TOOK TO THE SPOTLIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND RING

The Day & Age of the new Killers album is upon us, and it's probably the record of the big autumn releases that I was most anticipating. After a couple of listens, in some ways it seems like an album that is neither here nor there, good but not great, with no songs emerging beyond the early singles, "Human" and "Spaceman," to prove themselves as stick-in-your-head stand-outs. For those who felt Sam's Town was too overblown (which, if you recall, does not include me), Day & Age does take us back to the simplicity of Hot Fuss, but it doesn't shed the sophomore skin completely.

Really, this disc seems a little out of place on the timeline. It makes more sense as the second album rather than the third, providing the logical bridge between the New Wave stylings of Hot Fuss and the arena rock of Sam's Town. Thus, we get the Duran Duran-sounding "Joy Ride" sitting right next to the Springsteen Americana of "A Dustland Fairytale." To push the connections between these touchstones further, "Neon Tiger" has a Duran title but Boss-style vocal swells in its chorus. These are two great tastes that somehow taste great together, at least when cooked up by the Killers. (Not sure I ever want to hear Simon Le Bon singing "Born to Run." Or Bruce singing "The Reflex," for that matter. Though he might do a mean "I Take the Dice.")

The Killers is one band I feel extremely comfortable playing spot-the-influence with. I've always seen them as caretakers of the music of my generation, archivists who keep the aesthetic I grew up with alive. I have a feeling if you compared mine and Brandon Flowers music collection, you'd find a lot of the same albums. When the band appeared on SNL last month, performing "Human" and "Spaceman," I thought they had entered their sci-fi stage, but I hear the later, post-Young Americans Bowie on a lot of these tracks. The horn riff in album opener "Losing Touch" recalls the main sax line of "Absolute Beginners," while the Caribbean-seasoned "I Can't Stay" works similar brass-inflected, '80s Thin White Duke territory (along with some Haircut 100). Elsewhere, the jungle chants of "This is Your Life" bring to mind both Adam & the Ants and Baltimora. The clip above even works some Bunnymen into the end of "Human."

Of course, Day & Age must be more than the sum of it parts, otherwise there would be no point. For all that I hear that is familiar, the Killers do push it forward and make something of their own. Though this third album may not have the immediately apparent majesty of the previous discs, it does prove the Killers dependable enough to always deliver a solid listen.

If you're doubtful, Amazon has taken some of the risk out. At least for the time being, they have the download version of the album priced at a mere $3.99. That's a hard price to beat.

Current Soundtrack: Day & Age


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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

"We'll make a movie, the darlings of cinema
You'll be director, and I'll be your movie star"

Man, oh man. I'm all caught up on my reviews. I can't quite believe it. It's been a busy month or so of moviewatching, but as of right now, I've got nothing on deck.

Not that everyone appreciates the effort. A certain G. Barlas writes to us from the Netherlands, which apparently became the center for comedy in the world when no one was looking.

I read your review of 'Tropic Thunder' and... I cannot believe my eyes... " highly recommended"!!!!????? Surely you must be joking! Such a disjointed, episodic and unfunny story!!!!! I guess you love Stiller and Downey Jr..... ach! Americans! You gave academy awards to Halle Berry, Braveheart and Jamie Foxx!!!! C' mon! Time to grow up!

If anyone is missing any extra punctuation, Chuckles Barlas here I think might be hording a few exclamation points.

I just got the Tropic Thunder (Unrated Director's Cut) on DVD (thanks, Scott!), so maybe I'll cook up some salted herring and meatballs and enjoy a little Stiller and Downey in honor of my new international pen pal!

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Band of Outsiders, a playful Jean-Luc Godard love-triangle heist picture, starring an adorable Anna Karina.

* The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Luis Bunuel's savage send-up of middle class values.

* Mafioso, an Italian black comedy from the early 1960s with Alberto Sordi as an inadvertent hitman.

* Touchez pas au grisbi, a tough noir with Jean Gabin as an aging gangster looking for a way out.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Fanfan La Tulipe - Criterion Collection, a fun 1950s French swashbuckler. (Also at Criterion Confessions.)

* Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Vol. 6, an amazing new set of some of the greatest cartoons of all time. Includes a war-themed disc and a disc of one-offs and special creations.

* Love Songs, an annoying "21st-Century Umbrellas of Cherbourg." Barf!

* Paris, Je T'aime, a re-release of the two-disc version of one of my favorite movies of recent memory.

* Popeye the Sailor: 1941-1943, vol. 3, the third set in the Popeye series takes us into the war years and a shift in production companies.

* Roberto Rossellini 2-Disc Collection (Director's Series), a double dose of the Neorealist from the filmmaker's 1950s oeuvre.

* Roman Holiday - The Centennial Collection and Sabrina - The Centennial Collection, Audrey Hepburn's first two films get a major DVD upgrade.

* The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - Criterion Collection, the chilly spy thriller starring Richard Burton, directed by Martin Ritt. (Also at Criterion Confessions.)

Current Soundtrack: Pelle Carlberg, The Lilac Time

MY WAY OF GIVING

Geoff Kleinman has picked Have You Seen the Horizon Lately? as his pick for a book Portlanders should give to their friends and family this Christmas.

In Have You Seen The Horizon Lately characters grapple with deep emotional issues, struggle to find a way to connect to each and desperately seek the road to happiness. This is the kind of book that you simply won't put down and one you'll never forget.

Giving someone a great book that they've never heard of, but fall in love with is a blockbuster gift, and in this case it's an extremely affordable one too.

Of all my books, this is the one I currently have the most of sitting in my kitchen, so if you choose to follow this advice and want a signed copy, then I can make that happen. I've got some of my other books, too, so feel free to enquire. golightly[a]gmail.com

Current Soundtrack: The Trip, curated by Saint Etienne


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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

NOBODY WANTS TO BE LONELY

I wish I could say that when I don't update my blog it's because I'm busy in a good way, but that's not always true. I think active blog times most likely go with good, fertile creative times, and whereas last week I was busting my ass, I also had a few demoralizing setbacks over the course of the week that made me want to turn from the computer in despair. Oh, woe is me!

Plus, fatigued eyes. They burrrrrrn. Double woe!

Anway, last week I worked on 5 1/2, a script rewrite on the ninth volume of Angel Diary, and ten script pages for the project with Tran Ngo that I hinted at quite some time ago.

In terms of other projects:

* BP & MJ is currently roaming the aisles looking for a seat.

* Lying Down should be very close to an announcement soon.

* You Have Killed Me is just a couple of weeks away from being done. Joëlle's new pages look unbelievable. We'll be going straight from that into our Madman Atomic Comics story, which should round out the year.

* I am going to be experimenting with a new approach to Love the Way You Love that may or may not go anywhere, so don't hate on me if you never hear about it again.

Yesterday, I did manage to leave the house and go see Role Models, which was good fun for a Sunday afternoon. I had a double-dose of Paul Rudd man crush this weekend, what with him hosting SNL, too (plus, they had Justin!). The climactic elements of Role Models were a little predictable in that underdog comedy way, but the scenario was really funny (live action role playing!), so it doesn't really matter. My favorite stuff was Rudd's caustic and futile battles against improperly used language, though that did strike a little close to home in a scene where he argues with a guy about a Wings song. I could definitely hear myself in that exchange, and I felt like the movie was nerd-baiting me by letting certain linguistic mistakes pass unchallenged.

Like when Seann William Scott's character, who flubs his words a lot, says, "You've been here ten years, and that's almost a decade." Thankfully, for those who might not have caught the joke, we had a running audio commentary from an overweight bald man sitting behind us, and he announced, "No, that's exactly a decade." Maybe it's his overwhelming math skills that have made this poor gentleman the lonely soul crying out for attention that he is. Too smart for the world, he was shunned by the other kids, and now he sits alone in movie theatres trying to get people to see that he is the clever friend they have been looking for, that pal you always wanted that can both predict a coming joke ("Wait for it!"), comment on it ("Whaaaaa?"), or enhance it through explanatory repetition. It started with the Twilight trailer, during which he said, "If you go see this, you're part of the problem!" and loudly proclaimed, "Lame!" At which point I thought the teenage girls in the same row as he was were going to start a rumble. (They were funny, too, gasping every time we saw boobies in the movie. Granted, they were nice boobies.) I felt bad for the guy, he was probably in his mid-20s, and here we were watching a movie about misfits with no one to go to the movies with them, just like him. Maybe I should have offered to be his Big Brother, and we could have found some common ground and I could turn his life around.

