This Week in Geek (10-16/09/07)

Buys

A couple of buys this week turned into immediate, though not complete, consumptions. First up is The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the novel by Michael Chabon about the fictional early comic book creators that inspired the Escapist comics series. I started it minutes after receiving it in the mail (the New Who novel I'm in the middle of just wasn't doing it for me), and it is engrossing. It seems entirely made up of perfect sentences in the Flaubert style. Only 80 pages in, but I can't rave enough about it.

And second is the Heroes Season 1 DVD. Because I was always elsewhere Monday nights, there was no way for me to get interested in the series on tv last year. If it'd been on another night, I would certainly have given it a try given the subject matter, but I wasn't about to set my VCR for something that might or might not be interesting, and being genre, probably wouldn't last 5 episodes. Well, we all know I was wrong about that, and having watched the first three episodes on the Internet, I felt it was something I could put my dollar behind. And once I got the DVD, I kind of had to finish it before Season 2 started next week. Well, I did. Finished it in 3 days, but haven't touched any of the extras yet. My reaction? I'm not sure how I'll be able to stand waiting a week between installments.

Other DVD purchases include a collection of the Max Fleisher Superman cartoons, and the first 4 episodes of the new Legion of Super-Heroes series. Other book purchases include the reprinted Superman Encyclopedia (which proves my store just had no faith in Wonder Woman, since it's the only one they didn't get), and single issues of Booster Gold #2 (perhaps not as fun as #1, but very good in the second half) and Suicide Squad: From the Ashes #1 (it's like the 80s Squad series had never gone away).

"Accomplishments"

Finished cards from The Girl in the Fireplace for my Doctor Who CCG and now looking ahead to City of Death. The "Girl" cards include a Reinette with the importance she deserves...
...as well as a friendly horse and lots of great quotes from the show.

Had an improv show in the middle of the week. We try to explore different styles of storytelling and approaches, and if anything geeky comes up, I would tell you. This time, I dunno. Geeky, maybe not. Nerdy, for sure. The best improv of the night was in the style of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and it sounded positively written. We also tried to inspire ourselves from the I Ching, by having an audience member pull reeds from my hand. Interesting if inconclusive.


Also read the second Checkmate trade. Still a satisfying read, though I find it connects too much with the rest of the DC Universe. I'm not confused or anything, nor do I have anything against the Shadowpact, but I'd rather have series I collect as self-contained as possible (and yes, I consider Booster Gold to be self-contained). Finally, I managed to get my World of Warcraft character from level 63 to 64, but it was a long time coming. I just haven't been able to fit play time into my schedule much this week.

Website Finds

Blogger just added a feature which is just a slideshow of pictures uploaded to Blogger's many blogs in real time. They advertise it as mesmerizing, and they're just about right. Click the pic, and you're sent flying to the relevant blog. One to keep in an open browser window. I've yet to see anything of mine pop up though.

Comments

rob! said…
Cavlier and Klay is one of the rare pieces of any medium--books, film--music--that is actually every bit as good as its reputation suggests.