It's Mera's Turn!

Continuing a two day tradition of promoting other folks' blogs, but guaranteed cool folks and their cool blogs, I have an announcement about The Aquaman Shrine.

February on The Shrine will be Mera Month. For those of you who read the comics, watch the animated series, or just have to live with those of us who do, I don't have to introduce one of the sexiest redheads in comics. For those of you not in the know, Mera is Aquaman's wife, the queen of an otherdimensional water world who gave up her crown to rule beside Aquaman in Atlantis.

Mera has been around since the early 1960s, has appeared in numerous animated versions, and in the new DC Comics reboot has even been a member of the Justice League. Check out The Aquaman Shrine throughout February to learn more about the sea queen.

One Year, 26 Seasons, Seven Doctors

Now I have to say up front that there are a few other blogs and websites out there doing this, but this one is by my friend Terry Willitts, and his is the best. No, I'm not biased, it's just that good.

Spinning out of his project for last year, a blog that covered every issue of the cult classic comic book Cerebus by Dave Sim - 2011: The Year of the Aardvark - Terry has taken on the original "Doctor Who" series with his new blog - One Year, 26 Seasons, Seven Doctors. Each day Terry examines one of the serials that make up the long history of the British Time Lord.

Check it out here.

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for the Week of 1-25-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live in a real comics and gaming store in West Berlin, NJ - All Things Fun! - co-hosts Ed (Captain Britain) Evans, Allison (Strawberry Shortcake) Eckel and Glenn (Gregory Hines) Walker discuss the new comics out this week in two fun video segments, now in high definition, and also available on YouTube. See it here!

The first segment includes discussion of the following topics: Ed goes first, Green Lantern New Guardians #5, I Vampire #5, Justice League #5, Aquaman #5, Flash #5, vidcaster brawl, Justice League Dark #5, the dual covers of Blackhawks #5, and the DC New 52 trade out.



The discussion continues in segment two including: All guys with goatees look alike, the Captain America hoodie, Alpha Flight #8, the X-Men titles, Secret Avengers #21.1, Galactus is back, Red Skull Incarnate, The Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine, The Walking Dead #93, Ed's indies, Transformers Robots in Disguise #1, Allison's kids comics, and Ed's trades.



Be sure to check out the craaazy new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

And be back here every Wednesday morning at 11:30 AM EST to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!

Robert Hegyes 1951-2012

Actor, director and teacher Robert Hegyes passed away this morning in Metuchen New Jersey from a heart attack. He was 60 years old.

He was perhaps best known as Juan Epstein, one of the Sweathogs on "Welcome Back, Kotter," one of the superstar sitcoms of the 1970s. He was the tough guy, the Puerto Rican Jew, the guy who always had a note from his mother. Later he was a regular on "Cagney and Lacey," and appeared in a myriad of television and film projects in the time since.

A graduate of Glassboro College here in South Jersey, now called Rowan, he became an artist-in-residence. He also frequented the stage, at one point to much acclaim as Chico Marx in "An Evening with Groucho." His directing career began when he was 25 on the set of "Welcome Back, Kotter." Also of note for the Jersey born performer was his family, Jon Bon Jovi was his cousin. He will be missed.

"Dear Mr. Kotter,

Please excuse little Juan from class today. He's dead.

Signed, Epstein's Mother"

Metropolis at Biff Bam Pop!

My review of the silent scifi film classic Metropolis is now live at Biff Bam Pop!.

Metropolis is one of my all-time favorite movies, and revolutionary in inspiring an entire film genre. You can check my review out here.

Spartacus: Vengeance

I recently had the chance to see a sneak peek of "Spartacus: Vengeance" from the Starz network. This is a very different television series from its predecessor "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" and its sequel, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena."

"Vengeance" is not just different for the obvious reason, Liam McIntyre replacing the late Andy Whitfield. McIntyre is a different Spartacus. This is not just a Darren Stevens type change out. He plays the character differently. In comparison to Whitfield, he seems smaller, softer, and tense, rather than intense. He also has compassion, and appears to care, and be more of a leader than Whitfield's predominantly loner from "Blood and Sand." While there's nothing lacking in McIntyre's performance, there still needs to be quite a bit of suspension of disbelief that McIntyre went through all that Whitfield did to get Spartacus to the place he is now.

