So occasionally I’ve posted articles here sharing what I’ve been listening to. This is what’s been playing on my ipod lately:

The Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
Kind of a mix of rock, disco, and pop.  Very fun, and I absolutely L O V E ”I”m not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you”

Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward indie comics, preferably situational, dramatic ones. I always wanted to write a comic myself, but since I can’t draw myself, and know of no comic artist who’d be interested in working with me, it’s never really come to pass. At any rate, I thought I’d share some of the comics I’ve enjoyed lately:

Umbrella Academy - I usually steer far clear of creators who moved into creating comics by exploiting their successes in other industries (particularly the film/tv/music ones), but Gerard Way (lead singer from My Chemical Romance) actually wrote a pretty decent little mini-series with loads of interesting ideas in it. If anything, it’s a little too chock-full of concepts as many of them are never really fully explained in the comic. At any rate, it’s a fun comic, and harkens back to the Sandman/Book of Magic/The Dreaming style, which we rarely see anymore.

Blankets by Craig Thompson - I never imagined I’d read a book with such a high focus on christianity, but this one is just fantastic. It’s an autobiography of the creator as a child and how he discovers himself and his first love, and how he is forced to reconcile his human urges with what God expects from him. At the end, of course, he’s no longer Christian, but it’s interesting to read the path he takes and the sheer confusion and questioning we all have gone through as teenage kids.

The Boys - If you’ve ever read The Preacher, you’ll know Garth Ennis’ sense of ultra-violent, tasteless parody. And you get it in loads in this particular comic. He drags the superhero through the shit-encrusted mud, ripping the heros APART. It’s absolutely hysterical, especially when moments such as when the newbie christian superheroine is forced to suck the cocks of each veteran male member in the elite superhero organization she’s joined, The Seven (of course, bankrolled by a major corporation). It’s a gangbang BJ fest. It just gets harsher from there. And I love it LOL!

Locke & Key - Okay okay, I know I said I refuse to read comics by folks who use their position on the social totem pole to get into the industry, but Stephen King’s son Joe Hill is a fun read. This spooky, kinda screwed up ghost story about an evil spectre that can only be seen by two boys who moved into the family home after their father is brutally murdered by two crazy teens is very solid and has great art. Highly recommended.

Local - This comic has much of the feel of the Optic Nerve series, except it comes out on a consistent basis. I loved Optic Nerve but unfortunately that creator hasn’t been successful in keeping it going over the years. This one, however, is a lot of fun. Kinda angsty, 20/30-something dramatic series by Brian Wood.

Fun Home - The only truly gay comic in this list, Fun Home is created by Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. I never read the comic strip, but this graphic novel is absolutely riveting, about a woman questioning her sexuality and dealing with the suicide of her father, a closeted gay man. This is a MUST read for anyone interested in LGBT-themed comics.

Kick-Ass - written by Mark Millar, who was responsible for the comic, Wanted, that recently opened as a motion picture. It’s drawn by John Romita Jr., who’s a longtime comics pro in the industry. The comic follows a teenage boy who decides he is going to become a superhero, regardless if he actually has powers or not. What follows is his SEVERE beating when he confronts a gang, his rehabilitation, and his attempt yet again. It’s only 3 issues so far, but man is it brutal. Fun too.

This is hysterical:

IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees - Watch more free videos

Wow, this really brought back a lot of memories…A video of Gizmodo visiting the Lego Secret Vault.

Just amazing to see all those boxes and boxes of legos. Watching that video, I recall vividly sitting on the living room floor, building all kinds of cool stuff with my legos. I remember one invention, it was an underwater breathing apparatus that let in water and converted it into oxygen…and then I built it.

Or the times when I created spaceships, and amusement park rides…all kinds of stuff. Those are happy memories!

I haven’t done one of these in a while, but just wanted to share what I’ve been listening to lately.

As you may recall, I didn’t enjoy the new Madonna album as much as I’d hoped. A couple tracks on the album were all right, but overall I think it was a bit of a mess. And apparently the buying public thought so too, since it only sold about 500k albums. That’s pretty disappointing for someone LiveNation paid $120 mil.

Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Narrow Stairs. They always seemed to me kind of a mix of REM and Pet Shop Boys, and I’ve really loved their music. Unfortunately, they don’t sound quite as great live, but the album is pretty terrific. There’s a little bit of electro, a little psychedelia, and lots of great indie rock going on.

Estelle’s Shine album is pretty awesome too, if you like R&B with a euro twist. I particularly love her remix of George Michael’s “Faith” in the song “No Substitute Love”. I think it was unnecessary to have all the US-centric hip hop stars, Kanye West, Will.i.am, etc…as she can really stand on her own.

Also listening to Nine Inch Nails - The Slip. It was fucking awesome of Trent to give us all a free album, especially one of such high quality. It reminds me a lot of earlier NiN albums like Pretty Hate Machine and, of course, my favorite, The Downward Spiral.

The new Hot Chip - Made in the Dark record sounds very promising. Of course, I really enjoy electropop of all flavors, and this one is definitely worth a listen.

I’m still thoroughly enjoying Vampire Weekend’s self-titled album. They may be an Ivy-League band, but they sound terrific. Kind of an early-Police sound, with loads of reggae-tinged hooks.

I’ve been playing on ancestry.com recently, looking up my ancestors, and I found a couple of interesting things to note:

• I’m about 12% Seminole Indian. However, my grandfather is listed as “mulatto,” and his mother is listed as “black.” You see, back in the day, especially in the South, if you weren’t white, you were, well, black. And yet, another thing to consider is during the Civil War, the Seminole Indians took in and protected many black families, so I imagine there’s quite a bit of a mix going on there
• I was able to trace my grandma’s family back to the 1600’s…all the way to Connecticut. After that the trail gets cold. I imagine that was when they immigrated from England.
• I’m related to Jane Austen, Bill Clinton, and Isaac Newton!
• I’m stuck on my great-grandfather “Frank Schwenk” born in 1861 on my dad’s side. He’s supposed to have been born in Pennsylvania and moved to Portland, Maine, but unfortunately I can’t find anything. Another piece of info to note: one one census record it lists both his parents as being born in Germany…so that might be why the trail went cold there. But another lists them both having been from Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, incidentally has the largets population of Schwenks in the US by far.

All of this research got me to decide to reconnect with my mother again, if for nothing else but to get more info on our relatives so that maybe I can expand the search. Unfortunately, when I called she wasn’t there. I spoke with my Aunt Faye, a woman I hadn’t talked to in over 25 years, for quite a while. She told me my mother is working two jobs to make ends meet. My sister is still married to Glen, who’s been abusing her pretty badly.
I know this sounds awful, but there’s just a part of me that doesn’t want to get involved with any of that. My family pretty much all the way back has been rather poor and, well, fucked up, is the best way to put it. I’m trying to break myself from that pattern, which is probably why I obsess so much on my career and my “success.” I just don’t want to end up like my mother, living with her sister in the middle of some tiny town in Georgia, working two jobs to make ends meet…all alone, with no savings or retirement to speak of. It scares the shit out of me and makes me realize I need to adjust my priorities so I don’t end up like that.

By the way, saw Avenue Q with friends and it was fantastic! I’ve been wanting to see this show for YEARS. We had 4th row center stage tickets! Well, at least Joe and me. Dan was a little bit further back, but still close. I <3 The Bad Idea Bears.

“Let’s play a drinking gaaaaame!”

So, it appears I have a new roommate.

She’s a 6 month old labrador retriever.  And she’s an absolute sweetheart.  I haven’t decided on a name yet, but I’m thinking I might go with Chooey, which is the nickname for Katina Choovansky in the comic series Strangers In Paradise.  I’m also thinking maybe Lucy would work too.  Anyway, yep, here’s the new baby in the house.

