Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Kami Garcia; Gabriel Picolo–Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven (2021)

Posted in Beast Boy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Death, Gabriel Picolo, Graphic Novel, Kami Garcia, Raven, Supernatural, Teen Titans on July 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: May 20, 2023] Teen Titans: Raven

Kami Garcia has written (and Gabriel Picolo has illustrated) a trilogy of books about Raven and Beast Boy from the Teen Titans.

I only know about Teen Titans from teen Titans Go! which I think is hilarious and (which I realized years after watching it) has nothing really at all to do with the actual Teen Titans who are serious (and kind of dull in a DC comics way).

But these stories are interesting and seem to be breaking out of the darkness that DC is under with these lighter (but not nearly as light as Teen Titans Go!) origin stories.

As with all comic book characters, origin stories are canon.  Until they need to be modified for the new series. I don’t know what the actual origin stories of either of these characters are, but I enjoyed these quite a bit.  I also rather liked this book because on the cover Raven looks like Miss Calendar from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

At the end of each of their books, they were heading to Nashville to meet Slade, a mysterious figure who says he has answers.  They are in the same cafe and when their orders get mixed up (Beast Boy is vegetarian), they wind up talking.  Beast Boy falls for her instantly, but she is very suspicious and blows him off. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Kate Williams–The Babysitters Coven: For Better or Cursed [Book 2] (2020)

Posted in Babysitters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dogs, Funny (ha ha), Magic, Monsters, Series, Set at School, Supernatural, Unfinished series, YA Books on July 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2023] The Babysitters Coven Book 2

I enjoyed the first book in this series quite a bit.  Then I forgot all about it.  I happened to see book 2 in the library and decided to check it out.

My daughter actually said she wanted to read it too, but I told her it was book 2, so she may go get book 1.

Book 2 picks up pretty quickly where book 1 left off with our two Babysitters/Demon slayers in the middle of the action.

Our heroine is Esme Pearl.  In book one, Esme Pearl is a babysitter.  She and her best (and only) friend Janis started a Babysitter’s Club back in junior high. There were of course four of them in the club and each girl paralleled one of the girls in the original series.  The Sitters were successful, until Cassandra Heaven showed up.  Cassandra is eccentric, to be sure.  But by the end of the book, Esme and Cassandra realize they have a connection—Cassandra’s father (a supernatural being) is the reason why Esme’s mother is more or less comatose.  It turns out that Esme’s mother was also a Sitter and was cursed—we believe by Cassandra’s father. (more…)

Read Full Post »

LaMacchia (Ortlieb’s, Philadelphia, PA, June 23 2023) [SPOTLIGHTS]

Posted in Casablanca, Heatmap, LaMacchia, Ortlieb's, Philadelphia, PA, Shipping News, Spotlights on June 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 24, 2023] LaMacchia

LaMacchia is John LaMacchia.  John LaMacchia is the guitarist for Candiria, a metal band I don’t know who plays a kind of mathcore/prog something or other.

LaMacchia is his first solo album, and it’s a very different feel.  He and Sabrina Ellie are the main singers and the album has a much more mellow vibe.

For this show, he had a band and I really enjoyed their set a lot.  There was no female vocalist, but there were outstanding harmonies from his bassist (who had an excellent sound and was really fluid in the basslines) and his guitarist/keyboardist who seemed to be doing all kinds of things over there.

Their drummer was a guest drummer for the night and he was really good, too.

Overall, I was really impressed with how the band could maintain an overall heavy sound but still have excellent (at times) three part harmony.  There was also some diversity in sound up on stage too, with a couple of the songs being almost atmospheric.

“Disconnect” even had a sample from Casablanca (who samples Casablanca?). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Brian Level, Ryan Ferrier, Kate Sherron, Crank!–Silk Hills (2022)

Posted in Brian Level, Crank!, Death, Deer, Drugs, Graphic Novel, Guns, Huh?, Humiliation, Kate Sherron, Moths, Oni Press, Ryan Ferrier, The X Files, Violence, Yuck! on May 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus.

[READ: May 9, 2023] Silk Hills

I haven’t been reading that many graphic novels lately.  My daughter made the excellent point that our local library has an excellent graphic novel collection but that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while.  So I was pleased t o see this book at work, especially since it was from Oni Press, a reliably weird publisher.

I don’t know any of the contributors: authors Brian Level (has written for Star Wars and Marvel) and Ryan Ferrier (has written lots of indie books and written for Marvel and DC).  Crank! is Christopher Crank who has done lettering for just about everyone.  Kate Sherron has a very distinctive visual style (which I see a lot of people don’t like).  I thought it was pretty cool and unusual–it reminded me a bit of Jeff Lemire’s style.