And the place he is now is what the major difference in this cycle of the show as compared to the first two. The story has left the arena and the world of the gladiators, which was where much of the show's charm was in my opinion. Let's hope the characters, those that remain from the previous series, are enough to propel viewers along this new path.

Having freed himself and his allies from slavery in the house of Batiatus, Spartacus is now on the run and rampaging hit and run style against the Romans and the city of Capua. We see a brief glimpse of the arena, and I have to admit it's a highlight, but I wish there was more. I loved the first two series so I'm willing to give the new season, and Whitfield more than a fair chance.

"Spartacus: Vengeance" starts on Starz on January 27, 2012.

Etta James 1938-2012

Singer Etta James passed away today from complications of leukemia. She had been fighting ongoing illness for years. Truly we have lost one of the greatest voices of our time. Rest in peace, Etta.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #10

"Turn the Other Way Around" by Quincy

You know all that 1970s movies and television about teenagers in high school just hanging out? You know how every kid represented a stereotype or a character type? There was always the one geeky kid who was carrying a radio or sometimes even an early boombox whose entire life revolved around that radio? Yeah, that was me circa 1979-1980 and later unfortunately. It's true, I was almost "Angie Baby."

I used to play this game with my friends, where they would turn the dial from one end of the FM band to the other, stopping at each broadcasting station, and if it was music, I would have to, and usually could name the song title, the artist, and sometimes the album. So yeah, there was a time when I was a vast storehouse of useless knowledge for not just comics, but also pop music.

That running from band end to band end made me discover a whole new world before 92.5 FM (at the time WIFI, a top 40 outlet), - college radio. One of the first new bands I heard on these buried treasure radio stations playing music I had never heard before was local band Quincy.

The Indies First All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for 1-18-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live in a real comics and gaming store in West Berlin, NJ - All Things Fun! - co-hosts Ed (Crossed) Evans, Allison (Danger Girl) Eckel and Glenn (Lord of the Jungle) Walker discuss the new comics out this week in two fun video segments, now in high definition, and also available on YouTube. See it here!

The first segment includes discussion of the following topics: Earthquake, Indies first, Fables #113, Legend of Oz The Wicked West #2, Star Trek #5, Tarzan in Lord of the Jungle #1, Crossed Psychopath #7, Planet of the Apes #10, videogame comics, Grant Morrison's Steed and Mrs. Peel the other Avengers, kids comics, Tiny Titans, redheads, and the secret oranges of Wonder Girl.



The discussion continues in segment two including: Scott Snyder's Batman #5, Supergirl #5, fighting in armored bathing suits, DC Universe Presents #5 featuring Deadman, Catwoman #5 by Judd Winick, acid trip Batman, Walt Simonson on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Legion of Super-Heroes, the big quiet, X-Men Blue, AVX, Ed's Marvels, Mark Waid's Daredevil #8, Avengers #21, and the trades of the week, with bonus sparkles.



Be sure to check out the outrageous new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

And be back here every Wednesday morning at 11:30 AM EST to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!

The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer ~ Okay, I confess, I've never seen the classic 1927 The Jazz Singer before, heck, I've never even seen the 1979 Neil Diamond version. I know, I know, how dare I call myself a film critic and not have seen it. Well, sit still, I'm amending that tonight as I watch it.

I know of the film's importance, in fact I know quite a bit about it, just never sat through the whole thing before. We all know the story, Al Jolson plays Jakie Rabinowitz, the son of a devout Jewish cantor who wants his son to replace him when he retires, all Jakie wants to do is be a song and dance man on stage. It's a touching, time honored story, one that resonates today. The generation gap always works, just ask Neil Diamond.

The film is often noted as being the first talkie, but in reality, only a few sequences feature what was called 'synchronized dialogue.' And despite the name, there's not really all that much dialogue beyond the six songs featured. That said, the musical sequences are amazing, and probably startled and stunned audiences for the better when it was first seen in movie theaters.

