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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Morgan's LiveJournal:
| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | |
| 3:30 pm | Comics/History--Superman, created by Siegel and...Keaton???? Just....Wow. If the lawsuit has produced no other results, it's given comics historians a new wealth of information about Superman's, and thus superhero comics, earliest beginnings. Between this and the letters I linked to the other week, it's pretty amazing what's been kept/survived, isn't it? Current Mood:  surprised |
| Saturday, August 16th, 2008 | |
| 11:51 pm | Doctor Who--Classic Series Available on iTunes! What the subject line says! Many of the titles available are also out on DVD, but there are some ("The Ark in Space," "The Sunmakers," "The Time Monster," which I will totally be buying, and--get this, Troughton fans--"The Krotons" are a few examples) that haven't been available since the VHS versions went out of print! The cost is about $8 to $12 for a whole story or $1.99 per episode. No idea if I'll buy 'em (I'd rather have them in a more permanant media format if I can), but YAY! And hey, BBC, if this kind of electronic sales thing is the only way we can get the "Season Boxset" idea done, I'm all for that! news source, though be sure I have confirmed for myself at the iTunes store... Current Mood:  thrilled |
| Friday, August 15th, 2008 | |
| 1:04 pm | Seriously unacceptable Yes, I know I'm posting a lot today, but this is something I've been holding off on since this morning until I got the author's ok to run it. Getting completely serious, the following essay was written by Bully's "friend" John about an issue that...well, I find incredibly unacceptable. I accept that it's there (no choice), but I do not accept that it should continue. I especially do not accept the way it's being dealt with. I'm going to post John's full essay after the cut and I urge you all to please read it. Take it away, John... ( The Dark Side of San Diego ) Current Mood:  aggravated |
| 11:41 am | PSA--It's finally out... The final collection of the fantabulous webcomic Get Medieval is finally being released on a vaguely unsuspecting public. Ordering information is at the page in the link. Yes, you can read it all for free online (in either original or annotated flavors), but think how nice it would be to just pick up a book and read through the story...oh, and there are apparently some extras in the books that haven't been put online, so bonus! And yes, this means I have to buy all three books now. Which I've been putting off....Amythyst? Maybe sometime this month? Anyway, give it a look. Read some samples online. Think about throwing Laura some money by buying some books or other GM stuff. It's really fun and funny stuff--even for non-historians! (In some cases, I think, especially for non-historians, though her history is pretty damn good...) Current Mood:  blah |
| 10:19 am | Fun--no, make that *Silliness* for Friday.... Just call him Crow T. Garcia... 'cause some days, you just need something ridiculously silly to get through the morning...and man, you gotta admire trace's puppeteering there... Current Mood:  silly |
| Thursday, August 14th, 2008 | |
| 12:35 pm | (Doctor Who) New Torchwood series title announced As I've mentioned before, the third series of Torchwood, airing next spring, will be truncated to one five part story, shown over one week. The just-announced overall title for the story is "Children of Earth," and it'll apparently be directed by the very accomplished new series director Euros Lyn. What's still unclear to me is whether individual episodes will have subtitles--bringing to mind Doctor Who's original practise in the '60s--as I've read that different writers may be contributing stories for the five episodes. More as we have it, I guess. source Current Mood:  blank |
| Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 | |
| 11:26 am | Musical Hmm part two Some of you may recall that I wrote a post back in June about hearing that band the "Coldplay" on the Daily Show and how I'd been surprised by how much I'd liked the two songs that they played. It is not like me to find what the kids are listening to today so appealing. So I have finally bought the Coldplay's new(ish) and rather lengthily titled album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." In doing so, I discovered that much of the album was co-produced by Eno, so that's a mark in its favor immediately. Well, I've listened to it about three times through (since yesterday, not in a row!) and I declare myself to have enjoyed it. Some songs I like more than others, but I don't dislike any of it. Strangely, quite a bit of it reminds me of the "Beatles filtered through '80s XTC" sound from albums like "Skylarking," but with a sort-of Eno/atmospheric filter. If that makes sense to anyone. Not all of the album's like that, but some of the best bits are. But yeah, I'm enjoying it more each time I listen to it, which is a good sign. (Though I'm finding it a bit odd that several tracks seem to contain two songs, either as seperate pieces--"Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love," for example--or under one title. Huh.) So yeah, assuming their other three albums are anything like this one (are they? Does anyone know?), I seem to like the "Coldplay." Weird. As I remarked to Amythyst last night, "Look! I bought an album by someone who isn't classified as 'folk' and is under 40! Aren't you proud of me?" Current Mood: pleasantly surprised |
