An addendum to Culturology 008 - Hours Late and Surrounded by Evil, here's the sign hanging up in Pete's condo building:
Monthly Archive for November, 2008Page 2 of 4
Bill Jemas helped to rebuild Marvel Comics at a time when the company was in the shitter (a.k.a. the late 90s into the early 00s). He developed the Ultimate line, he helped Joe Quesada revamp the entire publishing side of the business, and he no doubt maneuvered many business deals to save Marvel Comics that the public has never even heard about.
It was with great enthusiasm that I sent Bill a message in mid 2004. He had recently left his position as President of Marvel Comics and launched a new company, 360ep, which specialized in intellectual property development and licensing deals. When I sent my resume through a contact page on the 360ep website, I never expected to hear back from him.
A few days later, I received an email from Bill. He was interested in finding out more about my background. We communicated via email, and he sent me 360ep's business plan (a HUGE document that outlined their mission statement and all their goals). I was excited at the prospect, and Bill suggested we take a look at an account manager position to see if it was a fit.
Bill first called me when I was busy driving a crate truck full of $30,000 worth of filming equipment around the streets of Hollywood. I was in Los Angeles with Conrad (heard on the AudioShocker's AFI 100 Movies 100 Years podcasts) to work on a short Fox Searchlab film about naked zombies and frat hazing. I hated it. On the other hand, Conrad liked the naked zombie production experience so much that he decided to move out to LA.
My big phone interview with Bill happened when I was apartment hunting in Brooklyn less than a month later, and it was awful. I was horribly unprepared and completely out of my league. Bill was gracious and inquisitive, but I just wasn't up to his standards. I didn't really read the business plan, and I had no idea what intellectual property development and licensing meant.
In one of my previous notes to Bill, I had mentioned something about how impressed I was with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada's Daredevil relaunch. What a load of shit! I'd barely even read those issues, and it certainly wasn't a run I had on my list of life-changers. During our phone conversation, Bill asked me about my admiration for these particular Daredevil comics. Suffice to say, things went downhill from there.
What began as an opportunity for an account manager position was downgraded to the role of Bill's personal assistant. But Bill felt my college GPA was too low and I simply didn't have enough experience to work for 360ep at all. My opportunity for personal assistant to Bill Jemas became an opportunity for "let's talk in a year and see where you're at."
By the time it was one year later year, I still wasn't even close to being qualified. My employment of the previous 12 months consisted of three failed DC Comics interviews, getting fired from a high-profile NYC comic shop, quitting my job at Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Grill after four hours of unpaid work, interning as a receptionist at a music production house, and working as a summer camp counselor teaching kids how to make 2-D video games.
And that's just another reason why I'm going to have to sneak into the comic book industry if I ever want to make it in.
I give Lil Wayne a hard time here at the AudioShocker, I really do. I've also said that 2008 has been the year of Weezy, T-Pain, and their joint reign of vocoder terror. That said, sometimes you hear a new song on the radio by an artist you don't particularly care for and it gets you sprung. As I was driving home the other night, I caught wind of Mrs. Officer feat. Bobby Valentino (another hot/cold artist in my book) and I had to tell you all about it.
The Track: Tell me you don't like Valentino's weeohweeohweeohwee cop call chorus thing. I love it -- almost as much as I love Weezy for NOT using a vocoder on this. That is huge for me. Maybe the vocoder is done for 2008? The beat is laid back and I'm actually pretty surprised this was not released as a summer jam, would have been big.
And the rhymes!! I can't hate - Weezy keeps it hot.
