I have been remiss in updating. But there are so many posts I want to get to! And not having a scanner there are so many pictures you guys haven't seen. But, urgent things first!

This Saturday, July 3, is Free Comic Book Day in the US. So if you're in the US, or know someone there, tell them to go to a comic store (preferably early) and they can get free comics. Here, I think only CCHQ participates, but they have a system where you get a certain no. of free comics depending on how much you've spent at CCHQ recently. This because it's not exactly free to them, since there's no discount on the shipping costs from the US.

ANYWAY!

I've been moderating a small comics discussion group for about 4 years now, and partly as an anniversary project, we are putting out a zine, just a small anthology of short strips called Hey, Comics! It's coming out this Saturday! Yay! Some copies will be given to Comic Quest in Megamall, but we'll be at CCHQ handing out copies ourselves.

Contributors include Arnold & Cynthia Arre, Quark Henares, Chris Costello, Neva Talladen, Harvey Ong, Mark Lavin, Dean Alfar, Jordan Santos, Andrew Drilon & Wincy Ong. It's kind of surprising because we actually have so much material we had to push some stories to the next issue.

It will be FREE only on this ONE day. After that, we'll be selling them everyplace that'll have us (and if you have suggestions, please mention them in the comments!). We don't have the price yet, but rest assured no one's making money from this. I was prepared to foot the whole bill and lose some money but a generous person, when I wasn't even asking, actually donated a couple thousand pesos! Be still my heart! So the money will all go to recouping printing costs of the first issue, and the rest will go to making the next. All the contributors are doing this out of sweet love, and blackmail. So give it a shot, please! I swear, the stories are worth it.

Tell everyone you think would be interested! After all, it's FREE!

CCHQ is at the 3rd floor, FBR Building, Katipunan. Across Ateneo, near World Topps.

I first came across Rommel Joson's artwork in the pages of Heights, and it blew me away pretty much every time. Best of all, he seemed to change not just the style but medium he used in every issue (so did another artist, Chico Barretto). He was Neva's batchmate, but I never met him until after he graduated. And to my surprise (and utter delight) he was actually interested in making comics, being a reader himself. So I gave him two scripts I had: "Perfume" & "You Are Here." One was written for a Heights exhibit of comic art (that Chris drew beautifully, by the way. Where is it, Chris?), the other was a loose adaptation of a letter Neva sent me when she was in Chicago and I missed her terribly. He chose to do "Perfume" and promptly disappeared for 6 months. Then around New Year's of last year (or was it 2 years ago?) he emailed me out of the blue with 3 finished pages. But I lost his email address and wasn't able to reply. Then Ernan mentions in Subic that he'd seen my comic online. Of course, I'm stymied. What the hell is he talking about? Then Naz tells me the same thing at Fete. Apparently, Rommel linked to it on Friendster. So I look up Rommel on Friendster, friend him, look in the Bulletin Board archives, and there's a link, and I follow it, and find: Perfume, written by me and illustrated by John Quaresma. Who is John Quaresma? I don't know, but those are Rommel's pages. This is all interesting timing because we're about to put out an anthology of short comics works as a zine.

So: Perfume, written by me and illustrated by Rommel Joson (aka John Quaresma). Tell me what you think. I know what I find embarrassing about it (nothing to do with the art; it's splendid). Remember it's old, and was my (I think) second formal comics script. The first was for Harvey, published in MTV Ink: "The Truth About Raining Cats & Dogs."

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Here's Natalie Portman and Melchior Beslon in a Tom Tykwer-directed short, "True," for the Paris, je t'aime anthology, which also has contributions from Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, and the Coen bros.

And something nice from Neil Gaiman's blog:

"...over at http://www.somethingpositive.net the following gauntlet was thrown down, following complaints that things were getting sloppy:

Help me quit my job. Seriously. Click on that donate button and give me a buck... fifty center... five bucks. Whatever. I've more than enough readers that if over half of you did that, I'd have a year's salary and could quit my day job - and that's forty hours freed up for the comics. Go ahead.

So they did. $22,000 came in. He gave up his day job. That's cool."

