"I will take you outside and fuck you in the street!!" - Ed Begley Jr.

"That is spicy. I don't think that's for cats." - Adam

I love that photo a lot.

Sarafina and myself went to the Pineapple Express movie last night, and ate fish burritos, and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I would say there are at least six things in that film that are outstanding, four things that are just really pretty, and the rest is overall very well done. Additionally, I read the second neo-Fray arc issue in Buffy, and was so goddamned thrilled that I almost didn't know what to do with myself. Actually, I probably embarrassed myself in public spaces with my near-constant glee. The densely-woven futurespeak is new (I suppose we can presume that in the previous self-contained storyline, we were seeing "translated" futurespeak, as we would see translated Chinese in an issue of Iron Fist) but very well done. And as for the spoiler... well yeah. I fell for the Dru fake-out rather nicely and was aptly rewarded at the end, but the bones of the thing now are just gorgeous to look at. Something happened in this issue that never happened before - the modern-day Buffyline just gained a fuck of a lot of context, a place in the world. It's not limited to Sunnydale any more, it's not even limited to the naughties any more; with the past and present accounted for and the future now added in, the Buffyverse feels dense. I like.

This crazy son'bitch built the Batman Beginsmobile. There was a phantom DeLorean that lived somewhere between my ex-girlfriend's house and my parents' place, back in the day... you'd be driving along at night and it would just appear behind you, and you (meaning I) would freak right out. Imagine how you (meaning I) would feel if the motherfucking Batmobile started tailing you instead. Holy cow.

Finally, for everyone who (like me) is still having trouble sliding the oily oyster that is "Quantum of Solace" down their gullet, there's a Joe Cornish fake theme song floating around YouTube that's quite enjoyable. They had me at "great big man-tits."

Posted by tederick at 3:48 PM in batman! & comix & joss & movies & youtubery
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Three whole years of Mamo's extraordinary amazingtude have brought us right back to the beginning: Christopher Nolan's done a Batman movie, and holy shafizzle, they don't come any better than this. Matty Price and I recorded this Mamo on Tuesday night and not only did it turn out to be really, really long (which is always fairly satisfying), but also rather good (which is equally satisfying if not more so). Y'know, I'm just damn glad we've been doing this thing for three whole years with no sign of stopping. It's starting to feel like an actual Thing.

Mamo!

Posted by tederick at 8:57 AM in batman! & podcastery
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The Dark Knight - which arrives at a level of craft and dedication that will be a high-water mark for 2008 - is not just the film that Batman Begins inspired in all of our minds with its critical final words ("escalation," "taste of the theatrical," "calling card"). It is significantly more: the most dextrous, complicated, and absorbing "comic book movie" ever made.

Click here to read my review, with a heavy spoiler warning.

This review was murderously hard to write. Actually, I guess it isn't even a "review" at all, more of a film analysis than anything about pros/cons of a new Batman flick. Oddly enough I glimpsed at my review for Begins just now, and was struck by how oddly and unintentionally parallel the two reviews are in construction. Which I suppose bodes well for my theory on Nolan and the films, if they could spontaneously generate such similar responses without any purposeful re-examination of my previous writing. That guy is doing some fucking incredibly solid work, man, and with each successive entry I become more and more fascinated.

Posted by tederick at 3:49 PM in batman! & movies & reviews
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Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman Batman!

Posted by tederick at 7:17 AM in batman!
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Aside from slight disappointment that they didn't name all the tracks after species of bats like last time 'round, I can tell ya simply: James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer have done it again. Oh lordy lordy, I thought his laugh freaked me out...

Posted by tederick at 5:58 PM in batman!
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There's almost no describing how much better the Blu-Ray Batman Begins is than the regular disk. This is the one where the real geeks will keep their standard DVD and their Blu-Ray side by side, so they can show performance comparisons.

The depth, the dimensionality... Required a firmware upgrade like you wouldn't believe, but it's some sweet candy now. Good lord, I can see into Christian Bale's soul...

