|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2023 11:03:12 GMT -5
Super bargain on a fantastic read. Nice catch.
It definitely was; I've generally had good luck with these Starman compendia - I snagged the first one for about $35 total, which at the time had me almost as excited as I am now with this one.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2023 10:49:09 GMT -5
Beowulf (First Comics, 1984)
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2023 6:37:25 GMT -5
Ordered the second Starman Compenendium from an online seller in the UK (World of Books) a few weeks ago and it just arrived today: Here's the kicker: it's a used/like new copy and I paid GBP 11.22 for it total, i.e., the price of the book itself and postage. So almost 1,500 pages of comics for a little less than 14 US dollars according to the current exchange rate. I'm still in a state of disbelief about this, as the book was only recently released (sometime late last year) with a cover price of $60, and the otherwise cheapest copies from sellers like Amazon are never less than about $45 - before shipping.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2023 6:15:16 GMT -5
A newspaper I picked up published a letter about Shakespeare’s books versus the plays. This is interesting (not saying I agree): Anyone have a view? I'd agree with this - even his comedies come off as rather dry when you just read them. Seeing them performed really underscores what outstanding pieces they are, and - I'd say - makes it easier to understand the archaic language. For example, I recall in high school when we were studying Shakespeare for English class, it really helped that the teacher had us watch filmed performances of MacBeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream (the latter was particularly memorable because a young Helen Mirren was playing Titania). Another example: in my senior year of college I saw a live performance of Much Ado About Nothing in Ashland, OR (during the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and found it absolutely fantastic. Before that, I tried to read the play and only got about a quarter of the way through the text before setting it aside...
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 19, 2023 2:41:11 GMT -5
(...) So, me am not so S-M-R-T. Well, since ' smrt' means death in Croatian, that's probably a good thing...
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 18, 2023 16:12:22 GMT -5
I will be on the lookout for it... If you have trouble finding it, message me; I can scan the pages from the book and send them over to you.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 18, 2023 13:42:35 GMT -5
Here's Fritz Leiber during his acting career in... A Tale of Two Cities (1935) (That's Leiber on the right.) He made quite a few movies, mostly in small parts, but he had a great face for character acting... and he pops up in a bunch of well known 30s and 40s classics, like "The Prince and the Pauper," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "The Sea Hawk." He really did have a striking appearance. One of the non-fiction text pieces in that book, by the way, is a sort of summary and analysis of King Lear.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 18, 2023 12:02:20 GMT -5
The Book of Fritz LeiberFritz Leiber, 1974 This is a rather odd collection of ten short stories interspersed with nine non-fiction pieces. The non-fiction material ranges from brief book/story reviews, through speeches delivered at conventions, to short texts on various topics that appeared in magazines. A few are sort of thematically tied to the stories, but I found all of them a bit out of place – to me they just really didn’t add anything and I think they’d only be interesting to a Leiber superfan and/or scholar. The stories, though, are largely quite good; they’re all SF, except for one (a 3-page Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tale that apparently first appeared in this book). The best by far is “Yesterday House,” a novella that – according to the foreword – was one of Leiber’s personal favorites. It’s about a young post-grad biology researcher named Jack Barr, who stumbles onto a little island while sailing a skiff and meets a young woman there who seems to be living 20 years in the past. A rather engrossing and disturbing tale. Another one I really liked is “Cat’s Cradle,” which brings back Gummitch, a precocious housecat who was introduced in another story, “Spacetime for Springers” (which can be found pretty easily online). In this one, he possibly stops an alien race from destroying all of us ‘monkeys’ on Earth.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 18, 2023 2:56:52 GMT -5
badwolf
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 17, 2023 16:05:30 GMT -5
I imagine we haven’t heard the last of the European Super League. I don’t know a football fan who supports it - and I do mix in those circles. (...) Yeah, one thing I find encouraging is that fans across the continent, even fans of those clubs, seem to be deeply hostile to the idea.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 17, 2023 14:28:04 GMT -5
(...) Someone told me that there were even rumours of FIFA wanting the World Cup every 2 years. Hell, why not go the whole hog and have the World Cup 3-4 times a year, every year? (...) I think the only thing stopping them is the fact that the continental associations all hold their own 'cups' in the interim; in Europe, the Euro Cup in particular is about as popular as the World Cup (if not more so). What you said, though, reminds of the ridiculous proposal for a European Super League, which would consist of the 'elite' (read: richest) European clubs. As though the Champions League and UEFA League aren't enough. But like Prince Hal noted, as long as it's profitable...
