April 21, 1971 - June 27, 2008

Kind of a kick in the teeth, isn't it?


As most of you have surely read at this point, superstar comic book artist Michael Turner passed away at the age of 37 this past Friday.

It's always a little unnerving when something like this happens - surely we're surrounded by death every day, but when it comes to one who is so well-known, even in a relatively niche community as this, it hits a little bit closer to home.

I won't do the man a disservice by pretending that I was any big fan of his work, but I know that the man had his fans and more importantly, family and friends who cared deeply for him, and I offer my condolences.

...and that's all there really is to say, isn't there?

-M

In which I change the name of the site to "TMZ-Lite"

Did you guys hear about this?

Sudden superstar Katherine Heigl has a tendency, it seems, to run at the mouth a little bit. Usually I'm quick to defend her, perhaps because I like (well, not so much like as "don't hate") her as an actress and she's so gosh darn purty.

But I'm not so sure about this one, guys. Read for yourself:

I am truly grateful for the honor that the Academy bestowed upon me last year. I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the Academy organization, I withdrew my name from contention. In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.

A little bit unbelievable, no? It seems a little incredulous to start blasting the very people who a.) have helped make you and your show (Grey's Anatomy for anyone not in the know) such hits, b.) have just gotten back to work after an industry-crippling strike, and c.) fired that one guy for far, far less.

I guess I have to respect her a little bit for being totally up-front about how she feels, but for real, yo -if she wanted out so badly, she could've just asked.

-M

Jesus hates sports

Just something quick before I go to sleep.

Stumbled across this over at Matthew Paul Turner's blog, from which it was subsequently stolen by me:

Seriously, like, as someone who has been surrounded by the church since high school, I know why most of those are up there...

...but sports fans? That's one that I just don't get.

This sign reminds me of last year's Cornerstone. Every year a bunch of folks from a local Baptist church stand outside and protest the (Christian) rock festival. They've got crazy signs just like these and pretty much just scream at festival-goers - most of whom are trying to talk civilly to them.

Sigh.

-M

The candy man can

And now, for your viewing pleasure, one of my all-time favorite moments from Scrubs:



-M

Let's do the timewarp

From last night's MTV Movie Awards, and only about a decade too late:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

The moment in which Mike Myers first mentions Tila Tequila and the entire audience cheers makes me want to kill myself.

Also, this makes me ponder again precisely how many movies these days are created to succeed based solely upon their nostalgia factor.

-M

Adventures in Video Game Retail, Part One (In a Series)

You meet some weird people working at a video game store.

I've no doubt that this is true of almost any job, especially retail in a specialty store. Occasionally one of those people who can only be described as "fanatic" about whatever product you specialize in will wander in and it's Weird City from there on out.

This isn't really one of those stories.

So I've been working at EB Games for a while, (a little under a year, actually) and we get weird customers on a fairly regular basis. This guy takes the cake. I think his name is Leif and he comes in from time to time and I've never been particularly fond of the fellow (he's pretty much an ignorant, overly-pushy ass).

Some background: Leif is a raging douchebag who insists that the only decent video game genre is first-person shooter (and even then only if it has online play), the only console worth a damn is the PlayStation 3 and the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company is going to be the greatest video game in the history of video games (because it has lots of guns and explosions, of course).

Anyway, Leif comes in and the usual banter begins (for the purposes of this story, Leif will be henceforth be known as Douche-Man):

Douche-Man: GIVE ME BAD COMPANY.
Matt: That's not out yet, man. Late June.
DM: Can I get one now?
M: Er...well, we won't have them for a few weeks.
-Insert more banter about what a badass game Bad Company is going to be and how it's going to beat Call of Duty 4 in every way imaginable, as well as mild banter about the PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4. This banter is amusing in it's own right, but for the purposes of this dramatic retelling, it has been omitted.-
DM: Man, I need more money. Not just for games, but for all kinds of shit.
M: Ha, yeah, if you were rich you'd buy us all games, right?
DM:...well, if I were rich I'd be too busy to play games.
-Douche-Man looks at Matt as if he should know what that means-
DM: I mean, I'd have other things to buy.
M: -blank stare-
DM: Things you can't get in this country.
M:...er...like in Amsterdam?
DM: No.
M: -blank stare-
DM: Did you know that in other countries you can buy women? Hot women?
M: You can do that here, you know. It's illegal, but...
DM: No no no, not like to rent.
M: -Deeply horrified by his choice of wording-
DM: I mean like to keep.
M: I'm fairly certain that's called slavery.
DM: Yeah, here it is.
M: ...
DM: Did you know that in other countries, like in the United Arab Emerates and Israel, you can just buy women like you would buy anything else?
M: ...so, uh, did you want to pre-order Bad Company or what?
DM: Nah, I've already got it pre-ordered. I'll see you guys later.
-Exit Douche-Man-

Um...WHAT.

-M

Well then.

Wow.

What's that, like two months? (Actually, it's been exactly two months.)

I guess I don't really have an excuse. School and overall life issues got in the way for a little while, and there's also the fact that I'm not really keeping up with comics these days for lack of funds, save for a few books here and there (and I certainly could care less about Secret Invasion and Final Crisis).

I've considered it a bit over the last couple of months, and it occurs to me that this blog hasn't really become what I set out for it to be, and it's been over a year. So something needs to be done.

I'm not quitting, just changing gears. From here on out, I think I'm going to focus less on comics and more on entertainment as a whole - TV, movies, video games, etcetera - and of course, comics when I have something to say about them. The problem is recently I don't and that leads to some big fat dry spells around here.

So there it is. With the overall "it's gotta be about COMICS!" stigma out of my head (I'm not changing the name of the blog, at least not now) I should hopefully get around to posting more frequently and more substantially.

If there are any of you still around, I appreciate it. Be back soon, hopefully.

-M