Favorite Things: Day Eight

So in lieu of my regularly scheduled post for today (which still may be coming), yesterday's Chicago Tribune reminded me that today could be a very special day, today, Ron Santo could get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Santo, former star third baseman for the Chicago Cubs, and their long-time radio colorman is very much a love him or hate him type of guy. Not so much for his play, which by all rational measures, more than qualifies him for the Hall, but his radio work, which if you've ever heard it, pretty much defines homer-hyperbole. Since I became a Cubs fan in my early twenties, it was during the hunt for the National League Wild Card in 1998 that I really came to love Ron Santo's radio calls (along with probably the best play-by-play man in the business, Pat Hughes), an early favorite was in a game vs. the Brewers, with I believe only three games to go in the season, the Cubs just had to win one game to clinch the wild-card. Of course, that's when Brant Brown dropped an easy fly ball in the outfield and gave way to one of my favorite radio calls ever, the text is below, click here for the audio.

HUGHES: "Two down, the Brewers have the bases loaded, and a 2-2 count on the hitter. Here's the pitch. Swung on. Fly ball to left field. Brant Brown going back. Brant Brown ... drops the ball!"

SANTO: "Oh, nooooooooo!"

HUGHES: "He dropped the ball!"

SANTO: "Nooooooooo!"

HUGHES: "Three runs will score, and the Brewers have beaten the Cubs."

I will say though, I owe Brant Brown for that one, without that drop, I would have never gotten the chance to go to the one game playoff between the Cubs and the Giants to decide the wold-card slot. That was easily, if not the best, the most fun, exciting game of baseball that I've attended live. Of course, that's helped by the fact that every post-season game I've attended since, has been lost by the Cubs.

Anyway, due to his....rather overdone calls, Ron catches a lot of shit. Admittedly, he also tends to miss a lot, and he's not always up on what is actually going on in the game, but it's like going to a game with your crazy uncle, most of the time, he's well, crazy, but some days, he's fucking on. Anyway, I love Ron Santo, and in an age when we're all bitching about the assholes who are getting into the HOF, here's a guy who clearly deserves to be in there, and if the veteran's committee has any sense, they'd let him in.

To learn more about Ron Santo, I' recommend checking out the documentary This Old Cub, which details his baseball career, his quest to be inducted into the HOF and his battles with diabetes.

Favorite Things: Day Seven

Well, it's still the weekend, and I'm still lazy, so let's give some props to one of the single-greatest time-wasting inventions of the internet age: YouTube. In order to do so, I present you with two recent finds that may tie into tomorrow's post.

Fist, here's "The Star Trek" Rap by Prime Directive and Galaxy Class (NSFW).



Next up, we have Captain James T. Kirk's (original flavor) reaction to his replacement:



There's ten minutes of your day you'll never get back, wondrous.

Thanks to BeaucoupKevin and AlertNerd for bringing these to my (and the internet at large's attention).

Favorite Things: Day Six

Well, it's Saturday here at Phoning It In Industries (NYSE: PI3), and we're taking the lazy way out by just posting a bunch o' videos by a favorite band of mine. Today, here's some great tunes by The Wedding Present. I've spoken about them before, most recently when I made the unfortunate decision to skip their concert in favor of watching the Cubs embarrass themselves live in the playoffs (I keep having visions of the old knight from The Last Crusade shaking his head at me and saying, "You have chosen....poorly.")

Anyhoo, here we go:

I'm From Further North Than You

Don't Take Me Home Until I'm Drunk

Kennedy

And finally, here's a seasonal cut:

Stepping Into Christmas

Oh, and hey, they just did another Holiday song, here's their newest:


Holly Jolly Hollywood

Favorite Things: Day Five

Yes, it's Friday, so along with the fightin', I think I'll take it easy today, so let's go with something I've already talked about last month. Without a doubt, hitting winged, mutant gorillas with a mace is one of my favorite things.

