I Just Sold My Last Box of Comics (for a while), Which Was My First Box of Comics

It's fair to say the comic book in particular that set me on my course of really getting into comics was Uncanny X-Men #210, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Romita Jr.

The issue took place in a period between a big fight with Mutant hunting robot from the future, Nimrod, and issue 211, which would begin the Mutant Massacre saga in the X-books and a few unaffiliated books (Thor and Power Pack, for reasons I do not understand).

Can't tell you how much I miss an era where superheroes smoked

I'll talk a lot more about this in the near future (because, ha ha...  this is The Signal Watch and verbosity is not a problem here), but I released about 2/3rds of my single-issue comics back into the wild in the second half of 2014.

I was not hanging onto this box out of romance or nostalgia.  I planned to sell it on eBay.  Or, rather, Jamie's been selling some of my stuff on eBay, and I was going to sell these issues off in lots of ten, but it just never happened, so...  The good folks at Austin Books and Comics were able to take this off for my hands for in store credit.*

Donna Douglas Merges With the Infinite

Nashville TV Station WSMV is reporting that Donna Douglas, who played Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies has passed at the age of 81.

So, What Have I Been Up To?: Movies in 2013 and 2014

I guess the last time I checked in was just after seeing Man of Steel (2013), and, frankly, if I wasn't already about to bail on blogging for a while prior to seeing the movie, the third reel of Zack Snyder's Super-Opus might have gotten me to throw in the towel.

My movie-going is probably slowed a bit.  That's been partly a monetary decision and a work/life/occasionally-being-home balance issue.  And, I don't feel the need to see everything new that comes to the theater the way I might have once felt.

If you want to get me talking, ask me about this fellow

The curious thing about getting older is the mix of feelings that (1) you aren't really going to miss anything if you miss a movie, even a super popular one, and (2) you've kind of already seen this before in some form or another.  In fact, one of the most baffling things I keep reading is how crazy Guardians of the Galaxy felt, how staggeringly original.  Look, I loved GotG, but "a rag tag group of lovable scoundrels get together and stop a menace/ save the day" hasn't been a fresh idea since before The Magnificent Seven.  And if you need a space version - I point you to a dozen low-budget sci-fi movies from the 80's.  But... I guess they really haven't had one in a while, so it felt new to the current audience.

We'll talk a bit about the changes in audience expectations at some other point, but I saw a newish article today that outright stated that trying something that wasn't a complete cookie cutter picture was "trolling" the audience, that it was the studio's "hubris" to try something that didn't already have widespread pre-awareness, vis-a-vis Guardians of the Galaxy.

Y'all, that's just a @#$%ed up thing to say as a pop culture or movie writer.

As per my movie watching habits: I'm still watching movies off Turner Classic, cable, Alamo Drafthouse screenings of older movies, the Paramount Classic Film Series, BluRay, NetFlix streaming and now Hulu.  The Alamo Drafthouse even hosted Noir City Austin, a multi-day Film Noir Fest with Eddie Mueller.  Lots of channels for taking in movies.  And I've seen some great stuff that way.

And, honestly, I've missed writing about it.  And I miss being able to look at this site and review what I said about a movie I've seen (or even to check if I've already seen something I'm about to watch off cable).

To make the post overly long, I'll go ahead and talk about what new movies I saw in the theater with a sort of quick, judgey statement for each.

Happy New Year

The clock has struck midnight here in Central Time.  That border has been crossed and the new trek begins into the field of the unknown.  2014, whatever it was, can now recede into memory.  In time, only so many things that occurred this year will we stamp with the number.  With any luck, we will have learned something from it all, and we'll be better from both what the year gave and took.

May the coming year bring you new reasons to laugh, people with whom you can share, and new endeavors to accomplish.   May the changes to come be faced with courage.  May the gifts to come be received with grace.

Here, in the earliest of the next 8766 hours or so ahead or us before we do this again, let's enjoy the newly minted year and another chance to do it well.

I'll raise a glass to the days we won't get back from the year left behind, and drink to what the coming days can bring.

Here's to hope.  Here's to a New Year.

May Your New Year's Eve be Norma Desmond Good

3 Movie Day: Sorcerer (1977), Spaceballs (1987), There's No Business Like Show Business (1954)

With the holiday season on, today was the first day without guests or an event to attend to since before Christmas Eve.  I did have a few buddies over, including PlacesLost and SimonUK, but it was in order to eat some pizza and watch a movie.

Sorcerer (1977)

Simon picked up the BluRay of this one recently, and I'd seen the trailer at the Alamo last winter and had been looking to see it ever since.  The movie may be most infamous for opening against Star Wars in 1977 and, thusly, doing pretty poorly at the box office.  Undeservedly so, as many who have seen the movie were big fans.  But it's also an interesting  juxtaposition as Star Wars would go on to define what Hollywood would spend the next forty years trying to recreate as blockbuster/ tentpole/ extremely profitable popular entertainment, and this was a smaller movie with precious little dialogue about men driving trucks through the jungle.

Coming Back From Outer Space

Hey, y'all.

Hope everyone is doing as okay as can be.

So, as some of you know, while I ceased formal blogging at this URL, I never really left the internet.  I kind of decamped to tumblr, twitter, facebook and whatnot.  But, I'll be honest with you.  It ain't never really been all that much fun.

Serving it up since 2003.

Y'all hang on.  I'm working on it.