SECOND STAR TO THE RIGHT, AND STRAIGHT ON 'TIL MORNING...

THE INFINITE KISS

Yesterday, de Guz hipped me to a Google feature that you can use to specifically search blogs. For the vain among us, you just go here and type in your own name, and voila.

My name can be tricky since my last name is an actual word, but I did turn up this nice link the Moon in the Gutter blog gave to my review of Marie Antoinette. (It should also be noted that Jennifer's post pointing out the Google search not only links to my review, as well, but she has a Marie avatar!)

I also found two reviews of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her I had not seen before.

Bananathing gets into the spirit of things by indulging in champagne for a reading of the book. Antonio even says, "One can't help but wonder if any of the graphic novels that DC comics will publish next year under its new Minx imprint will be half that good...That would be neat!" Ha, take that, Shelly Bond! Also, check the sidebar for the icons revered by this site. This is my audience!

Comics and More takes a thoughtful look at the book. Dave Ferraro writes, "The dialogue is really great. Gwen and Evan are my kind of people, into independent film, records and philosophy - very hipster. And the dialogue exchanged between the two is incredibly sharp, though maybe a little too polished to be classified as realistic. All-in-all, this was a really interesting examination of a relationship. While it didn't build toward a climax like a linear story, there was a certain amount of tension throughout as the missing links in their history were steadily revealed." He gives us a B+.

I think his last line--"It is a quieter sort of story, but one I think deserves a bit of praise."--could have used a little rewriting (if I may be so bold). I have the same problem when I review, when I feel I need to point out that a story is quiet. Have we come to accept that big and loud is the norm and so we have to indicate otherwise? As writers, we need to stop this. Dave's line, though, is set up as such that the second clause almost suggests that normally a quiet story might not deserve praise, that 12 Reasons bucks the trend. I doubt he meant that, but it stood out and, like I said, made me think about my own tendency to fall back on such an idea.

Current Workload: Love the Way You Love vol. 6 script; Peal Pink vol. 3 rewrite; accepting/denying copy edits on Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?

Current Soundtrack: Brett Anderson, Brett Anderson

Current Mood: ready to move

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

WE LIKE WHO WE LIKE, WE HATE WHO WE HATE, BUT WE'RE ALL SO EASILY SWAYED

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* 49th Parallel - Criterion Collection, a wartime nugget from Powell & Pressburger

* Alexander Revisited - The Final Cut, Oliver Stone's third pass at his problematic historical epic

* Stranger Than Fiction, a surprising Will Ferrell comedy about life vs. story

Current Soundtrack: Kaiser Chiefs, Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Current Mood: being boring

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR FREE? A RUBBER BISCUIT?

Karaoke Watch: Last night was Joëlle's Birthday Karaoke Blowout. Hosted by Dr. Love down at the Boiler Room, so much was sung and so little sleep was had, I am not sure I can catalogue everything. I know my performances were:

The Who - "Baba O'Reilly"

My Chemical Romance - "Welcome to the Black Parade"

Elvis Presley - "Trouble/Guitar Man"

Frank Sinatra (without Nancy) - "Something Stupid"

Tom Jones - "What's New Pussycat?"

James - "Laid" (last of the night, and really terrible; blew the bridge like you wouldn't believe)

I feel like a heel, I can't recall everything Joëlle did. I definitely remember her doing one of her standards, "Stray Cat Strut," and she tested out "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes and "Creep" by Radiohead. Both were amazing. She also tackled the tough Cab Calloway number "Minnie the Moocher." But what else? This isn't like me.

Mason came and even made a scorecard so we could give scores to singers. When I gave some drunk girls who as a collective trio murdered Madonna while thinking they were super hot a score of 1, the club's bouncer came over and thanked me for doing so. "I work here, and I'd love to do that," he said.