And that's for real

This, and other visions of man-on-simian violence can be found in the ape-tastic DC Goes Ape trade paperback.

Favorite Things: Day Four

Well, I've gone three days and not descended into anything too geeky, well today, let's not just cross that line, but blow by it at mach 12. I give you the pinnacle of 1990's fan service, JLA/Avengers


Produced at one of the rare times when the two major comic companies weren't in a pissing match about who can make the less coherent "event", they rounded up the two perfect creators, writer Kurt Busiek and artist George Perez to produce the end-all, be-all teaming of the biggest supergroups on the planet (short of Damn Yankees). Astoundingly, it pretty much meets or exceeds all expectations. While Perez's hyper-detailed art is ostensibly the biggest draw, Busiek's handling of such a gigantic cast of characters makes the book just sing. Really, if you enjoy your super-heroes, this is high-concentrate crack (now finally available in paperback).

Favorite Things: Day Three

Well, since we're into the holiday season, we'd best get into the spirit, and the best way to do that is with Christmas music. When it comes to Christmas albums, one album stands head and shoulders above the rest, A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector.


This record is not only the best Christmas record ever, it's easily one of the best pop records ever. Seriously, this thing stays on my iPod all year long ad when it comes up on shuffle, it's rare that it get skipped over. Now I understand that seeing the frayed, fright-wigged, crazy, possibly murdering old man that Mr. Spector has become makes it difficult to drop some cash into his pockets, but seriously, everyone needs to own this. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love is one of my top ten pop tunes ever, and I'll leave you with that:

While ACGFY is available as a stand-alone album, I'd highly recommend picking up the Phil Spector box set Back to Mono, which includes it in its entirety, that box is a must-own for any lover of pop music (which I just realized is out of print, that's just stupid).

Favorite Things: Day Two

For day two of my on-line advent calendar, let's go with another all-time favorite, Bone.

Jeff Smith's epic tale of the little bone brothers, exiled from Boneville and their adventures in the Valley is a book I pull out at least once a year, and usually devour in a (rather sleepless) weekend. Beginning as an Disney-like, slapstick short, it soon develops into an epic tale of stolen kingdoms, hidden princesses and realized prophesies that is something that stays with your for quite some time. It's one of those books that I can't wait to share with my kids.

I really can't recommend this book enough, it's currently available in a cinder-block sized one volume edition, plus the lovely, new colored editions that Scholastic has put out.

Favorite Things: Day One

This is the first in a series of posts I'm going to try to do each day this month, counting down some of my favorite things (both of all-time and from the past year) to one of my favorite days of the year: Christmas.

Anyway, by random choice (as it was the first thing to pop into my head), today's topic will be one of my top-five favorite movies, North By Northwest.

I've loved this movie for so long that I can't even remember the first time I saw it. It had to be after the advent of video, so sometime after I was six years old, but I've gotta say, as a little kid, Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) rated up there along with Indiana Jones, James Bond and Han Solo as one of the coolest motherfuckers on the planet. Not because he was an action-hero, because he was the pitch-perfect "wrong man" for this Alfred Hitchcock picture. Thornhill, implicated in an international spy-plot, by the scenery chewing James Mason (in the closest role he ever got to a Bond-villain) exemplifies himself in one of my favorite quotes:

Now you listen to me, I'm an advertising man, not a red herring. I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don't intend to disappoint them all by getting myself "slightly" killed.

I love this movie so much, that I cannot be objective about it in any way. It's like a perfect pop music album, it's all candy-coated and rather fake, but at the same time, you don't give a shit cause you're just bobbing your head along with the rhythm. Anyway, if you've never seen the picture, you really owe yourself to see it, if only to count the number of set-pieces that The Simpsons have stolen from it. Here's Mr. Hitchcock himself to sell you on it:



So that's the first of (hopefully) 25 for the next 25 days. I hope you'll tune in!

