Yet Another Music Moment

Albums I've purchased recently:

Chaotic Resolve, the new album by Plumb. Plumb is basically singer/songwriter Tiffany Arbuckle and whomever she gets to play along with her ona particular album. It's 'inspirational' music (i.e. Christian) for folks who don't normally like inspirational music. Nearly on par with her excellent 1999 album candycoatedwaterdrops.


Todd Snider's East Nashville Skyline actualyl came out back in 2004, but I somehow missed it; because, well, I'm an idiot I guess. Anyway, it is easily his best studio album, stripped down and reminiscent of his live shows. Funny, poingant, and clever. (His best album is, of course, Near Truths and Hotel Rooms Live, which combines two of his live performances, one of which I was at.)


Neko Case's new album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is alas her weakest album to date. She's found a sound, and she's sticking to it, god bless her. But it makes for an album that isn't bad, but just too much of the same sound, and there isn't a track that grabs the listener. For a much better Neko Case experience, seek out her live album, The Tigers Have Spoken.



Completely unrelated, but still music-related: in my dream last night, a room full of people suddenly burst out into song, singing "Sing"; amazingly, everybody in my dream knew the lyrics. And when I woke up I went online to check the lyrics, and lo and behold I rememebred them correctly in my dream. It's this kind of stuff that's taking up space in my brain (along with things like how each color of Kryptonite affected pre-Crisis Superman...) that keeps me from remembring to do important stuff...

Help

Not too long ago, I stumbled across a nifty Website that was basically an index for nearly all comic trade collections; it told which collections were availble for which titles, and which issues those collections contained.

Alas, I seem to have neglected to bookmark the site, and my librarian super-powers are failing me in finding it again.

Does anyone know which site this is, and what its URL is?

Update: Never mind, I found it; it's at http://tplist.millarworld.net/index.html. (And reader/commenter Canton found it under an alternate URL.) I'll stick it in my del.icio.us links so I'll never lose it again!

Review: Ganges #1

Ganges #1
by Kevin Huizenga
Fantagraphics, $7.95

Let's get one thing out of the way: This is the fifth volume in Fantagraphics' Ignatz line and, as such, it's printed oversized with two-color ink and on high quality paper, with a dust jacket no less. Yes, it's nearly $8, but it's an excellent package and well worth the cost--provided you like the material.

So, is the material any good? Yes, it is indeed. Huizenga gives us several short stories illustrating his oft-used protagonist Glenn Ganges and his internal life. If you've enjoyed Huizenga's other Glenn Ganges stories, you'll find much to admire here.

I tend to enjoy novel uses of structure and storytelling in my comics, and at this point in my comic-reading experience I appreciate coming across a comic that plays with the form in new and intersting ways. Huizenga is becoming a master and playing with conventions and using the comics page to explore the relationships between objects, space, time, and thought.

Take for instance the first story, "Time Traveling." It's a quick five-pager that finds Glenn walking to the library on a Saturday afternoon, feeling a sense of deja vu, and pondering the existance of parallel universes. Not a very exciting description perhaps, but Huizenga presents it in a novel way with a touch of humor.

Detractors may claim that the internal life of Ganges that Huizenga is presenting is not terribly original and, perhaps, a bit boring. That misses the point, I think. Glenn Ganges' thoughts and ruminations are of the same kind that most of us have. It is in exploring the common through novel illustration and storytelling that Huizenga's work is strengthened.

As a reader, experiencing these stories illustrates the reach of possibilities of the comics form. The stories that Huizenga tells here are not only effective as comics, but are more effective because they are comics.

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

New This Week: March 8, 2006

Based on the NCRL list for this week's comics shipping from Diamond, here are a few things to look for at the local comic shop tomorrow:


There are many good books coming out this week, but for The Pick of the Week I'm going with Jessica Abel's La Perdida collection from Pantheon. I've read the first two (of 5) issues that are included here, and it's very good, presuming you like the slice-of-life/fish-out-of-water angsty indy comics stuff.


In other comics:

Brian Fies's Eisner-winning Mom's Cancer is just now being solicited in the current Previews, yet apparently is shipping this week? Very odd...

AD Vision have a new volume of Cromartie High School (vol. 5).

Aeon have the penultimate issue of Matt Howarth's Keif Llama: Xenotach (#5).

