Shopping sucks, so some of us do what we must … because we can.
starry starry night
I stayed up until almost one this morning, reading comic books.
I know, it's like I'm 12 all over again.
And it's awesome.
Around four, Anne woke me up.
"What's wrong?" I said, while I was still waiting to clear immigration between Dreamland and Reality.
"Nothing. I just couldn't sleep, so I got up and went outside to watch the meteor shower. It's really cool, and I knew you'd want to see it."
I sat up, pushed the covers to one side, and ignored the grumbling protests of our dog, who had just lost his primary source of warmth and cuddling.
"It's cold out, though, so put something warm on."
I grabbed a hoodie and put on my totally-not-lame-but-always-make-me-feel-self-conscious-to-wear-them slippers. I walked through the dark house, past the quiet and strangely comforting hum of my aquarium's filter, and out onto our patio.
I know it's cliché, but the stars were brilliant jewels against a field of black velvet. Betelgeuse was a brilliant red. The Orion Nebula was bright and fuzzy. Sirius, in Canis Major, was such a bright blueish-white I couldn't look directly at it. To the North, Ursa Major dominated the sky, and I could even see Mizar without any effort. Back on Earth, a distant train's whistle sounded from far away, probably from the train yard near Commerce.
"You just missed a fireball," Anne said, quietly. She pointed to the Eastern sky and added, "and there have been tons of little flashes from over there, too."
I wrapped my arms around myself to stay warm and let my eyes roam across the sky. I didn't see any fireballs, but I saw lots of meteors fly across the sky, greenish and yellowish trails flashing then fading behind them.
Maybe it's because I wasn't entirely awake, or maybe it's because I'd been reading about mutants and other worlds before I went to sleep, but as I looked up into the sky, toward Castor and Pollux, I really felt, for the first time in my entire 38 years on this planet, the overwhelming vastness of the universe.
Where I have always felt awe, I felt small. Where I have always felt inspiration, I felt vulnerable. "I'm on a planet, spinning on its axis, racing around a star, moving faster than my mind can comprehend, through that," I thought. "And right now, that planet is flying through an ancient asteroid debris, bits of dust and rock smacking into its atmosphere like bugs against a windshield." I felt a little freaked out.
I've quoted Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot so many times, I don't need to look it up anymore to get it right, but last night, looking up into the enormity of the universe, it was suddenly more than poetry and a reminder to take better care of each other.
I moved closer to Anne and put my arms around her. She leaned her head back against my chest and we looked up into the sky together, watching faint meteors streak across the sky every few seconds.
"I'm glad you woke me up," I whispered. "Thank you."
"I'm sorry you didn't get to see the fireballs," she said.
"Nah, it's okay. I didn't need to."
The train's whistle sounded again. This time, it didn't seem so far away.
We stood there and watched the sky for several minutes, until our hands and feet were numb with the cold, and went back inside.
When I got back into bed, I pulled the covers up over my head, and tucked them around myself as tightly as I could. It took a long while for sleep to reclaim me.
what is this i don’t even
Apparently, a challenge was issued on EN World that went something like this:
I see your Betty White, your Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan, and I raise you ALL of them playing D&D with Wil Wheaton in the middle of an iconic D&D bar fight, framed in bacon…
Even though I haven't really done anything for games, gaming and gamers, it's equally weird and awesome that someone on EN World (a site I've read forever) thought to put me in such esteemed company.
(Discovered via Twitter, created by The Weem dot Com.)
ZAP! POW! OOFF! ZOK! BIFF! A post about comics and TPBs.
A couple times a year, I have to go through all the comics and trades in my office and put them into long boxes that live in the attic. When I do this, I always end up pulling out a few trades that I want to read again, so now you know what I've spent most of my discretionary (note that I didn't call it "free") time doing over the last week.
Because "I just want to read these and enjoy them" isn't good enough justification for me, I promised myself that I'd point out a few of the things I was reading on my blog, as sort of a Winter Festival Of Your Choice Gift Buying Service, or, uh, something. So, here we go.
Captain America Omnibus
Marvel
Writer: Ed Brubaker Artists: Steve Epting and Mike Perkins
Before Ed started writing Cap, I just wasn't interested even a little bit … but Ed made Cap sort of the Batman of the Marvel Universe for me: he's troubled, he tries to do the right thing, and he's a fucking badass. The omnibus collects the first 25 issues Ed did, leading up to the Death of Captain America, including the 65th anniversary special and the Winter Soldier stories. Keeping in mind that the stories in this volume were written during the darkest days of the Bush nightmare, I kept feeling like Captain America was standing in for America, itself, which added a layer to the story that was particularly moving to me. Of course, you don't need to reach for symbolism if you don't want to; it's a tremendously satisfying and compelling story without it.
Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E
Marvel
Writer: Warren Ellis Artist: Stuart Immonen
Warren took all these Marvel characters that nobody had thought about in forever and put them into one of the most entertaining and outrageous stories I've ever read. I mean, the first thing they do is fight Fin Fang Foom, who is a giant lizard who wears purple underpants. The dialog is brilliant, and the artwork is sensational. There are only two trades, because Warren only did this for a year, and I highly recommend picking them both up. After reading Nextwave and Global Frequency back-to-back, I have come to the conclusion that, for someone who claims to find superheroes less than awesome, Warren sure does know how to write an awesome superhero story.