Happy Thanksgiving

Not all turkeys are lucky enough to get to be my delicious, delicious Thanksgiving meal, some get pardoned by the President:



Thanks to Jake Bell for reminding me of this.

Presidential Politics: The Chicago Way

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"

Found: One Helping of Shame

While digging through boxes in the basement, searching for Christmas music, I found this CD:



16 year-old me, I hate you so much right now....

Quantum of Solace

This is the most excited I've been about a new James Bond movie, probably ever. Casino Royale was my favorite movie of the last five years, maybe ten (note I didn't say it was the best, just my favorite). Since I bought that movie on DVD last year, I've probably watched it every few weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it every time. So, having narrowly survived the Great Geek Disappointment of 1999, I prepared myself to be sorely let down by QoS. Fortunately, that was not the case, while certainly not the revelation that Casino Royale was, it's a solid, entertaining movie that finishes what CR began by showing the beginning of 007's career.

The first thing you notice about the movie is that it is a true sequel to the previous film, beginning minutes after that one ended and following up on the organization behind that movie's villain. From there, it becomes a much more conventional Bond flick. Bond globe-trots to several stunning locales and uses what has to be one of the worst investigative techniques ever, the old "kill a random dude, take his place and see where that gets you" trick, but it always seems to work for him (see also: Diamonds Are Forever). They also bring back the 21st Century version of SPECTRE, QUANTUM. Unlike SPECTRE, this group seems to be more about making money than chaos, but it does make me wonder, how much more money could a secret organization make rather than a regular, corrupt multi-national corporation. Honestly, they can't be any richer than Exxon, can they?

Anyway, Bond moves through the organization's layers, trying to figure out both what their ultimate plans are (this time at least) and also find out whether his lost love, Vesper, betrayed merely her country, or him too. By the end of the movie, these questions are answered and dealt with in satisfactory fashion. In that lies this movie's strength, as it shows us the evolution of how Bond became the guy we've known all of these years.

However, there are weaknesses here, the biggest for me were the action sequences. They were all very quick-cut and closely shot. This seems to be something that happens when a director is making their first action film, as another good example of this were the fights in Batman Begins. Christopher Nolan framed those fights very close up and you couldn't really tell what was going on and it always kind of irked me. You can't tell whose fists were whose, and it was very confusing. Now, this could have been the directors' intent, wanting to establish that fisticuffs are confusing and jarring, but it's just not pleasant viewing. The other thing was the very tight framing of the characters in the action scenes, when you're filming a chase across Siena, Italy's rooftops, it helps if you back off a little to establish where the individuals are in reference to each other. I know, this sounds like little shit, but it bugged me.

Oh yeah, there were also plot holes and implausibilities so big, you could drive a truck through, but hey, a Bond flick without those just wouldn't be a Bond flick. Anyway, here are some quick bullet-points with some of my more random thoughts about the movie:

• It was nice to see Bond go back to the old Walther PPK instead of the P99 he's been carrying since Tomorrow Never Dies. Thus is the curse of my existence, I notice this shit.
• Yeah, I have a feeling I'm not the only guy who was thinking about mixing up a "Vesper" after I got home. One of these days I'll remember the ingredients when I'm at the liquor store....
• I really don't get all of the hate for the title, I mean really, is it any worse than Moonraker? Also, at the end, it did make sense, didn't it?
• And oh yeah, while the title sequence (by MK12) was pretty sweet, that song by Jack White and Alicia Keys, killed me. It wasn't awful, but it was the kind of song that's going to sound dated by the time this movie hits video that we'll all be wondering what they were thinking.
  

Also, some non-Bond related bullet-points:

• No Star Trek trailer!?!?!?!? Seriously, I thought about complaining after the movie. I'm really pissed that I didn't get to see it on the big screen.
• So that Sprite commercial comes on, the one where the dudes "dive" into the basketball court? Older dude behind me says, "Oh yeah, like that could happen." You think?
• Listen lady, Liz Claiborne went out of style in 1995, and if you're wearing enough of it to burn the nostrils of a guy sitting a full ten feet away from you, you may have over-applied.
  

