Every comic-book reader has it : “their” book. The one that comes along at just the right time in your life and stays with you for the rest of your days. I’ve got a few, truth be told, but one of the big ones is Doom Patrol — specifically, Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s Doom Patrol, that began with issue number 19 of the title’s second go-’round and lasted through number 63, a unique amalgamation of the existential, the conspiratorial, the emotive, and the quite-often indescribable that surely still stands as the most unusual “team book” ever set within the confines of a pre-existing superhero “universe.” Filled to the brim and beyond with Morrison’s patented brand of “high weirdness” but underscored with a palpable strain of sheer heart throughout, it had everything I was looking for in a comic as a teenager — when my interest in the traditional…
Right now, they’re on indefinite hiatus but, from 2009 to 2013, they were like the biggest boy band in the world. They had their own show on Nickelodeon. They did tours. They released a lot of music, the majority of which kind of sounded the same but still had a fun, upbeat feel to it. To be honest, I didn’t really know much about them other than the fact that their music videos always seemed to air between late night reruns of Degrassi. If it wasn’t Victoria Justice singing about her best friend’s brother, it was Big Time Rush destroying Nick Cannon’s office.
One of those music videos was the one for Til I Forget About You, which is kind of a strange video. It starts out with one of the Big Time Rush guys getting dumped via text and then, suddenly, the boys are being expected to perform at a snooty country club. Luckily, they’re able to use the ROCK OUT app and make everyone totally rock out. So all is right with the world, I suppose.
It’s a little bit frustrating that there aren’t more Degrassi-themed music videos. I mean, there’s that video that Drake did, where they all burned down the school after killing one of Drake’s rivals. And then there’s the video for Jake Epstein’s My Window, which is full of Degrassi clips. And one of the really, really old episodes of Degrassi featured the Zit Remedy putting together a video but I’ve never been able to find a good copy of it. Otherwise, there’s not much to choose from. The show’s producers really missed an opportunity by not putting out any Downtown Sasquatch, Studz, or Whisperhug music videos. I mean, seriously. They should have taken a lesson from Big Time Rush.
Oh well. Missed opportunities, what can you do about them?
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Been awhile since I did one of these. Time to get back on the horse, so to speak.
Today’s edition of “4 Shots From 4 Films” is all about horror remakes. Not just any horror remakes since those are as common as the cold. I’m talking about horror remakes that are good to great. Sometimes, the remake even surpasses the original.
As I write this review, news has broken that “president” Donald Trump intends to declare a so-called “state of emergency” along the US-Mexico border in order to commandeer funds for his pipe-dream of a “wall” by executive fiat. A genuine “emergency” has been unfolding, with disastrous consequences, at the border for a long time, it’s true — but it’s nothing like Trump would have you believe.
Italian cartoonist Andrea Ferraris and his documentarian colleague/creative partner, Renato Chiocca, know all about this real “emergency,” though, because they’ve seen it firsthand — and they know it’s got precisely fuck-all to do with some supposedly free-flowing “supply line” of drugs and MS-13 gang members out to rape our daughters, burn down our homes, and butcher our pets. The actual emergency is a humanitarian one, an economic one, even a logistical and conceptual one, as increased militarization of what was once a fairly open…
Love takes many strange forms, none more strange than the obsessive love Don Jose has for the Gypsy temptress Carmen in THE LOVES OF CARMEN, Columbia Pictures’ biggest hit of 1948. The film, based on Prosper Merimee’s 1845 novella and Georges Bizet’s famous opera, reunites GILDA stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford with director Charles Vidor, and though it’s in glorious Technicolor and set in 1800’s Spain, it’s got a lot of film noir elements going for it: there’s the protagonist caught in a rapidly moving downward spiral, the amoral femme fatale, crime, murder, and a bleak, downbeat ending. Think I’m stretching a bit? Let’s take a look…
Young nobleman Don Jose arrives in Seville with a dragoon squadron, a corporal with political ambitions and a bright future ahead of him… until he meets Carmen, a gorgeous red-haired Gypsy who is an expert manipulator. Jose is enchanted by this free-spirited…
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown may not be as acclaimed or well-known as It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or A Charlie Brown Christmas but it’s one of my favorite of the Peanuts holiday specials. It has a very important lesson to teach us all.
It’s all about faith.
Hardly anyone in Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown has a good Valentine’s Day. None of them should have been surprised. All of the Charlie Brown holiday specials are about how days like Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving rarely live up to our expectations. Why should Valentine’s Day be any different?
Charlie Brown shouldn’t have been surprised when he went home empty-handed. Sure, he thought he’d get a lot of valentines. He even brought a briefcase to school with him because he was expecting to get so many. After Schroeder handed out all of the valentines, Charlie Brown even went to big red box and turned it upside down. There was nothing for Charlie Brown. There’s never anything for Charlie Brown.
And Linus shouldn’t have been surprised when his teacher left school before he could give her that big heart-shaped box of candy. After spending all of those Halloweens in a sincere pumpkin patch and waiting for the Great Pumpkin, Linus should have been used to the disappointment.
And Lucy should know that she’ll never be able to compete with Scroeder’s love of msic, no matter how many times she destroys his piano or tells him that Beethoven was overrated.
In the world of Charlie Brown, only Snoopy gets what he wants but he’s a dog so he doesn’t want much. All he has to worry about is keeping Woodstock happy, finishing his new book, and shooting down the Red Baron.
But they never give up. None of them. No matter how wishy-washy or crabby they may be, all of them keep the faith. None of them surrender their hope. That’s the lesson of every Peanuts holiday special but it’s especially the lesson of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. Someday, the teacher will accept Linus’s gift. Someday, Schroeder will learn to appreciate Lucy’s finer qualities. Someday, Sally will be able to make a Valentine just as impressive as Snoopy’s
And someday, maybe today, Charlie Brown will finally get that Valentine!
Never lose hope. Never give up. That’s a good lesson for Valentine’s Day. That’s a good lesson for any day.
It’s not too much a surprise that today’s latest Song of the Day is very much Valentine’s Day or, at the very least, romance-related. The song chosen comes courtesy of Taeyeon’s ballad from her first full-length album, My Voice, which saw it released in 2017.
“Make Me Love You” actually was part of the album’s deluxe edition which was released a couple months later with the song part of a trio of new one added just for this new edition.
The song has an R&B pop ballad sound that does a great job in incorporating Taeyeon’s unique voice. There’s a reason that for many year’s now that she’s been one of K-Pop’s top soloist in addition as being part of the biggest girl group in the country as leader and Main vocalist of Girls’ Generation.
We have a song that where Taeyeon seems to almost speak to the listener. For the listener to take the leap in allowing the romance begin between them and singer. It’s a ballad that speaks to the anticipation of a potential new romance and also the self-doubt that everyone goes through whenever one should or should not make the first move, leap or step in making it happen.
Through the Shattered Lens 