So, yeah, Role Models = good. Next time, though, more Elizabeth Banks, please. We need to integrate these girlfriend roles into the boy movies better, boys!

Current Soundtrack: Amy Poehler's latest "Smart Girls at the Party" (ummmm, probably not for me, I don't think I'm the audience here); Christina Aguilera, "Genie 2.0/Keeps Gettin' Better/Dynamite/You Are What You Are (Beautiful)"

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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

I KEEP MINE HIDDEN

I've been working on developing a comics project with a couple of artists, one of them being Joëlle Jones, the other being a new artist named Nicolas Hitori de. He posted some art from what we're doing on his blog. His blog is in French, so good luck figuring out what we're on about, suckers. You'll just have to content yourselves with the pretty art.

I'm excited to be working with Nico, and the fortuitous accidental bumping into each other on MySpace. Who knew Johnny Hallyday brought the world together?

Also, check out Joëlle's site for new info on ordering commissions and buying pages from Token.

Current Soundtrack: Jenny Lewis, Acid Tongue

"Push me, shove me
I don't call that love me
Call that over"

Joëlle posted this to her blog...

The first page of "The Jailhouse Swing," to appear in Popgun vol. 3 from Image Comics early next year.

Written by me, drawn by Joëlle Jones
Colored by Laura Allred
Lettered by Douglas E. Sherwood

Yeah.

Joëlle also continues to get positive reviews for her work on Token:

* From Eye on Comics:

"Jones clearly has a great eye for anatomy. She seems to capture the natural lines of the human body with seeming ease. Her style is a looser one, but the sketchy linework converges to create convincing figures and backdrops. Shira is perfectly proportioned. She’s not a rake-thin, supermodel type, but she’s stunning in a way that one can believe she doesn’t even recognize. The artist portrays Shira as voluptuous, but she doesn’t vamp her up, doesn’t oversexualize her. Occasionally, Jones resorts to cartoony exaggeration to convey the reactions (or overreactions) of some of the characters, and Shira’s grandmother is always depicted as more of a caricature than a character. But overall, the visuals are attractive. I think if there’s one thing Jones conveys better above all else is tenderness between two characters. That stood out in 12 Reasons, and it stands out here."

* Bookslut:

"The one aspect of Token that I really want to stress is the way the authors look at how a parent’s second marriage can affect a child. Just the notion of her father being serious with someone is hard for Shira and when he makes changes to their lives to accommodate his new love (who is a very kind woman), Shira is deeply shaken. As much as the story is about her own teenage issues though it is also about how all too often parents do not realize how fragile the lives of the children can be. Family is a bedrock thing and when it changes for any reason, it can be very hard to take. Just how hard is what Token is all about and any teen who has been through the blended family experience is going to fall for this one."

* Making It Up as I Go:

"It’s a lovely story, reminiscent of the films Shira loves, and Joelle’s art is so vivid and so alive that when I think back on the story I remember it as though I watched a movie."

Current Soundtrack: Christina Aguilera covering John Lennon, "Mother;" the Killers, "Spaceman;" M.I.A. How Many Votes Fix Mix EP

OH, WHAT A NIGHT

Last night the reading went really well. It looked dicey there for a couple of minutes because my data was not working with the laptops on hand, but since I had brought the raw files with me, we just skipped the Powerpoint file and ran it like a slide show. Not as pretty or smooth, and lacking the ringside bell sound effect I had, but I was going to be damned if two hours of separating each panel into an individual file was going to go to waste.

