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Post by EdoBosnar on May 8, 2024 3:23:11 GMT -5
I'm surprised you didn't know that, Rob Allen . Don't you live in Or-e-GON? No, I live in ORygun. Nope. It's Orgoreyn.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 7, 2024 16:27:26 GMT -5
MRPs_Missives
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 7, 2024 8:13:05 GMT -5
I really like Steve Earle, but I only know (and own) his albums Guitar Town (1986) and Copperhead Road (1988) -- both of which are great. Those two tracks sound very much like business as usual for Earle, although his voice sounds a little bit more world-weary than the late '80s. Great snare drum sound on that track "The Revolution Starts Now" too. As for Earle's politics, I've always basically agreed with any of the sentiments he's expressed on the albums I'm familiar with. Copperhead Road is the only other album by Earle that I have. And yeah, it's *really* good.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 7, 2024 4:09:34 GMT -5
Apparently he was barefoot, at least according to Superman #331 (which was on the stands sometime in late 1978):
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 6, 2024 11:25:09 GMT -5
Earthquake WeatherTim Powers, 1997 The conclusion to Powers’ Fault Lines trilogy; I reviewed the preceding book, Expiration Date, upthread and read the first one, Last Call, several years ago (I also mistakenly noted that the latter book also takes place in 1992, when in fact it is set in 1990). While those two books have virtually nothing to do with each other, i.e., entirely different characters and situations, this third book brings it all together, with several characters from both being integral to the story, while introducing new ones. Events here seem to be set off after an earthquake hits near Hoover Dam (which actually happened) on New Year’s Day, 1995. On that same day, Janis/Cody/Valorie/etc. Plumtree (she has multiple personality disorder) is committed to a psychiatric hospital in LA after making an allegedly fake 911 call in which she claimed to have stabbed and murdered a man whose body the police can’t find. About a week later, she meets Sid ‘Scant’ Cochran, who was placed there under 48-hr observation after being taken in by police at LAX for erratic and delusional behavior. The psychiatrist to whose care they are charged, Dr. Armentrout, is actually a rather vile man who also has knowledge of arcane, supernatural practices which he uses, among other things, to experiment on his patients. He’s particularly interested in Plumtree, but as he starts giving her medically unnecessary electroshock treatments, he realizes that she wasn’t lying about killing a man, in fact it was none other than Scott Crane, the main character in Last Call, who is now the ‘(Fisher) King of the West.’ With the throne apparently empty, the whole supernatural balance on the West Coast is off-kilter (which among other things is manifesting itself in a series of minor earthquakes), and a few individuals and one secretive group want to seize the throne. Again, I’m finding it really hard to summarize this book, because it’s so damn dense. Needless to say, the Fisher King (and also Dionysian) mythos of Last Call is blended with the ghostly underworld of Expiration Date, and the spirits of several historical figures again play a role here, mainly Mary Ellen Pleasant and Sarah Winchester, as most of the events take place in San Francisco and partially the south Bay Area – and yes, the Winchester Mystery House comes into play, as does the history of the California wine industry, with emphasis on Zinfandel (some of which, unfortunately, is now dated and incorrect given the more recent genetic testing on the origins of that variety). To sum up, I’ll say that I liked this one quite a bit but didn’t love it. Without giving too much away, part of the way the whole story wraps up (including one aspect that I consider a loose end) left me a tad unsatisfied, and Powers made a few factual errors, a minor point concerning Zinfandel, and two others that were really glaring (and, if nothing else, should have been caught by one of his editors): he refers to the song “Candles in the Rain” by Melanie as “Candles in the Wind” (three times!), and also has one character opining that kids growing up in the 1970s would not have been familiar with Captain Kangaroo, which literally made my jaw drop – the show ran from the mid-‘50s to the early ‘80s, and I distinctly remember watching it back in the 1970s. Outside of that though, Powers did an amazing job in integrating a ton of real-world history and facts into his fantastical world.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 6, 2024 11:13:53 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 2004 #4 – Steve Earle – The Revolution Starts Now
(...) I really need to give this whole album a listen; the only song from it that I'm familiar with is "Rich Man's War." Otherwise, I liked Jerusalem enough to get the CD (haven't listened to it in a while, though, need to remedy that as well).
