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Day and Night
I’m pretty sure that I learned the word “equinox” from a comic book: Marvel Team-Up #60, dated Aug. 1977.
Panel from Marvel Team-Up #59 © 1977 Marvel. Script: Chris Claremont.
Pencils: John Byrne. Inks, Colors: Dave Hunt. Letters: Bruce Patterson.
Okay, I might’ve actually learned it from the previous issue, MTU #59. But #60 has
the antagonist of the story, Equinox, on the cover. It didn’t feel right to have the big splashy image leading off a post about Equinox not be a picture of Equinox. [Note: As you’ll see, I’ve since been able to include a scan of an interior panel from #59.]
A Peel and Lack Thereof
DC’s new logo began appearing on publications released last Wednesday, Mar. 7th.
It replaces what officially was called the DC Spin, introduced in 2005 to succeed the long-lived DC Bullet.
New websites were also unveiled for DC Comics and parent company DC Entertainment. And the DC Nation block of programming that now runs on Cartoon Network from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturdays, which debuted on Mar. 3rd, is likewise branded with — as it came to be known soon after news broke on Jan. 13th of DC’s trademark filing — the DC Peel.
I don’t love it.
Outside the Box
The word-verification system isn’t the only thing that Blogger has changed lately. I’ve complained to the service — with no acknowledgement so far — about the new stand-alone comments page as well.
For one thing, it’s ugly.
For another, users can no longer subscribe to comments from it for the particular post that it covers.
For another still, the Preview layout is now crazy, although in Google’s Chrome browser as opposed to Safari it’s at least easy enough to bump up the page size to sidestep the wraparound bug.
Last week I switched from the stand-alone comments page to comments embedded on dedicated post pages, but that approach has its own issues. So today I switched again to the pop-up window, something that I’ve always found awkward yet might be the least of all evils — which is itself an ironic phrase to invoke given the mantra of its parent company. One can only assume that Blogger has its best people ignoring these problems. You’re welcome to share your own preferences with me, as fellow blogger or reader, either in a comment or privately via E-mail.
[Update: While all of the above still holds in terms of my frustration, the blog is back to using the stand-alone comments page for now.]
Indie Race
Last Saturday morning the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony was held, airing that night on IFC. Seth Rogen hosted and past host John Waters served as Voice of God.
I started this writeup a week ago, but it petered out because no video was online yet and life distractions were abundant.
Rogen smartly referenced Brett Ratner’s Oscars controversy by asking if anyone was really surprised that Ratner showed himself to be a “horrible bigot”. It was a double zing — he’s a creep and we should’ve figured — as well as a singularly nifty way of pointing out that the (rightful) disapproval of Ratner’s usage of a gay slur had a whiff of the double standard about it, since bad behavior in Hollywoodland tends to be tolerated among the successful until it becomes news that puts authority in a difficult position.
He went on to say that Ratner would’ve been better off producing the Grammys than the Oscars, since “you could literally beat the $#!% out of a nominee and they ask you to perform twice” — a reference to the Chris Brown / Rihanna situation, which took a turn for the WTF recently when news came that the two were collaborating on a new track.
I also liked Rogen’s line that Drive “made Jews look so scary, I thought Mel Gibson directed it” and his comment about the star of Martha Marcy May Marlene: “I learned there’s a whole other Olsen this year. Where were they hiding her? She’s the best one!”
3 for 3/3
OK Go has made a nifty music video for Sesame Street called “Three Primary Colors”. You only get one guess as to the subject — although it covers what happens when you mix the three primary colors to produce the three secondary colors as well. I’ve linked to the band’s inventiveness before; more than once, in fact.
Related: G Love • Muppet Monday • Emerald Sit-In
On Track
Feb. 18th’s SNL with Maya Rudolph hosting was generally considered one of the best this season. I just caught a link to an Update segment of Rudolph as Oprah cut from the live broadcast but online in an edited clip filmed at dress rehearsal.
Rudolph didn’t reprise her Whitney Houston due to the singer’s untimely death the week before. I wasn’t a hardcore fan but certainly appreciated Houston’s vocal talent — and I’ll be eternally grateful for her music providing the backdrop to the memory of my cousin’s daughter Sarah, first member of the next generation in our family, dancing before she could even talk anytime her mom put on “I’m Every Woman”.
Yet I thought Houston squandered her gift to an extent on pop fluff like “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” — which I say as a great admirer of well-executed pop fluff (including songs in that vein like Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” and Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”) — rather than sticking with the romantic and inspirational ballads that better showed off her range or taking a turn into Etta James or Sarah Vaughan territory.