Category: Comics

Unearthed from the Dudu Blaq/Dirty Earl junkyard.

Okay, this is one of the final posts on 2008, this time on the subject of music, and then I’m moving on. I’m not going to get into a big musical list, or even a small one, frankly because I’m just not that great at writing about music. It’s not my department, ya dig? I can tell you how some sounds went into my ears and how I enjoyed the result, but I can’t tell you stuff like “this track has a brief but melancholy burst of strings reminiscent of the early 70s work of Barry Quasar, but without the almost crucially alchemic blend that his late brother Theodore’s tambourine provided.” Even writing like that in jest makes me feel apologetic.

So without going into every single thing about the album, I’d have to say the one that got the most plays was Chad VanGaalen’s Soft Airplane. I first learned of this man’s many melodic talents after bumping into an embedded YouTube of his “Molten Light” video (I think here at first, but the video seems to be down), which has some great, haunting animation. Turns out he’s a ding-dong animator, and has a lot more where that came from available on the Internet.

I thought that one song might just be a fluke whose potency was amplified by the awesome video, but countless listens to Soft Airplane have proven me wrong over and over again. I like the whole thing from beginning to end, which is more than I can say for most records, so if you get a chance to give it a spin or watch his videos, do so.

I’m going to be flying out of Louisville in a bit, finally ending my extended break and returning to the streets of rage known as Hoboken. See you there.

Here is perhaps the final entry in my don’t-have-a-scanner-here-so-I’m-capturing-small-sketchbook-drawings-via-my-cell-phone-camera-then-photoshopping-them series. It is the country’s great hero Son of a Gun and he is very proud and fierce.

I briefly entertained doing a top 10 movies of ’08 list, not unlike what I did with games, but I think I’m going to scrap those plans. Frankly, I haven’t seen everything I wanted to see in 2008 yet, and the list I’ve cobbled together might not be too different from something you might see elsewhere.

There are some oddities, of course, like Neil Marshall’s Doomsday. That would be in there, for sure. Hellboy II, I would likely include that, as I enjoyed it a lot. There would probably be a Rambo here or a Rambow there, on that I cannot be budged. Comedies like Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express would puncture and enter its inner sanctum. I am certain The Dark Knight would rear his head, that was a very good movie. I would feel naked and cold if I didn’t include Let The Right One In, and throwing Slumdog Millionaire directly behind it would warm me up, too. You might even see Wall-E there somewhere around the middle.

I think that’s ten. I guess that’s my Top 10, then.

I’m kind of bummed that The Twilight Zone isn’t still running on all cylinders, but I suppose these kibbles wouldn’t be as savory each year if they were more plentiful throughout. By some foul twist of fate, I managed to miss “Time Enough At Last,” but made up for it by catching “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” which never gets old. It’s almost time for me to leave home once again and go to my other home, which, much to the chagrin of many of my longtime readers, means that I’m not only not homeless but doubly so.

I’ll probably be stopping back in here once or twice before I depart on Sunday, but for now I’ll leave you to dwell on some boogers.