Tales of the Green Lantern Corps

Need proof positive that the Batman: The Brave and the Bold series is a hit with the grade school set? Look no further than my kiddo. Apparently he and his buddy were playing "Green Lantern" on the playground, and they drew Green Lantern rings on each others fingers because... you know, you gotta have the ring, Dad!

G.I. Joe-splosion!

I loved the G.I. Joe comic book and toy line in the early ’80s. I actually devote an entire chapter of my upcoming book, Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan, to the franchise! I’m also a fan of Hasbro’s current Mighty Muggs toy line. I have a bunch of the Marvel Mighty Muggs and the kiddo has a bunch of the Star Wars ones, but Hasbro just started releasing G.I. Joe versions and I couldn’t be happier. I could take or leave the Mighty Mugg of Duke, but there was no way I could pass up Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander. The packaging layout is pretty standard across the Mighty Muggs line, but what I love about the G.I. Joe Mighty Mugg boxes in particular is the image on the side of the box: It’s a throwback to the original “explosion” G.I. Joe packaging of the ‘80s! Great stuff and a cool nod to the old schoolers. The only thing that could have made these even more awesome... white-dot outlined dossiers on the back of the packaging!

The Ten Year War in Context

I'm currently reading War as They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg. It's a look at Woody and Bo's Ten Year War filtered through the lens of politics and the cultural upheaval that was taking place on college campuses across the United States during that time.

The book recounts the games between these two coaching icons within the context of changing social attitudes, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the rise of campus activism. It also explores Woody’s long friendship with Richard Nixon, his love of military history, the innovations of University of Michigan athletic director Don Canham, and Ann Arbor’s history of liberal leanings. Rosenberg also uses Woody’s love of the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson to find deeper meaning in events taking place both on and off the field.

War as They Knew It is more than just a football book; it’s a snapshot view of what it was like when the changes America was going through reached the Midwest. And for someone who is fascinated by the era and the Rivalry, this is a great read!

Hyundai, the Tuna with a Heart

In yet another example of Madison Avenue’s shift in focus, you can’t tell me the ad agency behind the Hyundai Assurance Program spot, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, isn’t setting its sights squarely on our post-Baby Boomer generation.

While I don’t know the details behind Hyundai’s new Assurance Program, I have to say the ad campaign smacks of the Schooner Tuna ad delivered by Graham Jarvis’ Howard Humphrey in the John Hughes-written Mr. Mom over 25 years ago.

For comparison, here is the text of that fictional TV spot (emphasis mine):

My fellow Americans. I am Howard Humphrey, President of Schooner Tuna. All of us here at Schooner Tuna sympathize will all of you hit so hard by these trying economic times. In order to help you we are reducing the price of Schooner Tuna by 50 cents a can. When this crisis is over, we will go back to our regular prices. Until then, remember, we’re all in this together. Schooner Tuna. The tuna with a heart.

And here is the second Assurance Program spot Hyundai began running in December:

Notice right around the 25-second mark, narrator Jeff Bridges reads ad copy lifted directly from the Mr. Mom playbook: “We’re all in this together.” You gotta wonder if Hughes is on-staff at Goodby, Silverstein or at least being compensated by Hyundai, and I'm frightened at the prospect of what might be next... A Victoria's Secret/Sixteen Candles ad with an "I can't believe I gave my panties to a geek" tag line?

We Got the Blues to Keep Us Warm

The Black Keys
30 January 2009: Cleveland Agora Theater and Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio

We go to far more shows at the House of Blues than we do the Cleveland Agora (in fact, the last time we saw a show at the Agora was to see the Black Keys in 2006), so I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it was “hell frozen over” cold in there Friday night! Fortunately, we had the warm velvety fuzz of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney's music to heat the joint up.

Last time we saw the Black Keys here, we showed up way too late, parked blocks away, and sat up in the pot smoke-filled heights of the balcony. This time, after fish tacos and cerveza at Marcelita’s, we purposely got to the Agora early enough to get a great parking spot on the street behind the venue (the guy in the car parallel parked in front of us was playing the same Black Keys song as us when we got out of the car: “Girl Is on My Mind”) and killer seats for the general admission show.

