Groonkly Bits

Captain America‘s old, insanely old by real life reckoning, sidekick will be the new Captain America. This is the first decision regarding one of Marvel’s flagship characters that makes sense this year.

I’m looking forward to more good storytelling and sense-making from you Marvel.

Right. Bucky Barnes, Bucky was put in suspended animation by the evil Russians (back when they were evil) and stayed that way for the better part of 60 years.

“So he’s probably in his late 20s right now,” jokes Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, who decided to promote him to Captain America.

Rogers’ old sidekick had already returned to the Marvel pantheon of heroes some time back as the rugged Winter Soldier, redeeming himself for the years he’d spent under the control of the bad guys, who would occasionally thaw him out for evil deeds.

“We were toying with the idea of someone new taking over the mantle of Captain America,” Quesada said by phone from his New York office. “But we kept coming back to Bucky. Not only because he seemed such an obvious choice but especially because of the fact that when we brought him back as the Winter Soldier he was so incredibly popular.”

It’s funny that the first place I heard about Cap’s replacement is through Stephen Colbert’s interview with Joe Quesada late last night. Guess I need to put a foot back on the mainstream comics web-line so I know when the big stuff’s about to go down. When you get caught unawares, you get stung and ate.

It appears Bucky won’t gulp down any super soldier serum. Which is good. No need for him to be a clone of Steve Rogers. Bucky apparently morphed himself into a gym rat these past few years, bulked up his special operations knowledge, and carries a gun.(We’ll save the cultural comparsions of the social times each Captain America was born for another post.)

I must admit, a lot of the stuff about Bucky’s history I had no idea about. I tended to hang out towards the mutant/cosmic adventure/magical borroughs of the Mighty Marvel-verse. That is when capes ruled my subcription box. Nowdays my box holds its fair share of independant books along with an issue or two of Marvel or DC.

Quesada says he isn’t worried, however, adding that killing off Captain America last year seemed to give him new life with readers. The editor was taken aback when newspapers even carried obituaries on the character.

“Not since the 1940s have we seen Cap being this popular,” he said.

Has anyone else noticed that it’s become a running gag for Colbert’s guests to remark on how much he really needs his writers back? I’ll be damned if those moments aren’t the funniest parts of the show. They seem to crack-up/annoy Colbert the most.

(Thanks to Myway news and 7d for sharing Myway News. Image courtesy of “please don’t sure me I’m just a poor player on the internet” Marvel.com)

No Comments | In: Comics | | #

Consider the city of Napa in California. It is the county seat of Napa County. Founded by Nathan Coombs in 1847, the City of Napa enjoyed its first business establishment a saloon, and by 1850 the Dolphin was the first steamship to naviagate the Napa River which opened another path of commerce for the city.

It was the GOld Rush in the late 1850s that really built up Napa.

No Comments | In: Too Many Thoughts | | #

I’ve held back on the HOTW and VOTW of late. The side reason is the sweet new layout and relaunch(crosses fingers. punches wooden table.) I’m planning. The big reason is it becomes too much of a schtick if done too often. I’m not saying I’m above a constant schtick, only that churning one out weekly gets boring and tried.

‘You should wait for something special to share,’ I say to myself. ‘Something meaningful.’

Then I learn podcast famer Johnny Johnny, aka Kevin Gamble, from Tiki Bar TV saved a woman from the L train, not to mention electrocution, in New York City the other day.

Methinks that’s a bit special, yes?

See, I was waiting for the L train at 3rd Avenue just minding my own business when this lovely lady in her 50’s decides to peer down the track to see how far away the oncoming train is. You know the one I’m talking about; the one with the 6 foot drop from the platform that leads down to two metal rails?

When all of a sudden… she falls over the edge.

She hammers the back of her head on the second rail and goes basically limp. I figure the next train is about 60 second away, so I immediately leap over the edge and basically break all forms of first aid protocol.

To know the rest, you must go to his blog. It’s his moment of glory after all.

(Thanks to Ponzu for the heads up and Digg.com for making the Google search so easy.)

No Comments | In: Hero of the week | | #

Comics are playing with the perceptual special effects of consciousness.
—Max Douglas

Douglas says he got the idea from the book, The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. From my perspective, I give Douglas the smartness credit.

No Comments | In: Quotes | | #

Not a flake of ice fell in my area btw.

No Comments | In: Omggogetbreadandmilk | | #

8:02 PM CDT

No Comments | In: Omggogetbreadandmilk | | #

After watching History Channel’s latest end of the world documentary, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, my mind returned to an old thought, “How do we share our knowledge with the next generations?”

Paper, Compact Discs, and other digital technologies can’t survive the passage of time without us keeping a constant vigil over their well-being. Data degrades. Paper rots. Even if a hard drive managed to go the distance and remain intact 1,000 years from now, how the hell will it be read? We couldn’t figure out Egyptian hieroglyphics until we found the Rosetta Stone. I pity a future civilization that’s still under the thumb of Windows.

There’s no hope for them if they’re crunching data on future Macs.

Everything we know about our former selves has been written or fashioned from stone. The Romans left behind roads, buildings, and aqueducts. The Egyptians left writing, the pyramids, and sphinxes. Chichen itza is, arguably, the Mayans most famous relic. What are we going to leave behind? Because without constant maintenance, everything we currently use for archiving will “die” in 500 years time.

Our great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren won’t know a damn thing about the atrocities of our wars, the strange allures of Marilyn Munroe and, to infinite lesser degrees, Britney Spears or Anna Nicole. Things like Prime Time TV, the Internet, body modification, lying politicians, feats of engineering madness or that bear that fell out a tree and onto a trampoline. All of those things, even the mundane little crap, would be erased from human history. Face it people, these are the facts, even the stupid ones, that define our culture.

Sturdier technologies are what we need. Building things that last is something we should start doing again. If this post on Grinding.be is any indication, maybe we already have.

…

No Comments | In: Television, Too Many Thoughts | | #

The Writer’s Strike has taught me a few things. I don’t miss series episodic TV half as much as I thought I would. If all shows in a season went down to 6 or 13 episodes per year, I think that would be a very good thing. It also taught me another important thing: I need a weekly serving of solid, wholesome satire in my diet.

Yes, THE DAILY SHOW and THE COLBERT REPORT are the only things denied me in this deserted TV land. Then they returned a week ago. They returned, without their souls. The heads and bodies were there, but the funny was down by half. I understand their return to TV in this skeleton form was needed. If they stayed off the air much longer, their studios would be in danger of shutting down forever.

So I choke down the past few weeks of Colbert and Stewart’s shows like so much cold pizza. As the saying goes, it’s better than nothing at all.

Then last night, last night the idea of James Burke‘s CONNECTIONS* in history came into play before my eyes.

Colbert’s history revealed:

Colbert’s destiny is Andrew Young:

Connections are everywhere. You’re right, Mr Young, they really do need their writers back. My brain will end up fat on cold satire if this strike goes any longer. Nobody likes a fathead.

Now take us out with a song, Stephen.

*Many thanks to Dan Carlin’s latest Hardcore History “A Fly on James Burke’s Wall” for introducing me to James Burke.

No Comments | In: Television | | #

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who, at best,
knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
–Theodore Roosevelt

I must always remember this when reading any review. I should remember it twice while writing my own.

Of course, it won’t stop me.

No Comments | In: Quotes | | #

(via geekologie)

Forget all about that other noise.

Star Trek home theater? feh.

Star Wars home theater? meh.

Batcave home theater? That’s the stuff!

No Comments | In: My Future House | | #