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 6, 2024 3:14:31 GMT -5
You could also do the stormtroopers on Tatooine, who let Ben and Luke go, though Robot Chicken pretty well covered that. Not to stray off topic too much, but the Robot Chicken Star Wars spoofs are absolutely the best thing they've ever done. And this is probably the best of those:
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 5, 2024 12:09:11 GMT -5
Continuing my exploration of YouTube algorithm recommendations - and to dispel the impression that I'm only clicking on links with images of unclothed women - here's Soul Makossa (1973) by the Lafayette Afro-Rock Band:
I had heard of them before, and I'm pretty sure I've listened to some of their other material, but never any of the tracks on this album. And they are very good. Hopefully I'll find the time to revisit this as well.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 5, 2024 2:44:27 GMT -5
No Drucker. Lots of Sergio, a fair bit of Don Martin and a lot of someone named Kerry Callen who I am not familiar with but whose stuff seems to be of recent vintage. It looked to be all DC parodies except 1 Spy vs. Spy strip. Callen is great. You can find a bunch of his output at his blog (although he hasn't posted anything new there for a while). Among other things, he does these great parody bits (which may or may not also appear in Mad), like this fake 'E-man Annual' cover...
Or his series of gag comics called Super Antics:
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 3, 2024 14:38:11 GMT -5
This week's pick from me is Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #9: Now, I love digests in general, but this one is particularly cool because to the best of my knowledge it's the most like a tpb of any of DC's digests - it reprints the “Batman murderer” story arc from Detective Comics #444-447, and includes the story from Batman #216 as a bonus to round out the page count. It's a really nice little package.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 3, 2024 3:18:24 GMT -5
As someone who's a bibliophile and a frequent lurker at Uncollected Editions, I love this stuff and the unique touches every person gives their own volumes Personally though, I'd be a little bit hard pressed to think of a certain book or run that I'd want done, though DC's Blue Devil is tempting Man, that was a bit of blast from the past; I used to mainly lurk there on a daily basis, back when the whole thing was still called the Masterworks Forum (like, well over 10 years ago). Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be a lot overlap between the regulars there and here - unless they're all using very different screen names.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 3, 2024 2:19:31 GMT -5
One of the best, if heart-rending, graphic novels you'll ever read is about Laika, the first living creature to go into space. She was such a good dog. Steel yourselves, dog-lovers, if you decide to read it. That's one I keep telling myself I should read, but really don't want to, because I know what happens (happened, actually) to Laika.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 3, 2024 1:23:23 GMT -5
(wow, deep cut)
Compromise
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 2, 2024 10:18:34 GMT -5
May 1984: X-men #184Well, I'm glad Roquefort Raider provided a brief summary, because I hardly recall the story here. I do recall Prof. X's rather silly-looking bodysuit, though. That's about it. It's apparent that I was rapidly losing interest at this point. New Mutants #19Same goes for this one, which - again, I'm well aware - puts me in a minority. I hardly remember the story, because as noted in the preceding month, I just wasn't feeling this 'new direction' or 'new look' or whatever you want to call it for New Mutants. I think next month's would be my last issue for a long while. I will acknowledge, though, that the cover here is pretty good.
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Post by EdoBosnar on May 2, 2024 6:41:04 GMT -5
(...) Re: price - from what I've seen it doesn't seem unreasonable, although as with everything else it's got much more expensive over the last three-four years. I wouldn't be going for the fancy covers, much more along the line of EdoBosnar's. I'm looking to see if there's a local bookbinder who'll do this for me, as postage seems to be a major cost which theoretically could be saved. Do people use local firms? I'm in Australia, so those US-based places I've read about are not an option. If you go my route, which is the bare-bones option, i.e., plain monochrome cover, the series title etched on the spine, etc. (so it looks like an accounting ledger or law book), then it shouldn't put you back too much. (Probably doesn't need mentioning, but just be sure that the binding is stitched rather than glued). And yes, I use local firms - I imagine sending it abroad would be prohibitively expensive. I'm sure there are binders in Australia who can do this. As for the cost - and keep in mind that I'm in Croatia and the last time I had this done was 6-7 years ago - it usually cost me about the equivalent of $15-$20 (US dollars) to get it done, depending on how many issues are involved (i.e., how thick the book ends up being).
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