| Monday, August 11th, 2008 | |
| 9:44 am | Yes. Exactly that. If you have a few minutes, give this a read. It's long, but it's very worth it...especially if you're a bit like me. thanks to laura for bringing it to my attention. Current Mood:  impressed |
| Sunday, August 10th, 2008 | |
| 12:40 am | Doctor Who--Whogos X 3! For the amazing third year in a row an episode of Doctor Who has won a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation: Short Form! And, for the third year in a row, it was showrunner-to-be Steven Moffat walking away with the silver rocket ship, this time for the highly acclaimed third series episode "Blink." As happy as I am for Steven, I gotta say, Paul Cornell, you was robbed. "Blink" was great, but I think "Human Nature" should have gotten it--if only because Moffat's dominated the last two years. (And, you know, I liked "Blink," but I really liked "Human Nature." But I know that's just me.) Still--wow! Three years in a row! The full list of winners can be found here. Congratulations to everyone, especially Ted Chiang, since I kind of loved reading that story in F&SF. (And to Gordon Van Gelder for similar reasons!) and, to be honest, I kinda didn't like the michael chabon book that won best novel. but different tastes... And Woo-Hoo for Who!!! FYI, my post on the 2007 win and the original 2006 triumph! Current Mood: thrilled |
| Friday, August 8th, 2008 | |
| 3:18 pm | The Superman Letters As part of the Neverending Battle that is the Superman copyright lawsuit (remember, the Siegels just won a preliminary judgement), a whole buncha documents have were released the other week in various plaintiff and defendant briefs. I've not read most of them yet (I am no expert in legaleese, after all), but the indefatigable Jeff Trexler has. Among the contents, he's noticed an amazingly revealing series of letters between Siegel and DC/National that he discusses here. This entry, at the very least, is must reading for anyone interested in cultural history, comics, sexist/homophobic attitudes in popular culture....or if you want to understand one of the possible motivating factors in Siegel and Shuster's attempt to take back Superman by suing DC in 1947. (They lost big-time...although their shyster probably had something to do with that.) As Trexler says: For a cultural historian, documents like these are a treasure trove, providing insight into attitudes toward women, standards of beauty, images of masculinity, censorship and the interplay between comics and other illustrated media. For Siegel and Shuster, such critiques were serious business. If you want to understand why they took the risk of suing DC in 1947 to regain the rights to Superman, read these letters--time and again the company warns them that their work borders on the "unacceptable"--"the situation is serious enough to warrant your doing some real worrying," as DC might "make other arrangements to have [the work] done." Since DC seemed to be building a case to get rid of them, a lawsuit--no matter how risky--seemed to have better odds than the prospect of winning over the publisher. Really surprisingly terrible stuff...that fits way too well with what's known of DC at the time....it's comics history, warts and all right there! Current Mood:  fascinated |
| 8:36 am | (Doctor Who)--Torchwood Radio Show's Date is Announced "Torchwood: Lost Souls," a 45 minute radio drama, will be aired as part of the day-long coverage of the, er, turning on of the CERN Hadron Collider on 10 September, beginning at 2:15 pm (GMT), to be precise. Details (including a bit of teaser plot summary) here. The episode takes place after last season's finale "Exit Wounds," so, um, spoilers if you haven't seen that. This story does guest star Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, but I've no idea if it takes place before or after "Journey's End." So, assuming the Hadron Collider doesn't destroy us all when it's turned on, we'll have a bit more Torchwood next month! Still no word on the "Sarah Jane" season premiere though.... Current Mood:  okay |
| Thursday, August 7th, 2008 | |
| 2:46 pm | RIP Pauline Baynes Pauline Baynes passed away last Friday at the age of 85. A touching and complete obituary can be found here. If her name seems only vaguely familiar or even unknown, trust me: if you are reading this post, it's almost certain you've seen her work. (One of you, in fact, has a print based on her work framed on his wall, I believe...) I have to admit, I had no idea she was still alive, but now she's gone... Current Mood:  sad |
