thebitterguy

• 20:39 Finished helping out at Cindy's book sale. I could murder a burrito right now. #

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Iconic pinup model Bettie Page has died at 85.

She'll be fondly remembered.

easyalchemy got this started by quoting the lyrics in a Facebook update, so I've had it nestled in my brain for the past couple days inbetween Christmas songs.

I got a copy of the Peanuts Christmas album, which remains a holiday delight. I suspect Guaraldi had an extra set of arms.

Also on FB, malliabu mentioned this collection of Christmas music done in the style of 8 bit Nintendo tunes. I'm not huge into electronic music in general, or 8 bit stuff specifically, but this is a very nice selection of music.

Add to that a Christmas album sent as a gift (electronically, sure, but sent) and it's a nice holiday season.

Beneath the cut, I've got the lyrics to Bonanza. Now, you have to remember, it was sung by Lorne Greene himself, so you must imagine this sung by OA (Original Adama) AKA The Voice of Doom.

( The Lyrics to Bonanza )

• 14:15 I don't give a fuck if it's authentic or not, I want to go to Rancho Relaxo and have the fucking lime soup! #
• 14:48 I have prorogued Kaplansky's. #

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Okay, love's a bit of an exaggeration. But over the past year and a bit he's gone from "guy I don't know" to "guy whose stuff I will buy sight unseen".

He's done some neat things, including the sadly deceased The Order, a superhero book that reads like an examination of reality tv & celebrity culture, and an independent book that reads like "What if... Mick Jagger was Nick Fury's Son in a hyperscientific world of adventure and espionage and just a little subliminally suggested incest?", Casanova.

My two favourite books of his were his run on Immortal Iron Fist, on which he shared plotting duties with Ed Brubaker, and his new Iron Man series.

I think my personal obstinacy is one of the biggest driving forces for my newfound fanboyishness. I've seen too many really, really dumb people trashing on his work. The dumbest was the reaction to his description of his Iron Man villain, Zebediah Stane, as an "open source villain", as compared to the proprietary way Stark handles the Iron Man technology. He used buzz words, you see, to explain the story he was going to tell.

This got filtered through the Internet Idiot Stream (IIS) to mean that Iron Man's new archvillain would be fighting him with Unix. To quote the kids, the stupid, it burns.

The series was very entertaining, taking Iron Man around the world to fight Stane's terrorist network. It did include a new iteration on AIM (Supervillain thinktank/Beekeepers Advanced Idea Mechanics) as AGM, Advanced Genocide Mechanics, with their leader MODOG, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Genocide. MODOG got thrown into space, which was kinda funny.

He also introduced a Philippine superteam (whose name escapes me), which makes them the sixth country in the Marvel U to field a national team, after the US, USSR, UK, China, and Canada. Oh, and Apartheid era Not South Africa. Did Hauptmann Deutschland keep his team of West German supers together after the fall of the Berlin wall? You have to love any team that includes a guy named Zeitgeist. And the Japanese probably had one, too, with Wolverine in it. And possibly Latveria. And... Okay, yeah, there's a lot of Marvel countries with national superteams.

The story line was interesting, although since it's woven into Marvel Continuity, there was at least one cliffhanger that really, really wasn't (and had, in fact, been done 20 years prior). Stane made an interesting villain, although I think that since Iron Man fought his father six months ago in continuity we must consider abandoning the story as horrible, or I could just vent on Marvel Time another time.

I know that some people don't like his Punisher series, but those seem to be entirely composed of hardcore Punisher fans, and anyone who refers to the character as "Frank" in casual conversation loses a lot of leverage in any debate. I did read the World War Hulk crossover issue, which had very little to do with the WWH shenanigans.

The Iron Fist series was also very fun. It's only flaw was that it was obviously (and some would say gratuitously) written for trade paperback. There are several flashback/historical issues that aren't being collected in the main trades, but are expected to get their own book later.

The Fraction & Brubaker's last arc, The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, took the core Iron Fist concept and just pushed it forward a bit.

Brubaker and Fraction have heavily expanded on the Iron Fist mythos. They've expanded on the historical Iron Fists, and made Kun Lun one of the seven cities of Heaven (plus one of The Other Place). So the Seven Capital Cities includes a kung fu tournament, reminiscent of Mortal Kombat in a non-sucky way, to see which heavenly city will be the leader, as it were. Add in a Hydra plan to destroy them using a magnetic bomb train, and you get a lot of fun.

They also wove in backstory featuring Orson Randall, an earlier Iron Fist who was a two fist, double barreled pulp hero of the old school.

At this point, anything Fraction's worked on is either carte blanche Buy or a heavy look at. What's odd is he's a guy of my generation, but his work seems to be very energetic and fresh, instead of playing continuity rubgby like a lot of other enjoyable work out there. I like that. His ear for characters and dialogue is also a plus.

******

This is mostly written for The Original Universe, a fanzine I'm contributing to. It still has to be worked over a few times. Feel free to insert Wikipedia links in your mind.

• 17:49 Good to see that Munchkin Quest maintains the interminable endgame of the original card game. #
• 10:55 Drove to work behind a Hindu evolutionist today, at least according to the decals on the back of his Honda Fit. #
• 14:46 What do they have in Sweden that I might want? #

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The show's finale has started to be abbreviated to an hour from two, and I don't know if I can handle the exoticism of Portland, Oregon (Isn't that were you used to live, oakthorne?).

And now they're desperately searching for a cab. Excitement!

Last night was the annual Christmas party. Several people had to cancel due to illness, and they were missed. We had a good time overall, with turkey, mashed, dressing and cabbage.

We watched It's a Wonderful Life and chillaxed for a while. Feeding Frenzy can be a spectator sport.

The editing on this final episode is sublime. They've forgotten the Frat boys entire, and it looks like the cheerleader twins and the squabbling couple are neck and neck.

( spoiler )

Today I got together with Mike and a couple other guys he knows for Munchkin Quest. It's a board game version of the popular Munchkin card games.

It's good to see that they've retained the cutthroat endgame of the original card game. It's fairly fun.

Mike had also got a couple promo items, including a coaster and a special room (the troll bridge).

On the other hand, it's a great chance to make use of the Sad Trombone app on the iPhone.

• 00:43 The tree is up and partially decorated. #
• 00:48 And in anticipation of the party, shrimp ring is defrosting. Man, I love shrimp rings. A defrosting shrimp ring is pure potential. #

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• 19:05 Harper speech drinking game: Everytime he says "sepratists", take a drink! #
• 19:07 Harper: "Axis of Evil! Axis of Evil!" Did David Frum write that speech? #
• 14:31 I guess the GG had no choice. Hopefully the coalition holds together until parliament resumes and they put through the no confidence vote. #
• 17:56 Anyone tried Lips for the 360?I'm contemplating it as a christmas gift. #

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From Harperdictatorship.ca. I could give context, but that's work.

Thanks to hilson.