truth or science fiction?

if you haven't realised this by now, i am a bit of a geek. growing up, like most kids, i loved comic books. one of the first comics i picked up was this little 50 page black and white comic called "abandon earth," a title no 8 year old (yes, my parents let me fill my mind with junk, and thank andromeda for that!) could resist. i also noticed the name of the anthology, "starblazer", in this wicked space agey font.

imagine the wonder of a little kid, going through those 50 pages feverishly hoping and praying that england wouldn't fall into the hands of the evil aliens. when said 50 pages were devoured, the quest began for more of these titles, and boy were there more. titles like "algol the terrible" (a darth vader kind of character), "vassal's revenge" and "the exterminator" were read, re-read and read some more. it was escapism at its best, and i was thanking d c thomson for bringing these cheap, flimsy titles to my door.

d c thomson was more famous for their beano and dandyseries of monthly children's comics, and starblazer was their attempt to keep their older readers. so it was no wonder the bastards stopped it's run around issue 250. it's also kid of neat to note that this is where people like alan moore and grant morrison learned their craft. and finally, the absolute best part about starblazer was the fact that each issue was self contained, and you didn't have to wait till next month to figure out what happened to glave questor after he was captured by the space pirates of uranus (ha ha, i said uranus!).

picture courtesy: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/

chomp! chomp! chomp!

no, it's not me eating a fatburger, it's everyone's favorite carnivore, the shark from jaws...eating everything from license plates to little kids. c'mon, haven't you ever wanted one of those pesky kids bawling at the movies to be eaten alive by a shark.

i was watching jaws (again) the other day, never ceases to give me a good time. spielberg's adaptation of benchley's bestseller (spielberg wrote a lot of the screenplay because benchley's book was, well, trashy), remains one of the classics of our time.

superb camera work (remember the closeup on chief brody's face right after the kid gets it?) and some very special editing make jaws an incredible movie experience. and the music? who ever thought 2 notes, E and F, could make such magic? and to top it all off, we get some of the best lines in movie history (mostly delivered by one of the most memorable characters in movie history, cap'n quint).

i will never for the life of me understand why they made those frigging sequels (Jaws 3d anyone? "the third dimension is terror!"). well, that should be easy, idiot child...it's called money. jaws remains one of the best movies of its genre populated by baaad (but sometimes fun) movies like "piranha", "crocodile", "killer fish", "open water" etc.

btw, check this out for jaws re-enacted by bunnies.

picture courtesy: http://www.jawsmovie.com

random things

1. i need to hang with jim jang - none of you know this guy, but his office is right across my cubicle, and i sometimes stare at his name tag...jim jang. it's like the funnest name i've heard in a while. "what are you doing today? me, i am hanging with my boy, jim jang." just makes me want to repeat that name over and over again.

2. they finally posted the lineup for coachella the other day. looks really fun, looks like i was right on everything except for the smashing pumpkins. that was kind of a downer. but fucking tool is playing! i can't believe that shit. i've been meaning to check these guys out for years. also, the audio bullys. now the trick is to figure out what day i should hit. right now, day 1 seems to be the safe bet, but day 2 has oakenfold, so i might just bite the bullet and go for both days.

3. how hard is it to find an apartment in LA? pretty damn hard, especially since i am trying to find something in the long beach-manhattan beach areas. i found the high end places easily enough ($8000 a month!). so if any of you kind readers know of such a place close to the water, please let me know