And something for you porn-freaks.

Yesterday (I Was A Slug)

I woke up. Didn't get out of the room. In fact, didn't leave the bed. Read Junko Mizuno's Cinderalla. After, realized I was hungry and went downstairs for nourishment. Then, seeing my dad using the computer, I went back upstairs. Read Warren Ellis & Brandon McKinney's Switchblade Honey and Brian Wood & Rob G's The Couriers 2: Dirtbike Manifesto while listening to Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse, At the Drive-In's El Gran Orgo & Vaya, and !!!'s Me & Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard (A True Story). There was a power outage due to the rain, and I decided to transfer some books to the first, top shelf of my dead sexy new bookshelf. Hey, I'm a nerd. This shit's important. I take pleasure in organizing my bookshelf. Then it was time to get ready to go to Chris's. Bathed and dressed while the gift was being wrapped.

When I get to the car I find pictures I've been missing for about a week: 3 developed rolls from underwater disposable cameras in Boracay. I am so happy and relieved! I was looking for them everywhere. I searched my room, Neva's flat, the den where the computer is, etc. It was behind the headrest in the back seat. Probably put there by one of my brother's friends when he was using the car, because I never put things there. While it was missing I really felt terrible about it, as in whenever I'd think about it I would just get depressed for an hour. Whew.

Picked up Neva at her place, went to Chris's. Despite being 20 minutes late we are the first to arrive. I show him the pictures, and some new pics from Subic, CDO and Boracay taken with the Ultimate Quad Cam. Also my first roll of developed Lomo pics. Yay.

The others arrive and we have a nice quiet dinner. Lia, Ernan, and Sexy Man Mark Lavin read Identity Crisis # 1. Quark does 3 pages of comics in under 2 hours for the upcoming anthology. We learn of Mich's eventful fete. Chris opens his gift; it goes over well. Whew.

Good day.

This morning I was crying because of a comic (the excellent Identity Crisis # 1).

Last night I met Herbert Bautista but was too shy to ask for a solo pic with him (got a group pic, though). It was very Twilight Zone-ish because we were actually listening to the Bagets theme song when he came in (Gary Valenciano going "Growing up! Getting dooown!").

I am also quite happy with my new bookshelf. I can't wait to properly shelve all these books lying on my floor and covering every other halfway flat surface.

2 books came out at Fully Booked everyone should have: Alan Moore & Jose Villarubia's The Mirror of Love, and the new McSweeney's, guest-edited by Chris Ware. I'll talk a little more about them later...

Finished a story.

It's a good feeling.

Even if it IS 8 AM.

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TRAILING

I don't know why DC, which is owned by Time Warner, is having such difficulty making good movies out of their properties. I mean, the Constantine trailer came out, and it bears virtually NO resemblance to the character that the fans know and love. Constantine in the movie is an American, played by Keanu Reeves. In the comic he is a hard-bitten Brit in his early 40s, with dirty blonde hair (modeled after mid-80s Sting). The movie seems to indicate that he is a modern-day Van Helsing who takes care of demons and the like. The trailer would be intriguing if it weren't so wrong. There's a nice part where a woman gets thrown out of a building by an invisible force, though.

And the less said about Catwoman the better. I liked director Pitof's first film, Vidocq, but this doesn't hint at anything near the visual style of that film. The outfit's insulting. Halle Berry - I'm sorry, but her face rarely strikes me as beautiful. Most of the time she just looks cheap. Also has no connection to the character: she plays Patience Price (or something), it's not Gotham, and there's no Batman.

If they're just going to make all these changes, why keep the name? Really. It makes NO sense. The name recognition will just frustrate people: Catwoman's black? Where's Batman? Wasn't she bad? And a property like John Constantine, Hellblazer doesn't have much recognition outside of comics anyway. So if you're trying to get fans of either property, you're just going to piss them off. It's like asking them to pay for the privilege of seeing their beloved (anti-)heroes pissed on. It's a further shame because both books are going really well right now; they could've just stuck to that and done good.

