Cuppacafe

Testing out the P2 quickie blogger thingee.

Well, today is going to be one of those scatter-shot days. I'm running around, and I came up with a few interesting (and fun) things that I thought might interest you all.

I can see it now, a new law that requires cars to lock our hands on the wheel and keep out head pointed facing forward at all times.

What am I talking about? Well, this, for starters...

A female Driver who was apparently painting her nails at the time (yes, while driving!) crashed into, and killed a a female motorcyclist.

A northwest suburban woman was thrown from her motorcycle and killed Saturday evening after a female motorist -- allegedly painting her fingernails at the time of the crash -- failed to stop at a red light and slammed into the bike, authorities said.

The incident happened about 5:30 p.m. Saturday in a southbound lane of Route 12 at Old McHenry Road in an unincorporated area near Lake Zurich, according to Lake County Sheriff’s police Sgt. Scott Morrison.

You see, the Keller said the woman driving the car told the police that she was painting her fingernails and did not notice the light was red. So I’m guessing that it was the fault of whoever pout the light there in the first place, as well as whoever determined the timing sequence for the light itself.

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Well, here is yet anouther reason NOT to do drugs (as if you actually needed another reason). Apparently they make you not just stupid, but, well, incredibly stupid.

... a man called the police at 12:40 a.m., "asking them to arrest another man because he had given the man $150 to buy cocaine, but the seller never handed over the drugs."

It seems that because possession of small amounts of Pot have been decriminalized in Mass the caller had been smoking (perhaps a tad too much) too much pot, and simply forgot that the decriminalization didn’t extend to the cocaine that he was purchasing.

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Here is where life imitates art, in a scene that was (apparently) swiped from the film The World According to Garp. A woman bit off her lover’s penis in a car crash.

A boss and his secretary who were having an affair saw their romantic tryst interrupted in a wince-inducing manner - after a car crash led her to accidentally bite his penis off.

You see, according to the reports in China Press and Sin Chew Daily, the 30-year-old woman was performing oral sex on her boss in a parked car in a Singapore Park, when the car they were in was struck by a van that was backing up.

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Yeah, that last one hurt me too.

The Perfessor

This is hilarious!

There is an old Groucho Marx line where he says that he would never join any organization that would have him as a member. As someone who works in the field of unrepentant fanboys I come across this type of attitude every day. The following clip (courtesy of The Onion), clearly demonstrates this attitude as it relates to new and or different takes on iconic properties.

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

This goes double for all thos funnybook fanboys who are decrying Wolverine: X-Men Origins (you know who you are).

The Perfessor

If you blog much with Wordpress and Twitter any at all, perhaps this new theme might be worth a trial

Watch the video below about the new theme from Wordpress.

As opposed to incorporating Twitter into blog posts, this replaces Twitter, allowing a bit of microblogging instead the, er, regular blogging...

I often use this blog to test things out, and I may put this theme up to test how it works in real time.

In keeping with our on-going all Wolverine, all the time theme that seems to have been running through my recent blog posts this past week. I wanted to relate the following story.

So today, as I was out and about running my errands today, I dropped in on an associate of mine and he laid on me a couple of copies of the 2009 edition of the Comics Values Annual. Yep, I’m one of the editors on this price guide (now in its 18th year of publication — I’ve been with them for 17).

This issue features an interview (conducted by your humble narrator) with John Barber, an assistant editor on Wolverine’s comics (published by Marvel — I also wrote the editorial). As with the past several years, the cover art is provided by Mark Sparacio.

It is published by Krause Books, and available now online or at your favorite book store.

The Perfessor

With Wolverine’s new movie still burning up screens all over the country (in spite of what the great unwashed myopic, cult of online fanboy pundit rants may want you to believe). The film is good, and pulling down some truly decent numbers at the box office. Speaking as someone who has been reading comics for close to half a century (yes, even the X-Men), the film does a fairly decent job of bridging the gap between (some 30+ years) of comicbook canon what is filmable (even with CGI), and a two hour time constraint of film audience attention span.

Well, just to prove all of the nay-sayers wrong, the studio has already announced its intention to spin off one of the more popular characters into his own prequel origin-style flick. Yep, the Mutant with a mouth (Wade Wilson A.K.A. Deadpool) is getting his own film:

Deadpool is known as "the merc with a mouth," a character that under Reynolds lived up to his billing in "Wolverine" until the end, when the movie deviated from the comic book persona, imbuing him with several superpowers and sewing his mouth shut.

Yes, kids, Deadpool is going to get the big-screen treatment. Hopefully they will use this opportunity to correct a couple of the — well stupid — things that they did to him in this flick.

It is understood that Reynolds would regain the ability to mouth off, with the movie going back to the roots of the character known for his slapstick tone and propensity to break the fourth wall. The character also was disfigured in "Wolverine," though it's unclear at this time how much the studio would want to mess with Reynolds' handsome mug.

When I got out of college, my first job was with a local radio station. It was then that I realized that there was a difference between sales and marketing. Selling is a tough thing to do, Marketing, however, is rather easier. I felt then that I would have a difficult time doing sales, but marketing, would be quite interesting.