The Agora is set up with a lower level dancefloor in front of the stage, then two or three tiers of tables and chairs rising up to the back of the hall. Up in the balcony is theater seating, steep to the ceiling. When we got into the theater, we grabbed a couple seats at the back of the first tier. Realizing that once the place really filled up we wouldn’t be able to see a thing, timing and luck helped us out when the people at the front corner of the first tier (at the railing) up and left. We snagged the seats and settled in for the evening.

I don’t think the heat works in the Agora, because we could see our breath the whole night. It was like an outdoor concert with a roof over our heads. We originally left our coats in the car because we thought it would heat up in there and we did want to lug our coats around. Well, as my wife pointed out, sometimes I guess it pays to look the older responsible adult part, because – despite the giant “No Re-Entry” sign above the door – the ticket scanner guy was totally cool to let me run out to the car to grab our coats and gloves after we realized it simply wasn’t going to warm up in there.

I ended up running into Hank LoConti, the Agora owner and founder, as I came back in. I don’t know how well he really remembers me, but I had interviewed him at length for my Pop Conference paper on Michael Stanley a few years ago. We also ran into David before the Black Keys took the stage later that night, too. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, though, because we'd discovered back in December that we had both given tickets for the show to our wives for Christmas.

The first opening act, the Other Girls, took the stage sometime after eight o'clock. The lead singer’s voice was shot, which was unfortunate because the songs had potential. About an hour later, though, Buffalo Killers ambled on-stage and tore up a fun set of Cincinnati southern rock. Hints of Allman Brothers, Hendrix, and the Black Crowes all blended for some great ‘70s-style jams. (Check out the four-song 2007 live concert download over at TapeCast.)

And an hour after that, the stagehands rolled out Carney’s drum riser and an inflatable homage to Akronite Peter Toth’s “Trail of the Whispering Giants” Indian sculptures and Carney straight-away began breaking drumsticks on the first song of the night. The guys ripped through some great tunes, like “Have Love Will Travel”, “10 A.M. Automatic”, “Strange Times”, “Your Touch”, “I Got Mine”, “Busted”, "Stack Shot Billy", and my (and my kiddo's) personal favorite Black Keys tune: "The Breaks".

The Black Keys get better every time we see them. I love their music and a playlist with nearly 50 of my favorite cuts from all six of their albums is always in rotation on my iPod. But as much as you think you can appreciate their recorded music, it is always striking to see them perform live, because it is continually stunning to realize the full wall of sound is coming from just a couple of guys on guitar and drums!

Along with the concert tickets, I also got my wife the new Black Keys live DVD, Live at the Crystal Ballroom, for Christmas. We haven’t watched it yet, but with the temperatures in the teens these days we just might turn off the furnace and the lights, open some windows and see if we can’t recreate the live Agora experience.

Time in a Bottle

There is room in my world for all kinds of music, even ‘70s AM radio singer/songwriter stuff. I have a playlist I put together on iTunes with songs by Dave Loggins and Leo Sayer and 10cc and Rickie Lee Jones. But, to my ear, the three greatest songs to come out of that specific genre of that specific era are “Leader of the Band/Washington Post March” by Dan Fogelberg, “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin, and “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce. And if you’re of a certain age, that last song goes hand-in-hand with the Muppet Show. Sentimental, nostalgic, treacle-y, sugar-sweet awesomeness.

A Cover Artist for Deus ex Comica!

The hard work behind turning my Deus ex Comica online series into a full-fledged book is almost complete! I have been busy adapting and rewriting the existing installments into chapters and writing eight completely new chapters for the book, resulting in a collection of essays looking back at Marvel Comics of the '80s and exploring my rediscovery of the comic book culture after two decades away.

My friend and editor John Booth and I have been working hard to smooth over any rough spots and tighten down the nuts and bolts stuff. In the meantime, I realized a book about comic books needed an appropriate cover, and I couldn’t be happier to have Dave Wachter of Dial-R Studios be the one to create that for me! I am continually in awe of his artistic gifts and thrilled that he is lending his amazing talents to my little project.

It feels like this book is really coming together, but there is one more missing piece of the puzzle: a foreword for the book. The foreword’s author is a busy guy, but needless to say I am thrilled to have his words open my book! Look for another announcement in the coming weeks revealing the foreword author, and then my self-published book, Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan, will be available soon thereafter!

In the meantime, enjoy this great sneak peek at the incredible work Dave is doing for the book cover!