Parental Moments

I had two moments yesterday, as a parent, that filled me with two different emotions.

The first was pride. Yesterday, my son as part of his boy scouts program volunteered for two hours to be a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army at the local mall. He was there with another scout and an adult scoutmaster. This is part of his community service work to achieve his next level in scouts. It was very rewarding as a parent to see him out there, gladly ringing the bells and wishing people a "Merry Christmas" - whether they donated or not.

The second was concern. Last night, my son got a text message from a friend of his in class to go check out a YouTube video. My wife was there with him and checked it out with him. Turns out the video was of a bunch of girls the same age as the boys - at a pajama party, cavorting around and being silly. What was concerning was the girls in the video were classmates of my son and his friend. Twelve year old girls - putting video of themselves up on YouTube. One of the girls was the daughter of friends right across the street. And she was the one who told my son's friend how to find the video (word is she has a crush on him). Now, I didn't see the video - my wife said there wasn't anything sexual about it. What concerns me, as a parent, is that kids aren't thinking twice about what they put on the Internet. Like FaceBook and MySpace, these can turn into tools predators can use to target our children. Very very disconcerting to me.

Comics in December pt. 1

Due to other reading, I'm a bit backlogged on my weekly comic reading. So, I'm just going through the pile slowly. Since they overlap release weeks, I'll just lump them together in groups of four until I'm through. Oh, and one last thing - all images from weekly comic reviews belong to the DC Comics company (the links even come from their website - just wanted to mention that). Thanks. On to the books:

Justice League Unlimited #40 - the issue has more of a focus on Zatanna, the League's mistress of magic. There are nice homages to classic comic tales - like Zatanna's quest to find her father, etc. It is a nice, done-in-one tale. Rumor is this book is scheduled to stop soon. That's a shame if it happens - I enjoy it a lot.

Teen Titans Go! #49 - like the above book, this one brings a little classic comic stuff into the animated comic universe. The cover asks if it is time for the return of Slade (Deathstroke the Terminator). Inside, the answer is revealed - and astute comic fans can guess it. But for kids who might not read the mainstream books, I am sure it is a surprise. A good story with clean art by Todd Nauck.

Batman and the Outsiders #2 - I picked the first issue up on a whim a few weeks back and liked it enough to give the second a shot. I liked the second a lot. Chuck Dixon is the writer and he really makes these characters engaging for me. I think this book will be a nice new addition to my pull-list.


JSA Classified #32 - First off, I liked the cover. Very eye grabbing. Inside, I am glad to be back reading this title after dropping a few issues due to the horrible Mr. Terrific solo arc that ran for three months. This is part one of two parts featuring the original Green Lantern of the 40's. While the dialogue on the first few pages was way too expository for my tastes, it did fit okay. A father still frought with the grief of his young daughter's death would likely say those things aloud. I miss thought balloons. Anyway, good book.

Who Finally Read the Watchmen?

Well, last night I finished reading the copy of Watchmen that I checked out of the library. For those who aren't into comics, it is a twelve-part graphic novel, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, centering around a number of former super-heroes and how they face the changes in the world around them.

Now, I know many folks read it when it first came out in 1985 and found it to be very groundbreaking. I can certainly see that. Like Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen really told its story of heroes in a very realistic way, struggling to make sense of the chaos and try to make a better world. It was done in a style that up until that point had never been done before - or at least note in such a concentrated sort of focus. Sure Marvel Comics of the 60's really kicked into the genre the whole soap-opera type element, but these two titles from the 80's ushered in a new period of heroes forced to make some extreme choices. It was really the start of the grim-and-gritty period of comics of the late 80's and early 90's.

However, reading it for the first time today in 2007 with the ability to see it in hindsight and its context to the genre since, I didn't feel as much of its story impact as a probably would have if I had read it back in 1985. What I mean is that I've seen elements of Watchmen in so many comics since then - elements that I was not always fully aware until now that got their roots from Watchmen. And I don't just see it in comics I've read in the past 20 years; I can see television shows like Heroes drew from this thematic well too.

Was it a good read? Yes.

Was it something that a more mature reader would appreciate as opposed to, say, my twelve year old son? Definitely.

Am I glad I read it for free from the library as opposed to plopping down $20 for a copy in the bookstore? Very much so.

Is that a knock on the door by my comic-book compadrees ready to revoke my lifetime fandom membership card? Probably.

Heroes season 2 Finale

Damn! Now that's how to do a season finale!

Heroes had always planned to split the 2007-2008 season into two chapters/seasons if you will. The Writers' Strike just kind of pushed this one to that point a little bit faster.

