COTNFQ: Night of the Living Dead, Black Sunday, The House at the End of the Street, Dredd, Carrie

Yay free weekend! Big lineup today, so let's get started:

Night of the Living Dead: Wow, this movie made me feel really bad for the state of minority characters in movies over the last, well the entire history of cinema. The main character turns out to be a black guy who behaves as you'd expect any practical thinking man in a desperate situation to act. At no point is his "blackness" a conversation point or a "character trait." He's just a man who happens to have a dark skin tone. What made me so sad about this movie was just how normal he was and the fact that I noticed it. He isn't the first one to die, he doesn't make jokes about not being the first one to die, he isn't forced to speak in awkward slang, and there are no awkward attempts at race relations in the midst of the zombie apocalypse. He's just a dude trying to help board up a house and develop a survival strategy. Even the token asshole character isn't racist, he's an asshole to everybody, including his own wife. I guess what I'm saying is that this movie should be included in any film class that studies representations of race in cinema. As for the other parts of the film, the gore effects are pretty impressive for the time period, and the movie is very well paced. I must admit, I got a kick out of the scenes with the news reporters. It was very amusing for me to see a news station where they were simply trying to report the facts to viewers and convey information to them. It's just straightforward,"there's some weird stuff going on, stay safe and await further instructions....Ok, the stuff is really bad, please head to a safe zone as quickly as possible.....here's how to kill any zombies you come across and how to dispose of the bodies." No commentary, no twitter crawl, no pundits yelling for attention.... As far as the news goes, I'm pretty sure the people of the 1960's would do much better in a zombie apocalypse than we would. The more I think about this movie, the better I like it.
B : It would rate a little higher, but Barbara and her brother bug the crap outta me.

Black Sunday: Italian Director Mario Brava's movie about vampire witches. Some cool gore effects in an otherwise very forgettable movie
C-

The House at the End of the Street: Ever see a movie that is so bad that you just turn it off and read the synopsis off of IMDB and then you realize that the time it took you to read a synopsis that dumb was still too much of a life suck. And then you bother to blog about said cinematic turd and you think, "WHAT THE HELL I'M I DOING WITH MY LIFE!?"
F-

Dredd: So I'm starting to learn that the 5 star rating system on Netflix has been calibrated to my tastes and that after gathering data on my viewing habits for about 6 years now, it has developed a pretty great batting average when it comes to recommending films. Dredd is the latest example. This is a fantastic action movie. If you are in the mood for a gorey, goofy, but not too goofy shoot-em-up, check this out. The best part? Olivia Thirlby plays the female rookie who can take care of herself. There is not damsel in distress motif here, just lots and lots of 'splosions.
A

Carrie (2013) This remake is far, FAR superior to the original. There. I said it. If you disagree, watch them in the order they were released. The original Carrie doesn't hold up at all. Sissy Spacek is the bright spot in what is an otherwise unwatchable movie. While not as otherworldly looking, Cloe Grace Moretz does an awesome job in the title role and her surrounding cast, if not oscar-worthy, is at least competent. Julianne Moore is a more terrifying Margaret White, and she delivers several cringe-worthy moments. The special effects are obviously much improved over the original with the level of destruction edging closer to the book. If you wrote this off as a cheap, money grab remake, you should really give it a shot. And if you don't like it, I dare you to rewatch the original and tell me with a straight face that it is a better film
B+

COTNFQ: Rubber, Hellraiser II: Hellbound

Rubber is a movie about a sentient tire with telekinetic powers that goes on a killing spree. It's also a commentary about the stupidity of a movie about a tire with telekinetic powers, and it's directed by a French guy and Fat Neil from Community is in it. I haven't decided if it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen or if it is the pinnacle of human existence....or maybe it's just a weird-ass movie....

B

Hellraiser II: Hellbound - It wasn't the worst movie about evil demons summoned by a puzzle box. Why the acting was almost adequate a time or two and the writing was merely boring and forced instead of wince-inducing.

D+

Clean out the Netflix Queue: Leprechaun, Friday the 13th part 7: New Blood

Yes, I put a lot of horror movies on my netflix queue and they've been sitting there for a while now.

Leprechaun: I like to think of this movie more as the origin story of Rachel Greene than anything else. Jennifer Aniston is essentially playing an early version of the roll that would make her an A-list celebrity. The rest of the movie is complete and utter crap. They seem to be trying for a horror-comedy but all of the jokes fall flat and the acting is terrible. I don't understand how these movies get to so many sequels....
D-

Friday the 13, Part 7: New Blood - what a crappy film
worked more on this Haiku than
they did on the script
F

Clean out the Netflix Queue: Hellraiser & Haunter

Part of what happens when you commit to watching everything on your netflix queue is that you immediately regret all the stupid crap you put on there. Case in Point: Hellraiser is a terrible, terrible movie. From what I've seen so far, this series is solely based on the fact the Pinhead is a really cool character design. Unfortunately, the guy has about 3 lines of dialogue in the whole movie. the other 89 minutes is filled with awful acting and people acting in ways that no human has acted ever. This is a movie where you can't wait for everyone to die just so the movie will be over.

F-

On the other hand, sometimes you find that you've put a truly hidden Gem on your list. Haunter is a fantastic ghost story from director Vincenzo Natali and starring Abigail Breslin. This movie has moved onto my top 10 horror movie list. I put it on with the idea that I would just have it on in the background, but I got sucked in very quick and soon I was jumping at every noise I heard. I'd love to tell you all about it, but I won't. Just search for it in Netflix and hit play.

A+

Clean out the netflix queue - a new project

I like projects with start and end goal, but after the last project, I've chosen one without a timeline. The goal? watch everything currently sitting in my netflix queue. Here are the rules:

1. Anytime I watch Netflix alone, I can ONLY choose a title from my list. I can watch other things, but I have to get it somewhere else.

2. My wife can watch whatever she wants, and I can join her, we just have to use her profile

3. For TV series, I only have to finish 6 episodes. I'm not going to watch all 260+ episodes of magnum PI

4. I cannot add any new titles until my list is empty.

The idea behind this stems from the 100 book project. I ended with a longer reading list than I started with. Since books or video games are a more substantial time investment, I thought I would pick something manageable, but not too restrictive. I want it to be fun after all.

With that out of the way, here is the first entry:


Nightmare on Elm St 2: Freddy's Revenge & Never Sleep Again:

These two fit hand in hand since Never Sleep Again turned out to be a 4 hour documentary chronicling the whole Nightmare on Elm st. series through Freddy vs. Jason. Nightmare 2 was terrible, but kind of charming in the way terrible movies are when you can tell that everyone involved was trying to make something good. It's also a not very subtle allegory for a young gay teen coming to terms with his sexuality. The documentary referred to it as the TOP GUN of 80s horror and pointed out that it was voted at the most unintentionally gay horror movie of all time. I didn't think it was that obvious until they showed all of the offending scenes in a montage. The documentary turned out to be very well done and is a good companion piece to anyone who was a fan of some of the movies. There are lots of great interviews with the actors and they spend plenty of time on each movie. It is put together with a lot of love, but it also acknowledges the series' shortcomings.

Never Sleep Again: A+

Nightmare 2: C-

100 by 30 - Wrap up

So I've taken a few weeks off since completing my 100 book project. It's the busiest time of year for my day job and I've needed to take a little break. But I'm back with a couple of planned posts about the project and what's next. So here's a few things I learned during this project:

100 books is lot: well duh. But I was surprised at how many books that actually is when you try to read them with a time limit

But 100 books isn't THAT many: As any avid reader can tell you, you will never really be able to shrink your reading list. After reading 100 books, I took a look at the books I want to read and I think it's gotten bigger.

I'm not a speed reader: I've always thought I was a pretty quick reader, but I quickly found out that I'm not that fast. With the time commitment needed to stay on schedule, combined with my other responsibilities/interests, I grew to resent this project from time to time....

But you can get faster with practice: One of the biggest surprises to me was that reading is like a muscle, and if you exercise it, you will get better.

My book tastes are very nerdy: When you condense reading into a time limit, you need to pick books that will hold your interest so you can keep the momentum and enjoy yourself. I assumed that I would be picking all different kinds of books, but I quickly got into a rhythm of sticking to stories in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. I think it all comes down to the fact that their is enough stress and drama in the real world that if I'm gonna sit down to read, I want to be transported to somewhere else.

Teen/young adult books are awesome: While I read a few stinkers, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the quality books available to kids and teens. While I love a good long book for adults, Teen/YA fiction seems to have a better sense of story structure. Plots and Character development always seem to be moving forward at a nice pace and there is less filler. They also tend to keep the gorier/more extreme elements just off the page, which makes them feel more effective to me. If you hint at something horrific and let me fill in the blanks rather than going into extreme detail, I promise you what I'm imagining is worse (unless you're George RR Martin)

Graphic Novels deserve more credit: Holy cow you guys, there are some fantastic stories being told in the graphic novel format right now. I was continually surprised at the level of depth and nuance you can find in this format.

I didn't get to read things I've been looking forward to: My post-project reading list is filled with 600-900 pages epic novels and non-fiction history books that I've had to avoid due to time constraints. These are the kinds of books that require a time commitment that didn't really work with staying on a reading schedule.

Lastly, I was reminded that I really love reading: While I'm very excited to be done, I'm also really excited for all the new books I have to look forward to. I've started the Wheel of Time saga, and I've got several other books started as well... and the best part is that I will finish them whenever the heck I feel like it. I've also started listening to audiobooks again to help speed things along. The audio format had been a great help in moving forward in the first wheel of time book as it has proven to be a very slow burn. With the audiobook, I can get chores done or take the dog for a walk while the book moves forward anyway and I can use my reading time for books that move a little faster.

100 by 30 Book 96 - The Phantom of the Opera

Yay! Let's end the project by writing about a tragically misunderstood genius and the woman he loves.....oh wait, that's not what this book is about at all. My thoughts could best be described in a short scene performed by Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber:

Harry: Wow. I thought Phantom of the Opera would be a little more romantic than this.

Lloyd: I was thinking the same thing. That Andrew Lloyd Webber's full a shit man.

AND, Scene.