Mason himself was a shining star, doing an awesome, animated "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler, a ripping Elvis on "Bossa Nova Baby," and an anthemic "Fat-Bottomed Girls" by Queen. Major points, though, for Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn," too, which I was jealous that he got to do. I'll have to try that someday. He also beat me to the Killers' "When You Were Young," the bastard. (Mason, I know I'm forgetting some of yours, too. If you can fill in yours or Joëlle's in the comments, please do!)

* UPDATE 2/28: I was reminded that Mason also tackled "Waterfalls" by TLC, and I tried to help him out with the Left-Eye parts. Joëlle's "I Am, I Said" also slipped my mind!*

The most impressive thing I've had to have ever seen in my life, though, was Dr. Love's rendition of "Rubber Biscuit" as performed by the Blues Brothers. If you know the song, most of the lyrics are nonsense, just scatting, and he nailed them all.

Joëlle also got a copy of the SingStar karaoke videogame for her birthday and I've logged about six hours of competition. I think I do best on the Keane and Naked Eyes tracks, but die every time I try Elton John or Scissor Sisters.

Trying to e-mail me? It's tradition that when my editor, James Lucas Jones, leaves town, my e-mail goes down. He's at the comic convention in New York. He also runs my webservice, so that's where the connection somehow is. If you get a bounceback, resend to golightly @ gmail.com.

Current Soundtrack: songs from Cerys Matthews' Myspace page (including Bowie and Decemberists covers)

Current Mood: crappy

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

SHAYLA WORKED IN A FACTORY, SHE WASN'T HISTORY

Don't forget, tomorrow Joëlle Jones and I will be at the Portland Comic Book Show. Hit the website for details.

THIS WEEK AT THE THEATRE...

* An Unreasonable Man, an eye-opening documentary about the career of Ralph Nader.

* Factory Girl, a dull biopic about Edie Sedgwick notable for how good Guy Pearce is as Andy Warhol and how bad Hayden Christensen is as Bob Dylan.

I am steeling myself for scads of mail from people with e-mail addresses like "haydenlover16" that will tell me just how stupid I am via very poor grammar and syntax.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Akihabara Geeks, a documentary about obsessive types in Japan's "Electric Town"

* The Arrangement, wherein Elia Kazan gives Kirk Douglas a mid-life crisis, but not before letting him date the 1969-edition of Faye Dunaway (Hello!)

* Bicycle Thieves - Criterion Collection, Vittorio De Sica's Neorealist classic is given a spiffy upgrade by the DVD company I'd most like to marry

* Confetti, an adorable British comedy with Jessica Stevenson and Martin Freeman

Current Soundtrack: Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited

Current Mood: je t'aime

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

THE GHOST OF YOU STAYS

I've lived in my apartment since 2002, and not once have I heard about the fact that apparently the building is haunted. I know it used to be a notorious den of inequity. As it was described to me (and I may mix up what goes where), it used to be drunks on the bottom floor, junkies up top, and that was mainly because the drunks couldn't make it up the stairs. Now it's a fairly chill location, with lots of families. I still hear rumors of the dramas upstairs where studio apartments have community bathrooms, and there has been the occasional removal of a dead body, but all in a day's work, right? I enter nothing, nothing enters me.

Well, in the last five days, no less than two people have said to me. "You know that place is haunted, right?" I asked for some clarification, and there were no specific stories, but one said, "Google it. It's documented."

Sure enough, I got a couple of hits off it. They all have the exact same text, oddly enough, and again, no super specifics, but according to Haunted Places in Oregon:

"Portland - Fairmount Apartments - Malevolent and benevolent hauntings. This is a building that is located on the corner of NW 26th and Vaughn Street in northwest Portland. This is the last building standing from the centennial celebration of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1905. It was once a grand hotel and it now an apartment complex. Some of the residents over the years, have reported seeing apparitions late at night, while others have felt somewhat of a threatening presence mostly on the lower floors especially in the halls. Upstairs, the presence is not as threatening."