The Jazz Singer, despite its reputation is primarily a silent film, with terrific singing episodes, and it's also a damn good flick with dynamic if melodramatic performances. But then again, silents operated on the melodrama principle, so no points off. This is a great film, not really what I expected, but still one of the best films of its era. See it if you get a chance. The DVD has some wonderful background material.

The Death of the Soap Opera?

"One Life to Live," after an over forty-year run on ABC-TV, ended last week. That leaves only four traditional daytime soap operas still on the air in 2012. Among the survivors is "General Hospital," the only one of its ilk that I followed regularly for a time. I discount "Dark Shadows" as I only vaguely remember it when it was on, and mostly watched it in rerun on local Channel 48 and SyFy when it was just starting out.

The award-winning "One Life to Live" was part of the ABC daytime soap opera programming shared universe of Agnes Nixon, of which "General Hospital" is currently the only survivor. "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "The Young and the Restless" on CBS and "Days of our Lives" on NBC are the other three. On a sidenote, I gotta ask - am I the only one who thought "The Doctors" was still the soap opera of the same name? Weird. "OLTL" had some highlights in its run, Emmys aplenty, groundbreaking storylines dealing with rape and drugs, and even some time traveling a la "Dark Shadows," exciting stuff.

"One Life to Live" also actually had some fun with its last days. Residents of the fictional city of Llanview watched on their sets the final episode of an equally fictional TV soap created by Agnes Nixon, who was interviewed. Angels abounded, played by cast members whose characters who had died. There's even a cliffhanger, and a broken fourth wall, good stuff. But now it's over, with some characters moving on to "General Hospital," and the time slot filled by "The Revolution," another boring health and lifestyle show.

Anyway it seems the soap opera is dead as a television genre, but is it? It may be well on its way out as a genre unto itself, but let's face it, everything is soap opera now. I have always said that soap opera is at the core of comic books (any serial fiction really) and that as wrestling is the bastard stepchild of comics, soap opera and comics are the bastard stepchildren of mythology - but that's another story.

Soap opera as storytelling is everywhere, and I'm not just talking about prime time dramas either. The concept of main story with several subplots underlying that soon become the new main story in an unending cycle is how television works now. There's no more status quo, where the whole world resets when the credits of a given TV show roll. The characters evolve and change as time goes by.

That's soap opera, and even if the TV series we normally think of when we think of the term are gone, soap opera still lives, in every other television series.

Lost Hits of the New Wave #9

"Don't Change" by INXS



I was a big INXS fan, before they made it really big, and once they did, I kinda got sick of them. Honestly if I ever hear "The Devil Inside" again, I'll hit someone. A lot of their stuff in hindsight is a bit dated, but I still like the early stuff. And Michael Hutchence is still missed. To this day, "Mediate" and especially "Mystify" remain among my favorite all time tunes.

I have to sheepishly admit how stupid I was when I first discovered them. I went to Listening Booth at the Echelon Mall to get their album Shabooh Shoobah. I actually worked at rival Sam Goody, but everyone knew LB had all the imports, and the 'good' stuff first. If you wanted Michael Jackson, you went to Goody's, if you wanted something with an edge, it was the Booth all the way.

Anyway, I saw an album with that title, but didn't think it was INXS, because I was looking for a band I had heard pronounced as 'In Excess.' Yeah, I was an idiot. Finally bought it, and I loved it.

The Glenn-less All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for 1-11-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live in a real comics and gaming store in West Berlin, NJ - All Things Fun! - co-hosts Ed (reads anything with an X in the title) Evans, Allison (sorts her comics by color) Eckel and Glenn (sick as a dog, be back next week) Walker discuss the new comics out this week in two fun video segments, now in high definition, and also available on YouTube. See it here!

The first segment includes discussion of the following topics: DC's team books of the week, Ed's grab bag o' goodies, including Resurrection Man #5, Batman and Robin #5, Scarlet Spider #1, and the Avengers titles, plus Spidey and evil Deadpool.



The discussion continues in segment two including: More DC Comics from Allison, including Batgirl #5, Superboy #5, and The Ray #2, Ed's Marvels, including Hulk, Ghost Rider, Captain America, and the Punisher, the X-titles of the week, indies including Buffy, Invincible, Avengelyne, Spawn, Star Wars, Adam West, and Brian Michael Bendis' Brilliant #2, kids comics, and trades of the week.