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 17, 2023 3:09:23 GMT -5
The article ended with mention that Canada got rid of the penny in 2013. To my American friends here, how would you feel if the one-cent coin was abolished? For my part, I was very reticent to get rid of the Canadian one dollar bill, two dollar bill and penny. In hindsight, I don't miss them one bit. I'm just sorry that a burglar stole my big jar of useless pennies. Aw, man, Croatia introduced the euro this year and we're all just getting used to euro cents, and now you guys are talking about abolishing them?! More seriously, though, I think most people throughout the European Union want to get rid of the 1 and 2 cent coins...
...and probably the 5 cent coin as well. Personally, I've found it interesting to have smaller denomination coins that are actually useful in certain small sum transactions, like buying bread in bakeries or produce at the outdoor markets. Previously Croatia used to have six different coins, called lipa and denominated 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 units, for its currency, the kuna - which had a fixed value of about 7 to the US dollar or euro. So those coins were less than worthless and would often accumulate because few people could be bothered to count them. There were calls to phase them out for ages (introduction of the euro took care of that issue). I used to gather them up and use them to pay certain bills to their exact amounts at banks - much to the alternating chagrin and amusement of the tellers.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2023 11:57:09 GMT -5
Impossible Team-up: Impossible Jones and Polecat (2023)Another Kickstarter book from Karl Kesel, David Hahn and co. (My reviews of the preceding team-ups can be found here and here.) This time the shapeshifting, kind-of/sort-of heroine Impossible Jones joins forces with another New Hope City crime fighter, Polecat (a non-powered acrobat who wields an ingeniously designed telescoping pole). The latter talks Imp into joining him on a stakeout of a bodega, owned by two friends of his, that’s apparently being haunted by a ghost. While they’re waiting around, Polecat opens up about his past and his former crime-fighting partner, Hellhound (with whom he was secretly in love). This gets Imp thinking about her own past and an ill-fated relationship. The ‘ghost’ also appears, and hijinks ensue. As usual, the main Impossible Jones story did not disappoint, and besides being fun as usual, this one also had a bit more emotional depth. And again, thanks to the highly successful funding campaign, this one again had two back-up stories featuring Even Steven., the first written by Gail Simone and drawn by Hahn, and the second written by Alex Segura and drawn by Dan Schkade. Again, like last time, both are alternate origin stories told as flashbacks. While I really like the character, I’d like to see something else done with him besides a series of ‘how he came to be’ bits.
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2023 2:56:03 GMT -5
On top of being Jackie Robinson Day in MLB today, it was apparently catcher's interference day at Fenway in the game between the Sox and Angels. Sox were called once for it, and the Angels twice, in the same inning, loading the bases and setting the stage for a 2 run single that put the Sox ahead and handed them the win. I can't remember the last time I saw catcher's interference called at all, let alone 3 times in the same game. But in each case, the catcher's mitt struck the bat while it was in the swinging motion. ...is this going to become another baseball thread?
|
|
|
Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 16, 2023 2:52:09 GMT -5
It's very typical early spring weather for central Croatia, which means frequent rain, occasional thunderstorms interspersed with periods of sunshine. Even had a sprinkling of hail yesterday - although thankfully only tiny, appleseed sized stones. This past winter was pretty mild, although the nights are still a bit unseasonably chilly - we had frost a few nights around Easter. So we still have to fire up the stove in the evening; normally the 'heating season' for us is done by mid-April.
|
|