These are two books I grabbed for a friend that I normally wouldn't have looked twice at. I read through them out of curiousity.

Captain America vol 4 #12: Huh? I picked this up for my friend because it says, on the cover, "Part 1 of 5", which implies that it's the start of a storyarc, and thus a little more new-reader friendly than normal. Well, it wasn't. The art is stylistic and scratchy, and while I could mostly follow the story, I wasn't drawn in at all. None of the characters interested me, and very little of the story made sense. Not a good read.

Thor #60/562: I was vaguely interested in Jake Olson's story, but it kept getting interrupted by cosmic Thorishness. In the end I realized I hadn't enjoyed the book much at all. What should have been a dramatic moment was destroyed by the sudden appearance of an obvious plot device, and the cosmic Thor bits were just boring.

Still to review: Age of Bronze, Usagi Yojimbo, Amazing Spider-Man, Radioactive Man, Detective, Batman: Nevermore, Superman: Birthright, Formerly Known As The Justice League, JSA: All Stars, and Justice League Adventures.

Comments (1)

To be honest

I think those are two of the weakest books in Marvel's stable. I hate Dan Jurgen's writing, and have since he wrote Superman. Chuck Austen, who is currently writing Captain America, Uncanny X-men, Exiles, and a ton of other books, is mediocre, with really good highs, and really bad lows.

Posted Mon 7 Jul 12:16 PM by paul (noxturne@hotmail.com - www.noxturne.blogspot.com)

A pirate lives up the street. Not an internet pirate, but a guy who dresses up in swashbuckling clothing, picks up a sword, and gets on a boat with a cannon. The reason I know this is because the first year we lived here, the boat was parked in front of the guy's house all that year until the parade season started and it was put into action. Yup. The gentleman up the street is one of the notorious Seafair Pirates, who drive their boat in parades around Seattle all summer, and do various charity stints.

This morning as I was about to take my very late shower, I heard a lot of hearty yelling from up the street. I had a suspicion, and I opened the bathroom window and climbed up to peer out, looking up the street to the pirate's house. Sure enough, the boat was there, crowded with gaudily dressed men shouting at the people who were walking by on their way downtown for the annual parade. As I watched, they set the cannon off with a window-rattling BOOM! Then they started down the street, rolling down in their always-parade-ready boat past my house toward the celebrations. They set the cannon off again as they got to the corner... though whether it was out of sheer fun or to warn oncoming traffic I have no idea.

One year, when I was in summer band, I recall having to march in front of the Seafair Pirates in a parade. That was the second worst marching spot in the parade, only beat out by the spot right behind the mounted police (yeah, there are pooper scoopers, but they never get it all). The Pirate's cannon constantly threw us off the beat as we played, and when the Pirates got bored, they loved to harass the band members who weren't allowed to react.

Bothell has a good parade every year. Decent sized, with a lot of community support. There is also a re-enactment of the Battle of Concord at the local park, which I've always found a bit amusing considering we live on the Pacific coast.

It's also perfectly legal to set off fireworks (safe and sane fireworks) in Bothell all day today, so I'm already hearing a number of very frightened animals barking and screeching, as well as random booms and snaps just about everywhere.

When I was a kid, a teenager I think, I was out at a friend's house for the Fourth of July. We were letting off fireworks on the dock, some of them not of the safe and sane variety (there's a tradition of visiting the local Reservations to buy fireworks from the Native Americans who aren't constrained by state laws against the more wild sort). All the people watching were in lawn chairs, though I kept standing up and wandering to the edge of the dock to get a better look at the other fireworks along the Canal. Out of the gloom between the sound of the bombs bursting in air, I heard a small and frightened "meow!" from the woodpile. I went over to investigate and found a terrified kitten who had wandered from the neighbor's house for whatever reason, and was now trying vainly to get away from the noise. After a quick consultation with the neighbors, who were at our party, I picked up the kitten and walked behind the woodpile with it, cuddling it in my arms and talking softly to it to see if I could calm it down a little. At that moment, my friend had let off a big boomer firework that was supposed to climb into the air before it went off. It climbed into the air... about 5 feet... and burst hugely scattering all the folks at the party. It was a miracle nobody was seriously hurt. My friend had been bending over to pick up another firework, her brother had knelt to talk with a family member, and I was behind the woodpile, which we had to hastily douse. Virtually all the sparks went over the crowd of lawnchairs, and only somebody who was standing would have taken the full brunt of the blast. If not for the kitten, that would have been me. As I've said, I had my fill of fireworks as a kid.