Be sure to check out the outrageous new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

And be back here every Wednesday morning at 11:30 AM EST to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!

V - Visitors, New and Old, at Biff Bam Pop!

Head on over to Biff Bam Pop! and check out my review of the "V" television series, both the original and the recent re-imagining. You can see it directly here. Enjoy!

Outsourced

Outsourced ~ "Outsourced" on NBC this past TV season was one The Bride's and my favorite new shows. The story of an American who goes to India to manage the outsourcing of his novelty company's ordering and customer service department was actually quite charming once you got past the racial humor which may or may not have been offensive. I vote for inoffensive based on the heart and warmth at the core of this sitcom. Sadly, like most shows we like, it was not renewed for a second season. Boo hiss, NBC.

This stranger-in-a-strange-land TV series, as well as the British version, "Mumbai Calling," was inspired by a 2006 Bollywood movie also called Outsourced. When we saw it playing on one of the independent movie channels, and missing the show we loved, we decided we had to take a peek. The plot and premise of the film version is essentially the same only with less emphasis on the comedy and more on the drama and romance, which was at first hard to get used to, but then worked quite well.

It's not a great movie, but it's a fun movie, with, much like the TV series, a warm fuzzy center. Definitely worth seeing.

What I Liked in 2011

Rather than go whole hog and do a best and worst of blog entry this year, and besides I'm already a week or so late for that anyway, I'm going to be tardy and lazy, and just do lists. Sorry, but I'm burnt, that's all you get this year. Here are the lists, bests, favorites, take your pick...

Movies - in no particular order - Hugo, Ra.One, Captain America: The First Avenger, Super 8, Midnight in Paris, Attack the Block, Thor, The Help, Source Code, and Bunraku.

Television - also in no particular order - "Hell on Wheels," "Game of Thrones," "Boardwalk Empire," "Treme," "Doctor Who," "Mad Men," "Dexter," "The Hour," "Shameless," "Castle," "Chuck" "Louie," "Sons of Anarchy" and "The Walking Dead." And yes, I know that's more than ten choices. Deal with it.

With the birthday gift of a Nook late in the year I have started to read again so I wanted to give a shout out to a few books as well. I liked A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, Horns by Joe Hill, Supergods by Grant Morrison, Kraken by China Mieville, and Reamde by Neal Stephenson.

I didn't really listen to much new music this year. I bought a lot of stuff from "Glee," and new albums by Kate Bush, William Shatner, Adam Warrock and Robyn, as well as soundtracks to Ra.One, X-Men First Class, and "Treme" spent a lot of time on my iPod.

Comics - T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents by Nick Spencer, Aquaman by Geoff Johns, Secret Avengers by Warren Ellis, Frankenstein Agent of SHADE, Action Comics by Paul Cornell, and the new Defenders series from Matt Fraction are all up high in my opinion.

And, in short, that's what I liked in 2011...

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast for 1-4-2012

The All Things Fun! New Comics Vidcast is shot live in a real comics and gaming store in West Berlin, NJ - All Things Fun! - co-hosts Ed (iZombie) Evans, Allison (Silver Swan) Eckel and Glenn (Batman Surprise) Walker discuss the new comics out this week in two fun video segments, now in high definition, and also available on YouTube. See it here!

The first segment includes discussion of the following topics: Batman surprise, Huntress #4, Glenn has more comics than anyone else, Allison's DC books, Action Comics #5 and other Grant Morrison goodies, Ed's Marvels, outdated New Jersey references, Defenders #2, and stretch streeetch wrap it.



The discussion continues in segment two including: Ed's X-Men titles, Ultron War?, Rick Remender's X-Force, Avengers Annual and Academy, Fatale #1, Flash Gordon German lesson, John Carter goodness, Atlas Unified #1, Irredeemable #33, Godzilla goodies, Allison's kids comics, Life with Archie #16, Marvel action figures, and new manga.



Be sure to check out the outrageous new All Things Fun! website, and the All Things Fun! Blogs, by Allison and Glenn, and ATF! on YouTube.

And be back here every Wednesday morning at 11:30 AM EST to watch the new broadcast, and thereafter throughout the week!