'Best of TBH Politoons'
Cory!! Strode On Graphic Novels
'Ex Machina'
One of the best new comics of last year is Ex Machina, from Wildstorm publications, and the first six-issue story arc has been collected in a $10 trade paperback called "The First Hundred Days". This comic came out last year with very little fanfare, and when I saw it in the ordering catalog, it looked like another bad idea that was being put into a comic book so someone could pitch it to a movie company. After the second issue came out, and was getting solid reviews I picked it up, and it's now of the comic I look forward to eagerly every month.
The premise is a simple one, really: A minor super-hero called "The Machine" is elected mayor of New York City. In most comics, this would mean that readers would be subject to stories that either are dragging talk-fests, or "Super-Mayor" who takes on the jobs the cops can't. Either way, it sounded like a bad 70's TV show. However, writer Brian Vaughn took it in a direction I wouldn't have expected, and instead of "West Wing With Super-Heroes", he treats the mayor's past in much the same way as if he would have been any other kind of minor celebrity who happens to find himself in high political office. The dialogue is crisp, and the characters in the comic are well defined, interesting and have a sense of history to them, as opposed to being simple plot or exposition devices.
The story in "The First Hundred Days" has two threads, the first being an artist who has offended people with her publicly funded painting, and the second dealing with the murder of garbage men in New York. Vaughn juggles the two plots, making both seem as important, even as one deals with his super-hero past and the other deals with the demands of the public and the media on a mayor. None of it feels forced, and unlike a lot of super-hero comics, you don't have to know anything about any other comic to jump right in to the story.
There is a minor quibble with the ending of one of the plots, but it's easy to see that Vaughn was trying to capture his feeling that no matter how much someone compromises in politics, there are those who just will never forgive. I wish that point could have been driven home in a better way, but it doesn't detract from the level of skill shown in this first outing for the series.
Tony Harris's art is well suited to the story, with a dark tone, and feeling of the grit and grime works well for the sequences of politicians having to make decisions that they may not want to, and dealing with their past when they can least afford to.
One of the few pieces of political writing that feels like it gets it right, "Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days" gets a 4 out of 5.
Cory!! Strode (The Best Dressed Man In Comics) has written comic books, novels, jokes for comedians, Op Ed columns, the on-line comic strip
www.Asylumon5thstreet.com and has all kinds of things on his website
www.solitairerose.com
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nick Claussen: With a cluck, cluck here and a cluck, cluck there (The Athens News)
Walking into Rose Isgrigg's home, you immediately notice the three dogs jumping around, the cat staying away from the dogs, and the chicken sleeping in the box on the living room table.
Annalee Newitz: B-List Blogs (AlterNet)
Why bother to call something a blog, when the term is essentially meaningless?
Bob Sheak: Some thoughts on the 2nd anniversary of the U.S invasion of Iraq (The Athens News)
Many of us are deeply saddened or angry about why the Iraq War even happened and at what the horrendous costs of this U.S.-manufactured war and ongoing occupation have brought and will bring.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Opera (The Athens News)
Americans are at a great disadvantage when it comes to laughing at opera because most of us don't know whatever language the singers are singing in. For example, in Act III of "Carmen" by the French composer Georges Bizet the chorus of cigarette smugglers sing very loudly about how quiet they have to be because they are smugglers.
Full text of Human Rights Record of the US in 2004
The Wall Street Poet
Airline Pillow Talk
To save money, some major airlines have stopped giving passengers pillows to rest their heads during flights. Ah, the joys and majesty of air travel...
©2005
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For more satirical financial verse:
www.wallstreetpoet.com
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & pleasant.
Talked to dear old Dad - it was 2°(F), and he wasn't happy.
Charges Dismissed
Rosario Dawson
A Manhattan judge dismissed charges against Rosario Dawson and two others who were arrested while filming movie scenes near the location of last year's Republican National Convention.
Charges of disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration were dismissed Tuesday by Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson. The charges were filed against Dawson, director Stephen Marshall and Viaja Grosgalves following their arrest near Madison Square Garden, site of the 2004 GOP convention.
Police said at the time that Dawson was wearing two handkerchiefs on her face with only her eyes showing and that the group had refused to move when police told them to. They were arrested after Marshall tried to show police a city film permit.
Rosario Dawson
Musical Coming to Stage
'The Lord of the Rings'
A much-anticipated musical based on "The Lord of the Rings" will have its world premiere in Toronto next year, the show's producers announced Tuesday.
The $22 million show will open in March 2006 at the Princess of Wales Theatre with a largely Canadian cast, producer Kevin Wallace said.
The three-hour stage adaptation will feature book and lyrics by Shaun McKenna ("Lautrec," "Maddie") and Matthew Warchus (Tony nominated director of "Art" and "True West"), and music by A.R. Rahman ("Bombay Dreams") and Finnish group Varttina with Christopher Nightingale.
'The Lord of the Rings'
Spoke In Ontario
Spike Lee
Many black students today are failing in school on purpose because peer pressure via media images has convinced them that smart equals white and that it's cool to become pimps or "video ho's," says pre-eminent African-American filmmaker Spike Lee.
And Lee told an audience composed largely of Ontario university students that people can vote with their pocketbooks to convince artists, record companies and media conglomerates like Viacom that the images in today's music videos or lyrics in gangsta rap are unacceptable.
Lee was invited to speak in Toronto by the Ryerson University student administrative council to help mark the International Day For the Elimination of Racial Descrimination on March 21.
For the rest, Spike Lee
Fall Pilots
Casting News
Gina Gershon has joined the cast of UPN's drama pilot "The Lot," a soap about a group of twentysomething assistants working at a Hollywood studio backlot. Gershon will play an aggressive producer who is the demanding boss of one of the assistants.