So I liked this movie quite a bit, though I'm not in love with it yet. I have a feeling that I'll be catching this one in the theatres at least one more time (especially since there's a rather weak slate of films this season), so we'll see if it will overtake Casino Royale in a year's time, when it's ten o'clock and I'm looking to turn off my brain for a few hours.

Friday Night Fights: The Return

Bahlactus put out the call for someone to take up the mantle.....and SpaceBooger has answered!

TONIGHT!
CAPTAIN MAR-VELL VS. SUPER SKRULL

A punch so powerful, Mar-vell is knocked into the next panel!

Image taken from The Essential Captain Marvel, which, to be honest, is a little bit of false advertising. Originally published in Captain Marvel #2.

Inexplicable Things

I was going to save this for Friday Night Fights, but some things just can't wait. Such as: Hawkman hitting a winged, mutant gorilla with a mace.



Image taken from the recently-released DC Goes Ape trade-paperback. This book also features one of my all-time favorite, out-of-context panels. Unfortunately, Chris Sims got to it first.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Get the latest news satire and funny videos at 236.com.

Thanks to BeaucoupKevin for bringing this to my attention.

Yes, We Did

Though not my picture, this is pretty much my exact vantage point on the action last night. President-Elect Barack Obama was barely larger than a pin and I could only catch glimpses if I stood on my tip-toes. But damn, was it worth it.

We didn't head down to the rally until close to 8:00 and, though we had to wait in a line that snaked almost completely around the whole of Grant Park itself, everything moved rather quickly. We finally made it on to Hutchinson Field just when CNN declared Virgina for Obama. Maybe ten minutes later, they called the election and the place exploded. It was an amazing moment, an out-pouring of pure joy from over 100,000 people at the same exact time and that moment will be an experience that I will treasure.

After that, we stood at rapt attention while Sen. McCain delivered his gracious concession speech. The crowd was very respectful and there were very few boos. Though, the petty bitch in me took schadenfreude at the fact that Sarah Palin could barely hold the fake-smile on her face, watching her moments in the lime-light tick down to zero.

After that, I lit up my victory cigar and began the interminable wait until PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA began his victory speech. The speech was well done, but by the time it came, the crowd was almost spent, and Obama looked like he was too, he poured every iota of energy he had into this campaign and he's more than earned his exhaustion (and hopefully twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep).

I could babble on more, but just suffice to say, I had an experience unlike any other last night, and though my legs are killing me, I wouldn't have traded it for the world. For the first time in a very, very long time, I'm excited for the direction our country is headed in.

What're You Doing Today?

Whatever else you're doing, I sincerely hoping it includes voting, even if it's not for the obvious choice and instead for the Accursed Richards.

Anyhoo, later this evening, I hope to overcome my innate laziness and love of the booze to go on down to Grant Park to (possibly, hopefully) experience some history first-hand:

Either way, get on out there and get your civic duty on!

More Thoughts on Captain Marvel Jr.

So, after yesterday's post, I'm fairly certain you're wondering to yourself, "Did Captain Marvel Jr. only beat up on the Japanese during WWII?" Well, as an answer, let's go to this page of Cap Jr. facing down (the completely useless) Captain Nazi:



*As with yesterday, this page is from Shazam! Family Archives Volume 1, a book that makes you cringe from its use of both race and grammar. However, man, that Mac Raboy was a fantastic friggin' artist.

Thoughts on Captain Marvel Jr.

Have you ever wondered to yourself, "Captain Marvel Jr., he's cool, but is he bad-ass?" Well, thanks to Shazam! Family Archives Vol. 1, I have an answer for you.

