So many videogames, so little time

Posted on 06/06/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

This week inFAMOUS 2 comes out.  Upcoming there’s Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and so much more.  That so much more makes things so hard for an avid video gamer.  Now, I’m not super avid, as I don’t like Real Time Strategy, Fighters or First Person Shooters.  I am primarily an action/adventure or straight forward adventure kind with a love for 3rd person style.   E3 hasn’t even started and yet, there are announcements for games making me needing a $100 an hour job.  Some of them are games I knew about, but forgot, others don’t come out forever.  Here’s a small sampling based off of GameTrailers.com

Alice- Madness Returns American McGee’s return to his classic on new platforms is looking amazing.
NeverDead: The teasers never made me realize how huge this Konami game was, as more and more is shown it looks quite epic.
Tomb Raider: So far only a teaser trailer exists for Crystal Dynamics’ “Survivor” reboot, but what a teaser
Spiderman- Edge of Time: New video shows that Beenox didn’t just drop a new story and some extra dynamic onto Dimension’s but did a lot of rebuilding from the top down.

The biggest announcement of last week though has to be that Back to the Future-The Game will feature Michael J. Fox in its final chapter. I’m already a purchaser, but I expect this news to make the game go from where it is to another statosphere. Along with Claudia Wells in episode 3, this is awesomesauce.

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Book Expo America 2011 Photo Edition (Day 2)

Posted on 06/06/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Jimmy Fallon was very gracious and kind.  He loved that I told him how much I loved “The Bathroom Wall”

Kevin Sorbo was a little late, but he was awesome, even when I accidentally in my half-awake state confused Andromeda and Farscape.  I know the difference and knew which show he was on, I just confused their plots.

Duff McKagan seemed just amazed to be at a Book Expo instead of a rock event.  I praised LOADED and asked about the US leg of the tour.

I got be to be first in line for Joey’s signing and asked him some very intensive questions about the book, his condition and how it’ll affect his future work.  Very intriguing short conversation.

I almost missed out on Candace, but Henry Rollins ended up cancelling.  I have a feeling her book will have way too much Jesus stuff as she follows in her brother’s footsteps, but hey, I got the pic.

The publishers moved the Chuck Pahlaniuk line along pretty fast, but I’m just glad to have an early copy of DAMNED.

These photos of course only show a portion of the second day.  SO much more happened that I didn’t photograpgh.  These photos along with txt elsewhere tell a great tale though, or if not a great tale, a document of a time.

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John Lithgow on stage at Book Expo America 2011

Posted on 06/01/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

I was lucky enough to get a front row seat to John Lithgow’s Insight Stages promoting his upcoming memoir DRAMA: An Actor’s Education.  It was a fun and enjoyable presentation.  I edited it into three parts for time (per to Youtube’s standards) and continuity in terms of thoughts and stories flowing well.  I hope you appreciate.  Without even having a chance to yet read my galley I can say the book will be worth it.

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Book Expo America 2011-The Photo Edition (Day 1)

Posted on 05/31/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Bruce Jay Friedman, writer of Stir Crazy, The Lonely Guy, Splash and many more.
He has a new memoir, Lucky Bruce slated for the fall of 2011.

Jenny Slate & Dean Fleischer-Camp, the comedienne and her entertainment partner have
a new book coming out November 2011 based on their Marcel the Shell with Shoes On stop motion animation.


Here I am kissing everyone’s sexy mom, Florence Henderson. At 75+ she is ravishing and thrilling.
Her new memoir, Life Is Not a Stage, is scheduled for September 2011.


Craig Thompson drew a personalized quick sketch into every preview of his six years in the making, HABIBI.


After a riveting stage appearance, John Lithgow signed galleys of his upcoming memoir, DRAMA: An Actor’s Education.


Daniel Handler AKA Lemony Snicket gets ready to sign his first YA novel, Why We Broke Up.

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Book Expo America Day 2 AND 3 (Quick & Dirty)

Posted on 05/31/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

As my entire weekend was filled with sun, beach and beautiful people I have yet to catch up fully.  I felt for the few readers I do/may have, I’d give a whirl of memories.