The new Anchorman trailer is better than the earlier one. I don't know if it'll be great; it looks enjoyable, but I like the trailer because it pokes fun at trailers. Reminds me of the Comedian trailer, which was hilarious (and had nothing to do with the documentary, which is a good thing).

Here's the trailer of Michael Moore's latest, Fahrenheit 9/11. Already controversial, I hope it's a big hit. I enjoy Moore's fans but I'm not one of those types who just blindly agree with everything he says. Apparently someone's trying to make a documentary about Michael Moore himself.

I can't wait for The Incredibles to come out. The new trailer's hilarious. And the new trailer of Garden State just makes me want to watch it more.

Chris pointed me to Open Water, which scared the bejeezus out of me as a newly-licensed diver.

Sometimes I feel like I should just leave the country.

First, congratulations to recent graduates Alexis and Cecile, and good luck to everyone going back to school today.

Second, I'm back. Since last Wednesday, actually, but things have been odd/busy. After spending a week in Boracay, one home, and then another in Cagayan De Oro, I am now backlogged with lots of work, and have other things to take care of besides, like family things that pop up at the last minute. It's a shame that my deadlines don't have vacations too.

The French Film Festival is ongoing, there's a link to the schedule in the events box to the left. I'm not familiar with any of the films this year; the only names I recognize are Catherine Breillat and Claude Chabrol, so I'll try to catch those if I have time. If you've seen something and like it, tell me in the comments. They're charging now. But 50 bucks isn't so bad. Venue's better.

There are many things I want to write about here but I don't have the time to do it the way I want, so those will have to come later. Sorry if the schedule and timeliness of thisgs will become awkward.

This is the confluence of technology and piracy: I am listening to the new Beastie Boys album, "To The 5 Boroughs," one full week before it gets released in the US.

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Trust the Onion for a laugh: check out their hilarious feature "Least Erotic Sex Scenes," which contains some choice lines - on Clint Eastwood's Blood Work, "In addition to consummating the unlikely bond between Eastwood and De Jesús's characters, the scene reminds the world that directing and starring in a movie is a great way for a 72-year-old man to end up naked in bed with a woman 30 years younger and 30 times more attractive than he is." On the Eminem starrer 8 Mile: "Brittany Murphy might make a more attractive sexual partner if she didn't look high, filthy, and professional." And my favorite, on the Kevin Spacey bomb The Life of David Gale: "The only thing less erotic than a woman sobbing convulsively during sex is the man who keeps dutifully thrusting." Hahahaha!

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Here's one of those pictures where people tell you, "You may regret seeing this, so I'll warn you beforehand; you can't erase it from your memory afterwards." Which just makes you click on it with more resolution than you would've normally. But I'll warn you beforehand: it is a toad mating ball, when more than 2 toads goes into a sexual frenzy of an orgy and they actually FUSE. It's dread disgusting. Try not to look at it around meal time.

Would you rather know what's best for you, or the Truth, no matter how much it might fuck up everything?

Yay! We're back. I went through withdrawal the first day. Unused to so much technology. Missed the sand beneath my feet, and the wind in my hair. The sound of the shore. But, I also missed certain things, which is why we went to see Troy immediately.

