Thursday, January 29, 2009

My Male Chauva-list

Ice shows are more boring than opera, but less boring than ballet.

Admittedly, this is based on a small sample set. I just saw Disney on Ice, which may not be particularly representative of the art, but what Ive seen of Winter Olympics doesn't really entice me to find out otherwise. The fairies had the most impressive choreography, but the most insultingly trite, twee, and cliché story (and remember, this is Disney). My ballet experience consists primarily of a mind-numbing performance of the Nutcracker. I'd be willing to give the art another try, but I don't expect it to be much different.

Opera is a bit more complicated; I liked Die Fledermaus, and I've loved everything I've ever seen by Gilbert and Sullivan, but my understanding is that those are all operetta. Conversely, I was bored to sleep by a Christmas-themed opera partially about Good King Wenceslas, the name of which escapes me.

As an addendum, I generally like non-Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals, though I don't care for the Andrew Lloyd Webber stuff I've seen outside of Jesus Christ Superstar. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has the honor of being both a terrible story and a terrible use of the theatrical medium.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

The Frogurt is Also Cursed

A little good news/bad news sandwich for everyone:
  • Good news: I'll be doing a Recap this year. I've done the reading and gotten it all plotted out.
  • Bad news: It'll be late. I haven't been able to start drawing yet, and I've got company coming Sunday afternoon, so I won't get to work on it until Monday (or perhaps even later--need to finish my résumé).
  • Good news: It'll be a little longer than usual (like, maybe a 42-second recap).

Friday, January 02, 2009

Short thoughts in the new year

So, it seems I've been neglecting my blog a bit lately. It's been a crazy few weeks: term papers, graduation, moving out of my apartment, loads of cleaning, and the whole holiday shebang. My Internet access has been somewhat spotty; my time for reading comics has been even spottier.

It's a shame, too: I'd been reading quite a lot of comics before moving. Since then, all I've read is the first Phonogram trade. I'd share my thoughts on it, but I don't know that I have any. I felt most of the time like I was just beyond the horizon of understanding what was going on. Maybe if I knew a little more about the music involved or the whole 80s-90s British goth scene, I would have had an easier time of it. As it is, I didn't like it, and I have a feeling that once I read the appendix of references and re-read the story, I'll have a much better time of it. Anyway, I picked up the trade so I'd have some background for the new series, which I have high hopes for.

I read the first Spider-Man: Brand New Day trade, and it was all right. There was nothing particularly amazing about it, and while I really tried, I couldn't bring myself to buy the second trade. I liked the Mark Waid issues, though.

I finally read through several years worth of Transformers miniseries from IDW, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't really care for Simon Furman's writing. It's great in short bits, especially short bits where it can be really violent and set somewhat west of main continuity, but for the main title he's a poor fit. None of the characters have distinctive voices at all, in part because of the rampant Furmanisms. I haven't gotten around to the newest series or "Stormbringer," both of which I hear good things about, but I'm really left pining for the Dreamwave series, which was fantastic (at least, after the terrible first volume).

I'm avoiding Dark Reign. At some point, I should probably talk about my fantastic disappointment about Secret Invasion.

I don't have any ideas yet for the 30-Second Recap Contest this year. I'd like to come up with something, but it looks like I may be sitting this one out or coming up with it late. I don't feel too bad about that; I wouldn't want to win two years in a row (and I wouldn't imagine it to be possible). Now that I think about it, though, it'd be fun to see Maximum Carnage in crayon form...