First, after finding out that the Japanese plan to bomb a secret American base in Alaska*, he then proceeds to beat the shit out of the Japanese airplanes:



But wait, that's not enough for our young Marvel. After defeating the airplane armada, he then goes to town on the pilots as they parachute to (relative) safety:


Bonus Racism:

1942, Ladies and Gentlemen! That's why they call them the greatest generation, not the "classiest" and certainly not the "most racially sensitive". Always leaves me feeling a little dirty when I see shit like that.

*He finds this out after cracking a, frankly, insanely stupid plan by Japanese spies to communicate their "secret" plans through the use of secret-coded birthday balloons. What a bunch a' maroons.

Friday Night Fights - Ladies Night Round 12

One Last Time, Tonight:
The Spirit vs. Silk Satin

And in the end, the only winner is love.

As this is the final round of the final Friday Night Fights, a huge thank you goes out to Bahlactus for all of the laughter...and the violence.

Happy Halloween!

Sorry for the lack o' content for the last week, but work's been beating me with a stick. Anyhoo, it's Halloween-time here at Phoning It In Industries and it's time for the kids to dress up. Looking at my 5 year-old's very nice Spider-man costume, I harkened back to the awful costumes we were forced to wear in the 1970's. Fortunately, I had a copy of Marvel Premiere #45 handy to share my memories with you all, check that out:

(click to embiggen)

Man, that Hulk costume is weak. Anyway, have a happy and safe Holloween!

Wishlist: Essential Marvel Premier

Marvel Premier was a series that ran for 61 issues, beginning in 1972. Much like DC's First Issue Special, MP was a monthly that allowed Marvel to gauge the popularity of new characters (as well as re-launches of older ones) without going through the effort of launching new series. If a run did well (as with issues 3-14's Doctor Strange) the character would then be spun off into their own series. If things didn't work out, they could chuck it and move on in the next issue.

While the popular issues have already been collected (Iron Fist, Doctor Strange), it'd be very cool to see some of these failed experiments in their own quasi-glory, just look at some of these:

First, there's Man-Wolf, and the concept goes something like this:

Conan in spaaaaace + Were-Wolf + J. Jonah Jameson =

How is that not gold?

Next, we have The Man-Brute Called Woodgod!!!

You know you want to find out what the hell that's all about.

Following that, we have Monark Starstalker, a hero so goddamn manly, they could only publish one issue, because a second one would have literally exploded from the awesome, sending spinner rack shrapnel all over the 7-11.
Seriously Marvel, this is a good time to gauge this guy's popularity, cause you know Sims would totally write this.

Finally, we have issue #52, whose cover speaks for itself:

Really, the only way to improve upon that is if it had read: "At Last! T'Challa Fucks Up The Klan!!!"

Anyway, there's some real cool stuff just laying around waiting for you to throw it into a phone book for me and the rest of the geeky masses to purchase, so get on that Marvel.

Halloween Treat - Misery Depot

Just in time for Halloween, Jim Sheeley's Twitter pointed me towards Misery Depot, a new, on-line comic that I found to be quite good. Go ahead and click on the below image to go over to their site where you can either read the first issue in full, or download it for yourselves. I'm looking forward to the second issue.

Powell's Endorsement of Obama

Despite being fairly liberal, I'm a pretty jaded person when it comes to politics and politicians. It's very hard today to find a moment in any campaign which is truly genuine and doesn't come off as mere recitation of the normal talking points. That said, Colin Powell, in his endorsement of Barack Obama had, what seemed to me, to be a very beautiful, genuine moment on Meet the Press today by refuting the assertion that Barack Obama is a Muslim, but then going further by questioning what would be wrong if he was. Below is the video of his endorsement, forward to 4:30 to see the portion that I just wrote about. To me, it was the shining moment of this ugly political season.

Friday Night Fights - Ladies' Night: Round 10

And with tonight's fight, let's bid adieu to Manhunter as an on-going series.
We will honor your trades, even as we pray for a re-launch.

Bahlactus knows the score!

Cubs Bashing in the Media

I mean really, must you kick us while we're down?

