Anonymous Commenting

The New York Times ran an article on anonymous commenting and how its starting to wear a bit thin for news organizations. 

Maybe in 2005 the comment section made some sense.  Maybe.  Frankly, I get nothing out of finishing an article on the local kid's bike race and seeing the latest comment posted was about how Obama is a secret Muslim, that we can blame everything on Big Business, or that things were better back in the past when we all lived in black and white TV shows (apparently).

Really, Estate 4.1 has turned the entire enterprise of reading these comments into an art form. 

There's no doubt that news sites were hoping to build a web 2.0 world where communities thrived on their websites, but its been sort of like putting a bird feeder out to maybe watch some Blue Jays and realizing in a month that the thing is completely full of really stupid but furious hornets, and if you try to spray them, that's just going to make them mad.

Back in March I opined that I thought DC Comics was wise to remove comments from their blog. I've seen a few people call them out on this as recently as Comic-Con, but I have to think those people never actually read the comment section and saw the bubbling cauldron of fear and loathing that the comments had become.

I also have no idea why DC bothers to host its own message board which is an even viler hive of scum and villainy.

Every once in a while, I ponder anonymous comments here at this site. I've been very, very lucky that so few people comment here without leaving a sig on their anonymous comment (thanks, NTT!). And because I don't want anyone to have to post through a service they don't want to use, I keep anonymous comments available. But I don't like it.

Its very hard to have a conversation with someone if you don't know who you're addressing. And, I also know some of you post anonymously when you're being a bit pissy,* and that's just... well, its weird and not something I want to police.  But day in and day out?  Its not a big deal.

For news sites? I think the experiment if over. Letters to the Editor worked fine for a good, long while, and if you're likely to write a letter worth publishing, then its likely you've got something worth saying and you've been a bit thoughtful about what you'd say and hopefully worked out the type-o's.

I'm not even sure why news sites are dragging their feet or finding half-measures to seemingly slowly back away from the comment sections.  And I REALLY don't know why CNN thought a great idea was to have anchors read viewer feedback.  That's not balanced coverage, that's reading two or three anonymous jerks' opinions.**



*yes, I know exactly who that is.
**clearly, the right way to consume an anonymous jerk's opinion is through reading his blog.  amiright?

Some Media Consumed the Last Week or So

• Captain America: Rebirth - trade paperback of 90's-era Mark Waid Captain America comics.  Good stuff, but in the vein of 90's "all action in every panel", which I now usually associate with a Geoff Johns book.  And co-stars Bill Clinton when showing the President in a comic didn't lead to frothing rage (just low-boil rage).  Also, this is apparently when Ron Garney was still adding detail to his work.
• Captain America:  The Trial of Captain America - I'm half-way through this book.  Pretty good thus far.  But all of Brubaker's Cap has been worth reading.
• Echo Vol. 5:  Black Hole - trade paperback of Terry Moore's very good, recently completed series, Echo.  5th of 6.

• Sgt. Rock:  The Prophecy and Sgt. Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place - The older I get, the more I love Joe Kubert and the more I appreciate the DC war comics. Especially now that Kubert is writing and drawing for adults and feels free to put in plenty of his own point of view.  I'm not a huge Azzarello fanatic, but he works seemlessly with Kubert on BH&HP. 
• Moon Girl #3:  from Red 5, this comic is visually stunning and a bit hallucinatory in its approach.  Not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're going to pick up these old properties, might as well do something interesting with it.
• Punisher #1:  written by Greg Rucka.  There's a whole, long post I want to do some day about how you lose the point of superhero-ish comics when all of your characters are in on the superhero factor (there's a reason Superman's supporting cast is supposed to be a bunch of journalists, not Kryptonians).  Pulling back to show the Punisher's world from a new perspective (not Frank Castle's) is a great hook.
• Mad Men Season 4, episodes 1-4:  Our 3 year old Blu-Ray player isn't doing a great job, and occasionally just wouldn't play some discs.  The failure of my player to let me play Mad Men got me up and to Target where I obtained a new Blu-Ray player.  As clever as the first 3 seasons are of this show, the 4th it shows a new maturity rather than becoming cutesy with its characters as most successful shows opt to do.  

if you were watching Season 4 when it broadcast, you will appreciate this.

• RoboCop 3, 2 and RoboCop:  My love of RoboCop isn't just nostalgia for a simpler time when shooting people in movies meant lots and lots of blood splatters and nobody thought about stuff like email or wi-fi when considering the future.  These movies were a satire of the absurd endgame of amoralism in business culture.  In 2011, aside from our ability to have cyborg cops, pretty much everything else in these movies came to pass.  Yeah, the Alamo showed the movies in reverse order to make everyone watch RoboCop 3.  Frankly, it was a lot better than I remember, but what I remember was a taser to the eyeball.  Also, its like a C-lister of Hollywood All-Star cast.  And Jill Hennessy in some serious Mom Jeans.
• Attack the Block:  I already talked about this, but its worth mentioning again.

Hiatus? we'll see

I just remembered I had this as a poster on my wall for a year or two in high school.

Tonight I am at the Robocop Reverse Marathon at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, and on Tuesday I drive to South Texas for work for a few days.

I hate to go on hiatus again so soon, but it seems life and the needs of university research libraries of the Rio Grande Valley greater area are conspiring against us.

