Today - The Admiral Retires

Today isn't just Halloween, its also The Admiral's final day as a working stiff.

For a guy who started working before he was 16, I imagine its time to put up the feet and start relaxing a bit, and maybe coming over and washing my windows.  You know, if he has time.

I tip my hat for the The Old Man.  He's a credit to the sort of thing people talk about when they discuss opportunity, and while he hasn't got a particularly charming story, between he and The KareBear, I always knew where the bar was set, and how easy I'd had it when I put together his story.

My dad didn't actually finish high school.  He got a GED, joined the Air Force and somehow wound up in electronics, where he served a few years working on radios and electronics on the tarmac and in trailers in tropical locales half-way around the world.  He served in Vietnam during the early days of the conflict, and upon returning home wound up at a tiny airbase in Michigan where he met The KareBear.

Upon exiting the Air Force, he returned to Florida, enrolled in junior college while working, then enrolled at The University of Florida, continuing on to receive an MBA.  Somewhere in there, he married my mom.

He worked for companies like Martin-Marietta out of school, and eventually took jobs with Great Lakes Steel and Ford up in Michigan.

In the 1970's, he found work in Texas, and did a stint in Dallas.  In about 1981, he landed a job with a large corporation based out of Houston which made everything from hammers to spark plugs to oil tool equipment.

Eventually he wound up working in the finance arena within oil tool manufacturing, at different shops in Austin and Houston, lasting from 1984 until today.

Between he and KareBear, he managed to put us through school, put clothes on our backs and provide the sort of life you generally want for your kids and family.  And he managed to do it while showing up for games and plays, supporting my mother's extra-curricular activities as well (be that attending elementary school assemblies or the soccer games of kids he couldn't pick out of a line-up) but still managed to remain upwardly mobile within a multi-national corporation and travel the world, making the world safe for financial managers and accountants, I suppose.

The Admiral is a funny guy.  He does all of these things, and all with a sense of modesty utterly sincere and unaffected.  We do not talk about what we accomplish.  We talk about what needs to get done.  And we talk about the good things that happened yesterday and dwell on the mistakes of the past only to tell us how we can do better tomorrow.

Its a high bar, and were we all so lucky to just make it a matter of course.

As I grew up, school, work and geography conspired that it became rare I could visit his office.  However, it wasn't that many years ago that I had a chance to tour his then-office and get introduced to suites of colleagues that I knew reported to him or who were in his chain of command.  It was still great to see not just how he clearly was happy to show us where he spent his days between 8 and 5, and show such great pleasure in the place he worked and the people he worked with.  He'd never trumpet his own horn, but I know he was a VP of something-or-other.  A suit.  But he was still more or less the same guy you might see helping out at the Church bake-sale figuring out a better way to sell the pastries, and the one who merrily led my cub scout troop through making decorative eagles out of clothespins.

Anyway, here's a salute to The Admiral.  Captain of Industry.  Capitalist.  World Traveler.  Colleague.  Friend.  My Old Man.

The thing is - He's not going to slow down.  I know this guy.  Sure, the KareBear will have him running, but he's not one to just sit back.  He's going to have so many plates spinning in six months, I'm just nervous about what tasks I'll have assigned to me, and that's all right.  Its been a while since me and The Old Man were accidentally breaking something together.

Salut, Dad.

We'll see you in Austin.

Dressin' Up for Halloween - The League puts on capes

So, Friday night Austin Books and Comics had a costume party.  I haven't seen too many pictures surface from the party (I didn't take any, but I know others did).

The concept was "Arkham Asylum" - the insane asylum where Batman sticks all his villains.  Well, I couldn't figure out how to come as Mr. Freeze or Killer Croc, the two villains my size would probably have sold best.  And I'm a Superman fan at heart, so...

Good-Bye!

For years and years I've wanted to dress as Bizarro, but I always knew it would just confuse trick-or-treaters, and I didn't want to explain myself at any Halloween parties.  But at ABC, I knew these were my peeps.  Sure enough, people seemed pleased to have Bizarro in their midst.  And, yes, I was emulating "New 52" Superman.