I feel cheated. I live on the ground floor with the hardcore spirits (because I'm a drunk, not a junkie). Either I'm too badass for them, or I'm so immune to the noise you hear in downstairs apartments, I don't notice. There have been times where Sadie will meow in such a way that is deadly serious like she's trying to tell me something and I laugh at how earnest she seems, and maybe this whole time she's been trying to tell me, "We have to get out, motherfucker."

Maybe one day I will join the ranks and terrorize this place. People will report of a ghost with Elvis hair reading passages of The Everlasting, which would be fitting given the title. We all laughed at the bar yesterday when I showed how my phone had been programmed to remind me on Valentine's Day to "kill yourself," but it won't be so funny when I materialize in some guy's apartment and leave ectoplasmic ooze on all of his DVDs I think suck.

Completely unrelated, Sequential Tart has a new review of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her. Read it here, and enjoy this excerpt:

"The twist is that the chapters aren’t in chronological order.

This technique lends the work a suspense that otherwise wouldn’t be there, and I found myself flipping back and forth in the book trying to figure out when each chapter took place to flesh out the chronology on my own and to figure out if they stayed together or not — and I didn’t find it annoying; I found it intriguing."

Current Soundtrack: Camouflage, Relocated

Current Mood: scared (but not really)

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

IT'S CHRISTINA'S WORLD

It seems like all I've heard about in regards to the Grammys is the turgid Police reunion. I can't see what there is to get excited about in a boring runthrough of "Roxanne." Particularly the way it goes all jazz odyssey at the 2:30 mark.

What everyone should be talking about is Christina Aguilera's tribute to James Brown.

My goodness!

Current Workload: Hissing manhwa volume 5 script

Current Mood: impressed

PEOPLE JUST AIN'T NO GOOD, part infinity +1

You'd be surprised how seriously people take their movies. By which I mean, how freaky and angry they get when they contact reviewers. I've learned to prepare myself for a few nasty missives when I have problems with the performance by an actor who has a loyal following, for instance. I got one note from an Edward Norton fan that I almost wanted to forward to Norton's people so they can put her on some list, because I'd almost guarantee that she's got a scary shrine to him in her apartment. And you can imagine what happened when I reviewed Apocalypto and wasn't afraid to call it like I saw it. Mel Gibson never so much as farted in the direction of a kitten before demon alcohol got a hold of him, it turns out.

But this one just surprised me so much, I have to share it:

I read your review of 'Eddie Murphy - Delirious' and...why did you have to come out like every other stereotypical limp-wristed writer and state how you're offended by the word 'faggot.' Who cares if he used faggot. You're the one who lamented the 'political correctness' of the 1990's and yet you have a problem with Eddie using the word? Seriously, all you writers have become soo sensitive given the fact you spend all day in an office and it must take your manhood away. Nothing is more pathetic than a straight male whose pro-gay. It's actually a relief to see a comic not afraid to state what's on macho guys' minds when they do see sissy acting homosexuals parading around. But you wouldn't know about that kind of mindset..cause you're kind of a sissy yourself.

Shit, he got me. I'm a sissy. And proud of it! I really want to write this dude back and just ask, "Are you hitting on me?" It probably wouldn't be worth it, though. I'd also kind of like to pull a Margaret Cho and post his e-mail and let anyone who reads this respond to this fathead. But I'll let it pass. Besides, I just mentioned Margaret Cho, so he's definitely got more proof of my lack of machismo.

The review is here. This is really all I wrote about the subject, though: "Twenty-four years after the fact, Delirious still seems scandalous, perhaps even more so after surviving political correctness in the 1990s. It's also still incredibly funny. Some of these bits--including the gay Mr. T (and the gay Honeymooners and Ricky Ricardo)--have taken on legendary status, and outside of the fact that Eddie could have chosen a better word to use than "faggot," it's not at all mean-spirited. Sure, it's dirty and a smidge adolescent, but it's not hateful. Some of the references are a little outdated--Reaganomics, calling AIDS "new," jokes about Michael Jackson being a ladies man--but the pop culture elements are big enough that they still retain their humor."