The gallery had a huge blow-up of the You Have Killed Me cover printed on canvas, and it looked amazing. I think it's something that people are placing bids on to buy, we weren't really clear, but Joëlle and I would have gladly taken it home. I met Jesse Reklaw and Andrice Arp for the first time, and Jesse's Slow Wave reading was really funny. Shannon Wheeler also read, getting the crowd to do his sound effects live for him.

Thanks to all who came out, but special thanks go to Dani and Leslie. Over at Leslie's blog, she has a report of the night and a scan of the last page of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, now signed for her and featuring an alternate ending written on the spot.

Gwen: "He ain't gettin' any ever."
Evan: "I'm totally getting some tonight."

After the showing, my old editor from DVD Talk, Geoff Kleinman, gave us the scoop on a media-only party being held at Voicebox, a new bar in Northwest Portland that has private karaoke rooms! Geoff wrote it up for his new Portland-based blog, OnPDX, and he even has a slideshow. Check it out. The first photo is of me serenading our awesome waitress, "Delilah," singing Tom Jones, of course.

The night is kind of a blur, since the karaoke and the sake were free for the evening. As soon as we walked in, I noticed these big paintings on the walls, and I said, "Gosh, that looks like the Pander Bros. artwork." Sure enough, there were Arnold and Jacob sitting at the bar. They joined us in the large room with Geoff, David Walker, and others and we drank and sang to our heart's content.

Our song choices...

Jamie
Christina Aguilera - "Beautiful"
Gene Pitney - "A Town Without Pity"
Engelbert Humperdick - "A Man Without Love"
Neil Diamond - "Love on the Rocks"
Otis Redding - "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" - a disaster!
Def Leppard - "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
Frank & Nancy Sinatra - "Something Stupid" - a duet with Jacob Pander's girlfriend, whose name I forget
Tom Jones - "Delilah"

Joëlle
Wham - "Careless Whisper"
4 Non Blondes - "What's Up?"
Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"
The Beatles = "All My Loving"
The Human League - "Don't You Want Me" (duet with Arnold Pander)

Geoff
Crazytown - "Butterfly" - to his credit, this was not the song he picked, it was a computer gltich, yet he did it anyway
Green Day - "Basket Case"
Weezer - "Hashpipe"
Avril Lavigne - "Sk8r Boi"
Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

David Walker
Bonnie Tyler - "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
Modern English - "Melt With You"
Charlie Daniels Band - "Devil Went Down to Georgia"

Arnold Paner
David Bowie - "Let's Dance"
Elton John - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"

Jacob Pander
Lou Reed - "Walk on the Wild Side"

I think there was more, but my memory fails me. Good times, though, good times. We will definitely be returning.

Current Soundtrack: The Kinks, Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One



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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

TELL THAT GIRL TO SHUT UP

Let's start off this week with some fanmail, this time out from Sangi sangi, whose e-mail is lady.god.diva:

I read your review of 'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium' and... I feel it is very sloppy. There is a difference between a critique and an acting-out of one's issues on something else. The difference is rather easy to spot. For one thing, your language is much like a tantrum [not unlike the store tantrum] rather than constructive. You're a writer, Mr. Rich. Have you any experience in producing a film? Writing a novel I imagine is much different than producing a movie. Ironic, isn't it, that you critique something you've not tried yourself before?

Best,
Sangi

Best to you, too, Sangi! As I've often said, I don't have to be a janitor to know when a toilet needs cleaning, sometimes shit just smells.

But, you remind me that I wanted to link to Roger Ebert's amazing blog post about certain rules movie reviewers should live by. Read it yourself and see how I measure up. I am at least confident that this rant doesn't hurt me as much as it does Ben Lyons, the boy who is single-handedly lowering all expectations about what we talk about when we talk about movies.

THIS WEEK IN THEATRES...

* Synecdoche, New York, the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman. The writer of Adaptation achieves his goals, but that doesn't mean the movie is necessarily good.

UPDATED TO CRITERION CONFESSIONS...

* Au hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson's humanistic parable about a saintly donkey.

THIS WEEK IN DVD REVIEWS...