Update: The pirates returned to the neighborhood just before 2 pm. They blew their air horn, and had a siren going. I watched them from the front window as they passed our house. One of the pirates raised his sword and caught some of the evergreen branches from the trees in front of our house, and sliced them to the ground as the boat (the Moby Duck) raced past. They are now up the street shouting and blowing horns as they disperse to their cars to go home and be normal folk again.

Just in case I don't get a chance to post later on, happy fourth of July to all my American readers. Enjoy the fireworks and stay safe.

Update: Today's light reading: The Declaration of Independence, The Consitution of the United States, The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10), and The Other Amendments (11-27). Also check out some quotes by founding fathers, and this very important speech by Patrick Henry (Note two quotes: "Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country" and "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it." Strange how many people nowadays seem to think his attitude is wrong. Heck, some people seem to think it is treason to speak your opinions! And, as for knowing the whole truth, how long are we going to wait for real information about 9/11?).

Here's what happens when somebody lets the ESPN staff loose on Harry Potter. No spoilers here, but I recommend not letting the kids read this one. Link via The Leaky Cauldron.

Also via the Leaky Cauldron, NASA approves of Hermione's Astronomy in Harry Potter. Another good essay, and with no major spoilers for Order of the Phoenix.

A cartoon called "Something Postive" has a short arc about the DC Role-Playing Game. Click the Next Comic link at the bottom to see the story progress. The Disney HeroClix cartoon is also pretty funny, and you'll see it if you keep clicking. Link courtesy of The Captain.

Todd Nauck, former artist on the lamented comic book Young Justice, has a new series out. WildGuard is a mix between your standard team hero book and American Idol. Fans can vote on which heroes they like the most during the series. WildGuard debuts in September, but profiles of some of the would-be heroes are up now on the website.

On a more serious note: Arthur Silber is angry about how our troops are being treated. There was also an editorial in the Army Times worth reading if you support our troops. Daily Kos has put the full text of the editorial up, with a tiny bit of commentary. And here's why you can't find WMD on the internet.

Comments (2)

Sweet

That Something Positive strip was great, as was the ESPN article. Good deal. I miss Young Justice, good comic. I'm curious about Wildguard, but I'm leery of artists who write. Not many of them have even the basic knowledge of storytelling to pull it off, but I do like Nauck, so I'll probably pick it up.

Posted Thu 3 Jul 03:49 PM by Paul (noxturne@hotmail.com - www.noxturne.blogspot.com)

I'm pretty fond of Todd Nauck. I met him at San Diego Con 2000, and he was really nice: http://www.eskimo.com/~tegan/aqua/sandiego/ (Look for the picture of Mike Carlin pretending to be Aquaman, the meeting with Todd is in the paragraph next to it).

Posted Thu 3 Jul 10:07 PM by Laura "Tegan" ( - )

Here is Will Pfeifer's latest review column in the Rockford Register Star. This one is about a book on "Profoundly Disturbing" movies.

Comics came today, and we got a bundle of them. I also grabbed a selection of Marvel comics for a friend who is trying to find a comic shop, and I did a quick read through the two books that I got for him that we don't normally get, so I'll do rapid reviews for those.

It's been painful to watch the Mariners lately. It seems like they've lost their relief pitching entirely. I know, I know, they still have the best record in baseball and are doing well enough to stay on top despite the blown saves recently, but there is nothing harder to watch than the end of a game you thought was in the bag, only to see your team's pitchers give up grand slams in the ninth to lose.

I could tell that fireworks went on sale yesterday, as last night there was a lot of noise in the neighborhood. Seems that a few folks decided to ignore the fact that letting off fireworks is only legal on the 4th of July itself in our town. Though, with some of the window-rattling booms, I wasn't entirely sure all the fireworks going off were even legal anyway. I got my fill of fireworks, legal and not, as a kid.

Comments (2)

I just got into baseball last year, and I am (sadly) a Tigers fan. The Mariners can't be that bad, though they did lose once to the Tigers in April. No matter what, when you feel bad about them, just look to Detroit and immediately, you'll feel better.

Posted Thu 3 Jul 03:58 PM by paul (noxturne@hotmail.com - www.noxturne.blogspot.com)

I like Detroit

They are actually a pretty good team, they just haven't pulled it together yet. There were a lot of "almost" plays when they were up against the M's, and they put on a good show. I believe I told Hubby-Eric that they aren't nearly as bad as their record seems to indicate.

I think you'll see them improve a lot, if they can keep from losing all confidence.

Posted Thu 3 Jul 10:03 PM by Laura "Tegan" ( - )

Woke up to find hubby-Eric watching the live coverage of the decision on the 2010 Winter Olympics on the CBC. Apparently, as of this writing, Salzburg has been eliminated from the voting, and it's between Korea and Canada. Since we live really close to the Canadian bidding city, Vancouver/Whistler, we are rooting for Canada. And, of course, it's hard not to root for Canada while watching Canadian TV.

