Man #529. After the colossal mess that was "The Other" crossover, this issue doesn't look so bad. The big deal, of course, is that Spider-Man gets a new high-tech costume this issue courtesy of his bestest friend Iron Man. While obviously the costume is a passing phase, and nowhere near as iconic as the old red-and-blues or even that underrated '80s black costume, it's an interesting development. Writer J.M. Straczynski's run the past five years or so has been all over the map for me; he's written some great stories and also some of the worst Spider-Man stories ever. What I like about this issue is the interesting mentor/student relationship Spidey's forged with Iron Man, not at all what I might have expected out of Spider-Man's membership in the Avengers. While that whole idea's been mixed in execution, at the very least it's offered some new dynamics for the Spider-Man mythos to chew on. Mostly set-up for the upcoming "Civil War" crossover (yep, another one), this issue isn't a classic, but it's promising enough. Grade: B-

Ultimate Spider-Man #91. This book of tales of an "alternate" teenage Spider-Man went through a bad patch a year or so ago with the anticlimatic "Hobgoblin" storyline, but it's back near its peak as of late. This issue kicks off a four-part story introducing "Ultimate Deadpool," but it's mostly an issue about Peter Parker's relationship with the X-Men's Kitty Pryde. Peter's new girlfriend is one of the things that's energized the book, and is a lot of fun (and not feasible in the "real" Marvel universe due to the characters' age difference, but here they're both about 16). Writer Brian Bendis clearly enjoys playing off the idea of Peter dating a fellow superhero, and the banter and wit recapture a lot of what "Ultimate Spider-Man" so much fun in the first place. Still the best ongoing "Spider-Man" title, despite some meandering in the plots. Grade: A-

Ms. Marvel #1. It's like 1979 all over again lately, as all the old superheroines from that era are making comebacks. Joining Spider-Woman and She-Hulk in new books is Ms. Marvel, who's always been a good character in search of a decent comic book. This first issue is a solid launch... female superheroes have always walked the line between sex objects and actual heroic characters, and Ms Marvel's stripper-meets-Mardi Gras costume doesn't help matters. Yet writer Brian Reed's got a nice hook, presenting Ms. Marvel as a "B-list" hero who desperately wants to live up to her potential. This issue is mostly set-up along those lines (Ms. Marvel hires a publicist!) but it's got some good crackling dialogue, a nice sense of characterization and eases up on the cheesecake. Plus, slimy aliens The Brood invade! There's a good idea here and it'll be interesting to see if this survives the "curse of the solo female character" comic book – after all, Ms. Marvel's original series back in the day only lasted 25 issues or so. Can Ms. Marvel battle reader indifference? Grade: B

Daredevil #82. OK, so you're a blind superhero whose identity has been revealed and you're going to jail. Just another day in the life of Daredevil. New writer Ed Brubaker kicks off his run here, left in the rather interesting storyline that Brian Bendis, writer for the last five years, wrapped up with. It's an excellent start to a book that had begun to feel a little drawn-out and plodding under Bendis, as good as his work had been. Brubaker and artist Michael Lark bring a claustrophobic dread to this issue, as Matt "Daredevil" Murdock settles into prison life with dozens of men who'd like to kill him. It's "Oz" meets "Batman," and Brubaker's work is wordier, denser and somehow a bit more fulfilling than Bendis' recent scripts - I didn't flip through this issue in three minutes, in other words. He's helped by the fine dark and detailed art of Lark. Where do you go from here, with your main character in jail? Don't know, but I'm keeping "Daredevil" at the top of my reading pile to find out. Grade: A-

MUSIC: Chieftains, Monkeys and Heads

MUSIC: Chieftains, Monkeys and Heads

Admittedly, there are worse fates than having a pile of new CDs you've been desperately meaning to review... But as I clear up the backlog, here's a look at a couple recent reviews I wrote for my second online home at BlogCritics and other ramblings...

