PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Scrubs Season 6

Season 6 of Scrubs was broadcast during the 2006-2007 tv season though only three of the shows appeared in 2006. It's a baby packed season as Zack Braff deals with Elizabeth Banks being pregnant with his kid. There's a funny yet sad getting pregnant story that goes with that. John C McGinley and Christa Miller are having their second baby. Donald Faison and Judy Reyes are having a baby and Sarah Chalk is not. She's wanting to be part of the baby havin' club but she's having no luck. Her boyfriend is a nice intern and they plan to get married but the writers will sabotage that relationship and by the end of the season there is no much doubt that it looks hopeless for those two. There's a musical episode when a woman comes in with a tumor. It causes her to hear singing and we see the room from her point of view. One of the songs is about poop and it's importance in medicine. You can learn a lot from poop. John C McGinley hurts his foot and needs a cane. That slips into a parody of House. I can't imagine wanting to watch House again. That's some sad shit. Zach passes out when he poops and that's sort of funny. Elizabeth takes a job in Washington state and that puts a hold on her and Zack's relationship. Later in the season a bunch of the staff take Dr Kelso's new RV and drive up to Washington to see the Ultrasound. It doesn't go well. There's always a certain amount of sadness in the show and people often make the wrong choice. Still they learn and make me laugh in the process. There were 22 episodes this season and several of them were top notch writing and acting. I certainly get my sentimental fix for a while with this series. Kind of makes up for the lack in much of what I watch. This was another set that I got with a 40% off coupon at HPB. It cost me 6 bucks plus tax. Well worth the cost.

Comic Book Men Ep 1 & 2

I watched the first two episodes of the Kevin Smith reality show Comic Book Men. It started last month on AMC and there are 6 episodes planned. The show is hosted by Kevin and stars the guys who work in his comic shop. Kevin bought an existing shop called Comicology in 1997 and turned it into Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. In case you want to shop there you'd need to get your ass over to Red Bank New Jersey. It's seems a fairly good sized shop, there are shops that big and bigger here in my area, but I don't know if we've seen the whole thing so far. 

The show is broken into two streams that wind around each other through the hour. One stream is shot in and around the store and the other is shot with everyone sitting around a table discussing the events of the day for the podcast. In the store we rarely see anyone buying anything. Mostly they seem to have people trying to sell some stuff. They show up hoping to get a big cash payment, often with completely unrealistic expectations, and the reality of the market punches them right in their guts. Then they're on tv and that's got to suck. In the first episode some guy brings in a signed Bob Kane Batman sketch from 1970. No one knew what it was worth, thousands seemed a good guess, they recommended using an auction house. There's a mix of toys and comic stuff that rolls in. Some lady brought a Chucky Doll but it had no box and the lady didn't take the money offered. The guy who had the Six Million Dollar Man Doll had a box and they bought that. A guy brought in some movie stuff and they had to call another guy who knew more than they did to help them out. It didn't go too well for the guy trying to hawk his stuff. He wanted a lot more than the expert said the stuff was worth. He didn't get paid.

That sort of encounter happened a lot at DreamHaven's front counter. People would come in with a box of "old" comics, and when you go to take a look, they were from 5 years ago. Over the last many years the back issue market has taken a deep plunge. No one is buying that stuff but this guy thinks he should at least get what he paid for them, you know, since they're old. Stuff before the 1960's still has some good value but hardly anyone is buying that either. Walt makes a joke about how hard it is to sell back issues when every second another collector drops dead and there isn't anyone to take his place. I've seen that happen a lot in many other hobbies. Ridin' high, then the wasteland. There's often a chance to pick up huge collections for cheap. We'll probably see a switch to digital comic back issues if the companies are smart enough. There's already an underground market out there handing the stuff around for free. It's a bit on hold as they work through the loss of Megaupload and recover from the SOPA/ACTA fiasco.

That's Ming Chen, Bryan Johnson, Kevin Smith, Michael Zapcic and Walter Flanagan left to right. Walter manages the shop, Ming and Michael work in the shop, and Walter's long time friend Bryan Johnson just seems to hang out in the shop. Bryan managed the second shop that Kevin owned. It was in LA for about 4 years ending in 2009. Ming and Michael have their own podcast about selling comics. Ming does a lot of web site production for View Askew Productions. That's Kevin's business, they make and sell all sorts of stuff. He also does a lot of podcasts.