Spoke with Jimmy Fallon for what felt at least five minutes about music, the show, etc.

It was a rush over to Kevin Sorbo who ended up being just a little late, but not by much.  Charming fellow.

A blurry of booths happened along getting books and seeing folks.  I was so wired I barely ever tweeted.

Duff McKagan was awesome, although he seemed pretty blitzed and bewildered by the Book Expo.

For a Book Expo there sure were a lot of costumed mascots running around.

I was first in line for Joey Pantoliano, so luckily folks held my spot and I ran around grabbing a few more galleys and such.

I was on the line for Eoin Colfer at one point, but I had to give up.  I luckily got the ARC for Plugged and will devour it.  Would’ve loved to met the man, maybe a different, and much better setting will occur someday.

There was a surge of things to see and do.  Henry Rollins signing got canceled so I was able to find time to see Candace Cameron  and a bunch of book authors  that I’ll do reviews on, but there was so much, the order is just whabbaddadoo in my head.

I had a huge block of time to waste before my final book signing of the day with Chuck Palahniuk.  Luckily I bumped into a new friend and we walked around.

After Wednesday’s show I had a SAG screening of BEGINNERS to see.  I met up with my good buddy Rich Watson and it was a fab time with a Q & A with Christopher Plummer afterwards.

Thursday morning was a mad rush to get KILL ALEX CROSS and then to get myself a nice front row seat for Jane Lynch.  Both were pulled off beautifully.

I had only two other signings to get to on the final day.  That being Tom Wilson and Nick James.  Tom Wilson drew me a Ziggy with a MOHAWK because I jokingly made the request.

The rest of the show involved checking out booths I had missed out on from my Tues/Wed schedule.  I really enjoyed myself, discovering great books that would’ve otherwise missed my notice.

I came home, with bags FILLED to the brim and then went out once again to end my Book Expo experience with a bang by taking my mom to a SAG screening of THE HIGH COST OF LIVING followed by a Q & A with Zach Braff.

This QUICK & DIRTY will be followed up by many entries and notes.  Keep an eye out!

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Book Expo America 2011 Day 1 (Quick & Dirty)

Posted on 05/25/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

So many Books!

I Kissed Florence Henderson!

John Lithgow was awesome.

So many books!

Had way too much fun and didn’t eat all day.

Was too exhausted for parties, ah well.

So many books!

Real versions to come!

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Book Expo America 2011 Day 0 (Full Real Report)

Posted on 05/23/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

On the bus to the event I met a journalist who works for a Toronto paper but remotely from NYC.  She was interesting and if I see her tomorrow she’ll get a business card for sure.

I spent a good chunk of time in the Press Room where I saw Jason Boog, whom I know from my poetry days.  He was busy working hard, so I’m not sure if he even noticed that I actually referred to him in a way that I knew him or not.

While in the press room and then outside I became acquainted with Elizabeth Willse, fellow book lover/reviewer and also Hillary Matlin, librarian & archivist.  I ended up spending the rest of the day with them and having a grand time talking about everything and anything.

We ended up going to the BEA Editor’s Buzz Panel which advised of some books and was a long, but lively presentation.  Afterwards they gave out galleys for all the Buzz books, so between the Press Room and there I now had around seven books and the show hasn’t even started yet.

After the Buzz conference the three of us went over to The Standard Hotel for the Electric Literature/Flavorpill/Harper Perennial party.   The party itself wasn’t too exciting, but I got to go to the elevator in The Standard and see the awesome stairwell done by one of my favorite artists, AIKO.   Also there were more books to pick up from Harper Perennial.

Books Gotten So Far (mostly ARCs):

We The Animals by Justin Torres
The Underside of Joy by Seré Prince Halverson
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
Nice Shot, Cupid (Myth-O-Mania IV) by Kate McMullan
Somewhere Over The Sun by Adi Alsaid
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution Vol. 2-IMPULSE by M. Zachary Sherman (with art by Caio Majado)
The First Ladies by Nancy Clarke with Christie Matheson
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber
Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
Fante-A Memoir by Dan Fante

More on each forthcoming!

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Day 0 at Book Expo America 2011

Posted on 05/23/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

Sitting in the BEA Press Room as I type this, talking with fellow journalists and bloggers about everything and anything.

As the show isn’t actually open till tommorow there’s actually really nothing to do but check out the CIROBE remainders pavilion and look for banners and other stuff to photograph and such.

Just noticed a USB port in these computers, so maybe I’ll be able to flickr something or other.  We shall see. 

This might be my most boring blog post ever.  Ah well.  Maybe I’ll just film a TV episode today.

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Made for Each Other – Having a monster for a boyfriend

Posted on 05/23/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

High School romances are a tricky practice. Telling quality stories about Highschool romance are an even trickier practice. They’re set-up to be hokey automatically. Looking at any of the best romantic comedy films movies about people in High School and falling in love, they have a penchant for cheesiness and ridiculous. The best of them seem to have a penchant for staying charming or endearing through their supporting characters and just something inherent.

Imagine if they tried to do that in a graphic novel, but also throw in a supernatural element. That addition could easily bring things over the top in silliness, but delicately balances that edge between sweet and ridiculous.

I was attracted to wanting to look at this after researching the online art of Eldon Cowgur. I was not familiar with him before this, but the cover pulled me in and when I saw his webcomic Astray3 I knew I had to see what he would do with a longer format comic.

 

 

While it was Eldon’s art that brought me in, he actually had a variety of flaws in art in such a larger format. Nothing super jarring, but if it wasn’t for Paul D. Storrie‘s script there was no way I’d finish this graphic novel. While the begginning starts off in a little bit too much of “You are joining us in a program that already in progresss” feel, it quickly catches up with itself and is smooth sailing from there. Discovering our female star, our male love interest and then our quirky and fun supporting cast comes with clever dialogue and what I have to assume concepts from Storrie which Eldon bring to life perfectly.

This is by far not the most perfect book. The full page reveal of the MAIN monster of this tale is not as TA-DOW as possible. While it is a great drawing into itself, in context, the dude is just not ugly enough. That’s really not a deal breaker to the enjoyment of this one and I say check it out if you like comics and romance.

I believe it was designed to reach out to kind of reader who doesn’t read and would rather read a comic, but it is pretty heavy in its comic book story-telling devices and it is not something someone who isn’t already reading comics to check it out, but what do I know?

This review was derived from a digital galley from Net Galley.  Special thanks to them and to publisher Capstone Books.

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R.I.P. Macho Man

Posted on 05/20/2011 by Pop-Culture Spectrum

(above photo taken by me at a 2006 CD signing in NYC)

On May 20, 2011, Randall Poffo, best known to the world as “Macho Man” Randy Savage was unwrapped from his mortal coil.  Reports account his death occurring from a combination heart attack and fatal car accident.

Savage was easily one of my favorite of all time.  He brought everything I liked about wrestling into a secure package.  Flamboyancy, technical athletics, insane rumblings, maniacal interviews and a never say die attitude.  When everyone went right, he went left.  I’d say his promos and raps tell his tale better than anything ever could.

Sugar was sweet and so was honey.  Macho Man went to the top, fell down, got back up and went to the top again.  The mountain was there standing like a pillar of salt and he just tossed it behind his back like a rock, paper, scissors.  You don’t see the steamroller coming till it’s ahead of you and you’ve been flattened out.  An elbowdrop from the top is what it was all about.  Yellow and Pink, Purple and green, red and black, colors bleed and so does blood.  Hardcore before there was hardcore, he piledrove Ricky Morton on a table and it didn’t break.  That hurts more than breakaway.

Did he become a joke with his rap album or just cement his legend of insanity and unpredictability?  I say the second, you can disagree.  It doesn’t matter, because heres to the Macho Man.

Hoping he’s off in some afterlife back together with Miss Elizabeth after their break up almost 20 years ago.  Or maybe he’s with Sherri.  He has his pick, he’s the Macho Man!

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