That said, I'll be in hotels plenty, and I don't see me not getting bored.

Many good things happen in the Rio Grande Valley.  Texas Red Grapefruit is just particularly tasty.

Lucille Ball's 100th

this is way better than the issue when Jerry Lewis meets Superman

Today is the 100th birthday of Lucille Ball. She passed in 1989, but she's more than made her mark on pop culture. I do wonder, though, if kids today even understand references to "Oh, Ricky! Waaaaaah!" or a dozen other Lucy-isms.

I make it sound like I had this really depressing childhood of spending summers watching re-runs by myself on KBVO, but it was a fun childhood of spending summers by myself watching re-runs on KBVO. Yes, Beverly Hillbillies was my favorite classic TV show (oh, that Jethro), but by 8th grade I started to actually quite like I Love Lucy.

The more I watched the show as I got older, and quit thinking of it as the show that my grandparents watched when they were in town (they also really, really liked Hunter.  I have no idea why.), the more I came to appreciate the dynamic of Ricky and Lucy, and, of course, I better understood the context of the show at the time.

how Jamie never wound up in a similar situation, I'll never know

That Catwoman Pic? a fake

apparently this was a Photoshop job. Well, what do you want? The outfit they had Adriane Palicki in for the WW pilot teasers was clearly 50% photoshop, filters, etc.., but was still the official WB picture. We'd gotten the pic from Project: Rooftop, and went back to give them proper attribution, and they posted that it was a fake. By a faker.

I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer before seeing Hathway in the costume.

But visit the post anyway and see a gallery of prior ladies to put on the cat-suit.

Hathaway as Catwoman - a good look at the suit

A little Darwyn Cooke, a little-90's Catwoman with the gloves and boots, a strong influence from the Huges' covers. Not really grokking the goggles, but okay.

But can she top some of the classic Catwomen?

Signal Watch Watches: Attack the Block

A while back SimonUK mentioned he'd somehow already seen Attack the Block at a festival, and vouched for it, stating that when it came to Austin this summer, we really needed to go see it.  Some of the producers and talent involved are from the group that brought us Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, some loving takes on familiar genres, infused with smart-alec humor and a fan's know-how enough to both play with conventions and know what's important about retaining some of those conventions.  But all without getting too precious, I think.

Attack the Block does not, I repeat, does not feature Simon Pegg, but I promise you it is still a very good movie.

First picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman is - yup, that's Catwoman

cick for mega-sized

Here's the first official pic of Anne Hathaway as everyone's favorite thief/ femme fatale, Catwoman, in the upcoming Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. That certainly looks like the catsuit she's been wearing in the comics the past decade, originally drawn by Darwyn Cooke, I believe.

However, the goggles and blue lights are new.  I'm looking forward to seeing what this scene is all about (its not like the Catwoman I know and love would bother to ask before running off with the Bat-Pod).   

Mostly I'm just happy to know there's a new (if final) installment in the Nolan Bat-films.

oh, here's some unofficial pics.  She looks good, I think.

Signal Watch Reads: Superman 714

Superman 714
Grounded Finale
Chris Roberson - writer
J. Michael Straczynski - plot outline
Jamal Igle - penciller
Jon Sibal & Robin Riggs - inkers
Macelo Maiolo - colorist
John J. Hill - letterer
John Cassaday & David Baron - cover
George Perez & Guy Major - variant cover
Wil Moss - associate editor, Matt Idleson - editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

With this issue, Superman will end a 72 year run. Sure, it went for a long stretch where the powers that be renamed the title The Adventures of Superman, but we all knew what the score was. Issue 714 isn't just the end of the much-discussed Grounded storyline, its also the conclusion of one of the oldest, continually published periodicals in American history. Really, Superman has been on the stands for just under a third of the lifespan of the US.

The Grounded storyline took a lot of guff when it launched under Straczynski, and it struggled to meet scheduling deadlines, eventually seeing two fill-in issues by Willow G. Wilson and then the entire story was handed over to rising star Chris Roberson. And, frankly, Roberson's intervention didn't just turn the ship around a bit and keep it on course, he managed to prove that there are no bad ideas, just weak execution and turned Grounded into one of the best Superman reads the monthly comics have enjoyed of the past decade.

First Picture of Henry Cavill as Superman

click for mega-sized

Only twice before have I had opportunity to see someone in the suit for the first time.  Dean Cain in TV's Lois & Clark and then Brandon Routh in Superman Returns.

Truthfully, there's nothing here I don't like.  The suit isn't drastically changed and looks more like the traditional suit (see how long this DCNu suit sticks around now), the symbol is actually a throwback to the Golden Age, and its hard not to like the physical power suggested with the destroyed vault behind him and the determined look in the eye.

In fact, the whole thing gives me a feel of early Superman.

Superman would later give this move over to his friend, The Kool-Aid Man.

And I've thought Cavill looked about right since I saw the first pictures of him.  He's not got the same sharp features as Reeve or Routh, but a new look for Superman is okay by me.  Superman's had a lot of faces over the years.

I also don't mind the textured suit.  With today's high-grade video for movies, I think its appropriate to have something for the light to catch on.  And, of course, the boots are exactly right, and I'm a freak and that matters to me.

Casting, costume, etc... are all in place and I'm pretty happy.  Let's hope Zack Snyder doesn't direct this thing right into the ground.