Nice Holiday and Muppets

Hey!  Welcome back from the Thanksgiving Holiday.

We had a very nice weekend.  For a brief rundown:  Thursday we didn't actually do Thanksgiving.  

I got up, watched the parade as much as I could, and thanks to a very busy schedule for the next few weeks, figured I better hang our Christmas lights.  So, that's done.  Dug and K arrived around 3:30, so we had a nice, oddly-timed meal (not quite lunch, not quite dinner), and then they headed down to San Marcos.

We watched the UT game at my folks' with some family friends, and, of course, enjoyed that outcome.

Friday I really didn't do a lot.  Austin Books and Comics was having a Black Friday sale on back issues (and who am I to not support local business?), so I headed down for 1/2 off on back issues between 8:00 and 10:00 AM, and then picked up 4.5 lbs. of back issues at the ABC Sidekick store, where they were literally (and hilariously) selling comics by the pound.

I have a lot of 70's-era Superman comics to get through.

My workout schedule was destroyed during all this, so in the afternoon I headed to the gym and did a few extra minutes on everything.

And then Friday evening I caught up with longtime pal ShaunaC and her husband, Fred.  It was terrific catching up.  Too long inbetween seeing each other, but what are you going to do?

Saturday we had Thanksgiving Dinner at Judy & Dick's in San Marcos.  My brother and folks also came down, along with longtime League-pal Heather "Daredevil" W.  

We capped off Saturday by coming back to the house and watching a slew of short subjects, many of which were Holiday themed, all of which were awful, including 1980's syndicated Superboy episodes and the now-infamous-at-our-house We Wish You a Turtle Christmas, a cynically, cheaply and quickly produced series of videos featuring live action turtles from the touring production, clearly with no script or real rehearsals.  There's something bizarre and dream-like about the entire production, with nothing making sense and everything sort of geared to drive you mad.  I'll leave it to Cinemassacre to explain the video as best one can.  

Anyway, that (and maybe a festive cocktail or two) is why this happened:

I should mention we were also screwing around a lot this weekend with the iPhone App that The Dug is currently employed to develop. It's called Vlix, and its actually really neat. They just released a holiday-themed version you can download for free. Just search for "vlix" on your app store.

The Holiday App and Vlix deal in short videos, so the Holiday app is really an easy way to make a video Christmas card.

Announcing the Signal Watch Video Channel

This isn't really that exciting, but thanks to the power of Vlix (an app available on your iPhone - and The Dug's employer) and their recent holiday edition of the app, we found ourselves creating a handful of videos over the weekend.

So, we've added a tab in the row at the top of the page so you can get to our YouTube Channel, or, of course, you can get there via this link.  Feel free to subscribe so you don't miss any of the excitingness.

And, yes, this will include future Santor videos.  But it'll also feature content not on the site, so, there you go.

Right now, you can get a peek at a behind-the-scenes look at our transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas season.

Prepareth, Ye! It is Santor.

More New DC 52 Reviews: Green Lantern Corps and New Guardians #1

I know, I know.  September was a long time ago, but the truth is, I needed a breather.  52 new titles is a lot to process.

If you've followed this site for any length of time, you know I'm a Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps fan in concept and in practice, which is why the mediocrity of this summer's outing at the cinema felt like such a kick in the shins.

DC launched 4 Green Lantern titles, including a Red Lanterns titles, which I've already discussed.

New Guardians will feature Kyle Rayner and a medley of the rest of the rainbow array of ring bearers (Black and White seem to be off the table).

While I appreciated the issue (written by Tony Bedard) opening with a riff on the origin of Kyle Rayner and what DC was doing back then*, its weird, context-free, and features no mention of when this was all happening, until a few pages later, they note "oh, now we're in present day".  Its a weird swing and a miss as the issue is trying to be new reader friendly, but instead managed to confuse a GL reader like myself for a page or three.  I can't imagine what a new reader would think was happening.

Its kind of an odd-ball issue as its sort of half a set-up.  In addition to the aforementioned origin pages, we see as rings from several corps abandon their various owners from various sectors and seek out Rayner, leaving most of the owners in a lurch.  And then they show up.  And that's it.

New John Hodgman ad for "That is All"

I still need to get this book.

Santor, he cometh

As we roll into the Holiday Shopping season...

As we begin the Holiday Season, remember that your Christmas shopping need not be just another annoying trip to the mall.



Try to enjoy yourself a little this Christmas.

The Texas Showdown Closes Down (UT wins!)

I did not expect UT to win the annual Thanksgiving game against Texas A&M.  Yes, the UT Longhorns were ranked, and A&M had slipped from ranking, but this year, UT's ranking fortunes have just felt like a fluke of other's misfortunes and some oddly-had luck more than the hard-earned rankings of the COlt McCoy and VY years.  While I do believe our defense has been fairly effective this season, its clear the Longhorn offense is still a mess.

In the end, it came down to a last second field goal kicked by UT's Justin Tucker, who has been near-flawless all season.  But it also came down to UT's defense uncharacteristically more or less rolling over to A&M's fairly punishing drive in the final minutes, looking for all the world like a team that was going to have the last word.  And, of course, Case McCoy demonstrating some clear thinking in the last minute that he really hadn't shown too much this season.

I hope Texas Aggies feel like it was a good game.  We were certainly consoling ourselves with this thought at the 1:25 mark in the 4th quarter when we watched the UT lead melt away.

But then Tucker made the field goal.  So, it was a good night to be a Longhorns fan.

Tucker gets tackled by jubilant Longhorns

Of COURSE the game means something.

Happy Thanksgiving, Signal Corps!

Hey! We're taking the day off to spend time with family and friends.  Maybe hang some Christmas lights.  We hope you get to have a good day with those you love and their hangers-on.

We are all grateful for Pantsless Marilyn Monroe with a blunderbuss

Eat a nice meal. Try not to roll your eyes too much at Weird Aunt Gertrude.  Give thanks to the secular institution and/ or entity that matches your religious doctrine.

Depending on what the nephews ate for lunch, we could be witnessing the start of the first naturally occurring Turducken.

We'll see you later, when the schedule clears up a little.  Enjoy yourselves, and don't be strangers.

welcome to the Disney Thanksgiving, which was held this year just outside of Uncanny Valley

Alvin Schwartz Merges with the Infinite

Comics writer Alvin Schwartz, whose tenure at DC stretched from the Golden Age to the Silver Age, has passed at age 95.

Truthfully, I am not familiar with Schwartz's bio, only that his name appears again and again in reprints that I read of old school DC comics.

Schwartz is likely most famous in Superman-fan circles as the writer who (1) created Bizarro, and (2) believed he had actually met Superman in a cab.

I say:  sure, why not?  Superman tends to move between the various worlds of the multiverse.  Why not ours?