These days, if you want to get your high-octane Summer, popcorn flick out in front of as many eyes as you possibly can, the thing you want to do is set up a tie-in to a fast food franchise, and include collectible tchotchkas (sometime referred to as Cheap Plastic Crap (CPC) by certain members of this household) with the kid meals. Well, while I was seriously disappointed that Wolverine didn’t include a tie-in with someone (as I fully expected it to do — yeah, yeah there were Slurpee cups & straws from 7-eleven, and a special pizza from Papa John’s, but I was really looking forward to Wolverine-related CPCs from Micky D’s).

Well, perhaps as a consolation to me, Burger King has cut a three-picture deal with Paramount Pictures to promote the Summer releases of Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. This makes the first time BK has worked with a single studio on such a rapid-fire spate of films.

"Burger King has been an excellent partner for us because of the volume of customer traffic," says Ms. Stables, who adds that the chain's "global presence" made it a particularly appealing choice.

Movie tie-ins have boosted the fast-food chain's business in the past, says Russ Klein, president of global marketing, strategy and innovation at Burger King. Two summers ago, Burger King and Paramount were promotional partners on the first "Transformers" film, which grossed more than $700 million world-wide. Last summer, they had a similar arrangement for another blockbuster, "Iron Man."

"They have been a proven traffic driver for our business," Mr. Klein says.

The rest of that story can be read here. As for me, I’ve learned that there are some 16 Trek figurines packed with the kid meals, and four glasses. I might not pick up the Transformer or G.I Joe CPCs, but I’m definitely going after the Trek stuff.

Oh yeah, 7-eleven is going from Wolverine to Terminator in their Slurpee cups.

The Perfessor

This is one of them:

Nothing more need be said.

The Perfessor

OK, we went the whole weekend, and the numbers are in. It seems that for its opening weekend, the X-Men proto-flick did $87 million in domestic sales ($160 million worldwide), which puts it just a bit behind Iron Man, and about even with X-Men 2. So in spite of naysayers (Walt) it did pretty good.

Personally, I saw it twice — not because I’m that much of a funnnybook Geek (even though I technically am), but because the first time I saw I did so with my son, and the second time I did it with my nephew and a few funnybook friends after a Free Comic Book Day event. As it turns out, by seeing it twice I saw two of the (three or more) rotating codas on the film. I can tell you that are, but then I’ll have to gut you. At any rate, I did have a couple of additional observations that I wanted to tag onto my original comments (A full-blown review will show up here later, but I still have to write that.

Fair warning, potential spoilers follow.

In no particular order:

• I can’t believe that they cast the perfect actor for Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), and then take away the one thing that makes him an ideal fit for the character, his ability to talk
• Then they further degrade the appeal of the character of Deadpool by taking away (and implanting) his twin swords! (unavoidable aside, those things are simply too long to fit into his forearms).
• when we first meet Remy LeBeau (Gambit) he looks more like the very British Alex from A Clockwork Orange than any Frenchman I’ve ever seen
• Then, of course, he has no French accent.
• Sabretooth’s loping attack style was a bit too much Twilight for my tastes.
• As stated, the opening sequence very Watchmen, only without as cool a soundtrack
• When Logan left the special team of Stryker’s Mercs in Africa I couldn’t help but to flash on a similar image from more than one WildStorm/Image comic featuring Team 7
• Given the “immortal” nature of Logan and Creed, whenever these two wnet at it a little voice in the back of my head kept saying “There can be only One!”
• I really liked the Three Mile Island reference to the story. I think it fit into the time line of Wolverine’s back-story and this film
• Another reviewer questioned why Logan & Creed, as Canadians would keep fighting in U.S. based wars. My response to that is — what other country has been in more wars over the past 150 years?
• When Creed finds Scott Summers at school, Scot is in detention conjugating a Spanish verb 100 times on the blackboard, in a visual that calls up Bart Simpson

Well, that’s about it for my casual observations for the nonce. The rest will follow in my film column, Suspension of Belief.

The Perfessor

OK, you heard how my son, Dylan staged a flag-burning ceremony for his Boy Scout Eagle project, and well, he was (supposedly on the local news — I never saw the clip, but someone told me, I’m still looking and will post if I see it). He was also in a couple of the local newspapers. He filed all of his paperwork with the council and still has to go through the Board of Review (plus arrange to properly dispose of the rest of the 2,881 flags he collected), before we know about his Eagle (He turned 18 this past Friday).

Needless to say, all this talk about flag-burning always makes smile at the folk who want to pass a Constitutional Amendment to prevent flag burning. You see, as a Boy Scout myself, I happen to know that the proper way to destroy a worn flag is to , well, burn it. So the question I always want to ask is, if I’m now not supposed to burn it, what am I supposed to do with it? No one seems to have an answer to that.

Plus — not that I recommend or endorse it — but I truly believe that my (hypothetical) ability to burn it, is not only the ultimate form of Free Speech, but is proof positive that the flag is a powerful Icon that can be burned, and yet still protect me, as well as my rights for Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Anyways, you already saw one of the articles (posted again here), and I’m posting the other one as well.