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If I had to sum up Troy in a word it would be bleagh. Thoroughly unengaging, it was the kind of summer film filled with "moments" instead of characters, where everything that wasn't a fight scene seemed in a hurry itself to get to a fight scene because it knew it was boring. You could invent a drinking game with the frequency of "one-liners" dropped by the various characters, most of which already came out in the trailer so there weren't any genuine surprises or keepers. I mean, "Immortality! Take it! It's YOURS!" just reminds me of Captain Planet, and anything that reminds me of Captain Planet can't be a good thing. I had to keep reminding myself that it was inspired by The Iliad and not a direct adaptation, because it was just that bad. Thankfully, this was not too difficult because, uh, THERE AREN'T ANY FUCKING GODS!!! What else sucked? Oh, the score was terrible, boring and unoriginal. Helen of Troy, possibly the most difficult character to cast, was some humdrum blonde who further reduced a cunning character (following up on the script's devaluation of her significance in all this) into a dumb blonde? That's the face that launched a thousand ships? More like a thousand yawns. One of my biggest peeves is that it's like they didn't even bother with the love angle past the opening 20 minutes. And even what was there was unconvincing and embarrassing. What, they fell in love because they'd been screwing for a week? Acting was pretty lukewarm, but I have to give props to Eric Bana for giving Hector a doomed nobility. Although in the beginning, his eyes were kind of freaky as he tried to convey panic silently. Brad Pitt got to display his two acting tricks: furrowing the brow and clenching the jaw. He cries over a fallen warrior's body but there are no tears. That's acting for ya. Sean Bean, one of the best actors we have, is wasted here; poor guy didn't even get a fucking frame in the trailer but he deserves a better salary than Orlando Bloom. Speaking of the fey one, I'm sorry but you're just too pretty. I almost thought he was Helen. Peter O'Toole got one decent scene; otherwise he was just bug-eyed. Brian Cox I enjoyed, actually; everytime he was onscreen there was a small gnashing sound in the background, I later realized it was the scenery being chewed. I'm disappointed to find out that the script was written by David Benioff, an actual novelist who was responsible for both the book and screenplay of The 25th Hour. Effects were unimpressive, but not bad; movement was stilted and crooked at times, so occasionally I'd find myself thinking, "Massive... Massive... Massive..." referring to the program invented during the production of the Lord of the Rings trilogy which specializes in armies and large groups of creatures interacting. The best scene was the duel between Achilles and Hector. Achilles had this annoying jump-in-the-air-and-strike-down move that really felt like some video game special move for his character, and I wish it wasn't TOO obvious that Hector was outclassed. Still, I liked its relative silence, and what score there was was fitting, but it was ruined by the singing at the end. There's a spoiler here, though this being one of the oldest stories in the history of the world it shouldn't be, but anyway: Hector dies. And after that point, the film just deflates, because there's no one to root for. You're just "Alright, just bring on the horse so we can get this over with." Then Achilles gets shot in the foot with an arrow, and keels over. At which point I realized they never even brought up his invulnerability, or his heel. So I felt bad for kids in the audience, who must've been confused as shit. I mean, here's the greatest warrior, and he got taken down by a stick in the foot? All in all, it was boring. The war scenes weren't very good, though I really enjoyed the choreography in the Hector/Achilles duel. I found myself thinking of various scenarios that would make it more interesting, like while Troy was being ransacked, wouldn't it be cool if suddenly you saw Jim Caviezel dragging a cross being whipped by Romans? Or if Eric Bana just turned into the Hulk on the beach and just started eating Greeks? Peter O'Toole should have called on Supergirl for aid. Orlando Bloom should have picked up a bow and arrow and started firing bolts and-- oh, yeah, that's right. Well.

I really wanted to like it. I'm in the mood for a good Big Summer Movie. And I liked some of Wolfgang Peterson's previous work like In the Line of Fire. Air Force One was okay, didn't see The Perfect Storm. Haven't seen Das Boot, though it's his claim to existence with the cineastes. But he did direct The Neverending Story, so I'm pretty forgiving for that alone.

Thank God we watched Shrek 2 next. It's everything you could hope for: funny and entertaining on all levels, from first minute to last. Antonio Banderas's Puss in Boots steals practically every scene he's in. There are even some geek nods to Alien and Godzilla fans.

Well, we are still stranded. What sucks is that I injured my foot recently so I can't even swim because the cut keeps opening up. I also neglected to bring a book, something I haven't done in years, simply because I didn't think I'd need it what with the location and the company I was with. Boy do I wish I brought one anyway. And if I may sound like a teenager for a second, I really REALLY miss comics. :( And music, and my DVDs, and...

STRANDED IN PARADISE

We were supposed to be in Manila by now, but a typhoon has screwed those plans, and now we are stranded. Mich and Chris have a flight tomorrow. They're PAL, and the airport is far away, but Neva and I are taking SEAIR and are waitlisted for Wednesday and Thursday so we may actually get back to Manila on Friday pa(!). Kutob niyo I factored this into my budget? Shit. Still, there are worse places to be stranded in, and worse company to be in. :)

More when we stop having fun.

I have a friend who told me about another friend of hers, who, when drunk out of his gourd, would cop feels and otherwise attempt to fondle his girl friends. But in the morning, he’d be totally apologetic and guilty and ashamed. But it would happen again the next time the guy was wasted.

I imagine it’s much more difficult for girls than it is for guys. Most guys would probably welcome the treatment (unless it was a gay guy), or at least, be less offended. But this friend says she understands the behavior. But if you’re this guy, and you know what you do when you’re drunk, shouldn’t you then go out of your way to make sure you don’t get wasted so often? Or does he remain unconcerned about the possible damage and, at the least, changing dynamic in his relationships with his girl friends? Or did he weigh the options: maintain relationships, or give up binge-drinking, and decide that he couldn’t give up the bottle?

I’m sure he’s not the only one who behaves that way when drunk. I’m sure because I saw it happen just the other night.

MATABUNGKAY

Yes, this is late, and I know this blog has been a bit image-heavy recently, but that's tough, you crybabies. I'm still on a fucking dial-up so don't come whining to me. Anyway, on with the show...

Not much to say about Matabungkay. It was fun, I guess, but being trapped with your family and relatives can be tiring. It was a little disorienting to have neither a television, computer, or telephone anywhere near you. Thank Christ someone thought to bring a radio, and that I had a few discs in the car, or I'd have gone insane. For the 3 days and 2 nights we were there, I must've played around 400 games of Pusoy Dos. There was just nothing else to do after reading Chris's comics and JG Ballard's A User's Guide to the Millennium. The adults, instead of Pusoy Dos, had Mahjong.

Glowsticks do not float, but can be seen underwater. That's something I learned. And Tigerfish are really dangerous.

My cousins and brother all wanted me to take "Friendster userpics," wherein they would pose and I would try to take a flattering picture of them. Kids these days.

The soundtrack of this getaway was: DJ Shadow (Endtroducing... & The Private Re-press), UNKLE (Do Androids Dream of Electronic Beats? 3 discs), Nirvana (Incesticide, Nevermind, & In Utero), Sonic Youth (Dirty Boots EP, Invito Al Cielo with Jim O'Rourke, & Kim Gordon side band Free Kitten's Unboxed), and The Best of Hanna-Barbera.

This is my cousin Raffy asleep on the hammock. He wraps it around himself to keep mosquitoes from desiccating him.

This is my cousin Pia. I waited and waited but she would not look up. She doesn't like to smile for pictures. But she does like her shells.

My turn on the hammock, with my magazine of choice, the Lapidary Journal. You can't trust your precious gems to just any hokey magazine, you know.

Here's what we did when we weren't in the water.

Here's our parents' version of Pusoy Dos (closer to Tong-its, actually).

These are the balsas at low tide. They just wash up on shore.

This was our balsa. My first time to use one of these things, actually.

2 consecutive artsy-fartsy pictures of the balsa, this one with the negative space on top...

... and this one below. With an anchor, if you look closely.

Our ambience.

That's my dad and my ninong floating. The adults don't really swim, they just float and lounge in the water like hippos. I had to wait a while for them to line up so I could take this shot but man was it worth it.

This is an ice cream vendor with his cooler on a flotation device. He'd swim from balsa to balsa, family to family.

I was walking around the compound our relatives rented and came across this stack of black wooden crosses with garlic hanging on them. In October they line the driveway with these crosses to ward off evil spirits. Creepy. Thank God we didn't come here in October.

And a hallmark to end our post. Low tide sunset, my cousins collecting shells on the beach. All is tranquil.

Now back to life.

ODDS & ENDS

I have always wanted to see The Exorcist compressed into 30 seconds, and enacted by cartoon bunnies with high-pitched voices. Voila! I got my wish.

I wouldn't mind having a devil duck sitting beside my computer, especially when its eyes light up when reading/transferring data, but I would very much like a Godzilla with 4 USB ports on its back, especially when both its eyes AND its mouth lights up!