So yeah, for those of you only familiar with the musical version of the tale, basically they cut out the whole part where the Phantom is a raving psychopath who loves to torture people to death for fun....lots of people. He's basically a singing version of Jigsaw from the Saw movies. I must admit I was a little thrown at first by the writing style. Like The Time Machine and Jekyl and Hyde, the book is written as a reporting of events after the fact by a person not caught in the middle of the events. Once I adjusted to the style, it became much easier to read and I found the book to be quite entertaining. The torture room was quite inventive and I enjoyed the way it was slowly revealed that way the events transpired, it became easy to believe that the phantom had never existed and that the strange events surrounding Christine Daae could be explained by placing blame on her lover Raul rather than a deformed madman in the bowels of the Paris Opera house. It's a nice switcheroo, and I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a less sappy version of the story. It takes a little bit to get going, but stick with it. It gets much better.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 95 - Epileptic by David B

So I have one more blog to write after this. I saved another one so I didn't have to end on a downer (it also helps that I'm watching Dumb and Dumber as I write)

Epileptic is an autobiographical graphic novel told from the perspective of a middle child who has an older brother and a younger sister and then the older brother develops epilepsy. The story chronicles the trials of the family has they see a parade of doctors and healers in a search for a cure. For those of you familiar with my family, you will probably be aware that this story hits a little too close to home for me. While there are some wild differences, (the story takes place in France from the 1960s through the 1990s and the parents are obsessed with finding cures with crazy hippy healers to name a few things) There are some personal moments that will really hit home for anyone who has had a family member deal with this disease. In the book, the disease is often pictured as a monster that is slowly consuming the whole family, and the various family members struggle to deal with something that is just so unpredictable. The author, writing from his perspective as a child, uses the graphic novel medium to try to figure out where his brother goes when he has a seizure. He also imagines encasing himself in armor to protect himself from the outside world. He pulls aways from the world and buries himself in his art as a way to escape reality and process his feelings. This book feels very much like an attempt by the author to find a way to come clean to his family and to try to process the way his family's life was forever changed. It is intensely personal and I got the feeling that I was being shown things that most people would have a hard time speaking to a therapist about, let alone putting in a book for millions of people to read.

Fortunately for my family, we've had many more bright spots, and my brother got to be my best man at my wedding and continues to be one of the coolest people I know. He has become a source of inspiration for me and I cherish every moment we get to spend together. For any family members reading my blog, you should know, this book was very, very hard for me to get through, so I'm hesitant to recommend it. I did get some comfort in knowing that I wasn't the only person who had to deal with the complex emotions that come when you try to love and care for a family member dealing with a terrifying condition, but be warned that this book does not have a neat and tidy ending. The book ends in the mid-1990s when epilepsy research was just beginning to improve and effective treatments for severe cases were hard to find.

So that's that book. I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't what I would call a pleasant experience.

9.5/10

100 by 30 Book 99 - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Well this wasn't like the musical at all. It's actually a nice mystery tale, which kinda gets ruined when you already know the ending. In any case, Robert Lewis Stevenson is a pretty good writer so this is still worth your time. Since the book is quite short, this post will be too.

7/10

100 by 30 book 97 - How to Train Your Dragon

First of all, I LOVE the How to Train Your Dragon movies. I cried like a baby multiple times during the second movie. With such a rich world, and great characters, my expectations were sky high for the book series. This book....was not what I expected. Apart from character and location names, the books and movies have almost nothing in common. Most upsetting, Toothless, the main dragon in the movie, is a whiny little runt in the book. I guess this book is ok, but if you are looking for some depth and emotion, you need to look elsewhere.

4/10

100 by 30 Book 98 - Alice in Wonderland

I've never really liked this story in any of the versions I've seen it, but I thought I'd give the original source material a shot.....nope, I still hate this story. I like a good amount of nonsense and word play as much as the next guy, but this story is about as much fun as listening to an annoying coworker tell you about a really weird dream they had. If you must read a book about Wonderland, I think you'd be much better off reading the smutty parody version instead.

1/10

100 by 30 Book 94 - Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus

Shadow of the Mountain is a Young Adult novel that tracks a young teen in Norway during the Nazi Occupation. He and his friends get involved in the resistance movement and young Espen gains crucial intelligence about a Nazi command facility that causes him to take flight over the mountains in an attempt to reach the safety of Sweden. It's a thrilling tale of an often overlooked part of World War II. The story is based on real people and sticks very close to actual events. Much like NUMBER THE STARS, there is an epilogue at the end of the book that goes more in depth with the people who inspired the story and even includes a number of photographs from the period. For anyone looking for an entry into the underground spy networks of WWII, this is a great introduction.
9.5/10

100 by 30 Book 93 Dragon * Princess by S. Andrew Swann

Dragon * Princess is a fantasy adventure about a lovable rogue, Frank Blackthorne, who takes a job rescuing a princess in order to help clear up a little misunderstanding with a demon worshipping cult. Unfortunately, the rescue attempt is a set up and our manly hero suddenly finds himself in the body of the princess and the princess in now in the body of a dragon. What follows is an adventure across kingdoms as Frank tries to get everyone back in the body they're supposed to be in. There's also the problem of the dragon having a serious gambling debt with the elves, a relentless white knight, a gentle giant, and that nasty demon worshipping cult. While I did enjoy the book and found it to be mostly successful, I was very disappointed in the lack of quality female characters. It's just such a wasted opportunity to do something interesting with gender identity and relationships and it never really got deeper than, "boy, it's sure weird to have boobs. Oh and everyone wants to rape me, LOL." (it's not quite that bad, but close). I wasn't really looking for a women's studies thesis, but there's just SO much you can do creatively with a male character who suddenly has to live as a woman in a fantasy world. What the book ends up suggesting is that having a woman's body is kind of lame. If you go in with measured expectations, it's a nice, light read, but it could have been so much more.
7/10

100 by 30 Book 92 - The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the spot by Caroline Carlson

Whoa! I feel like I just came back from the future where I finished this project with 3 days to spare and know I have to tell everyone what happened....Oh wait, never mind. Turns out I just like the review part of this project get way backed up. Time to do some house cleaning.

The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates (VNHLP for short) Have a strict no girls allowed policy, which is a problem if you are 10 year old Hilary Westfield and you have been training to be The Terror of the Southlands your entire life. It also doesn't help if your father is Admiral of the Queen's navy and wants to get rid of all pirates. But Hilary is not to be deterred. With the help of her trusty Gargoyle, she runs away from finishing school to join a crew and search for buried treasure. This is a delightfully silly book that keeps everything fairly carefree and fun. It's basically about all the things a 10 year old would think pirates do. I loved the female characters in this book, especially Hilary's governess. This is one of the only times I can think of where we get to see that the authority figure for a child character has other ambitions in life than scolding and prohibiting fun. Hilary's governess actually wants to own a bookshop by the sea, and is only strict with Hilary because, well, that is what she gets paid for. It's nice to see children's authority figures with a little more depth than mean guardian or wacky teacher. The book also has a delightful sense of humor. If you're in the market for a nice, fun read, this is a great option.
9.5/10

100 by 30 - Book 100 - The Time Machine by HG Wells

I. DID. IT! I finished with three days to spare! I will post the missing books in the next few days, but I wanted to be sure to mark my accomplishment as soon as I finished it.

So anyway, let's get to the review of The Time Machine. As you will notice, I ended this project on a series of classics that I really had no direct knowledge of. Time machine was published in 1895 and follows what seems to have been a trend in the storytelling of the day in that the author is merely giving us an account of the incidents of the story as they were told to him. It's an interesting style that gives the book a sense of realism, but you lose the more immersive feeling of a traditional third person novel where we are often privy to the innermost thoughts of the characters. The Time Machine is a slight book, but it is big on speculation about the ultimate fate of man. Turns out, we are all doomed. While I actually found the majority of the novel to be a little dull for my taste, it was the descriptions of the end of the solar system, and the one, solitary life form struggling to move as the sun began to die that really struck me. It's a hauntingly lonely image, and it made the whole book worth it for that one little paragraph. I'll leave it there for now, it's a short read, and I really enjoyed reading a very early science fiction novel. The shear faith in man's greatness and ability to conquer the world with science is a little inspiring, and I'm starting to understand why that era is so popular for steam punk stories. I hope you've enjoyed this little journey with me. I will be posting the missing books soon and I am planning at least one wrap up article in the near future. Cheers!

6.5/10

100 by 30 Book 91 - Crap Kingdom by DC Pierson

Tom would love to be sucked away from his dull life and become The Chosen One in a fantastical other world. The problem is, his life doesn't suck enough. He gets ok grades, his family cares about him and he doesn't have to worry about bullies. It's not that he's popular, he just isn't interesting in any way to warrant being the kind of person that those kinds of things happen to...until it does. Tom gets whisked away into a fantastical world made mostly of old clothes and used junk from earth. And the king sits on a throne made of towels and an Igloo cooler, and his Chosen One duties consist of cleaning the snot out of the rats noses....so Tom quits being the chosen one because the kingdom is, well, crap. Then a new Chosen One is called, and it turns out to be Tom's best friend Kyle. Kyle learns to do all kinds of awesome magic and the citizens of Crap Kingdom love Kyle, and Tom gets a little jealous. There's accidental betrayals and power struggles and dimension hopping.

It's a very funny book, and an enjoyable read, but the book does suffer from the author's poor descriptive skills. I'd never really appreciated good world building in novels until now. When we venture into a strange world in the final third of the book, I found myself very confused as to the generally geography. I couldn't really picture anything that was being described and it bummed me out because it seemed like the author had something neat in mind. Between that, and the rather abrupt ending, a rather well done book ended on kind of a low note.