I have been listening to a book of short stories from The X-Files, and this book immediately made me think of the X-Files.  It’s also the kind of story that either should have been longer or should have had fewer hallucinatory passages and had more explanatory pages.

Beth Wills is a former Marine turned private investigator.  She lives in New York City but is sent to an unnamed rural community called Silk Hills.  It must be pretty far, as a gas station attendant remarks on her New York plates, but we don’t know exactly where Silk Hills is.

I enjoyed the interactions with Wills and the gas station attendant also a former military man (out six years). (more…)

Read Full Post »

David Cross / Sean Patton (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, May 5, 2023)

Posted in Arrested Development, Comedy Album, David Cross, Funny (ha ha), Mr Show, Philadelphia, PA, Sean Patton, Union Transfer on May 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 5, 2023] David Cross / Sean Patton

My wife and I saw David Cross back in 2016.  He was hilarious.

He’s consistently one of my favorite comedians.  I have enjoyed David Cross since the old days of Mr. Show, and the as Tobias on Arrested Development and even in Alvin and the, well, actually I’m just happy for him that he got a lot of money for it.

It was really puzzling that this show was at Union Transfer (as opposed to a seated venue).  I assume that they put in seats-who wants to stand up for a stand up?

This show was scheduled for the same night as Yves Tumor who I had very much wanted to see.  So David didn’t get my ticket purchase.  But the show sold out so he doesn’t care.

Sean Patton opened.  He’s a comedian I’d never heard of.  He had a special on Peacock, with a theme about people being broken.  People are like glow sticks–you gotta break them before they can shine.  He sounds dark but optimistic.

Read Full Post »

The Residents (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, March 31, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, The Foundry, The Residents, Triple Trouble on March 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 3, 2021] The Residents [rescheduled from May 1, 2020, May 14, 2021; and September 3, 2021]

 

After four tries and almost three years The Residents finally came to Philly.

And somehow I missed the announcement entirely.  Whoops.

I actually had several options for shows on this night, so The Residents problem were never going to be on my list, but it’s always nice to know that they’re out there, Holding up the Underground.

Plus, I was lucky enough to see them for a Free at Noon earlier that day.  So I got to experience some (25 minutes) of a Residents show.  And that was probably enough.  Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I don’t need to see more after my experience.  (I thought it would be a little more insane, to be honest).

Opening for the band was a screening of their film Triple Trouble. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Lucy Ellmann–Things are Against Us (2021)

Posted in Absolutely Fabulous, Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, E.L. Doctorow, Essays, Femicide, Feminism, Greta Thunberg, Guns, Jane Austen, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lucy Ellmann, Mary Ellmann, Murder, Pizza, Raymond Chandler, Sex, Sexism, Sherlock Holmes, Violence, Virginia Woolf on March 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[READ: March 10, 2021] Things Are Against Us

I loved Ellmann’s book Ducks, Newburyport so much that I had intended to read all of her books.

So I’ve gone back and read some of her previous novels.  Which I found to be…okay.  They were mildly amusing with some very personal diatribes thrown in to put some passion into these otherwise comic novels.

Then I saw that she had a recent collection of essays, which I thought might be really interesting.

I agree about 95% with everything Ellmann says in this book.  And yet I hated this book more than almost anything I’ve read recently.  And I think I’m not going to bother reading the other novels that I haven’t read yet, since the other two weren’t that great anyhow.

Ellmann’s style in these essays is so unpleasant, so superior and self-righteous, so… (and I hate to use this word because of the anti-feminist implications of it but it is definitionally accurate) strident, that I almost didn’t finish most of the essays (I forced my way through to the end of all of them).  Strident, btw: “presenting a point of view, especially a controversial one, in an excessively and unpleasantly forceful way.  I mean, that is this book to a T.”

In the past, strident women have been very important to many movements.  But hen your arguments are so scattershot, it’s hard for your stridency to be a positive force.