Posted by tederick at 3:39 PM in batman! & shinybludisks
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Just bought my Festival Pass for 2008, and as has become tradition, I am so goddamned excited. Might be the inevitable reality that I so very, very much need my vacation, but whatever it is, September can't come soon enough. And if everything goes according to plan I'll be able to walk home from Midnight Madness... outstanding.

Meanwhile, Batman. Ohhhhhhhhhh Batman. The marketing is out in full force, and I swear every time I see anything DK-related on any billboard, bus or balustrade (what?), the nervous strings of the Zimmer/Howard score start playing on an endless loop in my head. Duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH.... It never pays to be this excited about anything film related, but fucked if I can't help myself this time.

After a fairly miserable late-last-week, the weekend augured on quite nicely. There were brunches. And delicious drinks. And at least one fabuloso bike ride cum personal awakening moment. With the confusion and mess-around of Canada Day it didn't really feel like a full 2-day I-had-a-weekend type weekend, but still, it will serve, at least until my Batman Be Blu-ray shows up tomorrow. I'm gonna sit on my couch writing performance reviews while Liam Neeson gets all sage on Christian Bale's ass on the telly. Duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH duh-duh DUH-DUH.... Wow-woowwwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrr....

Posted by tederick at 11:25 AM in batman! & tiff 2008
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Astonishing X-Men by Ellis and Bianchi - sucked! oh god, did it suck. Human words cannot describe the ugliness of Simone Bianchi's art, nor the degree to which Ellis apparently never read a single issue of the comic he's taking over. When did Hisako become a cross between Molly Hayes and a pissed-off gym instructor? Never. Fuck you.

Angel: After the Fall, now with a revolving clusterfuck of increasingly incompetent artists teasing out the dregs of Brian Lynch's evidently uber-thin original concept - the worst comic I am currently reading! I cannot believe the phenomenal fucking nosedive in quality this thing took around about the middle of issue 4, nor the fact that 6 fully awful issues later (including the unforgivable "First Night" mini-arc), I am still here. Spike: After the Fall? No thank you.

Batman: RIP by Grant Morrison - incomprehensible! Utterly, structurally, conceptually, executionally the worst-written anything written I've read since The Writer's Journey! Morrison has had it! The hack is off the job! Four more issues of this just to find out what the Big Change is? Not worth it.

Buffy vs. Fray - so fucking good.

Posted by tederick at 2:21 PM in batman! & comix & joss
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With Matty Price's road trip imminent (and he's not taking me!), we knocked off another Mamo, our last before The Dark Knight. Which makes this anniversary season: we actually crossed the three-year threshold last week (and MP and Leah and Sarafina and I had a generally stupendous dinner at Mercato to celebrate... buffalo mozzarella flown in that morning from Italy, mmmmmm), and given that Batman Begins was our first show, expect the TDK episode to be... gushy. You know, I haven't actually gone back to listen to that first podcast in a good long while. I should do that, just to see how completely clued out we were.

I must also regretfully report that I am completely lost when it comes to the subject of frappucinos.

On the subject of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan currently owns 88% of my brain. I can hear his voice in my head right now. It's calming.

Posted by tederick at 11:34 AM in batman! & foodin' & podcastery
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The last issue of Y: The Last Man is actually great. Heart-crushingly great. The story as a whole? Less so. There's enough good stuff about Y that I understand the exuberant-nay-ecstatic reaction in the popular media... but it's not that good. It certainly cribs from the best (the twin Sandman nods are my favourite), layers in all the stuff you'd want to see layered into a story about the complete destruction of presumed patriarchy, and goes about as far down the line of generating a genuinely original sci-fi think piece as you probably can do in any post-Phillip K. Dick cosmology. And there ain't no complaining about this baby's scope. But how many times does the story tip over into "awesome?" Once or twice, maybe. The rest of the time it's just sound, invigorating pulp drama. No qualms there.

This costs three hundred dollars, so I won't buy it. But damnnnnnnnn. There's also a sixth-scale Batmobile, which Adam thinks I should buy for Tederick. But that's $450, so no.

Uh... lotsa other stuff happened. I'll get to it.

Posted by tederick at 6:08 PM in batman! & comix & toys!
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