happy birthday Thuvia Jane

Thuvia Jane turns four years old today.  she's been part of my family now for a little over three years.  she still has the most energy of anyone in the house.  I love her.

wet comedy interlude

if you like puns and if you like fish then this is the video for you. it's Kip Adotta and it's hilarious.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1

big fan of the series, but not enough to know every last detail about the lives of the characters- that's what Wiki is for, right?

anyway, the last book is one of the best wrap ups to a series I have ever read.  well, the last 1/3 of it, anyway.  the first chunk of the book, where the kids try to find and destroy the horcrux in the locket is dull and dreary, and the good spots don't quite overcome the "we are on the run and nothing good can happen" bits.  of course, that's what she wanted, but some judicious editing was much needed.

anyway, the movie is about the same.  the kids struggle to find a way to get rid of the One Ring, which makes them turn on each other.  oops, OK, so it's not the One Ring, but the similarities are easily seen.  I'll chalk it up to homage.

the three leads easily carry the movie, thank goodness.  there's just SO much of them.  a lot of reviewers wanted to see more of the rest of the cast, especially Snape.  which is so funny, since he was so hated before the final book revealed him to be the actual hero of the entire series, more or less.

and at least we get to see Harry hex Umbridge.  that was well worth it.  I am looking forward to seeing the final movie.

Kimba vs Leo

here's a comparison between the opening credits of the two shows. it's cool. I like these, I hope he does more.

all Magic Superman!

yes, that's my issue, and due to the cover almost about to come off, I may not read it again for some time.

this is from February of '74, and that is sort of when I remember buying my first copy.  it was in a 7-11 and we had been skiing that day, until a snowstorm hit and we had to hike part of the way down the mountain.  I believe we got a ride at some point and were dropped off at said convenience store.

it was well worth the fifty cents I spent!

magic had a strange history with Superman.  in those early years, there "was no such thing as magic" ruled a lot of DC comics, despite there being a ton of it in evidence to the contrary.  even Batman said that a lot, despite having met Dr. Fate.

anyway, there are 6 stories here, five of them being Superman and one Green Lantern story with Zatanna.  the first one features Mr. Mxyztplk (yes, I checked the spelling) which might be his second appearance.  there's no date on it, but I'd say it's a late 40s story. 

the second is a Jimmy Olsen epic, in which he frees the demons from Pandora's box and ends up doing all sorts of harm.  except it was all a drug induced nightmare.

next up "Superman and Hocus Pocus at the Magicians' Convention" which is silly and forgettable.

Green Lantern teams with Zatanna to help her find her father, part of an excellent ongoing storyline.  the art is by Gil Kane, of course.  only problem is... Zatara was introduced in that first Action comics, so he SHOULD be an Earth 2 hero.  was this ever explained?

Superman visits "The Enchanted Mountain" where magic is da bunk.  go figure.  this is in the town of Morabia.

finally, Superman takes on Circe in "Beauty and the Super Beast".  but this is mostly a trick. did you know a Man of Steel has two poles that are subject to the same laws as a magnet?  me either.

there's a letters page but nothing tops the two pages of "play the graffiti game with Superman" in  which various DC artists drew a lot of hair- among other things- on Superman's head.  these include Swan, Orlando, Cockrum, Kubert (Joe, that is), Kaluta, Howard Victor Chaykin, Frank Robbins, Dillon, Aragones, Adams, Wrightson and a few names I couldn't make out.  pretty humorous.  they even left two heads blank for the readers to draw on, thus ruining the collectability of the comic!

Iron Man 2

I thought I had reviewed the first movie on here, but using the search function I couldn't find it at all.

anyway, this was a fun sequel.  again, very predictable for the most part, and there were some disappointments to it, like never saying "Whiplash" or "The Radioactive Man" or even "The Black Widow".  I think they said "War Machine" once.  and really, was it too much to ask to see the Widow crawling on the ceiling or the walls?

and too dang many robots, it was hard to keep track of all of them. 

however, having said all that, the performances were good, RDJ looked like he was having fun and Paltrow got a slightly bigger role. also fun to see Happy Hogan get some time.  the music was very good as well, both the rock songs and the score.  it was a surprise to see Garry Shandling there in the movie, but he plays smarmy so well. 

slight spoiler:

Captain America (1990) trailer

this was supposed to be such a big deal when it was made. Hollywood still hadn't decided to put hundreds of millions of dollars behind superhero movies yet, despite the success of Batman the previous year.

well, I am glad they didn't, as not every superhero movie needs to be an "event". this one is fun. it may not be great, but it worked well enough to entertain me. anyone with old issues of Xenorama can read about it in issue #3!

14. We Still Drive Safely

sentai + cars = lame.

having said that this was a pretty funny episode, and it seems even Toei admitted my formula is correct.

anyway, Insaan sees the guy who was CarRed (or whatever) and is immediately smitten by him.  she sends her would be lover, Jealous to kidnap him.  Jealous is then, well, jealous and things go awry from there

basically a complete comedy episode.  the Pirates don't even want the super car power from CarRed.

Jealous gets beat up a lot, and the Pirates don't even know why Jealous has appeared.  CarRed is now an actor, since he lost his powers in the Great War.

after they figure out Jealous loves Insaan, he shows the beast man how to woo his woman.  even in the large size it works.  when the team changes forms again to battle the creature, they become TurboRanger first, and can't believe there's an actual difference.

neither can I.  like I said, it seems like Toei was admitting the entire concept of cars was lame.  which it is.

Imagine what I could do To you!

I never got to see the Exotic Adrian Street wrestle in person or even on the telly, but I have seen a match or two on VHS. mostly I saw his "I'm In Love with Me" video many years ago. a great wrestler with a great sense of humor. love this glam rock song.

Superman?

 I got this movie/musical/stage play a while ago, and have yet been able to sit down and actually watch it.  I am not sure why.

back in the day, it was supposed to be aired one late Saturday night, probably on Feb 1, 1975 (since that's when it happened and all- need I add I looked it up?).

well, good ol' ABC Channel 9 in Colorado decided not to air it at all back then.  so instead of seeing it when I wasn't even 10 yet, and much more impressionable, I have had to wait til now, when I am far more critical about such things.

I will add that I was pretty upset it wasn't on back then.  the amount of superhero movies was miniscule at the time, and anything even remotely related was important.

but seeing these images, I'm not so sure.  I hope I can get through it and post an actual review of the darn thing sometime in the near future.