I'm sure my fan is actually just scared that I might make him think, or something. He'd hate that. Or maybe he caught himself looking at Eddie's ass in those red leather pants, and he's got to take it out on somebody.

The dude should actually wander over to that Newsarama interview I posted about on Monday. As if the rotten experience of this article couldn't get worse, read some of the comments. I love my fellow man.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My gift is that the March issue of Shojo Beat is out today. It has an article I wrote about White Day, and I was lucky enough to have them hire the superawesome Jen Wang to do the spot illo for it. She also has several other illustrations in the magazine, kind of like how Chynna contributed to last month's issue. The drawing she did for my piece is above, and it fits just right.

I'll take that, since no one loves me enough to take me to Camera Obscura tonight. *sniff* Love is dead.

Current Soundtrack: The View, Hats Off to the Buskers

Current Mood: demure

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

MY CRUDDY VALENTINE

Brett Anderson releases the video for his first solo single, "Love is Dead," right on time. I've been waiting for the official release of this song since he performed it for the Dutch Royal Wedding a couple of years ago. The final, string-laden version is exactly what I've been waiting for. I can't think of anything more perfect to sum up how I feel these days.

Don't worry. My sense of irony is too well-developed to abandon my pursuits of romantic fiction. I rather like the idea of the author of a "Romance Trilogy" dying alone. It's not like I dated all that much when I wrote the other stuff, anyway.

In keeping with this theme, you can read a new Love the Way You Love-centric interview with me over at Newsarama where I am forced to justify my very existence. Can you tell I was getting really testy answering the questions? Insult to injury, there was supposed to be a 12 page preview of #4 with it, and they posted images from #1. What the fuck?

Just an FYI to the industry at large: the term comics does not have an implied "superhero" preceding it. Also, manga are, in fact, comic books, so you can't immediately exclude them, particularly in our marketplace these days. Manga is not a separate art form. You wouldn't talk to someone in film and ask, "Do you like movies?" and then say, "What about DVDs?" as if a movie isn't a movie if it is on DVD. A comic is still a comic even if it's from Japan.

Current Soundtrack: "Love is Dead" - lather, rinse, repeat. ("intelligent friends don't care in the end, believe me...")

Current Mood: dismissive

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

PEOPLE JUST AIN'T NO GOOD, part infinity

I don't go to the movies very often anymore. Now that I review stuff, I can usually get in on a press screening. I particularly like the press-only ones they have in the middle of the day, because it's just ten people and you know everyone is going to actually be watching the movie and keep their yaps shut. You know you aren't going to get that lucky anymore at an actual public screening, and it's so damn expensive, I am not sure how it's worth it. With technology the way it is, is the theatre experience offering us much more than size?

Price probably wouldn't matter to me all that much if people still had manners and the good graces to shut up when the lights go out. I know home video is blamed for this, because people are now used to watching movies at home and talking all they want. I've always thought that's true, and even though I think manners have fallen across the board in modern society, it makes sense that certain mores have dropped away for specific reasons. I have also started to wonder if maybe the decline in reading has something to do with it. Maybe if people read books more they'd be used to engaging with art on the interior, stay inside their heads and not express their reactions out loud.

Today I went to see Last King of Scotland. Having watched Babel last night, Last King was pretty much the last thing I needed to see to be fully Oscar aware. Even though I don't agree with a ton of the Academy choices, I think I am more informed about what is competing this year than I have ever been. Forest Whitaker had some decent moments last night on SNL, and it got me thinking I should give him his due. Plus, as a fan of the documentary General Idi Amin Dada, I was curious to see how deep into the man's skin Whitaker could get. I have to say, it was an impressive performance, going beyond being a mere impression and really bringing the historic figure to life. If you have any doubts about the veracity of the portrayal, rent the documentary.