AiT/PlanetLAR have a new Sky Ape one-shot: King of Girls.

Amaze Ink/Slave Labor have a new Lenore collection (vol. 3).

Dark Horse solicited Dare Detectives, vol. 2: The Royale Treatment over a year ago, and now it's finally showing up in stores.

DC have a Birds of Prey collection: Between Dark and Dawn; two Seven Soldiers issues: Frankenstein #4 & Mister Miracle #4; the last issue of Alan Moore's Tom Strong (#36); a couple of OYL titles: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man #23 & Teen Titans #33; and new issues of The Exterminators (#3) and Fables (#47).

IDW have a new issue of Maze Agency (#3).

Illusive Arts havea new issue of Dorothy #5).

Image have adouble dose of Ellis with the fourth issues of both Dawn & Fell; the Socom: Seal Team Seven OGN; the first Rocketo collection (with two issues that apparently will never be published); and new issues of Bomb Queen (#2) & Invincible (#29).

Marvel debut the Fantastic Four: First Family mini; celebrate the 100th issue of Thunderbolts; and have new issues of Powers (#17), The Pulse (#14), and Ultimate Spider-Man (#91).

Moonstone have the Cyclone Bill and the Tall Tales OGN.

TokyoPop have the first volume of Ross Campbell's OEL manga The Abandoned.

Viz have a ton of stuff too (some of which may have reached your store last week...)


You could easily spend of ton of money this week, so good luck with your choosing!

Yet Another Oscar Wrap-up

So... The Oscar telecast wasn't so bad. Jon Stewart didn't bomb outright, and there were a few good bits--I especially like the fake campaign ads--though Stewart was much finnier when he was speaking off-the-cuff than when he was going through the prepared material. Starting the telecast half an hour earlier was a good move--I actually got home before midnight! Too many darn montages though, with no rhyme nor reason for why they were there (or sometimes which movies were included!)

AS far as my picks go, I had 99 points on the Joe Janes Oscar Scoring System*, which wasn't very good, but was enough to tie me for second place at the party. I was 15 for 24 overall, so let's take a look at where I went wrong (based on my picks which I posted yesterday):

Picture
Everybody at the party chose Brokeback Mountain, so it didn't affect my standings, but really I should have seen this one coming. It used to be that Best Picture/Best Director never split, but ever since the Shakespeare in Love/Saving Private Ryan debacle they've done it more often than not, especialyl where there are two movies going neck and neck. But after Crash picked up the Best Original Screenplay consolation prize I figured that Brokeback had this locked up, forgetting that Brokeback took home the other screenplay award.

Supporting Actress
I was counting on the Academy to not go for the obvious and opt for Amy Adams, but they did and went with Rachel Weisz.

Original Song
Okay, the only thing I can think of is that the Academy voters thought it would be funny for Jon Stewart to have "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" (and to his credit, Stewart took the gag and ran with it). This truly was the biggest surprise of the night.

Live Action Short Film
Maybe had I gotten around to watching these on iTunes I would have known better. But at best this is a crapshoot every year, and this year was no different.

Animated Short
Is this the start of a Pixar backlash?

Sound Mixing
This is the other category that surprised me, but I guess the Academy went for King Kong--because if there's one thing that movie did have, it was sound. Lots of it too, all mixed together.

Cinematography
I shouldn't have gone for a dark horse pick, I guess. Plus, I in no way saw coming a Memoirs of a Geisha run at the tech awards.

Documentary Short
See Live Action Short.

Costume Design
See Cinematography. I was right about a period piece winning, I just chose the wrong period piece.


So I don't think I did half bad, but it could have been better. I'll have to wait a whole year to reclaim the travelling Oscar trophy back from Patricia!


(* What, doesn't everyone use the Joe Janes Oscar Scoring System? It's: 15 point for picture; 10 for the acting & directing categories; 7 for screenplays & animated feature; 3 for the shorts & documentaries; and 5 for everything else.)

New Library Comics: Week of February 27, 2006

Here are the comics we got in for our library collection last week:


Anderson, Ho Che. Young hoods in love /Seattle, Wash. : Fantagraphics Books, c1995.

Baker, Kyle. The Cowboy Wally show /New York : DC Comics, c2003.

Benton, Mike. Masters of imagination : the comic book artists hall of fame /Dallas, Tex. : Taylor Pub. Co., c1994.