Here is a somewhat creepy animated short.

A while back some of you may have read this post on Neva's blog, where she talks about this music video she came across on TV and it made her cry. Well, I found it, and it is indeed quite good and tear-jerking. Neva was watching it again over my shoulder as I watched it for the first time and when I looked up, she was crying again.

For you Sims fans, here's the essay Neil Gaiman wrote for the previous one's manual/booklet.

Here's a nice little strip about the literary life, courtesy of Posy Simmonds.

See my little friend over on the left with the raging boner? That's James Kochalka's Fancy Froglin. He has a book out called Sexy Forest. Anyway, there are 2 sick and twisted fan films you should see: here and here. The first is kinda graphic, so parental guidance is advised. The second has a cool rap. You can't beat a frog rapping.

TRAILER PARK

I've seen the trailer for Before Sunset, and I don't hate it. In fact, I think I'm looking forward to it, even though it slams shut, with finality, that somewhat open ending on Before Sunrise. Garden State looks really interesting; I LOVE the images in this trailer. And I love Peter Sarsgaard. He was good in Center of the World and he's amazing in Shattered Glass. He's the best young actor to come along since Ed Norton, I think. Collateral looks really intriguing, too, and it looks like there's a mix of film and DV like Mann did with Ali, but I'm just glad to have a new Michael Mann film coming out! And I am excited for The Bourne Supremacy, even if it isn't being helmed by Doug Liman anymore. If you need a laugh, check out an over-the-top Christopher Walken in Undertaking Betty. Hilarious.

I HAVE A QUESTION, MAYBE YOU CAN HELP ME OUT

Is that BLUE STEEL or MAGNUM?

HAVING ASKED PERMISSION

This is my cousin and my new cousin-in-law.

I FEEL DISCONNECTED

Yesterday everyone was talking about the fight and I could probably care less but won't make the effort. I caught the first 3 rounds before falling asleep. We were at my lola's for Mother's Day (which very few people seem to have remembered) and I was tired from tearing down political posters some motherless fucks posted around my lola's property. My dad and brother didn't really help-- they were watching the fight before Pacquiao's.

Now, everyone's talking about the elections, and some of the opinions genuinely surprise me. It was like a zoo without cages when I voted yesterday. Saw some neighborhood friends I haven't seen in years.

The past few days I've felt dreadful before going to sleep. And this is not one of those attempts at colorful language-- I really felt full of dread. I feel like something bad is going to happen, and that I should prepare. But I don't know what, and I don't know how.

I hope I'm wrong.

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This is the review I was talking about, Mikey. It's Stephen Thompson's review of Death Cab for Cutie's Transatlanticism. Well-written, in the way that I think deftly encapsulates what the album is about, reveals something new for those who've already heard it, and sells the reader on getting it. I wish I could write as well as The Onion AV Club crew.

This is a nice ad from Ate Cyn. She mentioned this a while back, I forgot to link to it. I first heard it at Quark's; it's Francis Ford Coppola interviewing his daughter, writer/director Sofia, when she was 6 years old. He was working on Apocalypse Now, which shot here, and she sings "Lupang Hinirang" pretty well.

This is from Ylai, and I laughed out loud. And since Mikey isn't updating as frequently as he was, and because of recent entries, Ylai is now my favorite blog.

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Mich's birthday party was a blast, even if I missed Ciudad, dammit. Saw a lot of people, took a lot of pictures. Almost everyone got drunk from P's secret Iced Tea of Doom. Probably the best thing, besides the company, of course, was getting to see 2 bands I haven't seen before: Enemy of the Enemy (excellent name), and Giniling Festival. Both kicked ass. And Lacson Jackson did very well, for their first-ever gig in front of more than 2 people not in the band itself. Goldie will be a rock star one day, and I hope her guitar will still be yellow.