The movie itself was so-so. Whitaker was really the best reason to see it, as the script was fairly standard as these things go. I'm amazed I could enjoy it at all, though, because I was stuck in a bad spot in a rather crowded theatre. I thought I had lucked out because I was one of the few sections where there were any empty seats, and they both happened to be on either side of me. So, people were all around, but I wasn't boxed in. In the row in front of me, one woman's cell phone went off twice during the previews, but someone actually leaned over and said, "Can you figure out how to turn that off?" Smartly, he did it loud enough for all to hear, so she had no choice. She was shamed!

Next to the empty seat on my right was an African American couple. The woman was closest to me. Right from the get-go, they started talking. It was somewhat respectful at first, just a whisper, but the volume of their conversation would rise at different moments in the movie. I could also catch hand gestures out of the corner of my eye as the woman pointed out stuff on the screen or started dancing in her seat during a club scene. That can almost be as distracting as talking, because you sense the movement and it takes your gaze from the screen. I swear, this couple had a comment every two or three minutes, and it wasn't just a comment, they would discuss it. The guy who shushed the cell phone user turned and looked at her once, but otherwise, no one else seemed to be reacting.

I started to really wonder about this woman when Idi Amin gave a speech to assembled dignitaries about the history of Africa and the developments that the rest of the world took from their soil. The woman started cheering the things he said. "That's right," she proclaimed. Now, I won't dispute the truth of his statements, but Idi Amin was a mass murderer. You don't cheer him, right or no. Hitler is a worn-out example, but even he had some good ideas about government. No one would ever consider applauding him anything but bad taste, however.

But still, fine. I can ignore that. I could even ignore when the white doctor, who becomes one of Amin's aides, strips down to his birthday suit to change his pants and she shouted out, "Ewwww!" I wanted to turn to her and ask, "What? Are you 8?" but I didn't. She still had yet to go too far.

As Idi Amin began to lose grasp on reality, he decided he needed to expel any possible contrary element from Uganda. So, he goes on television and declares that all the Asians must leave. The woman next to me says, "Right on." He then says the reason they have to leave is because Asians take from the country and don't give back. Again she says, "Right on."

Now, this I can't believe. I'm appalled. So, the next time she makes a comment, I shush her. Boy, oh boy, the look she shot me, I can't believe she didn't leap across that empty seat. She turned to the man with her and said very loudly, "He shushed me!" as if it were the most insane thing she could have imagined happening. He didn't respond in any way I could hear, and my action hadn't done any good, but at least I had gone on record.

Where was everyone else, though? I had gotten the ball rolling, I had started to try to shut this woman down and stop her from being so annoying, so why didn't anyone else chime in? I know I am probably more sensitive than most to the noise, but she can't have been bothering just me. No one wants to cause trouble, so we endure a lot more than we probably should, but how come when someone takes the chance to try to quell the chatter, the rest of us don't back that person up? Even one person could have followed with, "Seriously, shhhh," and then there would have been two of us. Think about that next time you hear someone like me speak up. If you agree with the sentiment, throw in your support. At the very least, you be the shusher next time that same person makes noise. Build the troops!

Thankfully, as Last King of Scotland was heading toward its climax, apparently the filmmakers took too much liberty with the facts for her tastes. I have no idea how historically accurate the film was overall, but the basic premise of a young Scottish doctor going to Uganda to work in a clinic and becoming Idi Amin's personal physician is apparently an invention of the author of the novel the movie is based on. So, yeah, there can be some complaint that once again Western audiences are handed a white point-of-view character for a story about Africa. When Amin is freaking out in the movie because the Western press is smearing him, and he turns to the Scot and insists he tell him what to do, the woman declared, "This is bullshit!" and stormed out, man in tow. As she passed, I muttered, "Thank God," but she didn't hear me. I could now enjoy the finale of the film without her yapping.