And last night, Jamie decided we were having a Halloween Party.  Sort of impromptu.  I did nothing to organize this shin-dig, but basically we were supposed to be going to a party that didn't happen, so we bought some booze, and... instant party.

I went as "Low Budget/ Drunk Batman".

Monday night I'll wear the Superman get-up.  Its apparently a neighborhood tradition now, so I'm happy to do it.  I'll post a few pictures Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Halloween Interactivity! Day 7: The League (Part 1 - Movies)

Hey all!

I hope your Halloween weekend is going swimmingly.

Here in Part 1, I'll discuss an underrated SPOOOOOOOOOOOOKY movie.  And then in Part 2 - we'll talk costumes.

My favorite spooky movies are probably:  The Haunting, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula, followed by The Shining and The Thing.  None of these are particularly poorly-known movies.

And, as I've said, I didn't really have an affinity for horror movies growing up.  It was hanging out with our own JAL, Michael Corley and CarlaBeth that I finally saw some real horror movies.

Here's a quick rundown of some movies I think should get a mention.

Halloween Interactivity! Day 6: The Admiral

One funny thing about The Admiral.  Growing up, it was always impossible to come up with a scheme where he wasn't five steps ahead of you.  No matter what sort of bad idea you had, he'd done it first, and he'd done it worse.

The email I got from my father:

Oooo--K,

Not sure if this qualifies, but - in the category of poor taste --> In the late 1950's my best friend Bryan and I came up with the brilliant idea of costuming Bryan as Adolph Hitler and me as a US Army officer.  I carried a toy pistol which I pointed a him every time we went up to a door for treats.  Needless to say the reaction was mixed - at best.  

Dad

Well done, Admiral!  You get most f'd up costume story by a country mile!

Halloween Interactivity! Day 5: Horus Kemwer

Our own Horus Kemwer of Against the Modern World chimes in with his Halloween entry!  I think you'll enjoy, especially if you watch the clips.  

Underappreciated monster movie? Perhaps. Have you ever heard of it? Probably not. Bizarre, inexplicably nutty, yet strangely compelling cultural artifact from across the border? Definitely.

It's Caperucita y Pulgarcito Contra Los Monstruos (1962) from "the other Roberto Rodriguez."

The title is usually translated as "Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb vs. The Monsters," but like everything else about this movie, it works better in Spanish. (Important tip: if you watch it, do so with subtitles, not the by all accounts atrocious dubbing.)

The film pits the tiny tots Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Thumb (along with their trusty, and extraordinarily annoying skunk side kick) against "all the monsters we have known in fairy tales." These monsters apparently hang out in a castle together in "The Kingdom of Evil" plotting against our two heroes. Their sheer goodness (and their apparent ability to sometimes convert monsters from the path of evil) is enough to incur the wrath of the combined monster forces from all fairy tales (and classic novels, apparently, as Frankenstein's monster and Dracula are amongst the bunch).

Another category of "fairy tale" appears to be Disney movies, judging by the appearance of characters both good . . .



. . . and bad.



Still, the camps is hilarious, the kids are charming, and the songs good for a laugh. You won't be scared, but you will be astounded. And let's not forget the fight scenes:



And, as with all genre-crunching artifacts from foreign cultures, there's much that seems oddly out of place—e.g. sexual innuendo between Dracula and the Witch, torture scenes, and an invocation of Satan. Have no fear though, the movie is still resolutely G rated, aimed squarely at children from the planet Mars.

[Sorry, no costume stories - Horus doesn't wear costumes on Halloween.]

Halloween Interactivity! Day 4: Jamie

We cruise into Day 4 of our interactivity responses with some words from my house-mate, pal and beloved bride, Jamie (you may call her McSteans, if you so choose).  


1) Under-appreciated Halloween type movie

Not being the scary movie connoisseur that many of you readers likely are, I was at first stumped by this question. Most of the horror/monster/creepy movies I've seen and have liked are pretty well known and loved. So instead of an "under-appreciated" film, I have two bad movies I've seen too many times, thanks to boredom and HBO, that were not to my knowledge, popular.