She know I'm raw, she know I'm from the streets // And all she want me to do is fuck the police
And after we got done, I said lady what's your number she said 911
Breakfast in bed turn into breakfast and head (this verse isn't in the video)
The obligatory negatory: Wayne has taken up an affectation that I am dubbing 'The Dorian Self-Laugh'; it was first brought to light by Dr. Cox on Scrubs. Zack Braff's J.D. did this stupid self laugh whenever he made a joke and no one else thought it was funny. Well, Weezy has been doing the same thing recently - after every. single. line. Other examples? Check T-Pain's Can't Believe It and Mike Jone's Cuddy Buddy. It's like the new delay double and I find it similarly bothersome. Hopefully, Mr. Carter will grow out of it quickly. However, given his repertoire of vocoder hits this year, it may be a while.
The Video: Hot cops may be cliche, but they make for an entertaining video. I mean who hasn't wanted to get it on with a Hot Cop? Ladies and Lads alike. It's the basis for an entire genre of porn. Frisking hot perps? I want to do that. Mugshot modeling? I've seen it before, but I still chuckled. 3 hot cop dancers and squad cars? Yeah, I can suspend disbelief. Obviously this isn't anything groundbreaking or new, but it's easily digestible fluff that I can watch it more than once.
While somewhat unrelated, I disliked that the 2nd video Comfortable used the same video treatment/model. I am of the mind that videos self contained packages that can stand on their own. But Comfortable is easy to ignore, so it's all good.
The Bottom Line: Perhaps this is some of that 'change we can beleive in'
Quantum of Solace would be better on valium, James Bond seriously needs some gadgets, the Bond girls are boring, All I Want is pathetic but it has typewriters, even T-Pain's top hat can't ruin the Ludacris video "One More Drink," the new Star Trek trailer makes Neal excited, and he wraps up his half with a review of a WSJ review of Slumdog Millionaire.
Then Nick takes over to discuss Uncanny X-Men #165-#175, the "From the Ashes" run by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith. Nick dissects their work, identifying the artistic nuances that make Smith's pencils so incredible while noting how Claremont introduced so many classic X-Men elements in such a short space of time.
Those of you that are already adamant readers of my still young weekly post here at Audioshocker may have checked in this morning, or on your lunch at the office, only to find that this post was not yet there for your reading enjoyment. I apologize. As you may or may not know, as much as I try to write hip, topical, pop-cultural articles every week for this here blog, I am, in real life, just a big nerd. But this was a particularly nerdy weekend in Miami, with the 25th Anniversary of the Miami International Bookfair going on. I happen to work for a small literary magazine (Gulf Stream Magazine), and we had a booth set up at the street fair where I was working or wandering around for the bulk of Friday-Sunday. Given that business, I was unable to write a post in advance enough of the weekend to get it published by this morning (I was going to write it on Thursday, but I forgot my glasses when I went to the internet and couldn't manage to squint my way through an entire post-writing).
So here I am, already behind schedule, and with nothing in particular to write about. So, rather than entirely skip a week, or write about something too nerdy for my own standards of what culturology means to me, I'd like to report a small piece of actual day-to-day living from my actual life and ask for any advice y'all might have, since it's pretty much the weirdest thing I've encountered in a while.
I live in a rented condo in a small building in North Miami, Florida. As with most condos, there's a bulletin board by the mailboxes where occasional pieces of information are posted, most often basic things like "Whoever spilled that stuff in the elevator, clean it up." or "Don't park around back tomorrow, there will be a paving company repairing our potholes from noon until 6." Standard things. When all those hurricanes devastated Haiti, there was a poster up asking for donations of food and clothing. This is the first time I've lived in a condo community, but it's a cosy building and seems nice enough.
A couple of days ago, however, I came home to find a new sign had been posted on the bulletin board. A standard 8 1/2 x 11" computer printout with some red marker highlights added. It said something to the extent of
"ATTENTION! Our community needs your prayers and benedictions. Please pray for our community for protection from the EVIL that surrounds us. With all of your prayers we will hopefully be completely rid of this evil right away. Thank You."