7/10

100 by 30 Book 90 - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I have to give props to my wife for recommending this book to me. This is the second time I have read it and it remains one of my all time favorites. The book is a series of letters that Charlie writes to an anonymous stranger about his struggles through his first year of high school. Charlie's best friend committed suicide the previous year, and Charlie already suffers from some emotional / mental health issues. As someone who went through some fairly stressful and alienating times in my high school years, Charley was extremely easy to relate to, and I felt like he was describing my own life at times. Most of my high school friends were older than me, and I did make some dumb choices from time to time. Charley's issues are a lot more serious than mine (my close friends never killed themselves, I didn't have to stay in a mental health facility and I wasn't molested, all good things to miss out on) but his loneliness and awkwardness have to be an almost universal experience. This is a perfect book for anyone who had a rough time at school before finding that group of weirdos who make you feel "infinite." Reading it this time, I also noted that Charlie is an excellent party DJ because he watches the crowd and matches the music to their mood, which is something I actually do for a living. If you've ever felt like an outsider or a weirdo, then you need to read this book.
10 / 10

100 by 30 Book 89 - Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

And now for something COMPLETELY different. After the last book, I kind of felt the need to read something a little more serious. Since the library was out of copies of THE GIVER, I decided to pick up another award-winning book by Lois Lowry: Number the Stars. I remembered reading this book back in grade school and that it was about the Holocaust, but that was about it. The story is about a young girl in Nazi-occupied Denmark and her family's efforts to save their Jewish neighbors from being relocated by the Nazis. It gives a worm's eye view of some of the most horrific events in human history, but it is ultimately a story of triumph over evil. The final escape attempt takes up almost the last half of the book and it is riveting reading. Even if you are very familiar with World War II history, this book highlights the remarkable way the people of Denmark were able to save thousands of their Jewish neighbors and smuggle them safely to Sweden. It's a very quick read, but well worth your time, regardless of your age. There is even a great author's note at the end that explains the inspiring truth behind this story.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 88 - Fifty Shades of Alice in Wonderland

Part of the goal of this project was to read some things I normally wouldn't. Book 88 Certainly isn't the kind of book I ever thought I'd read. Fifty Shades of Alice in Wonderland by Melinda DuChamp is essentially a literary porn parody. Thankfully, it has nothing to do with the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy other than the title (from what I understand, those books promote an extremely unhealthy view of sexual relationships) Ms. DuChamp's little book is more of a goofy how-to guide for exploring adult fantasies.

The story follows Alice, a young woman unsatisfied with her love life with her fiance, Lewis. Lewis gives her a "rabbit" to spice things up a bit. When Lewis Falls asleep, the "rabbit" runs away and Alice chases him down the rabbit hole and into a wonderland of goofy characters who spend a good deal of their time being naughty little monkeys. As far as I can tell, the book follows the format of the original Alice in Wonderland with the exception that most of the creatures have been replaced by hunky dudes and hot babes. Lest you think the book is promoting rampant infidelity, the book ends with the reveal that it was all a crazy dream and Alice and Lewis live happily ever after.

Apart from the massive amount of puns and silly jokes, this book is also careful to promote healthy ways to explore roleplaying and other games. Everyone is nice and considerate, and boundaries are always respected. This isn't to say that the book is chaste by any stretch because Oh My, they do some weird stuff. But the writer's sense of fun for her topic is palpable, and you almost forget that you are reading a smutty, smutty book. In fact, I was shocked that this book is actually pretty well written. Erotica and Romance books aren't renowned for their quality writing (at least that's what I learned from watching Alison Janney in 10 Things I Hate About You and that episode of FRIENDS where Joey finds Rachels dirty book) The parody was well thought out, and some of the jokes were actually quite clever. I looked into a bit and discovered that Melida DuChamp is a pen name for an author who has published over 50 novels under her real name. The pen name is to protect her from the embarrassment of her family finding out that she likes to write dirty books, which makes sense. I mean, people don't like to admit to reading these kinds of books, let alone admitting that you wrote a porny book. (which also explains the romance novel boom that has happened since the advent of the Kindle. Now no one has to know that you aren't reading War and Peace) Overall, I thought this was an interesting read, and I suppose you could do a lot worse than read a dirty parody of a literary classic that treats it women like people with thoughts and feelings rather than just an object of desire.

100 by 30 Book 87 - Beyond Midnight by S.R. Dixon

Full disclosure, the author of Beyond Midnight was a groomsman in my wedding and is one of the coolest people I know. It took me a while to get around to finishing this book because I felt a certain obligation as a friend to love it. This is of course accompanied by the fear that I wouldn't like it. I mean, what if I think it's total crap? I'm a TERRIBLE liar and even worse when it comes to praising a friends artistic endeavors if I don't think they're very good. (which means you can be sure that anytime I gush over a show or concert or book that my friends are in, I'm being totally honest.) So there was a lot riding on my reading of this book, seeing as I intend to continue being friends with this author (who is also the GM of our Fantasy Football league and has yet to announce when the draft is. Seriously dude, I need to know these things, I have 5 years of mediocrity to uphold!)

That said, I am thrilled to report that this is a really great collection of short horror stories. S.R. Dixon has a true gift for creating the atmosphere of nightmare in his stories. He creates that feeling you get when you wake up from a terrifying dream and you know that what just happened shouldn't make sense, but it still feels so immediate and real. It's a tricky line to follow, but Dixon does a great job of balancing just how much detail to give you without breaking that dreamlike quality.

There are several highlights I'd like to draw attention to. The runaway best story in the book is Miss Cavern Queen. Embarrassingly enough, I paused in reading this book for several years right at the beginning of this story, AND I'M SO MAD I DID THAT! I won't give anything away, but this story rivaled some of my favorite Steven King short stories. The world building is fantastic and the dread gives way to a horrific ending that was just awesome. Miss Cavern Queen is worth the purchasing the book all on it's own.

My other Favorite tale is MIDNIGHT. I loved this one because the description of the town reminded me of all of the late night walks I would take around Lanesboro, from the river to the top of Church hill, and all the way to the cemetery on the far edge of town. It was so easy to slip into the mind of the main character as he makes a desperate run to escape a horror that has been slowly killing his friends over the years. The monster is delightfully creepy as well, and I'd love to know more about Mr. Sliver.

Among the other tales there are some great moments as well. The cabin in Oh-Toh-Way is gorgeous and horrific at the same time, with some fantastic images, and the writing in Rapture is such a pleasure to read. There are lots of other little moments that I won't spoil so you can discover them for yourself. You should definitely read this book, and buy it new. :)

This is the first time I've ever read a book written by someone I know pretty well, and I will say that there are certain challenges I didn't fully expect. Mainly, it is very hard not to impose inspiration on the author. I'm pretty sure I ended up visualizing mutual acquaintances for most of the characters, which is weird when you realize that you have decided that the author is secretly writing the demise of everyone around him in ghoulish ways. Thankfully, I was able to avoid any association with people I know in the stories involving nudity or sex. (yay, small victories!) But that also meant that I had a visual image of the author sitting down to write these scenes, which is a little weird mostly because the vast majority of our conversations involve puns, Mel Brooks quotes, or conversations about different monster movies while hanging out backstage during a show. These are not the conversations one associates with sexiness, usually. Nothing kills a nice sex scene like knowing a buddy wrote it, and then having a mental image of said buddy. It's like a mental ice bucket challenge. For those of you who don't know the author, you will have no such problem, but now I know how George R.R. Martin's friends must feel...

100 by 30 Book 86 - The Witches by Roald Dahl

This book is almost exactly like the Angelica Houston movie adaptation, except the ending is much darker (but kind of sweet too when you think about it) A nice little Roald Dahl gem.
8/10

100 by 30 Book 85 - How the White Trash Zombie Got Her Groove Back

Woohoo! I love being right when it's about a series turning a corner and getting awesome. The fourth book in the White Trash Zombie series finds Angel Crawford enjoying life after passing the GED. She's taking martial arts classes and life is generally going quite well....which is a sure sign things are about to get nuts. In short order, she gets a weird disease from a medical procedure gone wrong, the medical facility is attacked by commandos, and the leader of her Zombie tribe is abducted by a sadistic military research company....and she dumps her boyfriend. From there we get a road trip rescue adventure, and stuff gets wild. It is by far the most action packed booked and the pace never slows down. It's a wild ride that finds Angel coming into her own and gaining some real power in the zombie tribe, which makes the ominous end to the book so bittersweet. Angel is on top of her world when we get a small taste that her inner demons might be making a big comeback. This is my favorite Diana Rowland book so far and I can't wait to see what happens next. This is a fascinating take on the zombie mythos that keeps evolving and developing in really cool ways.
10/10

100 by 30 Book 84 - Donner Dinner Party

So I was browsing in the library the other day and I noticed this little book on the shelf for new kids books. Turns out, IT'S A CHILDREN'S ILLUSTRATED BOOK ABOUT THE FREAKING DONNER PARTY! HEY KIDS, WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE TIME A BUNCH OF SETTLERS CANNIBALIZED EACH OTHER?! Actually, that sounds awesome. The story is told by American patriot Nathan Hale before he is executed for spying on the British. He tells the story to the hangman and British general overseeing the hanging while they wait for a crowd to gather. This is probably one of the greatest books ever written. If you are a fan of learning history and lots of dark, inappropriate humor, you need to check this out. Right now.

10/10

p.s. Yes, you do actually learn a lot too. Seriously, there's a bibliography and everything.

100 by 30 Book 83: Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs

Dragonbreath: Attack of the Ninja Frogs by Ursala Vernon

Danny Dragonbreath is a little dragon with a ridiculously active imagination. He loves Martial Arts movies and all things ninja related. Then Suki, the Japanese foreign exchange student, is attacked by ninja frogs. So Danny, Suki, and Danny's best friend Wendel, take a bus to mythological Japan to take on the ninja frogs. It's a very silly book, in the vein of Captain Underpants, with lots of fun puns and jokes for kids and adults.
8/10

100 by 30 Book 82 - Calvin and Hobbes

Revenge of the Baby Sat - 10/10 - I love Calvin vs. Roslyn stories

Weirdos From Another Planet - 10/10 a trip to Mars, Calvin breaks his dad's binoculars.

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons - 10/10 Yay snow monsters!

One of my favorite aspects of this comic is the way Watterson uses the daily comic strip as a format for both nice little one off jokes as well as long running storylines. I remember how frustrated I got has a kid when I realized that non of the other comic strips bothered with extended stories. Also, the artwork continues to be stunning.

100 by 30 Book 81 - Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts is a delightful read. It's part Galaxy Quest, part Stranger Than Fiction, and a little dose of Douglas Adams. The story follows a group of new recruits on the Spaceship Intrepid. Unfortunately, low ranking crew members seem to have a very high mortality rate around the senior officers, especially on away missions. It's a fun, quick read, and all fans of sci-fi or meta-narratives should check it out.