The Chieftains, "The Essential Chieftains"
If there's a lack of green in your wardrobe, consider loading "The Essential Chieftains" on your iPod this St. Patrick's Day to celebrate your Irish side ... and avoid any unwanted pinches. This new two-CD, sprawling anthology features the best of Ireland's leading band. For novices unsure where to begin with the band's approximately 40 albums over the past four decades, "The Essential Chieftains" is the place to start. This compilation focuses on their work from the 1960s to 2003, collecting for the first time together their work on several different record labels. "The Essential Chieftains" is nicely split into two complementary discs: "The Chieftains' Roots," focusing heavily on more traditional instrumentals, jigs and reels, and Disc 2, "The Chieftains and Friends," which includes collaborations over the years with a cast of all-stars including Sting, Elvis Costello, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss, Jackson Browne and many more. If you're wanting that classic pipes-heavy, cheery Irish bounce, Disc 1 offers it in spades. Disc 2 has the sound of a slightly tipsy, mad all-star jam that lasts for hours, and the many voices contributing to the Chieftains sound gives it a nicely diverse feel. Particular highlights include Van Morrison's clarion voice on "Shenandoah," Irishwoman Sinéad O'Connor on the magnificently epic "The Foggy Dew," and Skaggs's countrified turn on "Cotton-Eyed Joe." You'll also find The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Béla Fleck and Nanci Griffith popping up on Disc 2. The Chieftains long ago reached beyond Ireland's borders for influences - you'll find guest stars like a Chinese ensemble in a track from 1987's "The Chieftains in China," or a Spanish flavor to the jaunty "Guadalupe," which features guest spots by Los Lobos and Linda Ronstadt. Chieftains aficionados will appreciate the survey of their career this 35-track set offers, but it's perhaps even better for newcomers — who can get a healthy sampling of one of the leading popularizers of world music. (Want the full review? Head over to BlogCritics and read it here)

Arctic Monkeys, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not"
Hype is a two-headed beast. It can bite you as easily as it can help you. Britain's The Arctic Monkeys are Exhibit A in this week's installment of The Hype Show. Their debut CD, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" has gotten enough ink to singlehandedly blacken the entire British Isles. These Monkeys have struck a chord in Britain, where they've become the country's fastest-selling album of all time. In the U.S., not so much -- they debuted at #34 in the first week. The hype probably is leading to a bit of an anti-hype backlash – I mean, NME, Britain's music cheerleader, had a poll of readers who named this album the #5 British album of ALL TIME – greater than any Beatles, Rolling Stones or Who album. Um, yeah, OK. So if you go in with that trivia factoid, you'll probably be disappointed by the Monkeys. But here's the thing – it's a decent CD, full of energy and raw talent. It's nowhere near worthy of the insane hype the British press put on it, of course, but it's a perfectly enjoyable collection of slamming punk-pop songs, taking equal cues from The Sex Pistols, Green Day and Franz Ferdinand to create a gritty, street-level look at being young and foolish in England 2006. It's all launched by crunchy angular guitar riffs, punkish sing-along choruses, and the nasal snarl of frontman Alex Turner's voice. Turner, 19, has that angry teen poet thing down, and his singing is snotty and packed with attitude. Yet there's also a current of sly intelligence running under the Monkeys lyrics. The booklet is filled with grey scenes of their Sheffield hometown, a dull, eternally overcast landscape full of kids with nothing to do. The propulsive first single, "I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor," is full of pogo-worthy guitar licks, while "A Certain Romance" mashes up punk rock with a Kinks-esque look at dreary old England. Will they succeed in America? I can't imagine they'll get beyond cult status, because they feel so very British that the iPod American generation might not identify with them. Yet "Whatever People Say" clearly speaks to a generation of English blokes in the same way that Green Day's epic "American Idiot" is tailor-made for a group of our kids. It may not exactly be novel – it's a brand of the same English angst that's been pimped ever since John and Paul picked up a guitar — but it gets your fingers tapping.

Talking Heads, "Remain In Light" DualDisc remaster
The Talking Heads' "Remain In Light" is often considered their finest moment, and 26 years after its original release, it still sounds as fresh and new as it did in 1980. Rhino Records has newly re-released the entire Heads catalogue on DualDisc, in gorgeously clear sound and with bonus tracks and DVD video extras. "Remain In Light" was called the fourth-best album of the 1980s by Rolling Stone magazine. Its fusion of dank jungle rhythms, chirping electronica and fragmented chanting vocals have been influential on bands for years. "Remain In Light" came as producer Brian Eno, singer David Byrne and company were perfecting their mix of angst-ridden danceable pop. Nervous as hell, filled with hooks and innovation, it's a frantic masterpiece — in fact, I'd argue it was their creative peak, as co-writer and producer Eno moved on after this album, and the unique mix of energy was never quite the same in the remaining Heads records. The remastering here is fantastic. The primal African drumbeats that ground the album are crisp and you can hear every lick by the Heads' sterling rhythm section, led by bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Franz. And then there's the wonderful centerpiece of the album, "Once In A Lifetime." Über-critic Robert Christgau called this "the greatest song Byrne will ever write," and it's hard to argue when it comes to this witty and wise little tune that sounds more relevant to me every passing year, with Byrne's quizzical, stunned refrain: "And you may ask yourself — well ... how did I get here?" What may surprise newcomers to "Remain In Light" is how organically "Once In A Lifetime" grows from the jittery unrest of the entire album. There's also four "unfinished outtakes" on this reissue — "Fela's Riff," "Unison," "Double Groove" and "Right Start." They're kind of like sketches of finished songs, but provide a great insight into the band's creative process. If all you know of the Talking Heads is a handful of great songs, "Remain In Light" is the place to start to get the richer experience. (Want the full review? Head over to BlogCritics and read it here)

ETC.: Born in the U.S.A.

ETC.: Born in the U.S.A.

Life would be a whole lot easier if we'd invented teleportation by now, don't you think? I mean, for one thing, you wouldn't have to invest 24 hours of flying, driving and driving some more to go to New Zealand, for one thing. Someone needs to get on this, post-haste.

• ITEM! The best thing about coming back from vacation is MAIL, of course. Approximately 15 magazines, a box of comic books, some CDs and DVDs, and the wayward bill or thirty. If you want me, I'll be in my room. Since ostensibly I'm still a comics blogger, I'll try to review some comics later this week too. Oh, and I've got about a half-dozen CD reviews for BlogCritics I need to work on. Vacation is over...

• ITEM! Ultra-violent, near-fascistic and frenetic as all hell, "24" is rapidly challenging "Lost" for my favorite drama on television these days. We sat through a mini-marathon catching up on the last several hours of "24" over the weekend, and then watched last night's episode as well. The bloodshed! The brutality! The manliness! Jack Bauer's world is gleefully cartoonish and over-the-top, yet played with utter straightness by the cast, including the incredibly good Kiefer Sutherland (Could anybody else sell the inate lunacy of Jack's 24-hours-o'-mayhem like Sutherland does? The man is fantastic). In the last two episodes alone, we've seen three major cast members killed off as this season's battle with the terrorists hurtles along. All this and the return of '80s stars like Peter "Robocop" Weller, C. Thomas "Soul Man" Howell and Ray "Twin Peaks" Wise! Season 5 might just be the show's best yet, as the producers have managed to balance nonstop movement with a little more human drama and slightly more plausible plots (and thankfully, no more cougar attacks). Gregory Itzin's weasely President Logan is a particular delight. "24" is a thrill ride, one even a softy liberal like me can enjoy despite its rather conservative bent (Torture a suspect? The question isn't whether to or not, but how many fingers Jack Bauer will take off). It's not a world I'd want to live in (and I certainly wouldn't want to work at CTU, the elite counter-terrorism unit that has all the social skills, ego tripping, panic attacks and cliques of your average high school senior class), but it's a great blast to visit for an hour each week.

• ITEM! Cool blogger Bill Sherman did a nifty track-by-track analysis of that hyperbolically titled "Perfect Songs" Volume 1 CD yours truly did a little while back. Thanks for the in-depth look, Bill; I guess you're not down with Eminem, but I'll freely admit the man's an acquired taste!

• ITEM! Happy birthday today to my mother-in-law Sylvia! Sorry we couldn't stay long enough to celebrate, but we had a party in advance; and Peter got no less than FOUR birthday cakes over the past month, so he's happy.

LIFE: Out of the Antipodes

LIFE: Out of the Antipodes

...Alas, all good vacations must come to an end, and so tomorrow we begin our epic trek from New Zealand back to Oregon (13 hours or so on plane, 3 hours on car, followed by another 8 hours or so in car -- jeepers, that's nearly 24 hours of traveling!). But it's colored by the knowledge that we'll be back here in another 7-8 months or so, Peter and his same-aged cousin Louis will be frolicking on the beach again, and, oh yeah, Avril and I will be looking for gainful employment on the other side of the world. A great adventure it will all be even if we're plagued by second thoughts between now and then.

