"Casting Couch"

The new television season has started and I've fallen victim to it. Thank god for the DVR.

Two new shows that I like this season are FlashForward and White Collar. Both feature FBI agents as some of the main characters. Evidently the writers and casting agents for both shows were on the same wavelength as they both have black male and lesbian agents in supporting [and not leading] roles.

Of course, maybe it's just me because I tend to notice patterns, commonalities and coincidences. For example, I theorized that there was an Entourage curse as many of the guest stars died within months of their appearance on the show for Seasons 2-4 [Chris Penn, Bruno Kirby, and Sydney Pollack]. No known deaths for Seasons 1, 5 or 6.

UPDATE: I just saw the latest episode of White Collar, and evidently they got rid of the lesbian agent played by Marsha Thomason and replaced her with a heterosexual female agent played by Natalie Morales [formerly of the underrated but cancelled sci-fi comedy The Middleman]. While that makes perfect sense to spice up the series by having sexual chemistry between the con man main character and the female FBI agent, it now throws a monkey wrench into my blog entry.

Talk to you later.

-Chris

"New Yorker Caption Contest - 11/02/09"

For the last several months, I have entered The New Yorker Caption Contest on a regular basis without any luck. While I will gladly admit I'm not the funniest person in the world, I think I have a great sense of humor plus I can be pretty witty and sarcastic on occasion.

So I have decided to post my entries for public viewing. Here's the latest...


Please let me know what you think.

Talk to you later.

-Chris

"Con Wars - Dazed and Confused"

The New York City comic book convention war between Wizard and Reed Exhibitions continues.

There are great summaries and synopses at Bleeding Cool, The Beat and Robot 6 [at Comic Book Resources].

While there has been mention of Wizard's excellent mainstream news coverage, I saw something in Time Out New York which was not covered. For those of you who don't live in the Tri-State area, Time Out New York is a pretty popular local magazine, right behind New York and The New Yorker. Check it out below, it's the first blurb in the bottom section - "Best of the fests" with the photo of William Shatner.




So what's so strange or baffling about this blurb, Mark Texeira [who is currently drawing random stuff for Marvel Comics] is mentioned FIRST!!!

BTW, the blue highlight is mine and not the magazine's. The yellow highlight and arrow are the magazine's.

For those of you in the media business, sections like these are often rewritten versions of press releases so I'm guessing that the Big Apple Comic Con promoted Mark Texeira. And if you look at the Big Apple Comic Con guest list here, he's listed as a "Special Guest" in the top section ahead of sports legends Yogi Berra and Joe Frazier, top-selling comic book artist Jim Cheung, and pop culture icons as Linda Hamilton and Adam West.

I love Mark Texeira's work and think he's one of the great underappreciated comic book artist, but there is no way he should get first billing before guests of honors Jim Lee [the most popular comic book today] and Joe Quesada [the E-I-C of Marvel Comics] or William Shatner in the blurb.

So why was he getting such attention??!!? I'm guessing because the spelling of his name is close to ubër-popular Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira, and that Big Apple was hoping there would be some confusion among the general reading public.

When I get a chance, I'm going to elaborate further on the whole Con War and how I think it will be good thing for the general convention goer.

Talk to you later.

-Chris

"Aftermath"

The older brother is officially married. Congratulations and best wishes to him and his lovely bride.

-Chris

"Cleaning House"

Hey Boys and Girls, Mr. Chris is cleaning house and about to donate his brand new graphic novels to a charity unless one of his friends wants them.

Here's the list. Check it twice. I don't give a F--K if you're naughty or nice. The first to claim a book by e-mail or text message, it's theirs. Deadline is the day before Valentine's Day because I only have so much love and patience.

DC Comics:

Batman vs. Two-Face TPB (2 copies)
Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul HC
Black Adam: The Dark Age TPB
Booster Gold, Vol. 1: 52 Pick-Up HC
Checkmate, Vol. 1: A King’s Game TPB
Hawkgirl, Vol. 3: Hath-Set TPB
Infinity Inc, Vol. 1: Luthor’s Monsters TPB (2 copies)
JLA Presents: Aztek, The Ultimate Man TPB
Justice League Elite, Vol. 2 TPB
Justice League of America: Hereby Elects TPB
Justice Society 2 TPB
Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century, Vol. 1: Tomorrow’s Heroes TPB
Mystery in Space, Vol. 2 TPB (2 copies)
The Question: The Five Books of Blood HC
The Question, Vol. 2: Poisoned Ground TPB
Robin: The Big Leagues TPB
Superman: The Man of Steel, Vol. 6 TPB
Teen Titans/The Outsiders: The Insiders TPB
Showcase Presents Robin the Boy Wonder, Vol. 1
Showcase Presents Justice League of America, Vol. 3