The show is mostly fun to watch though sometimes they are a mean bunch. Not unlike when I worked at the comic shop. It's a place that sometimes attracts dicks. Of course all the cool people make up for that. Episode 2 has a guy show up with a replica of the 1965 Batmobile. I saw that car at the local comic book con a couple of years ago and it's a nice car. I didn't get to drive it like the guys in the shop did, that looked like fun. That episode had some guy come in with a light saber handle that he wanted appraised. He was told it was from the first movie but it was from the second movie. That was what the Star Wars expert they brought in thought. He said he was about 90% sure and if it was real it was worth north of $7000. Not bad for a $60 investment 15 years ago. Jason Mewes rolls in during the second episode and tries to run off with stuff from the store. He talks Ming into paying for his stuff. Then he bounces around the store acting all fucked up. I'd find that real annoying, and unless it was a gag, it was pretty sad to see him out of character. Glad I don't have a friend like that. I'll have to keep an eye out for the rest of the series. I've already down loaded the podcasts but haven't listened to them yet. It almost makes it cool to work in a comic shop. I'm kidding, it's always cool to work in a comic shop.

Grimm Season 1 - Episodes 1-4

 

I sort of remembered that Grimm had started in the fall. I was looking around the tv section in On Demand and there were a bunch of episodes listed. Since they started with the first one I put that on. The idea is that Nick Burkhardt, played by David Giuntoliis the last of a long line of monster hunters. He's a detective on the Portland Police Force. That's him with his cop partner Hank Griffin up above. Hank is played by Russell Hornsby. Nick doesn't know about his secret history when the show starts but he's been seeing things, like people changing into beast for a second or two. His dying step mom starts to fill him in but she dies at the end of episode 2 leaving a lot of things up in the air. Nick's a typical fish out of water when it comes to dealing with all the different supernatural monster folk and their schenannigans. He makes a sort of friend with a wolf guy named Monroe, played by Silas Weir Mitchell, who reluctantly gets involved with Nick's investigations. That's him in the sweater.

That's the cast: Russell Hornsby, Reggie Lee, Bitsie Tulloch, David Giuntoli, Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz. The show was created by Stephen Carpenter, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf. Fans of Buffy and Angel should recognize the middle name. He did a lot of work on those shows. Grimm is pretty much your average cop show but with a monster twist. Nick has to hide the other world from the regular folks on the police force. Even his partner doesn't know what's out there. I wonder how long that will last. Nick's boss knows about that world but Nick doesn't know he's a player yet. There's a gruesome murder or other nasty bit of business each week, most of which could be explained in a normal way. Occasionally some bit get into the evidence stream that makes them shake their heads. It's moody, dark, violent and occasionally beautiful. The show is set in Portland Oregon and the outdoor scenery is really great looking. Everything seems covered with moss and that green sure is vibrant. It's a nicely produced show with a good on screen look.

The supernaturally different humans are a varied lot. In the first episode we meet some Hexenbeast, who are all hot lawyer gals, our pal Monroe, who's a wolfman, and a Reaper of the Grimm, who are troll like guys who want to kill Grimms. In episode 2 we've got bear people, some of whom are having trouble fitting in, gossipy bee people in the 3rd show, and a goat guy in the 4th episode seduces women with his touch. Some of the monsters are monsters and some are regular working folk just trying to get along. Angel fans should find that familiar. The regualr folks in the show don't know that this other world exists but they get slaughtered pretty regular. There isn't much of a sense of humor, Monroe provides a bit of comic relief but not much, and Russell Hornsby has a light touch at times. There are levels to the new magical world that Nick has to dig into. He's got a bit of a reference library and he gets some help from Monroe but mostly he has to learn as he goes along. It's all well enough made, the CGI is typical of tv, some of the monster makeup looks so-so at times. I've been enjoying watching the first four episodes and plan to keep on going.   

Muppets rock the house.

I thought this was a hoot. Muppets rocking out to Sure Shot by The Beatie Boys.

Boo!