I’ve been playing GTA IV the past couple weeks and, as I’ve progressed through the game, I’ve found it to be not nearly as great as people say it is. Sure it’s a good game, and definitely fun, but does it really deserve 10 out of 10? No, it doesn’t, and here’s why:

1. Gameplay - This is essentially the EXACT same game play we’ve experienced over and over again with the GTA series. There’s nothing new here, the same “steal a vehicle” or “bust a cap in some gangsta’s asses”. I really haven’t experienced ONE mission where I could say I’ve never played that before in a GTA game.
2. Controls - We are STILL dealing with the same screwed up controls GTA has always had, with some additional problems. One specific issue, which I swear I want to kill whatever developer decided this was a good idea in the first place, is putting the “crouch” on the left stick press-in button. I don’t know about you, but when I push forward on the left stick, I WANT TO MOVE FORWARD, not go into a crouch. Usually, I want to move forward QUICKLY, but many times I accidentally press in when I’m rushed to react to something and end up doing exactly the opposite. I’m crouched, and then, screwed. WTF? I also for the life of me can’t understand why they have such a fast cycle on the controls menu setup. I somehow got myself into first person mode on my vehicle and I couldn’t find the control that took me out of it. I was stuck trying to read the exhausting number of controls for this game to try to locate the one that gets me out of first person mode. Even the “hailing cabs” feature is busted. Half the time I’m trying to hail a cab, I end up jacking it instead. Why do this??? Don’t get me started about the “action” button being both x AND the left button control. I could go on and on. I’m sure there were many logical reasons why they did what they did, but maybe it would have been nice spending all that time they saved making innovative gameplay to maybe implement a custom controller implementation, or perhaps rework the controls so they’re not so screwed up
3. Tank-like movements - I swear to God, this drives me insane. I feel like I’m moving a tank around the world, having to control both movement AND camera, AND attacks. I have two hands….not three. Can Rockstar figure out after all these years to implement a better control scheme??
4. Pop-Up, refresh issues, and various bugs that pull you out of “the game experience” - They’re everywhere…the game is littered with lots and lots of obvious problems. Every game has these issues, but for some reason GTA always gets a free pass?
5. Environmental obstacles - There are SO many obstacles that get in the way of moving around. You’re essentially punished for doing the one thing you’d really like to do in a automobile-theft simulator….and that’s drive fast. I understand in the “real world” you’d experience many of these types of obstacles, but I don’t remember controlling a vehicle with a game controller in the real world either.

Those are my major issues with this game. They’re the same issues that arose during GTAIII, but because that game was so innovative at its time (the first real sandbox game), Rockstar got a pass. Now, the mindless, slave-like devotion of game journalists to major game brands such as GTA, Final Fantasy and the like, really annoy the hell out of me. There are plenty of games that go out on the market with innovative controls and actual gameplay that’s been polished and play-tested to perfection that get NO press or the kinds of accolades these game “journalists” (aka, fanboys) give to these popular brands.

That all being said, I’m still enjoying the game. I’m just not as impressed in the same way that everyone else seems to be.

I got the opportunity to see Iron Man Friday morning through my company, WMS gaming. They reserved a theater for us to view the film, and I must say it was absolutely terrific. Robery Downey Jr. makes an EXCELLENT Tony Stark and the movie was just filled with gadget porn. The plot was fairly light but full of action, as one would expect from a comics-themed flick. All in all, I’d say it’s in the top 3 of comic films (Batman Begins & X-Men 2 are in that list as well for me).

Saturday morning, my buddy David acquired sneak peek preview tickets for Speed Racer. I didn’t have high expectations for the movie, and since the tickets were free (won through a radio station contest), I decided to check it out.

WOW!

That was an excellent kids film with a lot to offer adult fans of the Speed Racer cartoon. Personally, I never really followed the cartoon itself, so I didn’t have any preconceived notions as to how the movie should be. At any rate, I’d say this was an EXCELLENT flick and anyone who’s a fan of animation, fast cars and fun action should definitely check this out. I’d say it’s the closest you’ll ever see a movie get to actual animation with actually BEING an animated film. Highly recommended! Check it out when it opens next weekend!