The first is Teen Witch, the 1989 Robin Lively vehicle where our protagonist is a cute girl who for some reason (the script says so) is unpopular. She meets a tiny witch (character actress Zelda Rubenstein) who gives her a special witchy necklace which Teen Witch uses to make herself popular (of course). I don't remember much else about the movie, but I think we can safely guess lessons are learned about being happy with yourself or being popular isn't all it's cracked up to be, or something like that. The one scene that has been etched permanently into my brain is the jaw droppingly bad sequence where Teen Witch uses her new witchy powers to make her best friend into a rapper so her friend can impress a group of 80s "toughs" (guys in acid washed jeans with mullets doing a choreographed musical routine next to their car). At least I think that's what was happening. See for yourself, if you dare:



Top That!

The other movie I've seen too much is the sequel to Critters, the aptly named Critters 2. I think the original Critters was conceived attempting to cash in on the popularity of Gremlins and must have been successful enough to green light not one but three additional movies. Being easily spooked as a youngster (E.T. freaked me out, for God's sake) the "critters" themselves seemed relatively unscary. Plus they got style points for rolling themselves everywhere for transportation and assembling in the movie's climax to form a giant Super Critter.



This is why we don't have more cats


2) Worst costume choice

When I was about seven, my mom made me a black cat costume for Halloween. I loved it so much I wore it around the house all the damn time, all year long. It scared the crap out of our actual cat, but that didn't stop me. The cat costume made a repeat Halloween appearance the following year. By year three, I had clearly outgrown the stupid thing, but was determined to wear it once again. My brilliant idea was to scuzz it up a bit, wear weird makeup, colorful socks, and go as a "punk cat". Needless to say, I looked ridiculous. My mom just kind of shook her head and didn't say much, clearly knowing this was a bad call.

You know when you get a group of trick-or-treaters and there's always that one kid where you're just not sure where they were going with their outfit so instead of saying, "oh what a cute pirate/vampire/Batman!" you just blink for a second and say, "Happy Halloween!"? That was me.

I am tired

I won't bore you with the details, but work was really busy this week, and I've got two more days before it lets up.

I'm going to go crawl into bed.

Ya'll take care now.

Halloween Interactivity! Day 3: SimonUK

Hey all!


SimonUK has pitched in with his response to our "under appreciated horror movie" question.  SimonUK has seen, really, a ridiculous amount of horror.  Its kind of remarkable.


So, I take him at his word when he talks scary flicks.

Unappreciated Horror Movies. 


I'll start with Horror Express, a very weird Spanish/British co-production featuring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas- shouting alot as a Kossack, and a Thing type monster on the loose aboard the Orient Express. Loony ending and rock funk soundtrack despite being set in the 1800s. Very striking images and some genuinely scary moments. 


Cushing gets to say, "we're not monsters, we're British you know." 


This is the first horror film i remember and I had nightmares about 'red eyes' for weeks. 

Worst Costume


My worst costume was a bumble bee, it weighed a ton, I was very hot and nearly drowned when someone pushed me in the swimming pool in it in my late teens. And it wasn't remotely scary.

SimonUk's costume was remarkably accurate

we kid - the costume was this - 

okay, this is also not SimonUK, but I like to think he looked this charming

Signal Watch Reads: Star Trek/ Legion of Super-Heroes Crossover

To begin with:  I've been utterly compromised.

In order to retain whatever passes for journalistic integrity around here, I should mention that Saturday night I had a couple of cocktails with Ms. @Allisontype and her husband, writer of this comic, Chris Roberson.  Excellent people.  All the stories are true.

Also - ask them about their Halloween cookies.

I had intended to do my review of this book prior to the evening, and failed.

So, here's more of an informal discussion of what I'll say up front is a really fun comic.

I am totally okay with Phil Jimenez doing nothing but drawings of Uhura and Saturn Girl forever

One more thing about Melbotis

The name of this pic is "WANT", taken by Jamie's brother, The Dug.

On Mel's last birthday, we skipped a party for me (we had birthdays around the same time) and had a party for Mel. He received the bag of tennis balls.

Doug sent this to me today and I had to share.