9.5/10

100 by 30 Book 80 - Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

Looking For Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell

Looking For Calvin and Hobbes is the story of journalist Nevin Martell's attempts to get an interview with the illusive author Bill Watterson. Martell admits early on that his quest is unlikely to succeed and moves forward with as book as if he were writing a posthumous biography. It's an interesting little read, and we do learn quite a bit of trivia about Watterson's life, but the soul of the man if missing. Ultimately, I learned what we've all know for a long time, Bill Watterson is an extraordinary talent who is also a very shy and private person. I think Watterson's work will always tell us more about him than any journalist could. It's a nice read, but not essential.

6.5/10

100 by 30 Book 77 - Calvin and Hobbes

So I started reading a biography of Bill Watterson and I got nostalgic and decided to reread some of my old Calvin and Hobbes collections. Holy Cow do they hold up. I feel like the older I get, the funnier this strip becomes. I was especially appreciative of a Sunday Strip about Calvin getting "Kafka Dreams." The wonder and imagination of childhood is still there, but the added perspective of age makes these stories even richer and more profound. If you haven't read Calvin and Hobbes in a while, you really should check it out ASAP. Collections I read for this entry: Calvin and Hobbes, Yukon Ho, and Scientific Progress Goes Boink. The last one was the first Calvin and Hobbes book I ever got, and I think it took me a year to read it because I thought my mom was trying to trick me into reading a science book... sometimes I think I had more in common with Calvin than I'd like to admit.
10/10 duh.

100 by 30 Book 75 - Troy's first steampunk book

Shanghai Sparrow by Gaie Sebold

So Steampunk seems to be sticking around, and I really enjoyed Bioshock Infinite, so I figured I should try to get into the fiction and see what it's all about. I was pretty hesitant at first because the whole Steampunk thing looks like it involves a lot of made up words and there's all these gears and steam and it looks like I need to take a math course just to get the basics of this fantasy world.

Turns out, in this case at least, I had nothing to worry about. This is basically an adventure story with a little retro sci-fi dusting on it. We follow our heroine as she is plucked from the street by a mysterious stranger who sends her to a school for lady spies. It's like Hogwarts, but all the teachers are mean and/or skeevy perverts. Honestly, I picked up this book because there was a cool picture of a steampunk dragon/centipede looking thing on the cover. While we do get a steam punk dragon, the story is not nearly as epic as this setup suggests. In fact, this is actually a pretty cool story of a girl who loses everything and slowly gets it back. It's reminded me of a Charles Dickens book more than anything else. The storytelling and plotting isn't great, but I grew attached to the main character and found myself really enjoying the book despite it's flaws and lackluster conclusion. It was a nice taste of a lite-steampunk story and I look forward to reading some more. If anyone has some good suggestions, let me know.
8.5/0

100 by 30 Book 79 - Willow, Spike, and Game of Thrones

Willow - Willow goes on a solo journey to bring magic back to the world. She learns a lot about herself along the way, and has lots of sex with her snake lady spirit guide.
7/10

Spike - Spike is mopey and sad about Buffy (still) and has an adventure where he learns about stuff and blows up the Easter Island Statues, but he doesn't have sex with anybody.
6/10

Game of Thrones - This is the Graphic Novel adaptation of the first section of the first book. Lots of people have sex. Also, the Art work reminded me of the old Prince Valiant comics I used to skip past when I was a kid...which made this whole story seem pretty lame.....So maybe don't experience Game of Thrones this way.
3/10

100 by 30 Book 76 - Batman, Green Lantern, and Teen Titans

Green Lanterns vol. 3 - The End, Well that wrapped up quick. The Third Army menace is defeated and we have a new Green Lantern. He is a Muslim-American falsely accused of being a terrorist. It's really good.
9/10

Batman Detective Comics 1 - Faces of Death - Joker has his face surgically removed and nailed to his cell at Arkham Asylum, plus some other stuff happens 7/10

Teen Titans, The Culling: Rise of the Ravagers - Hunger Games for teen superheroes. It's decent.
6.5/10

100 by 30 Book 78 - Powers and Teen Titans

Teen Titans Vol. 2 - The first part is a summation of the Ravagers story arc, then we get to move forward and we get more fun teen superhero stuff. It's pretty solid
7/10

Powers Vol. 2 - Roleplay - Really good noire about a pack of cosplaying college kids who get murdered by a super villain. Also, we learn a very important lesson on why you should never grab somebody's arm while they are trying to teleport.
9/10

Powers Vol. 3 - Little Deaths - oof. after 2 very strong outings, this book was not my cup of tea. I barely have patience for the tabloids at the supermarket, and I have less patience for superhero tabloids printed practically cover to cover in the middle of my detective stories.
2/10

100 by 30 Book 74 - Wonder Struck

Wonder struck by Brian Selznick

Hey Guys! I read a 600 page book in like 2 hours!!! Oh wait, this is by the guy who wrote THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, so there were like 400 pictures. Still though, this is a great ego boost for those of you who are slow readers like me. The book is a nice adventure story of a young boy who goes searching for his long lost father after he loses his hearing during a lightning strike while visiting his dead mom's house. Wait, that doesn't sound very nice. That's kind of a bummer. Despite the premise, it is actually a much more uplifting adventure of a young boy in search of a family. This time, the photos are dedicated mostly to telling a parallel story of a young deaf girl 50 years earlier. As with his previous work, the pencil drawings are absolutely stunning and show case an extraordinary amount of emotion in every pencil stroke. It's magical and easily the best part of this book. As for the written part, while I found it engaging and easy to read, it fails to recapture the magic that was HUGO and it suffers by comparison. It's certainly not a bad book, but if you're going to pick up a book by Brian Selznick, go with HUGO.

6.5/10

100 by 30 Book 73: Sh*t My Dad Says

SH*T MY DAD SAYS by Justin Halpern is surprisingly touching. This book is based on the wildly popular twitter feed of the same name which chronicles the hilarious and often blunt statements of Justin's dad. In the book version, Justin goes into much more detail about life growing up with a father who is unafraid to say exactly what it on his mind. What comes to light is a portrait of a complicated and quite wise man doing his best to raise and love his family the only way he knows how. It's hysterical and much more enlightening than it has any right to be. At it's best moments, it reminds me of Calvin's conversations with his dad in Calvin and Hobbes, but with more f-bombs.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 72 - Justice League and Teen Titans

*note: I'm way behind on posts, so I will be keeping some of these short and sweet.

Justice League 3 & 4: Justice league continues to be a remarkable title. The characters are well-defined and their interactions are always interesting. Green Lantern and Batman have great banter. So yeah, Check it out.
8/10

Teen Titans 1: It's like Justice league meets Buffy. Well done, and good fun.
7.5/10

100 by 30 Book 71: Green Lantern Corps and New Gaurdians

Green Lantern: New Guardians Vol. 1 & 2: In yet another corner of the Green Lantern universe we find Earth Green Lantern Kyle Raynor has suddenly been given a power ring from each of the other corps (It's a long back story, but there's a bunch of different corps with different emotions powering there ring like love and rage and hope and greed) What eventually come to light is that an unknown entity is trying to get a new team together made up of lanterns from each of the corps. It starts out a little jumbled and sloppy, but what eventually comes to light is an interesting new team of 'heroes'. In the deeper plot of the book, we are given more clues of a massive change looming for the Green Lantern universe as the Guardians plot the destruction of the corps.
6/10

Green Lantern Corps: The Alpha War - The quality of all the Green Lantern books is consistently good, but this one might be my favorite. John Stewart and Guy Gardner make a great duo and the action is gritty and intense. In this volume, we get rebellion and a major power in the Green Lantern Corps is eliminated, which only signals very, very bad things to come. So far, these Green Lantern stories remind me of the Star Wars prequels with the looming darkness, but without all the really crappy storytelling.
8/10

100 by 30 Book 70: Buffy & Y The Last Man

Buffy Season 9, Vol. 4&5 - So the latest two episodes of Buffy deal very directly with what happens when you suck all the magic from the world and you forget that your baby sister is essentially made of magic. So the Scooby gang has to get together with their new friends and find a way to keep Dawn from vanishing. It's a nice story arc, but the ending threatens to let the book start to spiral off in the direction that ruined the previous season. Only time will tell if the lessons learned in season 8 stuck. For now, I'm still quite hopeful.
7.5/10

Y the Last Man Vol. 1 - I've heard a lot of good things about this series so I thought I'd give it a shot. So far I'm not impressed. Apparently, the whole point of this book is that if all the men in the world died except for one, women would just start acting like alpha males. It reads like a book written by a guy who's never met a woman in his life. What a waste of time.
0/10

100 by 30 Book 69: A Dance With Dragons

So this book can be blamed for the massive amount of shorter books I've been choosing. At almost 1200 pages, this is a lot of book to get through. So what did I get for my 1200 pages in the world of Westeros? Well, for starters, we get more walking and slow traveling than the entire written works of JRR Tolkien combined. Interspersed with all that nothingness are flashes of brutal, horrific violence and more major character deaths. The book does accomplish what George RR Martin seems to have been trying to do since the end of Storm of Swords, which is to get the narrative back under control and get our characters closer together so we can have a more focused story moving forward. By the end of the book, our major groups of characters are in about 4 locations (the wall, Winterfell, Kings Landing, and Meeren) instead of several dozen. We still have a few outliers, but at least by the end of the book, I felt like we had recovered from the disarray of the wars and the next book promises to be much more focused than either A Feast for Crows or A Dance With Dragons. The sneak preview of The Winds of Winter hints at an absolutely amazing battle sequence if that book ever gets published.

On a side note, there is a sequence involving dragons that I quite loved because it was a slow build to a result worthy of a Darwin Award. I think it's the only time I've laughed out loud during a horrific death scene, and I refuse to feel bad about it 'cuz that character totally asked for it. What. A. Dumbass.

So now that I've officially read all of the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series so far, would I recommend them? Yes, I would, to a point. The books offer a wonderfully intricate world full of exciting and interesting characters who make you cheer for them and hate them as they go through this unforgiving and brutal world. On the other hand, the latter 2 books tend to have a lot of dull moments (think 800 or so pages of Ron, Harry, and Hermione Camping in the last Harry Potter book)

Then there is the troubling amount of sexual abuse and violence toward women, specifically very young women. While it always seems to be designed to cause distress to the reader (and quite successfully I might add. Then again, these books have never been for the faint of heart), the frequency and level of detail seems to be more than is necessary for us to understand the brutality of this world. It's something everyone should be aware of before reading these books. While I still think this series has a lot to offer readers, I do sometimes feel like I'm enjoying a nice steak diner while somebody randomly drops dog poop in my water glass.