* Alfred Hitchcock Premiere Collection, an outstanding collection of some early films from the master of suspense that is unfortunately marred by production issues. The individual sections on Rebecca and Spellbound were also posted at Criterion Confessions.

* Newsradio: The Complete Series, a low-rent collection of all five seasons of the intelligent and witty sitcom. "I've read your book, you magnificent bastard!"

Current Soundtrack: Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Six DVD 3



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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

More info on tonight's Wordstock event I wrote about here is now available.

Joëlle will have several pages from Token on display and for sale, including a wicked double-page spread she had on her blog. (Also check her blog for some new You Have Killed Me art.)

I will be reading our short story for the next Popgun out loud, with the colored artwork being projected using power point. I've broken it down panel by panel, so we'll see how it goes. It could be a cool performance piece, or it could be a disaster!

I'm scheduled to be on at 7:15, and I may read a second selection, I don't know. [Edit: Nope. Talked to the gallery, they are fine with a short reading.]

It also looks like I'll now be appearing at Wordstock at the Stumptown comics area from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday. I'll be sitting down and selling and signing books. If all goes well, I'll get Ms Jones to come with me, also.

If you come out tonight, you'll also be in the area to see this great show going on at Floating World:

Current Soundrack: Rob Wasserman & Elvis Costello, "Put Your Big Toe in the Milk of Human Kindness"

BACK TO YOU

Our German editor has passed along the news that their edition of 12 Reasons Why I Love Her was reviewed by Spiegel Online, one of the top news portals in Germany. It looks like it was reviewed next to Adrian Tomine's latest, and in equal measure. Actually, based on the rough translation from Babel Fish, it looks like we get even more attention than Mr. Tomine.

Here is the link.

Here, for giggles, is the translation:

Who a picture to make itself wants from the love and its enemies - the everyday life and the misunderstanding - must Comics read. The new works of James Rich and Adrian gate mine tell touching and binding of developing and offence of a large feeling. They had quite a while hidden themselves, on my desk, in my Bücherregal and finally in a pile books on my Nachttisch. Possible that they waited only for the correct time: On the approximately six-hour course trip, at whose end my friend at the station would fetch me. To hear no laptop, no work reading, to read much time, to see from the window music and to let the thoughts float. There were they now thus. Two Comics, which came along rather unaufgeregt: " 12 reasons, you too lieben" by Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones and " Half Wahrheiten" of Adrian Tomine. In black-and-white, with clear line drawn, told it me of the love, its developing and offence and the difficult time between them. Of humans, who look for each other and hide, who wait for the correct time and sometimes miss it: of Gwen and Evan, which meet coincidentally in the cinema (" 12 reasons, you too lieben") and despite vermasseltem first DATE, jealousy and insulted vanity find again and again to each other. Of Ben Tanaka (" Half Wahrheiten"), that its friend Miko not to hold can and also nothing else in its life. At first sight rather everyday stories. Nevertheless, perhaps also a little therefore, absolutely binding, intelligently and poetically. The authors succeed in lending by exact observations, small gestures, original dialogues, joke and ESPRIT to its characters depth and color. Rich and Jones their touching and complex love story besides into twelve chapters divided, which tell them in not chronological order. Which does not work in this case like a artifizielle bag plaything, but on the contrary, the charm of history still increases.
Each chapter is placed in front a song, which gives the tendency. Both the taste and Könnerschaft prove also here: Who hangs the slat for its history in the imaginary soundtrack Nancy Sinatra, which plays Pet shop Boys, Bryan Ferry, Buffy Sainte Marie and Beth Gibbons, rather highly. Rich and Jones take the hurdle problem-free. When the course in the station brought in, I had heard, from the window had seen and to mean thoughts had after-hung music. Not least thanks Adrian Tomine, Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones I did not feel a minute of it as lost.

Current Soundtrack: Underworld, Oblivion With Bells


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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich

...AND THE AMERICAN WAY

Congratulations, sir. I'm ready to see what you can do.

There was a real sense of accomplishment in the air tonight, a feeling of big things happening. Within seconds of hearing that John McCain had called Barack Obama to concede, I heard fire crackers going off in my neighborhood. Walking to my friend's, I heard people wooping it up in their homes.

