{"id":5601,"date":"2010-09-20T05:31:19","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T09:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-92010\/"},"modified":"2010-09-20T05:31:19","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T09:31:19","slug":"what-it-is-92010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-92010","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 9\/20\/10"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> The Iliad and about 500 pages of Jaime Hernandez’ Locas<\/em> comics.<\/p>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> Not much of anything, sad to say.<\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> Not much of anything, sad to say.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> Bluecoat & Q-Tonic<\/p>\n

What Rufus & Otis are up to:<\/em> A Sunday grey-hike, demolishing new squeaky-toys, and not getting used to their new beds.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> New Brunswick, for Contracting & Outsourcing 2010<\/a>!<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> Getting called up for an aliya during Yom Kippur services and not embarrassing myself. Although I can’t remember if I started the blessing with “barchoo” or “baruch” . . . <\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> Not being able to cajole my dad into coming along for any of the high holiday services besides his annual prayer for his departed parents’ souls. Also, that I’ll never dress as well as Brad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about:<\/em> Getting most of my October issue together before our conference starts Wednesday night. Gotta transcribe two interviews, start writing another story, and lay out the rest of the articles and columns in the next two-and-a-half days.<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> Whether Jaime Hernandez’ comics had a downturn or “treading water” phase in his career. I’m not in love with the Ti-Girls story he recently did, but I respect it as a working-through of his longtime love for superhero comics. Reading his stuff from 1984-1999, as I did this weekend, I’m inclined to think that he’s been on an upward trajectory pretty much since Love & Rockets debuted in 1981, which means he’s been getting better for nearly 30 consecutive years<\/em>. The most recent issue, as I mentioned last week, was mind-blowingly good. I was worried that the melodrama qualities of some of the story, with their native emotional hooks, were magnifying the overall intensity of his work, but there was so much more going on in those stories, so much economy in the writing and art, and so much intelligence expected of the reader, that I’m still floored by it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: The Iliad and about 500 pages of Jaime Hernandez’ Locas comics. What I’m listening to: Not much of anything, sad to say. What I’m watching: Not much of anything, sad to say. What I’m drinking: Bluecoat & Q-Tonic What Rufus & Otis are up to: A Sunday grey-hike, demolishing new squeaky-toys, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 9\/20\/10”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1152,96],"class_list":["post-5601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brad-goreski","tag-jaime-hernandez"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1sl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11356,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-265-jaime-hernandez","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":0},"title":"Episode 265 – Jaime Hernandez","author":"Gil","date":"April 16, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 265: Jaime Hernandez \"Whenever I write Maggie & Hopey, they're always looking at the past, always thinking back about what they were. I didn't mean for it to be that way, but that's what I do: 'Remember when we were like that, well, we're not like that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_9409-e1523919177401.jpg?fit=1200%2C1063&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2003,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-41408","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":1},"title":"What it is: 4\/14\/08","author":"Gil","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Locas, by Jaime Hernandez. Just feeling sentimental for Maggie & Hopey, I guess. What I'm listening to: She and Him, Vol. 1, but not getting into it. What I'm watching: A marathon of The Deadliest Catch, in preparation for the premier of the new season. What I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=156097611X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4275,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/locas-locos","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":2},"title":"Locas & Locos","author":"Gil","date":"August 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who's read Jaime Hernandez's Locas comics in Love & Rockets knows that the men take a back seat to the women in the cast. Ray D. is pretty much the only male character who jumps to mind when I try to recall men who demonstrate even half the depth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=156097611X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5587,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-i-love-and-what-i-dont-like","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":3},"title":"What I Love and What I Don’t Like","author":"Gil","date":"September 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a sort of crappy end-of-day at work. I tend to internalize my frustration and play out phantom conversations endlessly. This tendency gets exacerbated by the fact that I don't talk to friends very much. I drive home from work, IM with my wife for a few minutes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1606993798","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5194,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/funny-books-2","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":4},"title":"Funny books","author":"Gil","date":"April 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"During the height of the finance boom, I was able to get paid $375 per hour \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and a minimum of three hours \u00e2\u20ac\u201d by investment groups that wanted my advice about pharmaceutical facility acquisitions. I knew then that banks were going to implode. After all, people responsible for hundreds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1560978007","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-24-2008","url_meta":{"origin":5601,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct. 24, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"October 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Links . . . of the undead! Just click \"more\"! Don't hate the game! Uh . . . man-love the Haider! * * * Jeremiah: right! (And the graveyard is full of indispensable men, Mike!) * * * I don't know if I ever imagined, back in my college anti-hipster\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}