100 by 30 Book 68 - Fables and Powers

Fables: Cubs in Toyland - Soooo, This is the creepiest story about the island of misfit toys I've ever read. The book focuses on the children of Snow White and Bigby Wolf. One of them follows a mutant toy to a mysterious island where she is made queen. Unfortunately, the island is a purgatory for all of the toys that have accidentally caused the death of a child, and there is no food of any kind. All manner of violent ickiness ensues, including no small amount of familial cannibalism. It's all very well done, but this is probably as bleak as it has ever gotten for the Fables world
8/10

Fables: Snow White - So this book sucked. I'm not opposed to major characters dying in unexpected or upsetting ways, but I am opposed to characters dying in arbitrary events that make no sense from a story stand point and effectively breaks the mythology the book has been setting up for 200 issues. Screw this whole book!
0/10

Powers #1: Who Killed Retro Girl? - Brian Michael Bendis has created an amazing noir world of Superheroes that is part Watchmen, part The Incredibles, and all awesome. The characters are layered and interesting, and the story brings up some intriguing ideas about the nature of heroes and myth. All this is done with a delightful art style that reminds me of a cross between the Powerpuff Girls and Samurai Jack. So far, this book is an absolute must read.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 67 - Animorphs #1: Invasion

Well that's much better! It turns out you can write a compelling series of books for kids. I remember reading this series as a kid, and I think I made it most of the way through before I was overwhelmed by the shear length of the series (said the dummy who just purchased the first book in the Wheel of Time saga). The series follows 5 teenagers as they make a fateful trip through an abandoned work site. They come across a dying alien (not named Abin Sur, but something else all alieny sounding) He tells them that the Earth is being secretly invaded by brain slugs that control your body. Before he dies, he gives them a power to fight back. They can now absorb the DNA of any animal they touch and morph into that animal for up to 2 hours. It's like every kids favorite dream come true (the superpower thing, not the evil brain slug thing) The book actually does a really great job defining our heroes and giving the story some real heart at the core. The action scenes are pretty amazing as well. Who hasn't wanted to be a 1200 lb gorilla and just punch the crap out of some bad guys? It's serialized action at it's best, and I'm almost tempted to reread the series, if it wasn't like 60 books long. If you have young kids though, I'd highly recommend slipping this book onto the pile next time you go to the library.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 66 - Goosebumps: The Girl Who Cried Monster

I was so disappointed in the last Goosebumps book I read that I thought I'd give the series another shot. I might read a couple more if the library ever has any of my old favorites in stock.

Today's story is much better written than The Haunted Mask. The characters even start to resemble real people, well, as much as can be expected in 136 pages. In this tale, Lucy loves telling monster stories and getting her little brother to believe them. But when she discovers that creepy librarian, Mr. Mortman is a real, live monster, no one will believe her. So Lucy sets out to get proof, but will Mr. Mortman discover her first? The book sets up the tension of each attempt quite well, and the twist at the end is one of the more humorous in the Goosebumps series. Despite the junk food-like quality of these books, they do seem to be designed to get kids to keep reading, which is a pretty good thing over all.

6/10

100 by 30 Book 65 - American Vampire, Incorruptable, and SHAZAM!

Today's trio of comics are wildly different, but all quite good, you should check them out.

American Vampire, Vol. 4 - Volume 4 is another solid entry in the series. We learn more of Skinner Sweets backstory (spoiler alert, he was always a little bit psycho) and we get a nice story of a greaser vampire hunter who has a serious vendetta against Skinner. The artwork is stellar as always, and I loved the drag race sequence (it's almost a requirement that you need to race two 1950s hotrods toward certain death.) Is a nice progression of the world and totally worth your time.
9/10

Incorruptible, Vol. 1 - Incorruptible is the reverse side of a series called Irredeemable that I now want to check out. The basic theme of these two books is: What if Superman woke up one day and just totally f***ing snapped? Incorruptible seems to start a few months after the world has been attacked by the Superman-type character, The Plutonian. Super Villain Max Damage has returned to the scene and has undergone a change of heart and is trying to be the hero the world so desperately needs. It's basically a much more nuanced and adult oriented version of the plot of the movie MEGAMIND. The series is off to a very promising start, but it does feel like one half of a story that needs to be read with the Irredeemable title to get the full scope of the world.
9/10

SHAZAM!, Vol. 1 - Holy crap you guys, this has to be one of the biggest surprises of any book I've read so far. The original SHAZAM! series was really, really dumb. A goody two-shoes kid named Billy Batson gets super powers when he yells the magic words. Blech! But with one simple change, the writer's have created a fascinating and nuanced world that I actually care about. The change? What if Billy Batson was a little punk kid who gets bounced around the foster system? Turns out it much more intriguing when you give great power to a flawed individual who has to learn how to be a hero. As Billy slowly begins to let people in to his life, he discovers something worth fighting for. The book does a great job of taking on a more serious tone while still having a sense of fun inherent in a story about young kids suddenly getting super powers. It's almost Spielbergian.
9.5/10

100 by 30 Book 64 - Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask

Part of the idea of this whole project was always to not only read new books, but to also revisit some old favorites from childhood. The Goosebumps series was a favorite of mine and helped me pass many an hour at youth swim meets. For those of you who didn't grow up in the 90's, Goosebumps was a series of horror books for kids. Being that they were designed for kids under the age of twelve, they almost never involved anything actually horrifying but were more along the lines of a Twilight Zone for kids. Each story had some sort of ironic twist at the end, and almost every chapter ended in a 'jump scare.' Today's book was no exception.

Carly Beth is a twelve year old scaredy cat and everyone loves making her jump and scream. So naturally the first half of the book ends with her being pranked at the end of every chapter. It becomes very tedious to have every chapter end with Carly Beth screaming and the second sentence in the next chapter is "oh, never mind, it was a joke, I wasn't about to die." Carly Beth gets so fed up that she decides to get back at everyone by buying the scariest mask she could find. She spends $30 whole dollars on a super realistic mask in the back of the store that the creepy owner doesn't want to sell her. Holloween shenanigans ensue and the moment that Carly Beth gets her revenge is actually pretty effective and well written. Unfortunately for Carly Beth, the mask is, well, haunted and melds onto her skin and becomes a part of her. This is all well and good and makes for some exciting moments, but the resolution is very, very stupid. The store owner turns out to be a mad scientist and not a wizard or anything supernatural, but he gives Carly Beth a very supernatural solution to her problem with some arbitrary rules. I have a pretty high tolerance for fantastical elements in the fiction I read (as evidenced by most of the books on this list) but I hate it when an author makes me jumps through numerous logical hoops when a simple "I'm Ethan Rayne from Buffy and I enchanted these masks for Sport" would have sufficed. Anyway, the book ends happily ever after, or it ends with the painful and horrific death of her little brother. I guess you'll have to read it to find out for sure....




BOO!

5/10

100 by 30 Book 63 - Who's Afraid of Song of the South?

Who's Afraid of Song of the South? by Jim Korkis

As some of you my know, my wife and I get pretty geeky about Disney. I've seen and blogged about the theatrical animated releases, we collect pins and vinylmations, and we've been known to travel to Disney World as often as possible because they have the best staff and the most immersive vacation experience I've ever found. It's awesome.

I'm also not a blind idiot. I know Disney isn't perfect, and that they've been accused of some shady things over the years. That's sort of what this book is about. Jim Korkis is a Disney historian and former employee of the Disney Company and he has a wealth of knowledge about even the most mundane details of the empire. In this Book, he explores some of the more infamous stories about Walt Disney and his company, shedding some new light on old assumptions, but sticking to a neutral tone. It is this neutral approach that makes the book a little dry at times since Jim refuses to do any editorializing or deeper examination. That is left for the readers to do. It's almost like he's encouraging you to think for yourself...

The biggest section of the book is devoted to the controversial film, SONG OF THE SOUTH. This movie has been locked away in the Disney vault since 1986 and will likely never again be legally released in any context. So what's the big deal? If BIRTH OF A NATION is freely available and heralded for it's technical achievements while being almost universally accepted as disgusting racist propaganda, what horrendous imagery is being kept from us?

The plot of the movie is that of a young white boy who comes to visit relatives in the south after the Civil War. His parents are getting a divorce and he's not to happy about that. In his wanderings, he meets Uncle Reemus, a black man who befriends the little boy and helps him with his troubles by teaching him the stories of the animals, namely, Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox. The stories were wildly popular in the south and were a combination of American folktales mixed with African and Native American themes and lesser animated versions can be found on Netflix. The boy makes friends with a little girl and a black boy, he hears more stories, and he runs away from home at one point and is injured by a bull. While the boy is laid up on the verge of death, the farmers in the field sing a mournful song. The boy gets better and the movies ends with his parents getting back together, I think.

What seems to be the biggest contention about the movie is that Walt failed to make it abundantly clear that the movies takes place AFTER the Civil War and that all the black characters are free people and not doting slaves. From the stories in this book, it seems that Walt let his devotion to storytelling and a naivete dissuade him from fixing this problem with the story. It also didn't help that one of the writer's hired for the script was not exactly enlightened about race relations, or much else by the sounds of it. Combine the taint of a suspect author, an unclear setting, and a number of people in the growing civil rights movement, and you have a recipe for disaster. Oh, and Paul Robeson, and amazing civil rights pioneer, turned down the role of Uncle Reemus due to concerns about the depictions of African Americans.

It should be noted that the foreword to this book is by an African American animator who knew Walt Disney personally and worked on this movie and believes it is a good and decent film with many good depictions of black people. Walt even fought for James Baskett, the actor who played Uncle Reemus, to be given an Oscar for his performance. Does this mean it's not at all racist? of course not, but it does mean that there is more than one way to view this film.

After reading this book, I was saddened that I am unable to watch this movie for myself. I think it would be very valuable for people to watch and reasses. Maybe it is just as bad as people say and, regardless of time period, Uncle Reemus is just an ugly Uncle Tom caricature. I also think the Brer Rabbit stories deserve to be told, if only so I can stop listening to dumb teenagers ask who the characters on Splash Mountain are.