Hope you few constant readers have enjoyed the blogging from down under. Regular ranting and reviewing to begin again sometime next week after I've recuperated from the immense stress of 3 weeks' vacation time...

LIFE: Brushing up on art

LIFE: Brushing up on art

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- One of the nice things about this visit to Auckland is that we've gotten to see several of the family art shows. The Siddell family are all acclaimed New Zealand artists (except for Avril, who's the "white sheep" of the family); the house here is crammed with family paintings and sculptures and such. Her father Peter is one of the country's most famous realist artists, while mother Sylvia focuses on still lifes and some quite dramatic colors. Last week we got to attend an opening for Avril's sister Emily, who's a glass artist and does some amazingly impressive installations, the kind of thing that astound you by being really complex and yet elegantly simple at the same time. Emily's partner Stephen Bradbourne also had a nice opening of his own solo show at the gallery at the same time, with his large, color-flecked glass vessels. (Unfortunately things got a bit rowdy with the wine and all and one of these grand pieces met an untimely end on the concrete floor Saturday after a really tragic stumble by one of the guests at the opening. Egad.)

Then yesterday we drove out to the Lopdell House in Auckland's suburbs, which features a cool show called "Bugged" all about insects and contributions from both Peter and Sylvia. And on Monday I went to the Auckland Art Gallery to check out a nice new show, "Art & The '60s from Tate Britain," all kinds of swinging experimental '60s artwork. As I was leaving that show and heading through another part of the gallery, I turn the corner and find another huge painting by my father-in-law on display in the gallery of New Zealand artwork. I can't get away from art around here. It's enough to make a man want to pick up a brush.

No time for words as we're off to the zoo this morning, but for those who like the NZ photos, here's a few more from our trip up Te Mata Peak near Napier last weekend, an astounding viewpoint where you can see huge swathes of Hawke's Bay and the surrounding area. The photos don't even come close to capturing the entire view, unfortunately, but they give you an idea...

LIFE: Get some culture

LIFE: Get some culture

Yesterday we had a lot of fun visiting the Auckland International Cultural Festival, just down the road from my in-laws' house. Huge event featuring people of pretty much every variety except Amish, tons of ethnic food, dance and more. Auckland is a hugely diverse city (there are parts of downtown I can walk and swear I'm in an Asian town), and the festival had folks from everywhere - Ethiopia, Finland, Kurdistan, China, Chile...

Sights and sounds abounded, a fine place to just sit and people-watch for a while: Burundian drummers; prayer flags snapping in the wind; happy Sudanese refugee children with Kiwi accents playing at the playground; a buddhist monk walking around in orange robes with a high-tech camcorder strapped to his back; dapper African men wearing "I Love Eritrea" banners; tasty Malaysian satay in peanut sauce for sale, $1 a stick; a South African Zulu woman getting a Polynesian lei from a vendor; Maori kid eating ice cream; gaggles of Chinese kids texting their friends ten feet away on their cell phones; a diminutive Asian man playing an extraordinarily cheesy cover version of Lionel Richie's "Hello" on a pan flute; a booth of the "Auckland Oromian Association" (where is Oromia?!); fantastic Algerian sausage for sale; an Aussie-looking cowboy fellow with a handlebar mustache and shirt open halfway to his navel, displaying a rug of white chest hair; a dolphin balloon floating off into the sky, blonde woman below waving good-bye...

LIFE: Things That Are Good And Not So Good

LIFE: Things That Are Good And Not So Good

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Ah, the sun is shining in New Zealand and there's a foot of snow at my parents' house in California, so life is grand. Also had a very nice lunch talk with an Auckland couple who are friends of my in-laws. One of them is the former features editor of the country's largest newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, and we had a very positive conversation about NZ journalism jobs which boosted my hopes about finding one here.

Things that are good here:
Peter's festering cold continues to fester, so today we decided to take him to the doctor. All kinds of horrifying long green goopy things keep coming from his nostrils, and it's been more than a week now, and we're flying out next Friday and don't want him to have sinus issues on the flight.
Here is why NZ's health care system is so infinitely better than the tangled corrupt morass we call U.S. health coverage. Avril called the doctor at 10:45 a.m. on a SATURDAY. Got an appointment for 11:15 -- THAT SAME MORNING. She and P walked down to the office, where P was checked out (he was given antibiotics to deal with the infection, and a good going-over), and they were back in time for lunch.
Complete cost of checkup, doctor consultation: $20. That's it. No insurance red tape, no co-pay, arguing with irritating woman on phone about why they won't pay, etc. Prescription: 100% FREE.
Seriously, there's a lot of good things about the U.S., but the cost of health care isn't one of them.

