A podcast about books, art & life — not necessarily in that order
Congrats to Lance Armstrong for winning his 7th Tour De France! This morning, I realized that we’re the same age, which makes me feel pretty bad about my own accomplishments, or lack thereof.
I’ve never been much of a Sheryl Crow fan, so that helps balance us out a little.
Official VM pal Paul Di Filippo has a new collection of short stories out: The Emperor of Gondwanaland and Other Stories! You oughtta pick it up ASAP, because it’s got a character who is just passingly based on me (ok, just barely, but it’s SOME sorta immortality, right?)!
Paul Di F.’s also got a new comic-book miniseries coming out soon! It’s a sequel to Alan Moore’s Top 10, which I enjoyed a bunch.
You should probably just head over to Paul’s site and check out some of his other projects. He’s a heck of a writer and a good guy, besides.
If you’re not interested in reading about the genocide in Darfur, perhaps I can bore you with sports.
In the past week, Fox Sports’ NBA writer Charley Rosen has been ranking the all-time best players at each position. Charley may have a giant axe to grind against some players, coaches and officials, but he’s a smart and observant hoops writer. Here are his rankings, by position:
I think he’s going to follow this up with ranks of best coaches and sixth men, but I’ve bored you enough. Get some sleep.
Looks like the U.S. hegemon is forcing its way into ANOTHER Muslim country! No blood for oil! Regime change begins at home! Visualize whirled peas!
Oh, wait. It’s a story about how the Air Force is helping bring Rwandan AU troops into Darfur to help stop the genocide being conducted there by the Arab population from the northern region of Sudan. My bad. Well, the root cause of the genocide must be western civilization or something.
Meanwhile, go to the Passion of the Present if you’re interested in learning about the ongoing genocide. Instapundit today pointed out that there’s a Genocide Intervention Fund that provides support for the African Union peacekeepers. Unfortunately, he pointed out, it doesn’t create a fund to hire mercenaries to wreak havoc against the genocidaires.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley C. Church)
The Japanese have figured out how to laser-etch encrypted data onto fingernail clippings. I can only make a viking-joke.
Here they are: The promised pix of Saturday and a little of Sunday in San Diego! Our buddies Ian & Jess took us around to the west side of the San Diego bay on Saturday. The weather was lovely as usual, but it was a hazy day, so my panoramic shots kinda suck. Enjoy!
The official VM fiancee introduces us to the In-N-Out Burger that she’s about to chomp!
The sub base.
The airstrip at Naval Base Coronado.
The military cemetery where we were taking pix. I was afraid they’d come back as zombies and, since they were military, they’d be pretty regimented and not as ragged as zombie-irregulars.
Just a nice tree in the cemetery.
Jess & Ian, my buddies in SD, who were doubling as tour-guides for the afternoon.
Here’s a tide pool on the other side of the peninsula.
Same thing. I just like the organicness of the terrain.
On our walk over to the tidal pool.
TIDEPOOLTIDEPOOLTIDEPOOL!
Bonus surfing picture for longtime VM reader Elayne!
The view of the bay from that Cabrillo National Monument park I mentioned a few days ago.
Same thing. Sue me.
A statue of Cabrillo himself!
Strong jaw on that dude. He’s no Communist Superman or anything, but he still seems pretty bold.
On Sunday morning, we headed back to the Con. This guy was waiting for us, as was Ray Harryhausen.
The pic you were waiting for: It’s Enigma! He’s tattooed like a jigsaw puzzle! He has horns implanted under his skin! Embarrassingly, my hip friends have no idea who this guy is, which means I am a freak.
You can decide:
You can’t have a Comic-Con without an awards show! Occasional VM contributor Tom Spurgeon just posted his diary of the Eisner Awards night at last week’s Con.
A lot of the jokes are really industry-specific, so you might not laugh as much as I did.
9:32 — Sean McKeever wins Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition, which is a neat award because it helps to solve the problem it presents in its title.
9:33 — I dream of an entire awards show designed along the same, utilitarian lines as the previous award, like “Artist Most in Need of Something Small to Place on a Desk.”
I’m still fixing up the pix from Saturday and Sunday; they’ll be up soon. You get back to work.
I meant to get a bunch of material posted today, but my town’s electricity is down (and it’s around 90 degrees). I’m crashing over at my dad’s, but I can’t figure out how to get my laptop onto his network. So you’ll have to wait to see how the last day of the Con stacked up. Trust me; there’s a pic that makes it all worth it.
Didn’t hit the Con on Saturday. Instead, the official VM fiancee & I went out with our San Diego-based friends Ian & Jess, went up to Cabrillo National Monument, and had some In-N-Out burgers. We met up with my buddy Tom at the Turf Supper Club for dinner.
I took a bunch of pix from the afternoon, but it was kinda hazy and they didn’t come out great. I’ll try to fix them up in Photoshop and post ’em later. We’ll head over to the Con in a few minutes, to check out the last day’s stragglers, pick up some funnybooks, and say goodbyes to people, before our afternoon flight back to Newark.
Amazingly, I forgot to mention the best part of Friday’s sojourn through the Con: We stopped at the Andrews McNeel booth and discovered that they had brought along a copy of The Complete Calvin & Hobbes! The three-volume set was flat-out gorgeous! The reproductions of the strips looked great, the cream finish on the pages is a million times better-looking than the complete Far Side run they published a year or two ago! When we brought Tom to the booth to show him, he saw the set at a distance and said, “Oh, dear God…”
Pre-order this nownowNOW!