The Five Fists of Science
Image
Writer: Matt Fraction Artist:Steven Sanders
Did you know that Edison and Tesla were rivals? Matt Fraction does, so he imagined what would happen if they took their rivalry to its steampunk conclusion. Also, Marconi and Einstein are there. Seriously, it's just amazing and so much fun to read. Science (SCIENCE!)
1602
Marvel
Writer: Neil Gaiman Artists: Andy Kubert and Richard Isanove
Neil put the Marvel Universe in the year 1602 … you know, like you do … and then told a story that would be a joy to read, even if you didn't get to play "OMG look at how he modified [Classic Marvel Character]"! The artwork is perfect, and the reveals of certain identities are clever and organic; it would have been easy to just make setting this story in 1602 a stunt, but Neil never falls into that trap. You don't have to be intimately familiar with the Marvel Universe to enjoy this story, but if you are, you'll have access to smile-inducing moments that the muggles will miss. For the record, I blame 1602 (and DC's 52) for making me fall back in love with superhero stories, but that's a whole other post.
Batman: The Killing Joke
DC
Writer: Alan Moore Artist: Brian Bolland
It's the definitive Joker story. 'nuff said.
Astonishing X-Men: Gifted
Marvel
Writer: Joss Whedon Artist: John Cassaday
The X-Men have a problem, and to overcome it, they realize that they can't be Uncanny, they can't be Nifty, and they can't be Neat. They have to be … Astonishing. Who better to help them accomplish this than the man himself? This starts Whedon's fantastic run on X-Men, and it's as great to read now as when it was first published.
You know how there's that one guy you know who liked comics, but after suffering through the Fantastic Four movies and the X-Men and Spiderman sequels, decided that comics suck, superheroes are stupid, and he wants a goddamn concerted effort to not come out of a fucking uptempo record when he has to do a goddamn death dedication? Give him Gifted, and let it remind him why he loved these stories and characters before Hollywood got its filthy hands on them.
Some current reads, too, that you may want to check out, since Wednesday is only two days away:
Osborn – Writer: Kelly Sue DeConnick Artist: Emma Rios. Norman Osborn is a very bad man, and he's in a secret jail with some other very bad people. What could possibly go wrong?
Secret Avengers – Writer: Ed Brubaker Artist: Mike Deodato. Because the Civil War and Secret Invasion sort of screwed things up, Steve Rogers puts together a group of Secret Avengers, which is pretty handy, considering the title of the book and all. It's up to issue 7, and I've just loved every single page.
Thor – Writer: Matt Fraction Artist: Pasqual Ferry. It's Thor. Written by Matt Fraction. If you know why that's awesome, you're probably already reading it. If not … just trust me and pick it up, starting at #611. Ferry's artwork is amazing, too.
Some of you may notice that there's a lot of Marvel Universe here. This is interesting to me, because until recently, I was a hardcore DC Universe guy … but that damn 1602 and Captain America made the Marvel Universe so compelling, I was able to stop being That Guy I mentioned above long enough to dive back in and let the Marvel Universe stand on its own. I'm still reading a couple of DC titles, like Batman and Justice League, but that's about it for me in the DCU at the moment.
What are you reading right now? Is there something amazing that I missed here? Sound off, if you please.
Various thoughts on The Ho Ho Ho Job
First things first: during tonight's webchat at TNT.tv, I wore a pretty awesome T-shirt. It's in this picture, if you can tear your eyes away from Beth for a second to look at it. It would be entirely understandable if you missed it the first time around.
Anyway, during the chat, a lot of people wanted to know where I got it, and what it's from. I got it at GenCon, and it comes from Kill Vampire Lincoln Productions.
Second things second: I am damn happy with the way this episode came together, and I'd forgotten some of the fun improvs I did during the shoot. That "Dammit, Hardison" thing was just part of me riffing on Kane, saying all the things Eliot says. I guess the amazing spacework I did where I imagined I had Kane's luxurious long hair to flip around and lovingly brush while humming a country tune was cut for time. We also had this whole thing were I just went on and on about how great it was to "be inside Lucille", which led to that line about "I wrecked that van." I'm glad they kept it, because even out of context I think it plays pretty well.
All those tunnels were under a sewage treatment plant, so we spent an entire day literally surrounded by hundreds of thousands of gallons of shit water. While it was pretty awesome in an intellectual way to be around this marvel of engineering that makes life as we know it possible, in a practical way it was pretty gross and very unsettling.
The mall scenes were shot in Portland at this place that has seen much better days. It was heartbreaking to see so many empty stores. It was just a few zombies away from Dawn of the Dead in there.
Finally, blasting Hardison's van was a lot of fun, and you can't see it, but I was strapped into that van with a whole mess of safety harnesses and stuff. Even though I knew I wasn't going to get hurt, it took a few takes before that knowledge made it into my lizard brain.
Here's a picture of me in the van that Roskin took on that day:
I'm not sure if Cha0s will be back next year, but I hope he is, because I'd love to work with the Leverage gang again, but mostly so we can see how Hardison tries to get back at him for wrecking Lucille II.
If you have questions, feel free to ask them here, and I'll do my best to answer them. Rogers is also doing the usual post-show Q&A at his blog.