“Things Are Against Us”
In this essay Ellmann all caps the word THINGS every time she writes it.  On the first page (which is half a page not including the title), THINGS appears over 30 times.  The tone is kind of amusing–about how things get in our way and cause us trouble: Things slip out of your hand; things trip you, things break.  Then each following paragraph gets more specific.  Clothes tear, socks don’t stay up.  Matches won’t light, water bottles spill. Then she gets into the body.  In her novel Doctors & Nurses she lists 12 pages of bodily ailments.  So there’s not much new here.  And there’s no real point.  It doesn’t end with any grand idea.  It just stops. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Gladie (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, February 24, 2023) [Otoboke Beaver]

Posted in おとぼけビ～バ～, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cayetana, Gladie, Otoboke Beaver, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on February 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 24, 2023] Gladie

Otoboke Beaver had a different local band open for each of their shows on this tour.  After the show I spoke to Gladie and they were really psyched to have been chosen to open.

This was actually the fourth time I was supposed to see Gladie.  Most of the shows they were opening for someone and the show as postponed due to COIVD. So I was glad this one actually came through.

They don’t quite fit musically, but they were an excellent warm up.  Gladie are a Philly-based band that was created out of the ashes of other Philly-based band.  Singer Augusta Koch was the singer of beloved band Cayetana, who I only really found out about as they were breaking up (and who actually only put out two albums!).

The band also has Matt Schimelfenig and some other people who may or may not have been on stage that night.

Augusta Koch is clearly in charge of things.  She is a fun frontwoman and made some funny comments about the show.  She was saying how much she loves Underground Arts and how much it reminds her of the club in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (that’s pretty accurate). (more…)

Read Full Post »

The OBGMs “Melanated Punk Mini Tour” (The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA, January 20, 2023) [OXYMORRONS]

Posted in Crash and the Boys, Oxymorrons, Philadelphia, PA, Pinkshift, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Foundry, The OBGMs on January 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 20, 2023] THE OBGMs

I was really excited for the show–the Melanated Punk Mini Tour featuring Oxymorrons and The OBGMs (who I didn’t know but after listening to them, I realized how good they were.  At the last minute, Pinkshift was added to the bill, which made things even better!

The show was listed as starting at 7:30 (which on a Friday night usually means a lot of traffic).  Bu then Pinkshift said the fun started at 7, so my son and I left stupidly early to avoid traffic and arrived earlier than ever only to find out that the show did not start at 7.

And that’s fine.  It’s nice to be early.  Also, that Pinkshift wasn’t the first band.

The OBGMs (The oOohh Baby Gimme Mores) are from Toronto.  They came out and proceeded to tear the roof off of the place.

After playing a weird riff that sounded like a wild version of Black Sabbath, the whole band started bashing out “Cash” from their new album The Ends.

Dreadlocked lead singer Densil McFarlane also played guitar as he pogoed and screamed the lyrics.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

They Might Be Giants: 30th Anniversary Flood Show (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, January 12, 2023)–[at last!]

Posted in Philadelphia, PA, Tár, They Might Be Giants, Union Transfer, Whiplash on January 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 12, 2023] They Might Be Giants [rescheduled from March 13, 2020, September 8, 2020, April 15, 2021, March 22, 2022 and June 16, 2022]

After five failed attempts, They Might Be Giants FINALLY got to play Union Transfer.

It was only mildly anti-climactic that they played Union Transfer the night before with a show that was billed as an entirely different show but which, when setlists were compared, turned out to be almost exactly the same.

January 11 (left): note the similarly-named show title which implied something different.  From the venue:

We assume that means songs from their latest album, ‘Book’ and some ‘Flood’ “faves”, and a bunch of horns on stage. How many horns? We can’t say for sure…Maybe 5, maybe 100!?

It felt a little cheaty that this day-ahead show got the same (more or less) show as us.  But hey, who cares, at least we didn’t splurge for the second day.  Because I’d have been a little cheesed to get the same show two nights in a row, no matter how good it was.  And it was really good!

So I saw They Might Be Giants about twenty-five years ago in Boston.  I don’t remember a lot from the show, but it was the Factory Showroom tour and they played a lot of my favorite songs as well.

I haven’t seen them live since then, even though I know they put on a good show.  I’m not sure why it neve happened.  Possibly because when I try to see them a pandemic occurs.

We arrived a little later than intended, had to stand on a huge line (there was no opening act), although everyone at a TMBG show is friendly, and then wound up on the side lower balcony in Union Transfer–where I’ve never stood before.  It was actually kind of nice-we were above most of the heads and still felt a part of the mass of people.

The band also was giving out “paper crowns” that said THEY on them.  John F:  “Be sure to grab one so you can sell it later.”

The Johns came out at 8 as promised and jumped right into “Letterbox” from Flood.  But it’s not the first song from Flood.  So clearly, they weren’t going to play the album in order.  They never said they were going to, just that they were going to play the whole album.  Aha! (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »