While working in the television business, one can find some odd conversations. One morning some years ago, during a full-on news broadcast, two of my colleagues and I began having a discussion about ‘Sesame Street’ of all things, during which the director revealed his utter hatred for Elmo. His rant was a fascinating thing, illuminating why he believed “that little red bastard” wasn’t really a part of the Street at all, but instead a usurper and that “Sesame Street doesn’t need his crap.” (This discussion was being had by three people aged 35 to almost 60, none of whom were…
Browsing: Question Of The Day
Comics fans, on the whole, are an opinionated lot, and as a long-time fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes, I’m counted among the most passionate (and dichotomous) fan bases of all. When DC announced the cancellation of LSH in favor of a fifth book in their JLA franchise, though, I was honestly a little bit relieved (mostly because Levitz Legion 2.0 was a moribund and frankly depressing piece of the team’s storied history.) Still, the replacement of the world’s largest and most diverse super-team with more Batman and more Superman exemplified the accelerating trend in comics and comic-based media over…
The weather in Kansas has turned cool, leading people to declare that it’s winter already and begin the yearly ritual of denouncing theories of climate change because winter on the plains tends to be cold. Here at Stately Spoilers Manor West, we’ve already begun discussing when to begin using the furnace and figuring holiday flight plans, without once saying farewell to the season that ‘s on its way out. This lamentable condition, in turn, begs a query… The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) agrees with renowned philosopher Barnabus Stinson that we need to at least briefly mourn the end of bikini…
I once worked with a man who often spoke at length about his dreams and aspirations, including one of the strangest life goals I’ve ever encountered: An inexorable drive to visit the bar from the movie ‘Coyote Ugly.’ Part of his reasoning was, and I quote, “t’find out if that l’il blonde one was’s cute in real life as she looked in th’ movie.” To be fair, he wasn’t the sharpest bulb in the barrel, and as goals go, it’s both harmless and reasonably attainable. For my part, I’ve always had kind of a morbid curiosity about visiting the various…
When I was a child, things were different. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go off on a tangent of faux-stalgia, asking you to like if you remember the .45 RPM adaptors or whining about the “kids today”, like a dejected Baby Boomer learning how to Facebook. But as Stephen will tell you, there once was a time when it was your solemn duty as a kid to wake up on Saturdays and eat a big ol’ bowl of Choco-Frosted Sugar Bombs while watching cartoons. (*I* had a choice of raisin bran, Grape-Nuts or generic flakes of corn, a testament…
This week marked the kickoff of the 7th Annual Major Spoilers Costume Contest, the time for you, the Faithful Spoilerites to show off your creativity and cosplay skillz (spelled with a ‘z’ because it will always be 1994 in my head.) Given appropriate funds, and were I not hideous, I think I’d enjoy being a cosplay hero (albeit one without a terrible fake reality show.) Number Six? Ultra Boy? Severus Snape? Han Solo? I’d have a million faces, and I’d rock ’em all. Sadly for my showoffy tendencies, I’m not built for The Flash, and have too much pride to…
There’s an old aphorism: “I may not know art, but I know what I like.” It’s more true than ever in this, ‘The Era Of The Beholder,’ wherein everybody achieves Warhol’s prophesied 15 minutes, so long as they’re prepared to publicly divorce or grow a ridiculous beard. Still, we’re here to praise pop culture, not to bury it, and I will admit to loving some goofy ‘reality’ programming, even enjoying the occasional episode of ‘Project Runway’ (abeit mostly for the Heidi Klum) which, in turn, begs a query… The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) reminds you that, as always, “None…
A few years ago, I had the misfortune of getting interested in early episodes of a new Fox network show, something which any Browncoat or fan of The Sarah Connor Chronicles will tell you is always a crapshoot. This particular program was the story of an underground cross-country race with an unknown prize, held by unknown persons, in which not all participants were willing. It lasted four episodes, but in that time, I found myself annoyed by the character of Violet, a teenage girl who never seemed to quite find her character’s voice. Flash-forward a few years, to find that…
It’s a sad fact of pop culture that many of our heroes have terrible fashion sense. Moreover, many of the greatest names in the history of fictional awesome wear the same thing over and over with little or no variation. Granted this is seen more often with cartoons (such as Fred Jones’ darling orange ascot), but even Peter Parker rocked the same navy-blue sweater vest until at least 1973 or so. Thinking about that particular quandary, I realized today that it’d be best to be the Fifth Doctor, whose ensemble has a sweater and coat for warm temperatures, a rolled-up…
As a former purveyor of small-market TV commercials, I occasionally find myself more entertained by the ads than by the programming itself (especially during ‘shows like ‘Pawn Stars,’ one of my kid’s fave-raves). As such, my brain is often full of snippets of commercial dialogue and songs, and I might have harbored a secret crush on the girl who sold Pine-Sol. (Also, Lenny Kravitz’ drummer, but that’s not important right now.) When it comes to retention of your commercial message, they say there’s nothing like a good jingle, which in turn begs a query… The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”)…
They say that love makes the world go ’round, love lifts up where we belong, all you need is love. But, for every Ollie and Dinah in the world, there’s a Juggernaut and She-Hulk, a Joey and Rachel, a Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl. The bad pairings (while admittedly in the eye of the beholder) seem to outnumber the good ones, and sometimes, as Mal and Inara proved, the good pairings actually ARE the bad ones. Given the depth of my pop culture experience, it’s natural to wonder whether Captain Kirk’s love of strangely hued ladies wouldn’t make Mystique his…
Recent discussion of the maybe-maybe-not-because-Princess-Amidala-said-so female solo Marvel hero movie have had me talking a lot about my favorite Marvel heroes, including the wondrous Wasp. Regardless of how interesting I find Janet Van Dyne’s character arc (rich princess to distressed damsel to hero to Avengers Chairperson), I always shudder a little bit at her choice of alias. Admittedly, my severe allergies to the venom of her namesake have something to do with it, but I find wasps (or, to be honest, anything with the thorax-down helicopter locomotion of a wasp) to be among the most terror-inducing members of the natural…
This week’s ‘Zach On Film’ assignment was one that kind of shocked me. Even having seen a lot of movies and taking television and film classes, I had never seen even a few brief seconds of ‘Raging Bull,’ and I found the warts-and-all portrayal of a pretty terrible person to be riveting and affecting. This was NOT, however, a universal response of our panel, making me wonder if I’m the weird one. Given the performances and technical proficiency evident in the film, I wasn’t bothered by the central character being abusive, selfish, sexist, homophobic and brutish (but it should be…
Sometimes, I get bored. That’s really my only excuse. And because I get bored, I like to think about silly things, most of which deal with semi-obscure super-types from around the various worlds. For some reason, last night’s thought process involved assembling my own five-color Super Sentai-inspired team, featuring: Commander Montgomery Scott (Red) River Tam (Blue) The Beak (Yellow) She-Hulk (Green) Pleather bikini Saturn Girl (Pink) Because I am a giving soul, I started to wonder how many ridiculously innovative and cool variations might occur if other people were playing along with me (keeping in mind that we’re talking about…