Weekend Update

Stormwatch

Now that I'm done with Seven Soldiers, I'm going to take some time off from Moore/Morrison stuff. Right now, I'm reading the first volume of Warren Ellis' run on Stormwatch. I know it picks up a little later, but it was jarring reading that first issue. Coming from the brilliance of Seven Soldiers, it was jarring to go to a book that has so many basic storytelling flaws. The cast is massive, and as a result, we're forced to endure a ton of expository dialogue like "Don't fuss Jackson. You know my energy absorption talent took the sting out of all that." Anytime you have a character say "As you know..." it's a sign of bad writing. There are some interesting ideas there, but Ellis, particularly Ellis circa 1996, doesn't even touch Morrison's superhero work. Reading the issue does give me a better idea of how big a deal The Authority was. Coming off this constant exposition, narrative caption Claremont X-Men style stuff, the widescreen superheroics were positively revolutionary. I think Claremont's work is fantastic, but the quality of his characters allowed him to get away with a lot of flaws that others couldn't pull off.

New Music Video

This week, I finally wrapped up my music video for Nepo's Yer Warpin' Me. It's a great song and I think the video turned out really well. The 35mm lens adaptor is just fantastic and I love the colors and quality you get from the DVX camera. Anyway, you can get more info here, which also has a download link. Or, just watch the Youtube below.



TV Reviews

I've fallen a bit behind on doing weekly reviews of Heroes, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars. I'll be bringing those back with prompter reviews. The issue is that in ongoing series, a lot of episodes are designed solely to move the story forward and don't have as much to analyze. Shows that have been on longer usually have more to discuss, because you have the weight of the characters' background. That's part of why I always have so much to say about Battlestar Galactica, you're better able to position the developments within the existing story. That's true for some of Gilmore Girls, but in the case of Heroes, after most episodes I think that was pretty good, I want to see more. However, with a show like The Sopranos, there's so much quality already out there, even an episode where virtually nothing happens has a ton of material to analyze. Same for Six Feet Under last year. The closer a show gets to the end, the clearer it becomes what the overall story of the show is.

Lost Girls

Earlier this week, I bought Alan Moore's Lost Girls from Amazon. Normally I'd be all over a new Alan Moore book, but I was a bit uncertain about getting this one, due to its self professedly pornographic content, and its price. But, I decided that new Alan was worth it, no matter what subject matter he's tackling, he's interesting. So, I'll probably be reading that after Stormwatch.