Thursday, February 20, 2014

Jazzman

A cursory check of the blog revealed that this song has never come up prior to today. I find this astonishing, especially since I recently told a friend that it spoke to me on a spiritual level.

"Jazzman" is my favorite Carole King song, which is a pretty impressive statement right off the bat. I love the music, I love the words, I love the delivery. For me, it really describes the power of music. So I'm a tiny bit surprised that Carole King was not responsible for the lyrics. Those were penned by David Palmer, perhaps best-known as a one-time member of Steely Dan (he sang "Dirty Work"). What a fantastic collaboration between Palmer and King (who wrote the music in addition to singing the song).

There's not a lot I can add to this song except to tell you to listen to it and see if it transports you the way it does your present author. Meanwhile, here are the sites for Carole King and David Palmer.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Good Blogkeeping

Let's go through this via bullet points, shall we?
  • Continued Next Week! recently passed a milestone - 100 followers! Especially surprising is that this was at least partially due to a photo of Jane Adams I posted over a year ago. Still, I am happy people seem to enjoy this little side project of mine. Not bad when you consider I almost closed it twice.

  • Rene Bond Tribute on Facebook has almost made it to 100 Likes! I find this particularly gratifying, since I was questioning even continuing it a month ago. There have been some potentially exciting developments happen since then. My hope is that they will eventually lead to my goal - a better picture of who Rene Bond was as a human being.

  • On the other side of the coin, Pictures of Naomi Morinaga has been throttling down a little bit. I never get much feedback on this, but surely someone is visiting it. I've just gone through a couple of image folders there, and don't have as much ambition for it right now. Whether that will return is something I don't wanna guess. However, it WILL be sticking around.

  • I am slowly working my way through the archives here, tagging entries better and fixing some formatting issues that have cropped up on some old posts. I'm only at the end of 2010 right now, so this is not a project that is going to be finished anytime soon. A similar project is occurring on my Tumblr, though that might -- MIGHT -- get done sooner.

  • I have one more blog post sitting in the queue that needs to be finished and posted. Other than that, I am planning on taking the rest of this month off here. I need to recharge the old batteries, and I have at least one (*GASP*) deadline that I need to meet. Barring unforeseen circumstances, of course (and they always seem to come up), it's time for a mini-vacation from blogging.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Ellen Page

This post is highly unnecessary in the mountain of reaction to Ellen Page coming out as gay, but I thought I should write it to make a point about something. You see, a couple of years ago, I was reading a story about her on one of those gossipy sites that I try to avoid like the plague. As I perused, I realized something: Ellen Page was gay, or bisexual. This was followed by a second reaction moments later: it's not a big deal to me.

I pretty much went on with my life after that, and didn't give it a lot of thought. It's none of my business, and I still think that today. But Ellen Page made the announcement for HER benefit as much as anyone else, and it clearly WAS a big deal for her. So I applaud her for having the courage to own who she is. Maybe that will even make a difference to someone out there.

How cool would that be for her?

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Hulk Meets Whale


(You should probably make this one larger to read it.)


I saw this panel from The Defenders #75 (September 1979) in Back Issue #70 recently, and it really struck a chord with me. It's an unusually sensitive and progressive way to get across the Hulk's then-childlike intellect. I am especially taken by the concept of the Hulk seeing his own reflection in the whale's eye. It borders on the profound. Kudos to Ed Hannigan, Herb Trimpe, and Mike Esposito here.

To answer your question, the whale is saved. Because he turns up in a later issue!

(Image borrowed with a tip of the cap from SuperMegaMonkey.)

Monday, February 10, 2014

Eye Poppers

Meet my new pal that I have named "Dollar Bill."


He's very happy to meet you.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

"Let It Whip" by Dazz Band



I have never heard of any connection between this song and Devo's "Whip It." I'm not saying there is a connection; I'm just saying there seemed like there should be to me in high school. Maybe it's just a coincidence, like the apparent one that caused the Dazz Band to share their name with a popular hit song by the band Brick. Brick's "Dazz" was "disco jazz", while the Dazz Band adapted the term (prior to that song's release) to mean "danceable jazz."

Terribly interesting, I know. Just enjoy the tune. Oh, and I feel like I should recognize those female models. Anybody got an ID for any of them?

Monday, February 3, 2014

ListenLikeURBlind: Epilogue(?)

Perhaps you remember the odyssey with ListenLikeURBlind as chronicled here and here in exhausting detail. You might even notice the comments from November from a concerned anon who had the same thing happen to him/her. The last time I bothered checking on any of this business was December 9th, when I added the last screenshot to this collection. That is, until tonight.

Folks, if you try to click the link for the mysteriously "popular" Facebook page, it's gone. If you try to visit the blog, it is now invitation only. And their Twitter? It's been almost a month since there was a tweet there.

I don't know when all this happened (January, if I had to guess). I don't know why it happened. But ListenLikeURBlind on Facebook appears to be history. So sad.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Lordwormm's Owariverse Hits (Vol. 1)

As promised, here's a selection of multi-OC fan arts by Lordwormm that includes Owariverse characters! And yes, there's more to come!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

The Sphinx by Jeff Weigel


We'll file this under "Seriously Belated." But, in fairness, I wanted to make sure this book was available for order when I wrote about it. It is, and there will be a link at the end of this entry.

I wrote about the Sphinx last year, and that entry outlines a lot of why the book works on an artistic level. So, does it work as a collection? Oh, absolutely. It is smartly packaged, with a number of really attractive extras for those who already own the comics. There's even a text piece from some guy named Elam. No idea what that's all about.

The Sphinx is another worthy addition to "The Big Bang Comics Collection" from Pulp 2.0 Press. You can order it from Amazon here. And keep your eyes peeled, because the review of the next book in that collection will not take quite so long to appear.

...I hope.