Crumb, R. The complete Crumb. Volume 14, The early ’80s & Weirdo magazine /Seattle, WA : Fantagraphics Books, 2000.

Diaz Canales, Juan, 1972- Blacksad : Arctic-Nation /Barcelona : Norma Editorial, 2005.

Diaz Canales, Juan, 1972- Blacksad : un lugar entre las sombras /Barcelona : Norma Editorial, 2004.

Eichhorn, Dennis P. The legend of Wild Man Fischer /Atlanta : Top Shelf Productions, c2004.

Gagne, Michel, 1965- Zed /Burbank, CA : Gagne International Press, c2002- vol. 1

Goulart, Ron, 1933- Over 50 years of American comic books /Lincolnwood, Ill. : Publications International Ltd., c1991.

Knight, Keith, 1966- The passion of the Keef /San Francisco, Calif. : Manic D Press, c2005.

LaRiccia, Michael V. Black mane /[S.l.] : One Time Press, c2005.

The new comics /New York : Berkley Books, 1988.

Toth, Alex. Toth : "one for the road" /San Francisco : Auad Publishing, 2000.

Yet Another Oscar Picks List

I know you're all just dying to know who I'm picking for winners in tonight's Oscar race, right? Okay, maybe not. But still, I usually finish first or second in our annual picks contest that's been going on for 10+ years now, so even though I haven't seen most of the nominated movies (Oscar and I disagree on what makes for an essential theater-going flick), if you have a contest of your own to participate in, I offer these up as choices:

Picture
Brokeback Mountain, because nothing can stop the momentum of the only one of the nominees this year that has entered popular consciousness (even if few people actually saw it).

Director
Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain. See above.

Actor
A rather weak slate this year, so I'll go with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.

Actress
Everyone says it's going to be Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, and who am I to argue?

Supporting Actor
George Clooney in Syriana, because they'll want to reward him for something.

Supporting Actress
Conventional wisdom says that this is Rachel Weisz's, but this is the one category that typically goes against expectations, so I'm picking Amy Adams in Junebug.

Visual Effects
King Kong. It has a giant monkey fighting dinosaurs, and how can anyone resist that?

Original Screenplay
Aka the consolation prize, so it'll go to Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco for Crash.

Adapted Screenplay
Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana for Brokeback Mountain, because you can't stop the momentum.

Makeup
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, mainly because Cinderella Man and Stars Wars Episode III are fit for an Oscar snub this year.

Art Direction
John Myhre & Gretchen Rau for Memoirs of a Geisha, because it's the kind of movie that usally wins this category.

Original Score
A tough one, actually, so I'll go with the mo' and pick Gustavo Santaolalla for Brokeback Mountain; even though he only wrote about 13 minutes of score music for the movie, it's the only one of the nominated scores where when you hear a few bars you instantly know what movie it's from. Plus the voters will want to reward Santaolalla for having been robbed of a best song nod due to an unfair rules ruling. Plus, the Academy has been snubbing John Williams for many years now.

Oringial Song
"Travelin' Thru" from Transamerica, because the voters like Dolly Parton.

Live Action Short Film
I meant to watch a few of these through iTunes, but never got around to it this week. So I'll pick Ausreisser (The Runaway), for no good reason other than it's a gut pick.

Animate Short
Pixar's One Man Band, because they're Pixar.

Animated Feature
Actually three strong nominees this year, but I'll go with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Sound Editing
King Kong. Because if there's one thing this movie had, it was sound, and lots of it.

Sound Mixing
Walk the Line, because this category usually goes to musical bio-pics.

Film Editing
A tough one, but Crash, with it's interlocking stories, seems the correct pick.

Cinematography
I'm going for the dark horse pick here: Emmanuel Lubezki for The New World.

Foreign Language Film
Tsotsi from South Africa has gotten the most ink, so since hardly anyone actually goes to see these it'll probably take the statue.

Documentary Feature
Conventional wisdom is to not go with any film that anyone has actually heard of in this category, but I think the trend will be bucked this year and March of the Penguins with waddle away with the golden statue.

Documentary Short
God Sleeps in Rwanda sounds like the title of a film that typically wins this category.

Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran for Pride & Prejudice, because period pieces nearly always win this category.


So those are my picks. We'll know in 11 hours or so how good they are...