Still, they managed to pack quite a bit of stuff into this episode - with lots of all-so-awesomeness as well! It is definitely an episode people will be talking about for days.

And that's good since the start of the season had been so-so. Tim Kring has admitted that he sort of lost some of the wind in the sails, but the last three shows really went far to make up for that.

Now we have to wait until 2008 (January? March? Septebmer?) to get the next chapter of the story. I think it will be worth the wait.

Hey, NBC! How's about getting out a DVD set for "season 2" to fill the void? Load it with commentary and extras too!

Passing of an Icon

As a child of the 70's, I can say that my friends and I often ended up setting up ramps made from bricks and boards on the sidewalks. We'd then get on our bikes, pedal as fast as we could, roll up that ramp and jump our bikes - hoping for a solid landing on two tires or, at the very least, to land on the softer grass rather than the cement. Why did we do it?

Two words: Evel Knievel.

This motorcycle daredevil was the stuff of dreams for ten year old boys in the mid-70's. His jumps on television - be they buses or canyons - were spectacles. Back in the day when TV consisted of three networks and little else, you couldn't miss them.

And, it was more than just watching the stunts. We had the toys - the stunt cylces that were powered by reving up a big plastic crank motor, and an action figure clad in the familiar white jumpsuit and helmet, adorned with blue and red stars. The image brought up that of America and super-heroes. And when he did interviews, the guy seemed tough as nails. I guess he had to be, given how many bones he broke over the years for stunts that didn't work as well as expected. Still, he seemed tough - Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" tough or any kind of John Wayne character tough.

By today's standards, folks would label him crazy or a kook. But back in the 70's, to us ten-year old boys, he was cool.

Finally Checking It Out

I went to the local library yesterday after a workout at the YMCA and was just browsing through the shelves for something to checkout. There, among the graphic novels, was something I had actually never gotten around to reading or buying in 20+ years. I had heard a lot about it, of course. Many consider it a pinacle of comic-storytelling. I guessed after all this time I figured I should check it out. After all, using the library, it wasn't going to cost me anything but the investment of time.

What am I referring to?

Watchmen. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it in a few days.

Stampeding Through the Decades

For the past thirteen years or so, I've been a huge fan of Rhino Records and their products. It started for me on my 30th birthday with their Have A Nice Day: Super Hits of the 70's collection - a twenty-five volume CD series that really covered all those niche and one-hit wonders of the 1970's very well. I was in a rather nostalgic mood at the time and this set was perfect for me. And it really was "love" at first sight...er...listen.

From there, I branched out into two 80's collections that Rhino also had: Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the 80's and Radio Daze: Pop Hits of the 80's. The former is a fifteen volume collection of some of the most known and quite a few forgotten new wave jems up through the middle of the 80's. The later was a five volume set that really featured some lighter pop hits of the same time - a nice compliment to the earlier 70's set. I was rather hoping this second 80's set would catch on and that more would come, but alas that wasn't the case. It must not have been as popular.

I was rather content with all of these disks, for they filled in holes in my CD collection rather nicely. As I said, a lot of the songs on these were hits by artists that didn't chart that often - so they were a nice alternative to hunting down any greatest hits sets. And, more likely, these collections are probably some of the only times some of these songs have even been made available on CD.

However, Rhino came back into my life again this past week. As you know, I've been prepping files on my PC from my CD collection so I'll be ready for my iPod come the holidays. What I realized, in going through my music, is that while the 70's and 80's were very well represented (and that makes sense too as that was my years of youth through young adulthood) I was lacking a lot of stuff from the 90's. In browsing around, I ran across another Rhino set - Whatever - the 90's Pop and Culture Box set. I luckily found it for half price so I couldn't resist getting this seven disk, 125 song set. Unlike the earlier sets, this 90's set seems to be more of a sampling buffet rather than a more focused, genre menu that the others provide. The 90's music scene included so many styles - pop, rock, R&B, rap, alternative, grunge, etc. - and this set tries to sample as much of those as it can. What you get is kind of a mish-mash of music that doesn't flow as seemlessly as other collections.

Some may look at Rhino's reissue offerings as sort of the K-Tel records of the 21st century (how many of you are old enough to get that reference?). For me, I'm okay with that. They've done the work to hunt down these various songs and make them available in affordable collections. Their selections may seem odd on the surface, but after many listening sessions you realize they've plucked some of these songs from the abyss for old fans and future fans alike to enjoy.

Now, I need to see what their 60's offerings are like....