Read all about it

Hey, he’s my kid, and not only is this a really bid deal, but I’m totally proud of him.

The Perfessor

Look, I could be wrong about this, but somehow, I just don’t think that this guy is preaching that old tyime religion...

Twittering in Church, With the Pastor’s Encouragement

Last year, Voelz, a pastor, was tweeting at a conference outside Nashville about ways to make the church experience more creative — ways to "make it not suck" — when suddenly it hit him: Twitter. (The TIME 100: Ashton Kutcher on "The Twitter Guys")

Voelz and David McDonald, the other senior pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich., spent two weeks educating their congregation about Twitter, the microblogging site that challenges users to communicate in 140 characters or less. They held training sessions where congregants brought in their laptops, iPhones and Blackberrys. They upped the bandwidth in the auditorium. (Finding God on YouTube)

I tried reading this article, but I was having aa hard time trying to get past the concept of folks dicking around in church with this electronic toy and trying to con me into thinking that it is something akin to praying?

I can’t call down the 10 plagues fast enough.

The Perfessor

So, as you all know, I saw Wolverine at 12:01 Friday morning, then spent Saturday celebrating Free Comicbook Day, and seeing Wolverine for a second time (Hey, did you know that there are multiple codas tacked on at the end of the film, and you don’t know which one you are going to get until the very end of the credits? How cool is that? Plus, the film is still way better a film that Walt gives it credit for being, yeah, there are some shortcomings with it, and I’ll get to those in another post, but it still is a fun film, and both crowds I saw it with seemed to enjoy it.)

Well, in addition to the above, I received a packet of comics from Teshkeel Publishers who produced the wonderful Islamic-themed superhero comic The 99, A pair of comics (Celtic Knights) from my Facebook Buddy from Ireland (Stephen Paul Coffey, and a comp copy of Beyond the Kuieper Belt (Free Lunch Comics) as I had contributed a fake “letter of comment” to the premiere issue.

I also got to spend a good portion of the day with several funnybook friends as well as my nephew, who also enjoys comics, and, well stuff like that needs to be nurtured, as there aren’t enough of us funnybook fans around these days, especially of the younger generation. Oh yeah, I also grabbed up a bunch of giveaway Marvel comics that are being included in the Kid’s Meals over at Taco Bell.

As I checked my list of FCBD Comics, it seems that there were only 12 that I missed grabbing up, of those dozen, there is only one, Love and Capes, that I missed getting. Turns out one shop I was at didn’t order the comic, and the other ordered, it, but by the time I got there, it was gone. Seems that Sarge’s in New London, CT puts on a big show. He invites local creators, alerts the media, and then purchases a bunch of pizzas to hand out for free to patrons. As it turns out, there was also a Girl Scout Troop out front selling cupcakes and cookies, as well as numerous patrons who showed up in costume.

This stuff just never gets old.

The Perfessor

See you in the funnypapers!

As you all know this is funnybook geeks Festivus. So I’m going to celebrate bigtime.

I’m going to start my day at A Timeless Journey in Stamford, CT this morning and then I’m heading over to Sarge’s in New London CT. I’ll be traveling with my good friends John A. Wilcox and Rusty Haller, as well as my nephew Tony-o.

Have fun out there folks!

The Perfessor

Did American Idol's producers know or care if one of their finalists won a major singing contest before the auditions started?

I have to assume they did. I'm talking about one of my favorite singers, Alison Iraheta, the little 17 year old Salvadorean wonder child who sings far beyond her years.

I liked this week when Simon asked her if she wanted to win this competition. As if she didn't WANT to win it.
Thing is, Alison already won a major competition. Telemundo has a talent competition called Quinceañera. Alison won in 2006 when she was 15. The prize was a reward of USD 50,000 and a recording contract. Now, why didn't Simon mention this, I wonder... Oh, because nobody would vote for her, that's why.

Here's a video of 15 year old Alison singing in the finals of Quinceañera

YouTube link

Now, I wish Alison the best. And after thinking that it's not fair to compete in American Idol after winning serious money as well as a recording contract, I changed my mind a bit. I think now that with the sheer exposure that American Idol can provide, it's a completely different situation. Even placing second in American Idol is going to be better for Alison than whatever recording contract she might have originally won.

Lastly, how many other genres will be left for American Idol to tackle after Alison eventually splashes into the North American Latina scene?

Is it fair for American Idol to allow someone so talented into the competition? Dumb question that answers itself, don't you think? American Idol isn't a real competition, it's a show that is for entertainment purposes only. It's a popularity contest -- meaning it's not fair. The producers can pretty much do whatever they please. As long as it pleases us. American Idol goes away the minute people stop watching the show. So, like the fictional sport in the original Rollerball movie, the ones controlling the action on stage can change the rules or bend them as they like whenever they like. In the fictional setting, sometimes the puppets become the masters, but back here in reality...eh, not so much -- we're still happily manipulated.

From the "Another Douchebag iPhone App" category:

YouTube link

[via Gawker]