First there was this:



Then, SNL came through with another gut-punch:



I mean...crap.

Quick Q&A

Fortunately, after refilling Calvin Pitt's belly with rejuvenating, content-enabling rum, the posting St. Bernard had some left over for me. So here's a quick Q&A that's been going around:

Favorite Regular Series:

This is a thougie, a month ago I would have said All-Star Superman (stretching the definition of "Regular"), but that series ended. I want to say The Immortal Iron Fist, but I'm not confident enough in the new creative team to give them the full stamp or favoritism. Right now, today, I'd have to say Captain America, it's the book that I usually have to crack open in the shop's parking lot just to see what happens next. Blue Beetle gets an honorable mention.


Comic book character you only recently discovered/started reading?

I'd have to say Iron Fist. I hadn't really paid the character much mind until the newest series started up, which I picked up as a whim due to liking both Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction's previous work. It quickly became one of my favorites ever.

If you could write/draw one character, who would it be?

I share Calvin's hesitation on this one, simply because I'd fear screwing the character up. For that reason I think I'd prefer to go through the tons of forgotten, public domain heroes that have since fallen by the way-side since the Golden Age. Granted Alan Moore did it first, and very well with Terra Obscura and Jeff Parker did similar work with Agents of Atlas, but there's got to be a lot out there that's just waiting to be rediscovered.

Are you a big fan of multi-issue crossover extravaganzas?

Yes, if they're done well, which, since they are not really ever done well, I guess my answer is no. Granted, Annihilation was fantastic (and its sequel, Annihilation: Conquest, just slightly less-so) and despite not meaning to, I'm picking up pretty much every tie-in to Final Crisis, but, those are the exceptions that prove the rule. I've sat out every big cross-over since Infinite Crisis and haven't missed anything.


Last comic book series you dropped and why?

X-Factor. Mostly because it just didn't seem to be going anywhere. The best character was abandoned in an alternate future and doesn't seem to be returning anytime soon. There's no real direction for the series and it just seems to be bouncing from event to event with nowhere to go. Plus, I really don't like Larry Strohman's art.

Favorite character?

Jack Knight Starman. No doubt about it. If you're not in the know, go buy the book (or find the soft-covers that are sure to be all over eBay right now).

Are you a DC or Marvel fan?

I was originally a Marvel-zombie, but DC just seems to be resonating with me more right now. Despite their miss-steps, DC just seems to be taking more chances and building more actual new characters rather that concepts. Looking at series like Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Manhunter, I just can't see Marvel taking chances on stuff like that.

Do you remember your first comic/series?

I can remember having a copy of my brother's Nova #13 from the 70's, but MY first comic was an over-sized, treasury edition of G.I. Joe #1, and I bought every issue from then on through the mid-60's (actually, #65, introducing Zanzibar! And it was illustrated by Todd McFarland).

Is Watchmen the movie going to be as good as the comic book?

Nope. But, in its defense, it can't be. Watchmen, more than its basic story, is an examination of comics themselves, of the form. There's no way you could get the same effect out of a movie, no matter how much time you give it, or how much money you pump into it. That is not to say that it can't be a good movie, it just can't be the same thing as the book.

Favorite comic book movie?

Right now, today? I'd say The Dark Knight, but I'm hesitant, simply because it's so new. My answer could probably be different in a year, when I have some more perspective. That said, if not The Dark Knight, I'd say Spider-Man 2, that movie is darn near perfect.

Worst comic book movie?

I'd have to say Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Not only because it was so dreadful, but because it wasted a Superman movie that had both Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman. I mean really, you couldn't do any better than that?

Character you'd like to see in a movie?

Nova, really. I think it'd be pretty darn easy to make a Nova flick. He's got n easy to understand origin, a (recently-redesigned) costume that could be realized pretty easily in the real world. Plus, since he's rather obscure, there won't be as much bitching if you change large swaths of his back-story.


Series that you'd like to see on TV?