Unfortunately, we will likely never see it because of the pressures placed on the studio that made it. This is a studio that, because it is the biggest fish in the sea of family entertainment, is constantly scrutinized over every move they make. The internet is filled with posts by dumb hipsters listing the terrible lessons in Disney movies. (mostly these lists focus only on the end result and come to conclusions that don't really stand up to 5 seconds of examination. Just because a man and a woman fall in love in a children's story does not make that woman less of a character. Especially Belle. She's awesome and I will fight anyone to tries to reduce her to a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. She's the smartest and most awesomest person in a world full of superficial morons, but I digress) One can only imagine what would happen if this film saw the light of day. The actually content of the film and any attempts at educational discourse would be lost in the din of knee-jerk, reactionary vitriol. And since Disney hasn't exactly been the poster child for racial sensitivity, a lot of these arguments will seem to carry real weight. But the questions are more nuanced than that. Despite what the Supreme Court would have you believe, corporations are NOT people. They are made up of people. And many of them are brilliant and complex and are honestly doing everything they can to bring some quality art and joy into the world. And some of them work in marketing and want to know if it's cool if they make your meticulously thought out Heroine into a pretty pretty princess costume for little girls to wear and idolize. Those people suck. But it's just a reminder that the story and intentions behind a piece of art and they way that art is presented is a messy and contradictory business. At the end of the day, my hunch is that Disney tried to make a delightful film showcasing some of Walt's favorite characters from his childhood, and the end product is neither wholly good or wholly evil. I believe it should be open to discussion though.

As for the rest of the book, we get a series of other urban myths and rumors about Walt Disney and his studio. We learn about how Walt became quite conservative in his later years, but also managed to ruffle the feathers of Joe McCarthy by poking fun at the FBI. We also get a fascinating tale of the moment of childhood cruelty that haunted Walt his whole life and may be the reason the Walt Disney company continues to work toward wildlife education and preservation. Some of the stories are quite interesting and other are a rather dull recitation of facts about the casting and development process, but on the whole, I would recommend this book, if only because the author offers you no neat answers or judgements about any of these stories. You just have to work it out for yourself.

8/10

100 by 30 Book 62 - FREE COMIC BOOK DAY EDITION

So I went to my first ever FREE COMIC BOOK DAY celebration at one of the local comic book store. Free Comic Book Day is exactly what is sounds like: you go to a participating store and they give you a bag of free comic books. Let's take a look at this year's haul:

DC's New 52: Futures End #0 - This is a prelude to what is looking to be the next big event in DC comics. It begins in the distant future as all of the DC heroes are slowly being assimilated into a borg-like collective. If you ever wanted to watch all of the DC characters die horribly in 15 pages, this is the book for you. Eventually we get some good old fashioned time travel and it's up to Batman Beyond to save the future. It' looks quite promising
7/10

The Avengers - I'm not sure what continuity this is in, but a lot of low level heroes are running around, trying to stop some A.I. collective from taking over the world. I honestly barely remember anything about it.
2/10

Wolverine: Killable Part 1 of 6 - I'm sensing a pattern here. Wolverine has lost his healing power to a sentient virus that is assimilating heroes and taking over their minds before eliminating their powers....so the same basic plot of the past two comics. Character is key though, and the presence of Wolverine, Storm, and her ex-husband Black Panther go a long way towards making me care about this plot. Of the superhero related comics, this one is my favorite.
8/10

Mouse Guard amd Other Stories: The final book I got was a very nice hardcover sampler of the different titles from Archaia comics (a branch of BOOM! comics) Each story is just a little sample, but the artwork is more varied and creative than that of the Marvel and DC comics. You also can't go wrong when one of your stories takes place in the world of Jim Henson's Labyrinth. This was my favorite book and gave me a lot of fun indie titles to keep an eye out for.
9/10

Overall, Free Comic Book Day was a blast and it's always fun to read stories or titles you might not get exposed to otherwise.

100 by 30 Book 61 - White Trash Zombie Apocalypse

Diana Rowland's latest foray into the weird and wacky world of Angel Crawford feels more like a middle section of a larger story than a complete book. There is a lot of set up here to suggest that the world is about to undergo some massive expansion. I have a feeling that we will be leaving the small corner of Louisiana very shortly as things start to get global. It's just a hunch, but the corporate spy stuff and government conspiracies are moving closer and closer to the center of the action. We also get an answer to the burning question about how long the zombies in this world can live. (it's a LOOOOONG time)

The biggest signifier to me though is the revelation that Angel is something much more important than just another white trash zombie. She pulls something off in this book that apparently only the oldest zombies can do. That said, this book was more of a promise of things to come than a satisfying and complete story due to the way it just sort of ends....like this post

7/10

100 by 30 book 60 - Even White Trash Zombies get the blues

Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues by Diana Rowland

The continuing adventures of Angel Crawford and her new life as a zombie/coroner's assistant prove that the first book wasn't just a cute one-off. The universe expands as Angel realizes that her new boyfriend's uncle may be the Don Corleone of the zombie world, which is a good thing if he likes you, not so good if he wants to use you as a pawn in some corporate espionage. Angel continues to grow and evolve, moving further away from her white trash past and closer the being downright respectable. My favorite part of this series so far is Angel's continuing ability to find her own sense of self worth. She starts to demand better treatment from those around her, including her police man/zombie sire of a boyfriend. It's refreshing to see a female character initially fall in love and then pull away of her own volition when her boyfriend acts like a condescending tool. It's a complicated relationship in a good way. Angel has finally gotten some control over her life and she's not going to let anybody take it away.

The main plot involves a secret government plot to create zombie soldiers or 'Zoldiers' (cuz it wouldn't be a good evil project without a stupid name) Some very bad stuff goes down, but we get to see Angel unleash her inner monster and create a lot of carnage. So far, this series continues to hold it's place as one of the more unique approaches to the genre. Plus they always err on the side of more gore than romance, way more gore.

9/10

100 by 30 Book 59 - Buffy, Season 9: It gets better!

Holy Cow you guys, Buffy Season 9 is really, really good! Joss kept his promise! I lieu of a paragraphed format, I'm going with a bullet point format today.

*The stories have become much smaller and more intimate. No more cosmic nonsense

* While the previous season got pretty stupid, it did lead to some interesting consequences like:
* no more connection to magic means no more demons inhabiting humans when a new vampire is made. This has created a race of Vampires that have all the higher brain functions of fast zombies (yes, they call them Zompires, and I love it)

* The new big bad is a being that is absorbing the residual magic left in the world. Basically he is sucking the life force out of the Slayers.

*Also, Willow is like, super bummed.

Finally, there is a really interesting story where Buffy thinks she is pregnant and wants to get an abortion. It's a pretty heavy topic and I thought they were handling it very well, but I was disappointed that they dodged the consequences by making Buffy not actually pregnant. I wasn't necessarily cheering for an abortion, but Buffy's struggle with the decision was one of the most gripping story lines she's ever had, and I really wanted to see what was going to happen. The story they went with turned out to be pretty entertaining and fun, but I would have liked to have seen how they would have handled Buffy actually having gone through with the procedure. Oh well, at least they are back to making stories that are at least worth having thoughts about.

8/10

100 by 30 Book 58 - Buffy and Batman

You guys totally thought I quit didn't you? Well, I didn't. I'm just a world class procrastinator and a lover of doing things at the last possible minute, So you can expect my debut novel to come out sometime around 2064.

Anyway, back to the reading. I actually finished this and the next 4 books like a month ago, but have been too lazy to write anything. But when you're dealing with something as monumentally disappointing as the conclusion of season 8 of Buffy, it's very easy to put it off. Seriously, this season is so bad that Joss Whedon writes an apology at the end. Basically he says, "Look guys, we got really excited about being able to do anything and then we got really drunk and wrote a scene were Angel is kind of the bad guy or something and then Angel and Buffy become demigods and just fly around and have sex in outer space and at the bottom of the ocean and make a new universe that goes evil when they leave it and Angel kills Giles and all magic is destroyed. Ok, so maybe we did a little mushrooms too...it was a weird couple of days. Anyway, sorry the series totally sucked for awhile. We promise to better next time.....we're very sorry"

1/10 - it's an awful, unreadable mess

Batman - Night of the Owls
I'm really loving the new Court of the Owls storyline in Batman, but the library never has the second volume so I can't catch up. This book is instead a bringing together of all the Night of the Owls stories that appeared in all of the Gotham-centric titles. It' a mishmash of events, but it is still far more coherent and engaging than Buffy was, and it was drawing from half a dozen titles.
7/10

100 by 30 Book 57 - My Life as a White Trash Zombie

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland is awesome!

So this is a first person tale of Angel Crawford, a young lady who wakes up in a hospital only to slowly discover that she is a zombie now. Also, she's a drug addict and convicted felon who lives with her alcoholic father in their crappy trailer.

There are 2 major elements that make this such an entertaining story. First of all, Rowland does a great job of tweaking the zombie mythos without losing the horror. Brains have always been a staple in the zombie appetite, but it never seemed to factor in to any of the zombie fiction I encountered in any significant way. Here, brains are necessary for Angel's very survival. She is gifted with a job as a coroner's assistant from the mysterious figure who turned her. This gives her access to brains which keep her healthy, but a few days deprivation result in a growing stench and a rapid deterioration resulting in rotting flesh and the quick descent into the shambling zombie we are all familiar with. It's an interesting tweak that I quite enjoyed. Angel will literally rot and die if her access to brains is cut off. This way, we get a coherent narrator, who also rots and gets really, really gross from time to time.

The other major element is Angel herself. This is actually a redemption story in the guise of a horror story. Angel's story starts with her life in absolute shambles. She was found naked and drugged on the side of the road. Her sort of boyfriend is a druggy too, and her dad is in an unemployed drunken turd. It's hard to be in a worse state than that. Her new situation ironically gives her a new lease on life. She suddenly finds herself with a job she has to keep in order to survive and her new zombification has left her unable to feel the effects of any drugs or alcohol. It's like an instant rehab program. Angel's struggle to finally gain control of her life is the biggest draw here, and it's a complete joy to read. Plus there's all kinds of murder and grossness going on. There is also a slight dash of romance, but it's a zombie book, so if you have sex without the proper amount of brains in your system, clothes aren't the only thing that can fall off.... In all seriousness though, this book is great fun, and I finally found a Louisiana horror series I like better than the True Blood books.