Vertigo:

The Exterminators, Vol. 4: Crossfire and Collateral TPB
Incognegro HC
Kid Eternity TPB
Sandman Mystery Theatre, Vol. 6: The Python TPB

Wildstorm:

Gen13, Vol. 1: The Best of a Bad Lot TPB (2 copies)
Gen13, Vol. 2: Road Trip TPB
Grifter & Midnighter TPB (3 copies)
A Man Called Kev TPB (2 copies)
Majestic - Book 2: While You Were Out TPB
Majestic – Book 3: The Final Cut TPB (2 copies)
Maxx, Vol. 6 TPB
The Midnighter, Vol. 1: Killing Machines TPB (2 copies)
A Nightmare on Elm Street, Vol. 1 TPB (2 copies)
Ninja Scroll TPB
Red Menace TPB (2 copies)
Red Sonja/The Claw TPB
StormWatch: Post Human Division, Vol. 1 TPB
Team Zero TPB
Texas Chainsaw Massacre TPB
Tom Strong Book 6 TPB
Welcome to Tranquility, Vol. 1 TPB
Wetworks 1 TPB (2 copies)
Wetworks 2 TPB (2 copies)
Wildcats v3.0 – Brand Building TPB
Wildstorm Armageddon TPB
Wraithborn TPB

Talk to you later.

-Chris

"Happy New Year"

Happy New Year to everyone. Best wishes to you and yours.

Talk to you later.

-Chris

"M is for Magazines, Money and Monday"

I'm ashamed of myself for not getting my Christmas/Holiday cards out. I bought them, actually, I bought them last year. I've been lazy but that's not anything new.

So maybe it's karma that I only got bills and solicitations in the mail. That's not true either as I did receive my $20 gift certificate from Rite Aid [for spending $100 in a two-month period]. Normally I shop at Duane Reade for their 5% rebate but I'm a cheapskate and 20% > 5%.

I am currently testing out the personal finance software site - www.mint.com which aggregates all of your bank account, credit card and investment information. It will then consolidate and track your spending [at least what you spend via your bank debit or credit card] - for example, it will tell you how much you spend eating out at restaurants or shopping or for groceries.

There are a lot of kinks in the system [i.e. lots of uncategorized or miscategorized items] and minimal financial advice [for example, it tells me I will earn an extra $88 a year if I switch checking accounts from Chase to HSBC, which honestly is not worth the aggravation of looking for a HSBC branch in New York City. I wish they would tell me something useful like what I would save by refinancing my mortgage, which I am thinking about and currently researching.

I will probably give www.wesabe.com a chance in a month or two.

I also got three magazines in the mail today, which while not unusual because I subscribe to too many darn magazines. Monday usually means The New Yorker [which I usually enjoy and informative] and New York [which is enjoyable, informative and useful]. Occasionally, one of my monthly magazines will show up like Popular Science or Men's Journal. I was kind of shocked to see Time Out New York only because it usually arrives on Wednesday.

I went through The New Yorker issue but the only thing interesting I saw was the Cartoon Caption Contest. I really don't care about Jewish Kosher food inspectors in mainland China or the history of The Village Voice. I have unconscienably-high stacks of unread magazines and my new rule if an article doesn't interest me in the first two paragraphs or with some amazing graphic [usually a photo of pretty girl does it], then I'll skip over it.

My goal is to go through 10 issues a day until the magazines are gone. The issue of New York does better with the cover story - "Adam Platt's Where to Eat '09". Another thing that stands out in the issue is the real estate section item titled "Fame Slept Here" where the magazine editors are kind enough to provide the current NYC address for R&B music sensastion John Legend. Yes, the title makes it sound like John Legend doesn't live there anymore but that's not the impression I get when I read the actual story.

I understand the real estate market is really soft now, especially for $1.25M residence, but is the extra marketing really worth the potential security risk?

I also managed to complete the crossword in the magazine under two hours, working on it on-and-off as I cooked and ate dinner...and in pen...though somewhat messily.

I'm going to leave the Time Out NewYork for tomorrow as there's a book I want to get to.

I have some plans for the New Year, a couple that are somewhat interesting, which I hope to share soon.

Talk to you later.

-Chris