I’m having some friends over this Saturday afternoon at my house. If you have nothing to do then, and don’t mind a trip down South, feel free to come. It’s an informal meeting of the comics discussion list I moderate, so there’ll be some comics being shown, but we’ll also basically be hanging out, watching stuff, etc. You can bring food, comics, drinks, DVDs, a PS2, whatever. If you’re interested, email me privately and I’ll send you my complete address and directions. I live near Bicutan, and it’s near impossible to get lost because from C5 it’s only 3 left turns and a right.

If you don’t know my email address, send me a message on Friendster. Or leave your email ad in the comments. :)

I caught the lunar eclipse! Man, was it cool. Made me feel like a kid again. Every boy goes through 2 phases of utter fascination: astronomy and dinosaurs. Hadn't thought about this in a while.

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Saw Man on Fire the other day. I liked it for what it was worth: a pure revenge movie. What I expected to dislike, I disliked: the overabundance of style at certain points, particularly Creasy's "drinking" montage. Still, with such a simple plot, it's nice to see a Hollywood film take the time to infuse character; the movie's over 2 and a half hours. And if there must be an overabundance of style, you could do much worse than have it be Tony Scott style. I really disliked his use of Carlos Varela's "Una Palabra," though. I feel that it's so effective and unforgettable in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's BMW Film Powder Keg that he should've used something else. And he used it twice in the last 15 minutes of the film. The photography, especially the colour, is sumptuous; kudos to DP Paul Cameron. I also liked Christopher Walken. There's a particularly Hollywood "twist" towards the end that I disliked too; it robbed the main character of his purpose, and this wasn't reflected as much as I wanted it to be. Still, it was fun watching the single-minded drive of Denzel's Creasy mowing down everything in his path. The irony that it's written by Brian Helgeland (and that it's a second adaptation) isn't lost on me; as Nathan Rabin said in his review in The Onion AV Club, Helgeland "owns the peculiar distinction of having, in two consecutive years, adapted a contemplative critique of the futility of revenge (Mystic River) and a simplistic celebration of vigilante justice."

Saw Hellboy last week. I enjoyed it enough. Of course, having read the comics before I saw the movie, I was somewhat expecting to be a little disappointed. I loved the BPRD, and Ron Perlman as Hellboy. There were some lines of dialogue that were really true to the character, like when Abe discovered 3 eggs in HB's right hand and he just quips, "Didn't even buy me a drink." I enjoyed the fanboy things like seeing the stacks of pancakes and the lines "I'm gonna be sore in the morning," "That's all for you," etc. I loved the scene where Hellboy's following Agent Myers and Liz. He really seemed like a teenager when he was pacing back and forth going "She took his picture. She took his picture!" Things I didn't like included Abe Sapien, who is the coolest character in the comics but here seemed a little too fey. David Hyde Pierce was the (uncredited) voice, but a different actor was the body, and he must've come from mime school or something because he was overacting like crazy. What I disliked the most was that the villains just DID NOT translate well. Beyond simple things like "Why are all these Russians and Germans speaking in English when they're amongst themselves?" they were hammy actors burdened with pompous dialogue that may be alright when read, but said aloud just sound ridiculous.

I've finally seen The Passion, too, but that's its own post.

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You know how people who've had a string of bad luck take comfort in the karmic notion that there is something great waiting down the line? I wonder if it works the other way around. Do people who've had an amazing life and all the easy breaks worry that something terrible is bound to happen to them? Does this worry paralyze them? Or are they comfortable in thinking that so long as they fully appreciate and respect what they've been given things will be alright?

I don't think I believe in karma. But there is the law of averages.

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Good news for geeks: Millennium Season 1 and Batman: The Animated Series Season 1 Box Sets have been announced.

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I love Adrian Tomine:

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There's a whole mess of new links in my links box. Especially since everyone and their ghost (or pet) now has a blog. Please notify me if there's a broken (or stale) link, or if you don't want your URL out in the open like that. There'll be no offense taken, believe me; I understand some of you want your privacy and want only friends to visit. Some people have more than one link; if you would prefer it be reduced to just one, please tell me. Or if I haven't linked you yet at all. Or if your link disappeared from template updates. It's cute to see that there are now complete sibling sets online: the Costello Sharp-Tongues, for example, and The Martinez Sorority.