10/10

100 by 30 Book 56 - White Oleander

White Oleander by Janet Fitch


This is a pretty amazing book, but definitely not for the faint of heart. The story follows Astrid as she is passed around through the foster system after her mother is sent to jail. What follows is a harrowing tale of 5 years of physical abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse. Throughout Astrid's journey, she is trying to find comfort where she can, and slowly comes to realize the extant of her mother's extreme narcissism. It's a nice portrait of a child coming to the realization that the parent they loved was actually abusive. There comes a point about two thirds of the way through the book where I almost gave up because I got so bummed out. Don't worry though, it gets better and the final confrontation between Astrid and her mom is one of the best written scenes I've ever read. I highly, highly recommend this book, but you will probably want to have a puppy or other cuddly creature nearby.

9/10

100 by 30 Books 54 and 55 - Buffy, Season 8

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: season 8: Vol 1-6

(contains massive spoilers)

So, the TV show has continued on in comic book form. How does the change of medium affect one of my all time favorite properties?
First of all, the comic book edition is the first to really go big in the scale of events. Due to the events of the season 7 finale, we know have an army of Slayers running special ops missions across the globe and we get some huge battles. Also, Dawn becomes a Giant, a centaur, and a living stuffed dolly. So the battles and the big set pieces are cool, but I do have some issues.

First, the limitations of the TV format kept the characters grounded. They didn't have the budget to make an army of ghost vampires or giant ancient gods, so instead they focused on the relationships, and it was amazing. Season 8 has gone to some wild and crazy places so far, and sometimes the characters stuff gets put on the back burner. The exception that proves the rule is a storyline involving Faith doing an undercover mission to take out a rogue Slayer. It is a very well written story that perfectly illustrates that she and Giles are much more willing to make the tough calls than Buffy and the tension is superb. We get some great character development from all three of them and it has been to highlight of the series so far.

Back to the wacky stuff. Season 8 seems to be almost giddy to bring back dead or unnecessary characters just because they can. For instance, the bring back Warren and Amy and make them a couple. First of all, gross. Secondly, I don't give a rat's ass what Amy is doing as she was barely ever more than a sketched out side character. And Third, can't we just let a good death be a good death? Warren's death scene was perfect in the show. The guy had it coming, and we got have Willow deal with the consequences of having taken a human life. Bringing the guy back and making him a comically inept super villain negates all of that. If Xander has to go through another love interest getting run through by a sharp metal object, I should at least get the consolation of dead bastards staying dead!

The love stuff also needs to be addressed. I don't see why they have to keep killing off the people Xander dates. There's no actors to pay anymore! What, did she take up to much of the ink budget?!? Boo. Kill some one else, maybe Andrew.

Lastly, and I must ask your patience as I try to write about this from my male, heterosexual perspective, but I think Buffy's little lesbian fling is total B.S. To give them credit, the writers do eventually get around to talking about it in an interesting way, and many characters are legitimately mad at Buffy for using a girl for comfort, then moving on. From the little I've gleaned from various advice columns, it does sound like lesbian women do have these kinds of things happen to them, and that sucks. No one wants to be used for somebody else's sexual exploration phase and basically get treated as an object rather than a person. So I think it's a good thing to talk about in any medium, but especially in one know for constantly drawing woman showing off their boobs and butt at the same time. That said, I didn't like the way it was addressed in the story. Maybe it needed Sarah Michelle Gellar's underrated acting chops, but I never got why Buffy, an extremely heterosexual character, would suddenly be sorta gay for a little bit. It all felt too fast and too forced. What eventually morphed into an interesting dialogue about relationships started like the opening of American Pie 2, with everyone barging in to learn about Buffy's dirty little secret, making the other woman into a punch line. You're better than that, Buffy writers.

I'm almost to the end of the season though, so I'll be back soon with the conclusion to a so-so Season 8.

6.5/10

100 by 30 Book 53 - Hell Week

The second adventure of Maggie Quinn, teen psychic is even better than the first book. The events of the first book have caused a rift between Maggie and her best friend, her powers are getting greater, and her maybe boyfriend is being all weird. The book hits the ground running as Maggie goes undercover to skewer the world of Sorority life. But this is a modern fantasy novel in the vein of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so naturally Maggie ends of in the Sorority that has dealings with supernatural powers. Also, Maggie makes a very funny joke that is also a massive spoiler for the TV series ANGEL, so watch that before reading this book, but you should totally do both.

One of my favorite aspects of the book is that Maggie is allowed to screw up a little. She is seduced by the advantages suddenly afforded her just for being a member of the popular club. She doesn't go full Mean Girl, but what she does seems a lot more realistic. She's a smart, capable person who is getting unexpectedly positive attention everywhere she turns. Who wouldn't enjoy it if they suddenly started getting the recognition and breaks they thought they deserved? It would be enough to distract anyone from noticing that there is some serious demon worshippy stuff going on.

If you like the idea of College secret societies, but always wanted the characters to be much more relateable and the power source more supernatural, then this is the book for you.

8.5 out of 10


*side note- I'm way behind on writing these blogs. I just finished number 57. I'll try to get caught up soon. Cheers!

Some thoughts on Wrestlemania 30

So tonight, my wife, my dog and I sat down and I watched my first ever Wrestlemania live. I'd been going back and watching past matches here and there, but this is my first time watching the "Showcase of the Immortals". So what did I, a renewed fan since last November think? Let's go over it:

Pre-Show: Yeah yeah yeah, I know preshow matches don't really count, but the 4-way elimination tag team event was a pretty decent match and it was the beginning of a night where WWE looked to the future. We finally got to see Cesaro, probably the most physically impressive performer I've ever seen, break away from his tag team partner and make a move towards greatness. They call him the Swiss Superman for a reason, and he was just getting started....

Opening Segment: Hulk Hogan comes out... and can't remember the name of the stadium. There are few things more entertaining than watching 75,000 people tell arguably the most famous wrestle of all time that he's in the Superdome, not the Silverdome. Then my wife left the room to get a beverage... and Stone Cold Steve Austin came out!! He's pretty cool. Then the timer for the oven went off and my wife left again....and The Rock came out!!! He's pretty cool too. We got to see three of the biggest sports entertainers of all time share a couple of beers on stage and honestly, with the combined charisma those three guys have with an audience, I probably could have watched that for 4 hours.

Opening Match: Triple H vs. Daniel Bryan - Honestly, my wife and I spent most of this match trying to figure out why Triple H has such freakishly big nipples for a dude. I don't care how cold it is, man nipple should never create shadows that can be measured in inches... I'm just saying it's weird, and I don't like it. I thought the match was pretty great though. Daniel Bryan won (duh) but Triple H got a lot of nice heel moments to make the outlook bleak for Daniel to be able to physically compete in the Triple Threat main event match. (long story how that works, but this is basically a soap opera so just go with it)

6 man tag: The Shield vs. The New Age Outlaws and Kane - Squash match. boo. I saw The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family live in February. It was electric and one of the greatest things I've ever seen. This was three supremely gifted dudes beating the crap out of 3 guys in their late 40s for 5 minutes.

John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt - This was an interesting match. I love the Wyatt Family's creepy backwoods cult gimmick and I kind of appreciated the storytelling in this match. Older fans are desperate for John Cena to stop being such a goody two shoes dork with a limited move set, while he's also a role model for kids and the guy has granted over 400 wishes for the Make-a-Wish foundation. Basically, this was a pro-wrestling adaptation of the Luke/Vader showdown in Return of the Jedi (or Jesus being tempted in the wilderness if you want to blow it all out of proportion) I liked that they played with John Cena being tempted by the dark side, and honestly, he's WAY more interesting when he goes dark. It's too bad he's such a hero to the kids and ambassador for the product that he can never actually go evil but I liked the effort, and Bray Wyatt is awesome.

Andre the Giant Memorial 30 Man Battle Royal: So 30 guys all get in the ring and play a round of "THE FLOOR IS LAVA!" It's silly and stupid until you get at least 20 of these guys out of the ring so there is some room to work. Kofi Kingston as usual proves that he is the master of doing something totally mind-blowing, and then losing 30 seconds later. In this case He gets thrown over a ring post to the outside of the ring, falling roughly 9ft and somehow landing his feet on the bottom step, avoiding elimination. Look up the clip. The guy is amazing, and a fan favorite among people who live in my house. To end this match, the previously mentioned Cesaro lifts up the 7 ft tall, 500lb Big Show and throws him over the top rope. One, This is way more impressive a feat that Hulk Hogan body slamming Andre the Giant, and two, it sets up Cesaro to be a main event level talent in the very near future....and he won a big, stupid trophy.

The Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar - First of all, I want to apologize to all the life long WWE fans out there. I did not grow up with the steak, I watched the matches on Netflix and fast-forwarded through a lot of them until Shawn Michaels fought him in back to back years. Their first match was perfect. The next was pretty good. Then I sat through two years of the Undertaker barely able to fight Triple H. Last years CM Punk Match was pretty good, but by that point it had been almost 5 years since the Undertaker had shown me the kind of athleticism that earned him the nickname of the Phenom in the first place. I wasn't seeing an epic match for the ages, I was seeing a guy in his late 40s do his damndest to electrify a crowd, and coming back with less and less to give every year. He was spending so much time lying on the ground in the last few matches that The Streak was becoming a parody of itself. To me, The guy who didn't grow up invested in the streak, I thought Brock was a great choice to end it. He's a legitimate beast of a human being, the guy has reached the top in every sport he's ever tried that involves hurting another human being with your bare hands. If I was going to give up an undefeated streak at the age of 49 and barely able to perform anywhere near my peak ability, I'd choose to go down swinging to a former MMA world heavy weight champion, NCAA national champion, and all around BAMF like Brock Lesnar. It brings both a sense of closure and legitimacy to the accomplishment. That said, my jaw dropped when it actually happened. Then I saw the faces of the crowd. It was amazing television. And that's what pro-wrestling is: it's a primal kind of storytelling. The Wrestlers are out there to illicit emotion, and in the PG era, the stories have become safe. The end of the streak was the "Red Wedding" of wrestling events. Something unthinkable happened and the looks on the faces of the fans and the silence of 75,000 people was incredible. And Brock Lesnar gets to be one of the most hated men in the industry. I was surprised at my sadness, but I'm also excited to see what happens next. I kind of loved it. When's the last time a scripted sport made you feel that emotion.