Gotham Central. It's no secret that this is one of my favorite series ever, but it's concept (Law & Order: Gotham City) is one of the easiest to translate to series TV. There was a rumor back in the day, that the comic series was developed to be possibly turned into a TV series, but that the Birds of Prey TV series put the kibosh on it. Too bad.

And that's that.

A Note on the Stock Market

Always invest with Reliable Investments:

Best Single Panel of 2008

I really can't explain it, but this panel (from Secret Six #2), brought me a disproportionate amount of joy:

Anger, Sadness, But Mostly, Crushing Disappointment

Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don't know whether you're in a trough until you're climbing out, or on a peak until you're coming down. And that's it you know, you never know what's round the corner. But it's all good. "If you want the rainbow, you've gotta put up with the rain." Do you know which "philosopher" said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she's just a big pair of t**s.--David Brent (Ricky Gervais), The Office

That quote pretty much sums up the Cubs season this year. while we fans thought we were still climbing to the peak as they entered the post-season, we only realized that this was the come-down as we watched them play horribly for three straight games, making every single mistake that they possibly could. This has led me to wonder why it ended like this. Why did this team that inspired so much confidence, fall so hard?

1. Were they simply not a very good team? No, they were a fantastic team. An easy way to tell this was that every position player and every starting pitcher would have been a starter on any other team in the league. Very few other teams could claim that. While no one player had the insane stats that lead to awards, every single one of them was good, very goo.

2. Was the team cursed, or done in by the history of losing on the Northside. Fuck no. Let's face it, both the "curse" and the "loser mentality of the Cubs" are there for lazy journalists to write stories about. It allows them to not have to watch the team or actually learn anything new, or, y'know, do their damn jobs. Seriously, when the jack-ass who was doing the second Cubs/Dodgers game on TBS made a reference to the "100 years of failure weighing heavily on the Cubs players" I wanted to drive to 1060 W. Addison and punch him in the dick. Twice.

3. Were the Cubs simply a very good team that played very badly for three games. You betcha. I can't explain it, and I doubt they could either. They looked so flat, so not-there that I'm hard-pressed for an explanation. They exhibited every bad habit that they had shown off-and-on during the season. The walks, the lack of taking pitches, the swinging for the fences on every damn pitch. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuckity-fuck fuck.*

I think the biggest reason that I'm so despondent about this is that there was so much confidence going into the post season this year. I was convinced, convinced that the Cubs were ticketed for the NLCS at the very least. They beat the crap out of the Dodgers ad the Brewers during the season, and don't talk to me about Manny fucking Ramirez, if the Cubs had done what they could have just walked him every damn plate appearance. Fuck that guy.

I know, I'm losing my mind, but soon enough the crushing disappointment will fade and I'll be left with the good memories of this yea. I saw a bunch of good games, watched Alfonso Soriano hurt himself, live, twice. I watched the Cubs come back in the eighth inning from four runs down on an insane Aramis Ramirez grand slam, on my Mom's birthday, after she and my Dad left the game because they thought the Cubs would lose. Got insulted by my friends for dancing to Go Cubs Go. Man, what a bunch of good times. So I look forward to next April, when the numbers are re-set, and we get one more chance to win it all. Win or lose, it's going to be a good time.

*OK, this is the point where I go totally off the rails.

Friday Night Fights - Ladies' Night: Round 9

It's Friday night, and it's time for Catwoman to

TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

This throw-down courtesy of Catwoman: Crooked Little Town by Ed Brubaker and Brad Rader.
Do yourself a favor and pick it up (or not, since it's apparently out of print).
Friday Night Fights brought to us all by Bahlactus!

Les McClaine Makes Drawings for Me (and, possibly, You)

Les McClaine, the fantastic artist and co-creator of The Middleman, is currently offering an amazing deal on ten dollar drawings on his web site, here are two I had him do for me:

The Demon, Etrigan

O.M.A.C.

I'd highly recommend running by his site and picking some up for yourself.