Amusingly, on the way to that friend's, I stopped at the local minimart to get some champagne. An older man who was there with his son buying Pop Tarts and Sprite looked at me and said, "Celebrating, eh?"

"Yes," I replied, smiling.

"Well, the proof will be in the pudding."

I just looked at him, likely with that look my cat gives me most of the time, that blank "What is wrong with you?" look. Sadly, my comeback came about a block away from the store.

"Yes, and too bad yours is already so bitter."

No one expects a magic solution, and I think both candidates acknowledged that tonight. I thought McCain's speech was classy and eloquent, and Obama's acceptance of the victory humble and inspiring. It only could have been better had they played Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now."

NO, SERIOUSLY, VOTE!

YOU MUST PLEASE REMEMBER

Today is the day.

Everyone eligible to vote in the U.S. needs to get out there and do so. To not do so is to be complicit in whatever lame decisions your fellow citizens make. To not do so is to tell the people in charge that you don't care, they can do what they want. To no do so is to simply waste one of the best things this country allows us.

Of course, you know who has my vote.

The drawing was taken from Scott Morse, who encourages your voting on his blog.

And if somehow you still haven't made up your mind, spend some time at Christine Norrie's site. In a rather gutsy move, she's been devoting her blog over the last couple of months to discussing Obama and providing lots of information to keep people motivated.

This is going to be a truly historic day when Obama wins. We will be the people who tell the rest of the world that the United States has grown up, that we have restored the American Dream and gotten past prejudice and made that old hokey notion that anyone could be President a reality. We're also saying that the last eight years of bullying and selfishness and misguided policies are not something we wish to continue as our legacy.

Whoever you oppose in this election counts on you to be lazy and stay home, to not carry through with your promise to vote for the other guy. Because if enough of the people who have pledged their support to any one candidate shirk their responsibility, the foundation crumbles.

VOTE!

OUTDOOR MINERS

Oh, so quiet around here. Last week we had the return of Portland rain, a ton of movies to watch, and a nearly averted hard drive crash to distract us and conspire to make sure we really had nothing to say.

I return today with a couple of items.

* First, an appearance this Thursday at a comic book gallery show in conjunction with Wordstock. The short of it is that Joëlle will be displaying some pages and I'll be reading a comic book story, hopefully with visual back-up.

The long of it, from the site:

In their first partnership ever, Wordstock & Stumptown Comics Fest present a Graphic Novel First Thursday.  Featuring both original comic book art & the literary masterpieces of Portland graphic novelists, this event is certain to entertain both your eyes and ears.  

If you're new to the genre or a fanboy, you'll meet the artists that are behind the explosion of Portland comics.  See and hear from the likes of Carolyn Main, Jamie Rich & Joelle Jones, Graham Annable, Eisner winner Shannon Wheeler, and debut novelist Jesse Reklaw. 

Join us First Thursday, November 6 at Fuzzy Glamour Gallery, 625 NW Everett St. #111 in Portland. Doors open at 6:00 p.m., readings begin at 6:45 p.m., and admission is free!

Despite what the listing says, neither myself nor Joëlle currently has plans to appear at the festival itself.

* Speaking of Joëlle, her book Token got a great write-up at the Bust blog:

"I have a new art crush.

Joelle Jones won me over in about .2 seconds with her work on this newest Minx graphic novel.

I must admit I feel a kinship with the protagonist, Shira, a curvy Jewish girl with short hair, retro style, and a closer relationship with her grandmother’s best friend than with girls her own age."

More in the link. As there is also an even longer review at Broken Frontier, a sample of which:

"The biggest highlight of the graphic novel however is the art by Joëlle Jones (best known for her work on 12 Reasons Why I Love Her). Jones has a very assured cartoonist’s style, a fine line that results in clean beautiful imagery with a sense of fun and personality. She is a talented storyteller in her own right, conveying much in the expressions and posture of the characters and the "camera" angles of the comic’s panels."

Current Soundtrack: background TV...you tell 'em, Tyra!

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

All text (c) 2008 Jamie S. Rich