Vicki Guerro Diva Invitational: Talk about trying to polish a turd. 14 woman battling for one pinfall is a stupid and demeaning concept in an era where there are at least 8 extremely talented women who deserve a better showcase of their talent than a stupid gimmick match after the crowd has been sucker-punched in the gut. Anything you put in this slot was doomed for failure. And yet...I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of nice moments we got in this match. It was almost as if the entire female roster was giving the finger the bookers who tried to bury them. We got triple suplexes and super kicks and bodies flying everywhere. For a useless match in a thankless spot on the card, I thought the ladies proved that you can polish a turd.

Main Event: Daniel Bryan vs. Batista vs. Randy Orton for the WWE World Heavyweight Title - I thought this was a pretty great match, the pacing and storytelling was compelling, and most of all, Batista finally appeared to be in ring shape and able to perform at a level expected for a Wrestle-mania main event performer. He was better than The Miz anyway... This match also got me interested in Randy Orton for the first time ever. I finally saw something in him that explained why he's at the top of the talent heap. I loved the kick-outs at 2 and 7/8ths. The crowd has been getting screwed out of what they want to see for so long, that it was believable that they'd get kicked one more time. This is how good wrestling should work (in my very, very humble opinion. But Stone Cold Steve Austin and Jim Ross have said similar things so I don't think I'm too far off) The audience needs to be invested in the story, they need to be afraid that their hero might fail, that evil will triumph, and I think the performers did a great job of that tonight. I bought into the reality that they sold me when Daniel Bryan was getting strapped to the gurney and rolled away from the ring. Batista has a look in his eyes that was like, "oh crap! I think I just broke that dudes neck for real! Don't break character! Just beat up the other guy over here for awhile and hope we find a way to end the show, then I can run away and get ready to promote my superhero movie." I fully suspended my disbelief and I got to be carried on a journey, and everyone got the ending they've been begging for. Daniel Bryan, the little goat-looking man who could, raising the championship belts in a downpour of confetti as 75,000 fans chanted, YES! YES! YES!

100 by 30 Book 52 - Super Girl, Wonder Woman, and Swamp Thing walk into a bar...

Long time between posts, I know. I just haven't felt like writing lately. I've been getting a lot of reading done though so let's get started.

Supergirl vol 2- Continues to be an exciting adventure of a stranger in a strange land. Super Girl and her world are easy to understand and the mythology is pretty easy to grasp, making the story and characters the focus of the book. It's a quality story that far surpasses her more famous nephew
7/10

Swamp Thing - Actually a pretty decent start for a creepy horror/fantasy book. Basically, this is a throwback to old school horror with a dose of environmentalism. Some of the mythology is pretty goofy and I found my self struggling to understand the rules of the world, but overall I found it compelling, mostly due to the fantastic artwork
6.5/10

Wonder Woman vol 2 - So, I took some Greek Mythology courses in school, I saw Disney's Hercules, and I've read the Justice League. That should give me enough basic understanding of super heroes and myths to follow what's happening here, but I'm totally lost. Obscure characters arrive and leave without being addressed by name. Powers and rules of the universe are never clearly defined. Pretty pictures aside, this book is a narrative mess.
3/10

100 by 30 Book 51: Prom Dates From Hell

Prom Dates From Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore is a delightful book about high school, friends, bullies, and ancient Babylonian Demons trying to destroy the world. Our hero is one Maggie Quinn. She isn't popular but doesn't care because she actually has friends already. She's smart, very funny, and has recently had to come to terms with the fact that she gets visions. After helping to stop a vicious bullying incident at her high school, the perpetrators slowly begin suffering unexplained catastrophes. It's up to Maggie, D&D Lisa, Baywatch Brian, and Justin the supernatural nerd to solve the case and save the day.

I thought the characters were very well fleshed out and quite relateable. Maggie reminded me of a lot of the female friends I've had over the years, and the author does a great job capturing what it's like to go through high school when you have a functioning social life but no one accuses you and your friends of being the cool kids. The book is a fun read, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Speaking of which, I just finished rewatching the series and I will be moving on the season 8, which helpfully exists in graphic novel form. Talk to you then!

8.5/10

My First Wrestling Show

This past Sunday, I attended my first pro wrestling event, WWE's Elimination Chamber Pay-per view. So what is is like to see live pro wrestling? Here are a few of the things I learned.

1. WWE really is Family Friendly - I started to get back into wrestling a few months ago. One of the reasons I'd stopped watching over a decade ago was the crassness of the Attitude era. When WCW folded, there was no longer a show I could sit and watch with my dad without feeling really uncomfortable. Sex jokes and blood did not make for family entertainment. The WWE of today is decidedly a PG affair. The jokes are silly, the action is gore-free, and their is a circus-like atmosphere, which includes $9 cotton candy, and "clown" segments with backstage videos of wrestlers playing with toys or wrestlers heckling the crowd on the mic. "Bad News" Barrett is basically a one man Statler and woldorf complete with a podium that rises into the rafters.

2. The crowd matters - A live wrestling show is one of the few forms of entertainment where heckling and crowd interaction are an essential part of the experience. In real sports, if you boo Santa, ESPN will complain about that city having no class. In WWE, Chanting that the good guy sucks is half the fun. It's like the Rocky Horror Show with drop kicks and body slams.

3. The Spanish announcer's table has the life expectancy of a Red Shirt on Star Trek - Odds are, when it comes time to throw some poor guy through a table, the Spanish announce table is the first to go. This night was no exception. During the six man tag match, two 6'7", 300+ lb guys through a 6'1" 220lb guy through that table. It was awesome. Seeing a guy fall through a poorly constructed table never gets old.

3. The crowd is an interesting mix - The WWE promotes itself as scripted entertainment, and yet I still sat next to a woman who believed everything she was seeing was real. This also meant that she got rather upset when I began cheering for the bad guys. The crowd is an odd mix of kids and adults who believe in everything they see and the folks who enjoy it as the entertainment spectacle that it is, with the later making up the majority of the crowd.

4. The performers are amazing athletes - I knew that wrestlers had to be world class athletes to pull off the stunts they do without killing each other. Seeing it live, I gained an immense appreciation of the precision timing it takes to execute some of these moves. I got to see back flips all over the place, suicide dives onto the ground, and perfectly timed uppercuts, slams and kick-ass finishing moves. It was like a master class of fight choreography. It also helps when your opponent is willing to take actual blows from you. They're also Strong as hell. You can't fake suplexing one guy while he holds onto a third. It's also not easy to catch 250lbs of muscle flying at you from 9 feet in the air. These guys are absolutely professional athletes who also know how to put on a show.

5. John Cena isn't that bad - John Cena is the current top good guy in WWE. He looks like a hulked up Mark Wahlberg and is always talking about hustle, integrity, and never giving up. He's a boy scout to the point of annoyance and the crowd is constantly split between those who love him and those who hate him. (the "let's go Cena!"/"Cena Sucks!" chant is very popular) Since I haven't spent the last 10 years watching this guy, I don't have much of an opinion on his in ring skills. It wasn't until I saw a fan with cerebral palsy wearing a Never Give Up hat that I saw that Cena's value is bigger than the ring. John Cena has granted over 400 wishes for the Make-a-Wish foundation. I'm not always thrilled with him as a wrestler, but he seems to be doing his part to be a great role model, and a hero figure that people can cheer for (even if he kinda sucks)

Overall, I had an absolute blast at this show and I was surprised at how accessible WWE has become. If they come to your town, I'd say give it a shot, you might have a blast too. It's silly, it's breathtaking, and just a darn good time.

Side note: Bray Wyat may be the greatest character since The Undertaker. The guy plays a freaky redneck cult leader with two bearded behemoths as acolytes, one of whom is about 7 feet tall and wears a green jumpsuit and lamb mask. It's creepy as hell and holy cow can they put on a show. Bray's 'Sister Abigail' finishing move is one of the coolest finishers I've even seen. I can't wait to see where this guy goes.

100 by 30 book 50 - Green Lantern, Justice League, and Supergirl

*huff* *puff* you guys, I *huff* did it. I made it halfway through my challenge. Holy crap, 100 books is a lot for someone who reads as slow as I do. Also, focusing on books makes my pop culture ADD very cranky. Sometimes a guy just wants to sit down and gorge on 30-40 hours of Buffy and Angel and then kill everything that moves on my Playstation. Then the guilt comes back and I get back down to business. Will I make my goal?! Stay tuned to find out. I have 7 months to get through 50 books. This means I have the challenge of finding engaging books that aren't 800+ pages. Or lots and lots of graphic novels. I'll try to keep mixing it up though. I have made a promise to read White Oleander at some point.... But on to today's offerings!

I will go ahead and just review all three of these together. After the last entry, I was trying to figure out if I even liked graphic novels anymore. Fortunately, these three titles proved that the comic book form still has a lot to offer. Unlike say, Justice League Dark, Green Lantern and friends demonstrate that having a few relateable and grounded characters make all the difference. Hal Jordan and Sinestro's uneasy alliance makes for great storytelling. Just beneath the Buddy-cop bickering lies the very real threat that Sinestro could turn on Hal and any point. Having a point of reference give the story license to go in all the crazy directions that it does because you remain invested in the development of the characters.

The Justice League reboot tells an origin of the team that finds a way to highlight the different strengths of all the members and make them all individuals as well. Superman is the boyscout, Green Lantern is the jock, The Flash is the teacher's pet, Cyborg is the rookie, Batman is the paranoid survivalist, Wonder Woman is the foreign exchange student, and Aquaman is that kid who you thought was quiet and weird until he gets an army of sharks to kill the crap out of everything. We don't need these guys to be deep, but we do need them to be easy to tell apart. The new Justice League title is very successful at building this team dynamic. It's a nice vision of what a Justice League movie could be if Warner Brothers Studios wasn't run by morons.

Finally, we get a fish-out-of-water adventure in the form of Supergirl. Superman's older cousin was put in stasis when Krypton blew up. She crashes on Earth not having aged a day and is understandably dubious when a full grown Kryptonian claims to be her baby cousin. All kinds of shenanigans follow and we once again see an adventure story done right.

That's it for now, see you when I muster the motivation to write again.

All three books 9/10