Update: Vancouver/Whistler just won the bid. Seven years of construction are about to start North of the border.

Another Update: The vote was really close, and Pyeongchang actually won the first round of voting 53 votes to Vancouver/Whistler's 40 to Salzburg's 16. If all 16 Salzburg votes hadn't gone to Vancouver/Whistler, the 2010 Winter Olympics may well have been held in Korea. As it is, V/W only won 56 to 53. Wow.

Comments (1)

And now, we start saving our pennies so we can go...

And we've only got six and a half years to do so...

Posted Wed 2 Jul 09:14 AM by Hubby-Eric (tiktok@eskimo.com - )

The Northwest Cartoonists managed their 24-hour draw-a-thon, and got this article printed in one of the major Seattle Newspapers. Great image of Phil Foglio looking tired.

No commentary on these, just linkage: Time article on WMD, Lingering Questions about 9/11 from families of victims, with more here.

Got to be careful with this one, as I want to spill the beans. I doubt that anyone reading this hasn't read the book yet if they want to (except for hubby-Eric), but that doesn't mean I ought to put spoilers up front. So I'll hide them.

Rowling is a very good storyteller, and that makes up for most of her faults as a writer. The writing is simple and straightforward, but the story is a rippin' yarn that draws you in and carries you along. I thought the length would bother me, but I just kept turning pages, dying to find out what happened next. This book is much darker than the first four, with less humor moments, and the end is a bit of a downer in some ways. There are also some gaping plotholes that might have solutions in future books... Overall, not as good as the others, but better in some ways. Fun non-spoiler quote: "Europa's covered in ice, not mice" - Hermione

Spoiler Review Below (highlight/select to read):

I think the biggest problem with this book is the completely realistic portrayal of teenagers. Yup. Kids really do act that snippy and prickly with one another at that age. But in a book this length, it was almost too much. We got it. They are going through puberty and they are on edge, enough with the in-fighting already!

There are some interesting things going on with Neville. Basically, he could've been "The Boy Who Lived", yet Voldy picked on Harry instead. What I find really interesting about this is that we've been led to believe that Neville's power is weak. I don't think that's the case at all. Neville is probably one of the strongest wizards of his age, he just has a block to mastering his power. And where was he when his parents were tortured into insanity? Could something have happened to baby Neville that made him unable to use his abilities? And now, Harry seems to be breaking that block with the DA club...

Sirius' mirror is both a plot hole and an intentional guilt trip, and I don't like it. All that needed to be done is one reminder, and the whole sequence at the end wouldn't have happened. NOT good. While it seems to have been set-up as an indication of Harry's stubborness as well as Sirius' larger-than-life actions, it just didn't work for me.

So that's the big weapon that Voldemort is after? An old prophecy that says nothing that hasn't already been figured out? Is that the ultimate in let-downs, or what? The book builds and builds, then falls flat right at the end. If the prophecy itself turns out to not be the weapon, but a gigantic red herring, I'll be much more pleased, but that still drags down this book.

Best part of the book, by far, is when the twins finally decide to stop playing by the rules. Their all-out attack on Umbridge is the thing legends are made of, and was definitely the highlight of the book. We always knew what they were capable of, but we never saw them when all the constraints were off.

The death in the book was anti-climatic. I think, in some ways, this is ok. Cedric's death Gobblet of Fire was also very quick and strange, and I think that's one point that Rowling is trying to make. Death isn't pretty, it isn't glorious, and it hurts.

End Spoilers. If the above stuff shows up on your computer without you highlighting it, please let me know what kind of browser and computer you are using so I can try to fix it. Thanks.

This is a truly wonderful story about Katharine Hepburn.

Page 475/476 of our copy of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', very near the end of Chapter 24, has a gigantic hole it in. It looks like the hole was made before the book was printed, as part of the printing is sideways on a folded piece. The hole is a triangle, about 2 inches by 2 1/2 and 2 1/2 inches. Time to pull out the pirated copies I downloaded and see if any of them are the real thing and can fill in the holes until we get a new copy.

Comments (1)

Have no fear, help is arriving!

Fortunately, Amazon.ca has a terrific help function for just such a problem. I went in last night to let them know about the problem, and they've already gotten back to me this morning with the news that they're sending another copy. So (provided this one's intact), if anyone has use for a slightly damaged Canadian edition of the latest Harry Potter book...

Posted Mon 30 Jun 08:39 AM by Hubby-Eric (tiktok@eskimo.com - http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/)

Had to pass on this rather unique response to a Nigerian E-Mail scam. And it's related to the book I'm currently reading, even...

Too busy reading new book. I'll be back later...