Sharing

My Google Reader was advertising a new feature this evening and I enjoyed it enough to add a new part to the blog - you'll see it over there in the upper right-hand corner. It pulls things from the internet that I can look at and share with you, if I find the item interesting enough. Yes, it's another way to waste time on the internet but I got a kick out of the 4 items you'll find over there right now.

I hope to have more things to share with you soon in the way of actual posts. I would like to talk about True Blood (I have one episode left of the 2nd season), Toy Story 3, all sorts of music, and more. I have 4 books out from the library out right now with 2 more waiting for me, so some book posts need to happen too.

I do have one last item to share tonight, a good old-fashioned link. Matt Fraction is relaunching Casanova through Icon soon and GQ did a longish interview about it with him. I've only read the first 7 issues of the original 14 (the 2nd story arc was never collected), so I'm looking forward to more. I think Fraction is one of the better writers in comics today and there's quite a bit of interest to read here.

Ok, enough sharing for one night...

Eight Piles High

I went out and bought the new Fables trade yesterday and I'm looking forward to reading it. However, there are 5 other trades piled on top of it.

I'm trying to finish The Unnamed by tomorrow because it's due back at the library and I can't renew it. I have 3 other books on the shelf to be read after that.

I bought the Hall & Oates box set on Saturday and have only managed to listen to half of the discs.

I started the Oct./Nov. 2009 issue of F&SF and few weeks ago and have only managed about 50 pages. I have 2 more issues of F&SF and 4 of Asimov's sitting in a drawer.

Adventureland arrived via Netflix last Friday and I still haven't watched it. Hell, I have DVDs I got for Christmas three plus years ago that I haven't watched yet.

The DVR is 76% full and set to record 4 more hours worth tonight and 2 1/2 tomorrow night.

Oh, and my Google Reader? It has over 100 unread posts, including links to a number of podcasts I want to listen to.

Sigh.

2010 Preview

One of my favorite parts about the calendar flipping over is getting all the previews as to what pop culture goodies are coming our way in the new year. Here are some things I'm looking forward to...

TV

Lost - The final season starts on Feb. 2!

Chuck - I love this show and it's been way too long since its game-changing season 2 finale. We get it back tomorrow night!

Big Love - How much more adorable can Margene get and what will Nikki get up to? Tomorrow night we get to start finding out.

24 - I enjoyed last season quite a bit and hope this season can stay that course. We'll see starting next Sunday.

Treme - The new HBO series from David Simon (The Wire). Yes, please. It starts it April, I think.

MOVIES

Kick-Ass - I read the first 2 issues of the comic and decided to wait for the trade. While that hasn't materialized, the trailers for this movie make it look like a ton of fun. Man, I hope so. (Apr. 16)

Iron Man 2 - Duh. (May 7)

Shutter Island - I liked the book it's based on (by Dennis Lehane) and I really liked the last movie Scorcese and DiCaprio did together (The Departed). (Feb. 19)

Hot Tub Time Machine - It looks supremely silly and will be a perfect movie to see while I'm on spring break. (Mar. 26)

Date Night - Steve Carrell and Tina Fey together? Sold! (Apr. 9)

Inception - The trailers for this Christopher Nolan movie have me very interested. (July 16)

COMICS

Scott Pilgrim - I'm not sure when it will be out but I can't wait for the 6th and final volume.

Planetary Vol. 4 - Last fall's long-awaited release of the last issue means I will soon be able to read the last 9 issues of the series (and I'll probably reread the rest of the series in anticipation).

Astro City - This year will see the conclusion of the epic "The Dark Age" storyline and the return of the book as an ongoing comic.

Adventure Comics - At some point this year, Paul Levitz will return to writing the Legion of Super-Heroes on a regular basis in this book. I'm nervous but hopeful.

Flash - I'm not in love with the fact Barry Allen is back, as I'm a huge Wally West fan. That said, Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul were awesome on Adventure Comics and I hope they can continue to produce at a high level.

Casanova - Matt Fraction has been tweeting about work on this series; I hope its return is accompanied by a trade of the second storyline, which I've still not read.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne - Grant Morrison writes (and a bunch of artists draw) about Bruce Wayne working his way through time to come back to Gotham. Sounds fun, doesn't it?

BOOKS

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris - I enjoyed his debut and am looking forward to the new one.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - This is the follow-up to Cloud Atlas, one of my favorite books of the last decade.