That's part of the new Harry Potter display at the LEGO store. I thought it was a pretty good dementor made better because he revolves. It captures the minifig quite well. The cape on the current figure is quite nice, though it looks like that dementor doesn't believe in ironing. Ha, like I ever iron anything. There's a floor display of the current HP offerings below the figure. In the front of the store they have a large poster and some large HP minifig cutouts. Sadly they put them behind those annoying tubes. That's really an unattractive, and rather useless, addition to the window display. Only small things go in the tubes and they sit empty most of the time. I blame the colleges and universities in giving degrees to people with a lack of common sense and vision. Of course it could be that there just aren't enough good designers around to do all the work and some people from the bottom of the class get hired.

 

   

Tarzan of the Apes

That cover above is the magazine that had the very first Tarzan novel in The All-Story Magazine from Oct 1912. For nearly 100 years the world has continued to follow the exploits of the Lord of the Jungle in books, movies, tv and strips in newspapers and comic book form. It's all popular. Turner Classic Movies has been running some of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan pictures in the last month or so and I have been watching them. All 12 of the pictures are available on dvd in various sets. I'm not at all certain that I've seen all of these pictures before but I know I would have watched just about anything with Tarzan as a kid and that hasn't changed hardly any since I grew up some. I was a fan of the tv shows and the comics and the novels, though I hadn't read the later until I was about 17. I never finished reading the whole Tarzan series but my mother did. Several years ago I went out and picked up copies of the old Ballantine series with the Richard Powers covers but I haven't read any of them yet. That's the cover to the first novel over on the left. I saw some of these originals at TorCon - the 1973 World Science Fiction Convention. It was my first convention and I meet Richard Powers there. I was already a big fan. He was a real friendly and nice to talk to. I kick myself for not buying one of the Tarzan paintings, it was only $75. That was alot for me in those days, more than a weeks take home pay, so I passed them up. I guess I have to be happy with the two cheaper Powers book covers I wound up with. Some day I'll sell them and buy a new used car.

Johnny Weissmuller, a former Olympic Gold medal winning swimmer, made a dozen Tarzan pictures, the first in 1932, the last in 1947. After that he did 13 Jungle Jim pictures before he retired from the movie business. I've only seen a couple of the Jungle Jim pics, they were ok, nothing outstanding. Six of the Tarzan movies were done at MGM and then Weissmuller moved to RKO Pictures for 6 more Tarzan pictures. The plots are pretty much the same. Some awful white people come to the jungle looking for treasure with larceny in their hearts. They'll take what they want at the point of a gun if the natives don't do what they say. Tarzan warns them to keep on the straight and narrow but they don't listen and the bad guys pretty much come to a grisly end. The jungle is harsh, death lurks around every tree, I know I would stay away. Adding the Tarzan brand of justice, which often involves a pointy stick, makes the place much more dangerous to the rule breaker. In one movie Tarzan is stuck up a tree with Boy. He breaks off a branch that is as thick as an arm, sharpens the point, and nails some guy who's chasing him right in the chest. That was a damn big tree branch, I bet that hurt, lucky it wasn't me. Another time he called to the elephants, who came down stream and helped Tarzan kick the ass of some cannibals. That made me laugh. I like elephants. I don't like cannibals. Unless they are being stomped on by elephants, then I'm going to laugh.

Like the creator of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs, I have an issue with the barely literate Tarzan that you often see on the movie screen. "Me Tarzan, you Jane." In the books, which I started reading in around 1969 or 1970, Tarzan was raised by apes after his family perished. They had been the only survivors of a ship wreck. They build a cabin, soon after their son is born, and a bit after that they both are dead, leaving the infant boy all alone. His cries bring some apes  Tarzan is nearly killed by king of the apes, who had just killed his father, but luckily a female ape, who had lost her child recently, takes him under her protection. Years later Tarzan would kill that ape and take his place as king. Tarzan teaches himself to read from books found in his parents cabin. He rescues Jane without her knowing it and falls in love with her. He rescues a Fenchman from the local natives and that guy teaches him French and helps him find his family. Tarzan even travels to Wisconsin in his pursuit of Jane. Not liking the life in the civilized world he returns to the jungle to set up a large estate where he has plenty of adventures. Burroughs isn't the greatest writer but he tells a big story with lots of stuff going on. Mostly I found his writing easy to read, occasionally a sentence would make me stumble and fall, but you pick yourself up and continue on. There were a couple of dozen books in the series and they are in the public domain so you can read them for free from all sorts of places like project Guttenberg Australia or Amazon's Kindle. Not all of them are going to be jems but they should be mostly entertaining. I hope to get to read those sometime in the future. Unless I want to go digital I need to find out where I stuck those Tarzan books. They'll turn up eventually.