With a sigh, I look now at the three empty seats to my right...and I see that the next person over, the one who had been the couple's other neighbor, is an Asian woman. Yikes! Could she hear this stupid person praising the pyscho dictator for throwing Asians out of his country? Just when I thought it couldn't get any more hellacious....

I may never leave my house again.

Current Soundtrack: Little Steven's Underground Garage radio program

Current Mood: irate

ONE WORLD, ONE LIFE, ONE CHANCE, ONE REASON

Oni Press has completely redesigned and redeployed its website. In addition to better looking pages about all the books, you can also search by creators. Cruise over and check things out.

Also, Nerve.com is having a special comics issue with new strips by my compatriots Andi Watson, Jim Mahfood, Paul Pope, and Chynna Clugston. Looking at that list, it would seem at least one of the editors at Nerve sleeps with a longbox full of the first year releases from Oni under his or her bed, doesn't it?

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* The Amazing Screw-On Head, another Mike Mignola comic transitions to cartoons, but with mixed results

* Babel, a tower of a movie with impressive construction but nothing inside

* Eddie Murphy - Delirious, a classic stand-up performance from a consummate storyteller

* Ginger and Fred, a lament for and celebrtion of cinema by Federico Fellini

* Marie Antoinette, the DVD release of the Sofia Coppola biopic gives me a chance to revisit one of my favorite films of last year

* Performance, the quintessential trippy movie starring Mick Jagger

* Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, a good-time animated adventure with DC's adolescent heroes

Current Soundtrack: The Good, the Bad & the Queen; Pet Shop Boys, Fundamentalism

Current Mood: cynical

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

YOU JUST KNOW

Sarah Disgrace tagged me with this a couple of days ago.

"The idea is once you're tagged, you post five little-known facts about yourself, and then tag five new bloggers. My facts - and my 'tags out' to my chosen five - are noted below." (Except, I will break the chain. No tags for me.)

It's taken me days to get around to doing it. I've written it in my head several times, but I have this odd thing about being confessional (ironic, yes?). If I haven't told you, chances are there is a reason, and I'm used to playing it close to the vest or keeping things in reserve. I feel like I'm loaning out my hammer when I know I'll need to sink some nails tomorrow. But, here goes...

1. I still pray every night before I go to bed.

2. When I hired J. Scott Campbell to do the first cover to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book, it was to be his first Dark Horse work. Prior to that, he said no one had ever asked him. Unfortunately, it got hung up in some ridiculous licensor approval problems. Namely, Buffy was too sexy and there was some argument over whether or not she looked scared. She was backing into a darkened room full of vampires, and Campbell drew her at the moment she was realizing there was something there. Not fear, but an "uh-oh." Trying to explain this to the artist, he was getting a little upset and taking it personal. In an effort to tell him that this wasn't his fault, I said the lamest thing I may have ever said as an editor: "Jeff, it's not you, it's them. You're great. We hire the big guns because they know how to shoot." Ben Abernathy had to leave the room, he was laughing so hard.

3. I kissed my first girl in kindergarten. I don't remember her name, but her breath tasted like pickles. We were running on the playground, and we ran into each other, and somehow it was our lips that collided.

4. The nastiest puke I ever had was on a family vacation when I was 4 or 5. We lived in Michigan until I was 7, and up until then, we took long road trips around the surrounding states every summer. There was one roadside drive-in diner where they served hot dogs and beer mugs of grape soda. Their mascot was a black-and-white bear--not so much a panda as a generic cartoon bear. I loved that place and looked forward to it every year. Then one year I puked it all up. I remember my dad cleaning my chunder off the concrete by filling the mugs with water and then splashing it across the hurl like he was bowling.

5. I edited comics for ten years, and in that time, there was only ever one creator who I refused to talk to while we were working on one of his books. (There are plenty who got banned after a book was published.) In the middle of the project, I told my assistant (Abernathy again) that I would not take his calls, that he'd have to make do talking to Ben. I had just had too much of him.