"Cheers" alum George Wendt has been cast in the WB's untitled Ross McCall-Aaron Peters comedy pilot, which revolves around three childhood male friends in their 20s who seek the advice of a female life coach. Wendt, who received six Emmy nominations for playing Norm on NBC's "Cheers," recently wrapped the indie "Edmond," based on David Mamet's play.
Peter Weller ("RoboCop") has been tapped as the co-lead opposite Peter Facinelli in ABC's drama pilot "Westside," which centers on a team of Realtors at an upscale agency specializing in high-end Los Angeles homes.
Multiple Emmy winner Alfre Woodard has joined NBC's pilot "Inconceivable," a drama set at a fertility clinic. Woodard, who next appears in the film "Beauty Shop," would have a recurring role in the show.
Casting News
Arrested at Protest
Alexandra Paul
Former "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul and another woman were arrested at a vigil meant to save General Motors' EV1 electric cars.
On Monday, Paul and Colette Divine were in a car that blocked the path of trucks hauling the cars to Arizona to be destroyed, police said. Both women were booked on suspicion of failing to obey an officer, police Lt. William Berry said. They were released on their own recognizance and were scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
Paul and Divine were among dozens of electric car supporters holding an around-the-clock vigil outside a General Motors Corp. training center in Burbank, where more than 70 EV1s had been stored en route to a recycling plant near Mesa, Ariz.
"The one thing they (Paul and Divine) asked to relay to media was that it was a very peaceful act and they are very committed to saving these cars," said organizer Chelsea Sexton, a former GM employee responsible for promoting the EV1. Sexton now advises environmental groups and automakers on alternate-fuel vehicles.
Alexandra Paul
Nebraska Withdraws Offer to Hire
Dian Fossey's Killer
The state of Nebraska made - and then abruptly took back - a job offer to a man convicted of murdering Dian Fossey, the American wildlife researcher whose work in Africa was the subject of the movie "Gorillas in the Mist."
The Health and Human Services System announced Monday that Wayne Richard McGuire had been hired as program director of a mental health office.
The offer was withdrawn, however, after The Associated Press reported McGuire was found guilty in absentia in Rwanda in the 1985 slaying of Fossey, who was hacked to death at a jungle camp in Rwanda.
McGuire, who has denied any involvement in Fossey's killing and currently works for a mental health agency in Oklahoma, told the AP his conviction did not come up during the interview process. He did not immediately return a phone message left after the state withdrew its job offer.
Dian Fossey's Killer
Not A Dog In Kansas
Greyhounds
When is a dog not a dog?
When it's a greyhound in Kansas.
It may sound like a punchline to a joke, but it's true. Two years after the Parimutuel Racing Act was passed in Kansas, the law protecting pets in the state was changed to exclude greyhounds from the designation of dog, KMBC's Bev Chapman reported.
The National Greyhound Association, based in Abilene, disagrees. The executive director called the change unnecessary and said greyhounds aren't bred for pets, and therefore, shouldn't fall under pet protection laws.
People who love the dogs, but not the sport, told KMBC it's time to call it like it is and to level the playing field when it comes to the law.
Greyhounds
Top Cardinal Blasts
'Da Vinci Code'
A top Catholic cardinal has blasted "The Da Vinci Code" as a "gross and absurd" distortion of history and said Catholic bookstores should take the bestseller off their shelves because it is full of "cheap lies."
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview with the Milan newspaper Il Giornale, became the highest ranking Italian Churchman to speak out against the book, an international blockbuster that has sold millions of copies.
Bertone's comments were significant because until the Pope named him archbishop of Genoa in 2003 he was for years the number two man at the Vatican's most powerful department - the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Bertone also strongly defended Opus Dei, the conservative Church organization that the book depicts as a ruthless, Machiavellian group that resorts even to murder in its attempt to keep the Church's secrets hidden.
'Da Vinci Code'
High-Rise Hawks Have Egg in Nest
Pale Male & Lola
New York's high-rise hawks are expecting an addition to the family.
Pale Male and his mate, Lola, who live on the ledge of a Fifth Avenue apartment building overlooking Central Park, have at least one egg in their nest, according to the Pale Male.com Web site run by Lincoln Karim, a video engineer with Associated Press Television News who devotes most of his spare time to monitoring the birds.
The male hawk has sired 23 chicks with four mates since he first set up housekeeping at 927 Fifth Ave. in 1993.
Pale Male
Pale Male & Lola
In Memory
Lyn Collins
Lyn Collins, whose funky vocals landed her a spot in James Brown's stage show and the nickname "Female Preacher," died of cardiac arrhythmia Sunday, said her son. She was 56.
Collins, whose voice also was sampled in the 1980s hip-hop hit "It Takes Two," died Sunday night at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, her son Bobby Jackson said Monday.
Collins, who lived in Abilene, Texas, was visiting the Los Angeles area after having returned from a tour in Europe last month. She was due to start touring again next month.
Collins took up singing as a teenager. At 14, she married a man who worked as the local promoter for the James Brown Revue. Brown heard Collins sing and in 1970 she was invited to join his traveling show.
Her powerful voice led Brown to nickname her the "Female Preacher," and two years later, she cut her first solo album, "Think (About It)." In 1975, Collins released "Check Me Out If You Don't Know Me By Now."
Over the years, Collins' songs have also appeared in various compilations, but it was hip-hop duo Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock who exposed Collins' work to a new generation when they sampled one of her songs for their 1988 hit "It Takes Two."
Since then, other contemporary R&B and rap artists have also mined Collins' songs, including rapper Ludacris.
Lyn Collins