Will Hayes in Ask A Policeman

I had watched Ask A Policeman a few days back and tonight I watched a second Will Hayes movie called Convict 99. I hadn't ever heard of him before I ran across these two British comedies over at the Internet Archive. Growing up in Canada meant I had a steady stream of British fare to watch on my tv. I grew to like the dry wit as well as some slapstick, though I do draw the line at Benny Hill. Still not a fan. There's some of both comedy styles in Ask A Policeman. Hayes is more of a straightman while Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott fill in the noisey activity around him.

 

In the pic on the right we have Moore, Hayes and Moffatt. In Ask A Policeman they play policemen who live in a small quiet town called Turnbotham Round and for the last ten years they have had no crime. Not that they went looking for any, either. The local Chief Constable plans to evaluate the need of a station, what with no crime. Will and his constables plan to create some crime but they suck as being criminals as much as they do at being coppers. They eventually stumble onto some real smuggling and there's a dumb but half way funny ending. I guess the story is pretty dumb in both movies but there are bits and pieces that I enjoyed, some of which made me laugh out loud. Convict 99 has Hayes get hired as a prison warden while he believes he's going to head a bad boys school. He accidentally gets tossed into the prison population for a few days. He decides to clean up the building and make it a nicer place for the criminals to stay in. Moffatt plays goofy guard and Moore plays a squirrelly prisoner who's been unsuccessfully tunneling out of the prison for 40 years. They aren't great pieces of cinema but there's a larf to be had. AAP scores a 7.4 on the IMdb and C99 scores a 6.9, you'll have to be the judge if they deserves that. There are a nice bunch of character actors in the films. Glad I found them. Might watch them again in a few years. Who knows?

Baffling Mysteries Comics

    

I'm having trouble finding time to get the Science Fiction Sunday post done so I thought I'd mention another bunch of comics that I picked up at the Digital Comic Museum. It's a public domain free download comic site. Lots of old comics from the 30's and 40's and into the 50's. Baffling Mysteries had some great covers. DCM has over a dozen issues of the early 1950's comic. The stories are typical comic horror stories, not too scarey but occasionally weird. Lots of demons, ghosts, and various other monsters, stories of revenge, very typical of the horror short story that you'd have found in fiction magazines of the time. The covers are about as racy as they get.

       

I like the lady in red and that man eating plant in the last pic on the right. Sadly there's no story inside to go along with the cover. By the covers alone you knew exactly who they are selling that comic to and it would be me. Kids and adults read comics in the 50's. I'd have bought these when they were new.  The art inside ranges from fair to good. Occasionally something slightly different is tried with various degrees of success. Worth a look for the horror comic fan.
 
 
 

What would the Vikings think?

Everyone hears about weird Japanese dress up customs. Listverse has a list of ten of them. It's kind of hard to tell them apart. Pictures help. That's a shot of three gals in costumes as Godzilla, Kanga from Winnie the Pooh and Pikachu. It's from a style called Kigurumin. That page gave me a link to a page with 15 clips from Japanese tv shows. You already know how wacky those shows are, but some of these clips are pretty fun. There are only 11 working clips so it won't take too long to go through them. The front page of Listverse had a link to 10 Misconceptions about the Vikings. As a descendent of those Vikings I was disappointed to hear they weren't so dirty after all. They did like their stabbin' though. Here's a bonus: 9 3D street paintings.

Domo-Kun

That's Domo-Kun. He got something going on in Japan where he's the mascot of NHK TV. I think he's yelling at that guy for stealing his satelite signal, or he's happy, I can't tell which. The other picture makes him out to be some sort of wrathful agent for God. I don't think that's part of the story. There's a goofy flash game here where Domo has to whack the Powderpuff Girls on the head with a stick. It's a hard one. I kept getting blasted with lightning bolts. There's a jpeg here that you can print out and make your own domo paper puppet and his tv. Here's a Domo-Kun FAQ. Guitar Wolf, a Japanese band, has music in a Domo short and in the movie Wild Zero. I just thought Domo-Kun was fun to look at but I don't feel I need a toy to enjoy him. You should check out Wild Zero too, although some of you won't like it.