Things that are not so good here:
Man, the things that are nonessential but good in life are expensive here -- books, CDs, DVDs, et cetera. I've known this from prior visits of course, but now that we're moving here it's that much more obvious. Typical costs for a new book, maybe $30NZ, large books up to $50-$80NZ; a new single CD, $30-$35NZ. Yeah, you take into account the NZ exchange rate (currently it's worth about 70¢ to the U.S. greenback) but that's still a good markup from American costs, since we're all the way out here in the lonely antipodes.
Even my beloved comic books take the hit. I found a very nice new comic shop that I hope to be a patron of once we're here, with a great selection of everything from Spider-Man to Optic Nerve, but man, that import do take a bite, don't it? A typical $3 U.S. comic (which is already highway robbery for most comics these days, but I digress) is about $6-7 NZ here; softback TPBs and graphic novels from $30NZ to a staggering $50+ NZ. I don't blame the shops for the cost, it's just part of life here, but I'm definitely going to have to cut my comics obsession to the bone once we're here, from 15 or so titles a month to maybe 8. Just can't afford to do otherwise!
And this is why we're bringing over/shipping so much of our CDs/DVDs/books -- factor in the costs of replacing them here, and it's the cheaper alternative.
Ah well. At least it's sunny today.

LIFE: It's an Art Deco overload!

LIFE: It's an Art Deco overload!

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - So a few days, a lot of kilometers and about a zillion sheep later, we're back from our jaunt over to the east coast of North Island to visit Napier and Taupo for a few days. At least one frequent reader has blogged before about this part of the world, and the Hawke's Bay area has been high on my list of places to go that we didn't see in my previous visits to New Zealand. So my in-laws, Avril, Toddler Peter and I hit the highway for a few days of jet-set sightseeing. Napier is a particular highlight of my NZ travels to date -- after a huge earthquake in the 1930s, much of the city was rebuilt in a striking art deco style. I'm a big fan of the art deco design, and Napier was worth the drive.

Anyway, I'm suffering road burn-out and other exhaustions, so I'll just let a few pictures make up for my usual verbosity. Napier boasts some amazing buildings -- they all look like they just came out of a 1940's "Superman" animated cartoon! Enjoy the deco overload and I'll try writing real words again soon.

LIFE: Read it in the papers

LIFE: Read it in the papers

So in theory when we move here to New Zealand later this year, I'll have to get a job. I've been kind of avoiding that topic because there's so much else involved with becoming an expatriate that I've got to worry about, and I can't work anyway until I get residency, which will probably happen 3-4 months after we arrive for good. But the question remains, what will yours truly do? Unfortunately I'm not in one of these "highly skilled" professions there's a demand for here, i.e. medicine or computers. Journalism here is somewhat different than the U.S., although the basic similarities remain. But the newspapers definitely take a more British "tabloidy" tone with the news:

You'd have to read about halfway into this grim story to learn the stabbings occurred in Asia, not downtown Auckland. Not that that mediates their awfulness, but it does show a fundamentally different approach in coverage to our staid -- sometimes dull -- middle American approach. The NZ papers are closest in kin to New York City's fiery New York Post and other tabs, I think. It's an approach I wonder if I can fit in with, although I'm adaptable.

They definitely sensationalize a bit more here -- why have a traffic jam when you can have "Road Rage Chaos In Jam From Hell", as a headline a few weeks back said? Or take this gem from Sunday's paper, at right. Of course, the story is actually about a bird whose neck was snapped, traumatizing an entire family of kiwis: "An Auckland couple have accused the owner of Ngatea cafe of snapping the neck of a sparrow sitting on the cafe's windowsill and dumping it in a plastic bag in the freezer." Definitely unpleasant, but the headline kind of gives you a rather different impression than bird-icide, doesn't it?

There's also an excellent magazine industry here in Auckland that boasts several fine 'zines I wouldn't mind working for if the opportunity presented itself... Of course, for all I know, I won't be able to get a journalism job anyway, and end up doing magic tricks for nickels in front of a fish-and-chip shop.