Some of it was bilingual as well, but I've left the Spanish out. The main thing is.. what the fuck?!? There's been no reports of crime or anything else, nor any sense of illicit happenings in the neighborhood. It seems like, had there been a break-in, for instance, then one would put up a poster saying "There's been a break-in, please increase your vigilance and do not let strangers through the main gate." or there was some other general unpleasantness, there'd be a sign saying, like, "Hey! Watch out! Don't get raped!" or whatever.
Unfortunately, I've only lived in the place for a couple months and don't really interact with any of my neighbors much, so I really don't know what to make of the sign. But I figured, in case I'm tortured and killed by evil spirits one of these nights, there'll be this public record that it's not like they didn't warn me.
Watchmen, Red Sonja, Avengers, X-men Origins, blah blah blah I hope you aren't sick of comic book movies yet - because the hits just keep on coming. Martin Anderson over at Den of Geek just served up a list of 75 comic inspired movies that are in the works. Some of these are sequels, i.e. Sin City 2/3 and Iron Man 2, but I haven't heard of at least half of these books.
I'm curious to see if Y The Last Man ever really gets made and does anyone really care about Green Lantern? Of course, there are some stinkers on this list and I never did like Akira. Still, cruise on over and see if your favorite comic has sold out for a slice of that big money pie.
Personally, I won't be satisfied until the long awaited Cerebus vs. Judge Death comes out.
Previously in Zombie Palin: Zombies have attacked the White House, devouring John McCain and officially turning Sarah Palin into a member of the undead. Now, on the eve of her inauguration as President of the United States of America, Sarah shares her feelings with her loyal aide.
I mentioned earlier this week that Bond movies are uniquely formulated to appeal to a wide audience. James Bond is popular because his moves are predictable and consistently entertaining. Despite a battery of negative press, I braved the cold and the cynics to form my own opinion. My thoughts follow, as usual, in 160 characters or less.
QoS sucked. No humor, no gadgets, no fun; I'm unimpressed. The best part was the Minority Report style computer interface. This 'Gritty' 007 is boring.
Oh well, perhaps Daniel Craig will get it right next time.
9. Nighthawk - There's a reason this list starts with Kyle Richmond: he's stepped up (during and) since Civil War, but not enough to be a rising star. Simply put, Nighthawk is more important in the Marvel Universe now than he was previous to Civil War. Not by a lot, mind you. Just more than before. I thought that his starring role in Last Defenders was a trippy superhero hoot, and I hope that writers continue to push his story further in the direction that Joe Casey kindly put him on.
8. Iron Man - I would be remiss to not include the Iron Avenger in my countdown. Plain and simple, Tony Stark has become the new Wolverine. Now that he has a breakout Hollywood blockbuster under his belt, his street cred is only going up. For readers of Marvel Comics since Civil War, Tony's star status is a no-brainer. In fact, he's bordering on overexposure lately, and that's why he's so low on this list. The fact remains that Iron Man is more integral to the Marvel Universe now than ever, and it's safe to say that things will be staying like that for quite some time to come.
7. Hercules - The Lion of Olympus is now the proud owner of his own critically acclaimed solo series (shamelessly stolen from Hulk), and from the looks of things, he's going to be in Mighty Avengers after Secret Invasion. After smashing the shit out of Clor in the final issue of Civil War, Herc has been on the fast-track to fandom. He's been the star of some of the best event tie-in stories of the past few years, and if things keep going the way they are right now, Hercules will be one of Marvel's biggest stars in the upcoming decade.
6. Luke Cage - Carl Lucas was the breakout star of New Avengers following Avengers Disassembled. But following Civil War, Luke took leadership of the team and became this top selling title's lead character. Luke is now a bonafide staple of the Marvel Universe after languishing on the sidelines for decades. Need proof? Cage gets name-checked by Q-Tip in his new album Renaissance on the track "Dance On Glass," where Q-Tip calls himself the "Luke Cage of the loose leaf page."
Continue reading 'The Top 9 Marvel Universe Characters That Have Stepped Up Since Civil War'
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