Wild Child by T.C. Boyle - A new book of short stories from one of my favorite writers.

The Ask by Sam Lipsyte - I loved his last book, Home Land, and hope this one is as entertaining.

MUSIC

Vampire Weekend/Contra - I should listen to this over at NPR before I buy it. (Jan. 12)

Eels/End Times - Six months after the highly-underrated Hombre Lobo, we get another one? Joy! (Jan. 19)

Spoon/Transference - Can't wait! (Jan. 19)

Midlake/The Courage of Others - It's been a while since their last one and we supposedly get a bit of a different sound. (Feb. 2)

Jason Falkner/I'm OK You're OK - This has been out in Japan for years and it's been years since we got the Bliss Descending EP. High hopes. (Feb. 16)

The Whigs/In the Dark - They've put out 2 great rock albums; here's to a 3rd! (Mar. 2)

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists/The Brutalist Bricks - Really looking forward to this one. (Mar. 9)

Drive-By Truckers/The Big To-Do - This is supposed to be pretty-rocking but it's the DBTs, so I'm buying it no matter what. (Mar. 16)

She & Him/Volume Two - Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward back together again. (Mar. 23)

We should also see new releases from Arcade Fire, The National, and New Pornographers this year too!

Almost Famous

Russell Hammond on a kid's roof yelling "I am a golden god!"

The true confessions of a band and their manager who think they are going down in a tiny plane.

The band and gang on the bus singing "Tiny Dancer" together and getting over the slings and arrows of life on the road.

Russell, thinking he is going to see Penny Lane, discovers he is at William's house and William finally gets an interview...

William: So, Russell, what do you love most about music?

Russell: To begin with, everything. (Cue Led Zeppelin's "Tangerine" on the soundtrack)

These are some of my favorite moments from Cameron Crowe's great movie, Almost Famous, a fictionalized look at his life as a teenage rock and roll writer. It's a movie about music, life, love, and dreams. It has humor, heart, and drama. It has great performances, including Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. It's not only one of my favorite movies of the last ten years, but one of my favorite movies period.

Looking Ahead: October 2009

I meant to get around to this feature again last month but just didn't get my act together. I should be on my way to bed right now but I don't want to let this month start to slip away before I looked ahead to it. So, here are some things I'm looking forward to this month...

The Invention of Lying (Oct. 2) - A cool idea concept that was written and directed by Ricky Gervais

Built To Spill/There Is No Enemy (Oct. 6) - Guitar goodness

The Mountain Goats/The Life of the World to Come (Oct. 6) - One of my favorite songwriters using Bible verses as inspiration? I'm intrigued.

Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon (Oct. 6) - Personal essays from one of my favorite writers

Peter & Max: A Fables Novel (Oct. 7) - A prose piece set in the world of Fables, one of my favorite comics

Jack of Fables Vol. 6: The Big Book of War (Oct. 7) - I hope it features more one pagers with my favorite character of 2009, Babe the Blue Ox

Planetary #27 (Oct. 7) - While I won't pick it up, this means a fourth collection is somewhere on the horizon and I can finally read everything from #19 on

The Flaming Lips/Embryonic (Oct. 13) - An old-fashioned double album

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem (Oct. 13) - A new novel by another of my favorite writers

30 Rock season premiere (Oct. 15) - I want to go there

Where The Wild Things Are (Oct. 16) - I have high hopes for this Spike Jonze-directed adaptation of the classic book that was a childhood favorite

Scalped Vol. 5: High Lonesome (Oct. 21) - I still need to buy and read the 3rd and 4th volumes

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds HC (Oct. 21) - A collection of the mini-series that continued the revitalization of "my" Legion of Super-Heroes

R.E.M./Live At The Olympia (Oct. 27) - These shows were supposedly high quality and covered the breadth of their career

Gentlemen Broncos (Oct. 30) - This is something I'll probably end up seeing on DVD but I am all over the concept from the team behind Napoleon Dynamite

Dark Days of Summer

When all three members of a household are involved with a school in one form or another, summer comes to an end once a new school year gets started. That's where the Steiner household is at, as we all start back next week. I'm actually ready to get back to it and not just for the fact I won't have to be in the pool 4 to 5 hours a day, although a full week of nothing to do would be nice.

I've been squeezing in as much pop culture consumption as I can before life gets super busy and thought I would share some quick thoughts about some of it...

(500) Days of Summer - This movie finally made it to my neck of the woods (about 20 minutes away) last weekend and I jumped at the chance to go see it. I was not disappointed. The movie tells you up front (via narration) that it is not a love story...well, it is and it isn't. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and work and falls hard. She, on the other hand, doesn't, though she does like him a lot. What follows in an out-of-order look at their relationship, shifting from the good times to the bad. This allows scenes to be cast in a new light, bits of conversation, and so forth. Director Marc Webb gives us a dance number, split screens, and great visuals to match the mix of humor and pain and understanding. Good stuff.

The Magicians - This is Lev Grossman's new novel and the first one of his that I've read, though I loved his brother Austin's Soon I Will Be Invincible. As the title of this one would indicate, it's a fantasy novel set in a world of magic. Specifically, it's set in a world where people have read Harry Potter and a series of Narnia-like books about a world called Fillory. Quentin Coldwater is a huge fan of that series and one day discovers he is able to perform magic and is admitted to Brakebills, a school for magic. So yes, there are some similarities with the world of Harry Potter but this book deals with sex and drugs and depression and there is no big evil out there in the world. It's a story of love and loss and selfishness and yes, magic. Some reviews have taken it to task for trying to be a commentary on this type of novel as well as an example of the species but I didn't think it was more metafictional commentary than just a well-written story that I liked.

District 9 - I went and saw this movie at the first showing this morning and was a bit distracted by the kids who were in the audience. The movie is bloody and the f-word is used an awful lot. An awful lot. Now I don't have a problem with that type of thing but it did bother me at times. As for the movie itself, it is a very grim story of aliens forced to live in slums, corporations that want profit, gangs that want power. Events are set in motion by Wickus, who is in charge of informing the "prawns" that they are being moved to a new residence far from Johannesburg. He becomes exposed to something that starts changing him, both physically and also in another one. Except it's not a saccharine and clean-cut as it seems. The effects are seamlessly woven into the story and it is mostly told in doucmentary form. It is a dark story that echoes problems in our world without it being bludgeoningly so. A thoughtful, gruesome SF movie that looks cool? Interesting summer fare.

Fables: The Dark Ages - Wednesday saw the release of the 12th volume collecting the ongoing series, which also happens to be one of my favorite comics. It's a rather grim volume featuring that aftermath of the big victory over Gepetto. One would think times would be good but they aren't. There's the rise of a powerful new entity, the death of a beloved character, and the destruction of Fabletown. Naturally, I read it as quickly as I could and I can't wait until the next collection in early 2010. In the meantime, I need to catch up on Jack of Fables in trade form - I've only read 2 of 5 volumes!

Looking Ahead: August 2009

Each new month brings promise of fresh pop culture to devour...

My Old, Familiar Friend - The upcoming 4th solo album from Brendan Benson. Brendan is probably more known for being the second guy in The Raconteurs alongside Jack White but there is so much more to him than that. His three previous records are power pop gems and I can't wait to hear what the new one sounds like. (8/18)

Mad Men - Any self-respecting fan of quality TV is salivating over the return of the gang at Sterling Cooper and the fascinating enigma of the man at its core, Don Draper. This will be the 3rd season of the show. (8/16)

Top Chef - I hadn't watched this show until this past spring, which was set in New York. I was quickly hooked and not just because I love food. I am currently watching Top Chef Masters, which has famous chefs competing for charity and is a more dignified take the series, but I can't wait to see who shows up to compete in Las Vegas. (8/19)

District 9 - There was a lot of buzz out of Comic-Con about this different take on aliens living on Earth. Peter Jackson is the executive producer and the trailer looks intriguing. It doesn't have big stars, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. (8/14)

Inglorious Basterds - The latest movie from Quentin Tarantino, this one could go either way. Not sure there will be an in-between. We'll see. (8/21)

Adventure Comics - This comic will star the recently-resurrected Superboy and is written by current comics king Geoff Johns. The art will be by Francis Manapul, who made his professional debut in the same comic I did (Love in Tights #1). Of course, he's gone on to fame and I've gone on to this blog, so score 500 for him. Meanwhile, the backup feature in this comic will focus on the Legion of Super-Heroes. Unsurprisingly, this excites me more than the main feature, though the 5 page preview that is running in the back of DC books right now is very promising. (8/12)