And there you have it. I'll admit to having chickened out when it comes to a couple of doozies I thought of, including one that involves 7-11 Slurpee cups of urine when I was 11 or 12. Perhaps another day!

Current Soundtrack: iPod shuffle - Ride, "Black Nite Crash;" Charlotte Gainsbourg, "5:55;" the Mockingbirds, "You Stole My Love;" Pulp, "Inside Susan"

Current Mood: self-absorbed

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

EVERYBODY GET RANDOM

Did everyone get their San Diego hotels today? I got mine through Oni, not for lack of trying to get it on my own. At this point, I should be down there with Joëlle Jones and Marc Ellerby in tow.

In more soonish appearance news, I will be tagging along with Ms Jones for the Portland Comic Book Show on February 18 (link here, though it doesn't seem to be working). She is one of their featured guests. These shows are usually held at the Portland Convention Center.

For those a little higher North, we're also attending Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, March 31st and April 1st. We'll have our own table.

Finally, if you're planning farther ahead and more Southernly, Joëlle and I will also be attending this year's CAPE in Dallas, TX, on Free Comic Book Day, May 5. This event is hosted by Zeus Comics, winner of last year's Eisner for the Spirit of Retailing award. They still have last year's site up, but if this year is anything like it, it's going to be huge.

More Links:

* A new review of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, courtesy of Mondo!: "Actually, maybe that’s the greatest compliment I can pay to 12 Reasons Why I Love Her. I believe in the destiny of true love — in all its beauty and imperfections — perhaps now more than ever."

* I have created a brand-new MySpace page for Like A Dog. This will be the new, official, permanent place to get the music.

* For those anticipating You Have Killed Me, you can also join its hero's list of MySpace friends.

* ComicSpace continues to grow. My page now has several galleries. Check it out.

* Still time to give my compatriots and I votes in the Eagles. Here.

Current Workload: research and pitches

Currently Reading: Fool's Gold vol. 1 by Amy Reeder Hadley (has anyone else noticed a character that looks a lot like Chynna in this book?)

Current Soundtrack: waiting for the mailman, my stomach gurgling its way out of constipation

Current Mood: confused

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

SEASICK, YET STILL DOCKED

Mmmm, two days of constipation. 2007, why have you been so cruel to me?

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Dynamic 01: The Best of Davidlynch.com, a collection of forgettable shorts by the best of the oddball directors

* Hellboy: Sword of Storms:, the new animated movie with everyone's favorite hellspawned adventurer gets a slick DVD

* Mad About You -The Complete Third Season, a great outing from one of my favorite TV shows is treated to a blasé DVD release

* The Quiet, a dark tale of a family with secrets, starring Camilla Belle and Elisha Cuthbert

Current Workload: Chocolat vol. 6 rewrite

Current Soundtrack: the cat eating, the window rattling

Current Mood: aggravated

e-mail = golightly at confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication * My Corporate-Owned Space * ComicSpace * The Blog Roll * DVDTalk reviews * My Books On Amazon

All text (c) 2007 Jamie S. Rich

Karaoke Watch: Tonight we had an impromptu, just-before-last-call song session at the Boiler Room, where the KJ happened to be a comics fan. Joëlle slayed the crowed with "Stray Cat Strut" and Wham's "Careless Whisper," the latter of which was especially awesome. For my part, I was able to perform two songs I have been wanting to do for a long time: Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and The Killers' "All These Things That I've Done." Yes, Chynna! The Leppard!

The Killers track is one I've been searching for over a good amount of time, so I jumped at it when I saw it. Fair warning to future performers: that last, extended "i'm not a soldier" will murder your voice. Seriously, I could barely recover for the rest of the song.

But it was worth it!

Current Soundtrack: Nearly God, "Judas;" Wham!, "Careless Whisper" & "Last Christmas"

Current Mood: flirty