| 10:13 am | Back off to Outer Space... It looks like there's going to be a new Space Battleship Yamato (known in the US as "Star Blazers") movie coming next year. Produced by original Yamato production guy Yoshinobu Nishizaki, but with no input from Leiji Matsumoto, which makes me slightly apprehensive. For those who haven't seen the series or the movies (or who have only vague memories of watching the dub of the series back in the '70s/early '80s), trust me--Yamato is amazing stuff, really great SF. (In a Space Opera/Doc Smith/Sound in Space kind of way, I mean.) A lot of that can be laid at the feet of Leiji's work (I also love his non-Yamato "Harlock-verse" stuff), but hopefully the new movie....won't suck. Whether Nishizaki will outdo Hayao Miyazaki's new film (as he is said to be hoping) is...well, when I actually get to see both films, I can judge for myself. ;-) Until then.... We're off to Outer Space/We're leaving Mother Earth/To saaaaaaave the human race.....! |
| Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 | |
| 8:26 am | "It's a god-awful small affair..." So, after about a year and a half or more of saying, "Gee, I really should watch that," I finally saw the first episode of "Life on Mars" last night. The premiere of the US remake is in about a month, so I figured I was running out of time to see the real thing with no taint. (The track record for remaking British shows in this country lately is...uneven at best. For every "Office," we get a "Coupling.") So what did I think? I liked it. I really did. Well, I liked it starting about ten minutes or so in, once the actual twist of the plot happened. Before that, it was leaving me cold, but after...John Simm had me. And it was nice to see him in the role that really made him famous...before he took on the role that made him famous to me. ;-) I'm hesitant to say too much about the show (or link to the undoubtedly spoiler-full wiki page) as I know I'm enjoying it going in without a lot of knowledge, and I think other people might enjoy seeing it that way too. I did know its central conceit, but that's about it. It is a cop show, mostly, but one with a fascinating twist that opens up all kinds of possibilities. It's not a "supernatural cop show," so no X-Files or Torchwood here, but there is an aspect of the SF (kind of) about it. I dunno, I just really enjoyed the first episode and will probably be watching the second tonight. Give it a shot, if you can, before American television (ABC, actually) probably mucks it up. ;-) [EDIT] Oh, and I forgot! It takes place in Manchester, so can't be bad, right? Mancunean accents everywhere! Whee... Current Mood: blah |
| Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 | |
| 12:22 am | D&D--My experiment begins So, last night and tonight I began running people through the initial 4E module, "Keep on the Shadowfell." Not only was this everyone's first experience with Fourth Edition, but it was the first time I'd run a game since 1993, the first time I'd run a game solo and from a module since the Ravenloft debacle of...1991. (I thought it was '92, but Alishane was involved and he was gone by '92.) I think I was understandably nervous. ( babble babble babble ) So yeah, pretty much a success, I think. No idea why I'm going into this much detail; I guess I thought some folks might be interested in this new experience I'm having. Hopefully, next week will continue to go well and my six person party will continue to have fun....or even (dare I hope?) a blast! Current Mood:  accomplished |
| Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | |
| 3:07 pm | And, in other news, I am old. Neil Gaiman's Sandman turns 20. I remember going into a comic shop when I was still mostly a Marvel zombie (with a few exceptions...!) and seeing this weird comic with really amazing art called "Black Orchid" by two guys I'd never heard of. Some Guy-man person and this McKean artist guy who reminded me a little of Bill S. I bought the series and thought nothing of it. Then a couple of years later, after coming back to comics (dropped cold turkey in my junior year of HS), I saw Neil Gaiman (who I now knew had written that great book about Douglas Adams I had) had a new comic out. Something about Sandman, but it wasn't the guy from the Justice Society... ...And now it's been twenty years. Wow. Current Mood: old |
| 2:29 pm | Everything I know.... Part The End. and here's the rest, to make things a bit easier on myself... Current Mood:  indescribable |
| 11:47 am | Doctor Who--New Series DVD US Release Dates The Fourth Series box set (which will include "Voyage of the Damned" and "Time Crash") will be released to stores on 18 November. A single DVD of the absolutely wonderful animated story "The Infinite Quest" (starring the Doctor and Martha, originally shown in 10 minute segments on the kids show "Totally Doctor Who") will be released on 18 November as well. I heartilly recommend them both! source Current Mood: indescribable |
| Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 | |
| 3:53 pm | Part Three Bet you didn't realize you could learn so much from Asterix, did you? See also: and: Current Mood: indescribable |
| Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 | |
| 6:24 pm | Not that I liked his writing in the first place... ...but here's a discussion of the other reason I don't buy Orson Scott Card's work. found via dorian's twitter thingy. and yes, I did try to read "ender's game," both the short story and the novel. and no, I couldn't get through either of them... Current Mood: angry |