I am sick

And I still got a flu shot yesterday, which probably means I'm going to die. I think that I'm mostly ill due to sinus drainage brought on by abrupt weather changes. But I'm fairly certain if this is the flu that getting a flu shot will kill me. Just remember I love you all.

Sometime after my death, I'm going to Miami for something like 20 days. That's the better part of a month, and will be the most time I've spent with Amelie since last year. I'm hepped up about it, in my near-death state, let me tell you. We're gonna eat shrimp pizza from some Cuban pizza place, maybe go to Key West, and her grandmother's probably going to pump me full of Cuban coffee because "cafe" the only word I understand in Spanish so it's all she and I can talk about.

Read Sleeper 3 and 4. Much as I like it, I'm often left wondering if all this super-spy stuff isn't just a couple guys fucking with each 'cause they have nothing better going on; someone needs to buy Tao and Lynch some puppies to take care of. Also read the "Heart of the Beast" graphic novel that Dean Motter and Sean Phillips did at Vertigo, like, ten years ago. If you can grab it for cheap, grab it. The art is nice and there's an underlying creepiness to it that I enjoyed, even if the whole thing is a bit sparse.

Being at death's door has given me the strength to finish the first stage on Metroid Prime. No, not the new Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. The first one. The one I've had for something like two years now. I'm irrationally afraid of Metroid games. I was no good at the original or Super Metroid. I'm scared this will be no different. So far, it hasn't been. And I'm still going to buy the second one at some point because I am a frivolous idiot.

Off to croak. Maybe it's reading Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men that's left me so weak...

Must... write about... COMICS...!   >choke<

Seriously, I got nothin'. Haven't touched an Ultraverse comic in weeks, the first issue of Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men lies rotting on a pile of other, hopefully better, comics.

Oh, I read Sleeper v. 2, #2. Kinda feels like a fucked-up romantic comedy. "Oh, Holden, you scamp, nearly killing the estranged husband of the woman you once loved. Tee hee." The covers to #3, with the crawling-up-a-building Holden, and #4, with the grey Iron-Man-lookin' guy, are really awesome. Guess I gotta read 'em sometime soon.

I'm gladder every day I didn't bother with "Avengers Disassembled" or "Identity Crisis."

I'm equally glad that Steve Gerber is writing "Hard Time." And that Marvel put out The Essential Howard the Duck, which I still haven't finished reading. How the hell did this get published in the 1970s at Marvel, anyhow...?

"I'd rather feel bad than not feel anything at all"

Warren Zevon's dead, and that's a bitch. I mean, I didn't know the guy, but every time I saw him on Letterman I wished I did. I wished he were my dad or my uncle, or even that weird guy up the street.

Not that he was any huge secret or anything; lots of people like him, as well they should. I think personally the only other person whose Lyrics, tunes, and demeanor all mesh together so finely is John Prine, but that's neither here nor there. Zevon was well-liked, and that leads to crap like tribute albums.

There's one out now called "Enjoy Every Sandwich," and no, I haven't bought it. But they've played the crap out of it this week on WFPK (the local "adult album alternative" station, whatever the fuck that means), so I've heard most of it. They probably picked the better songs to play, and that makes me fear what else lurks on the album. It's crap. Adam fucking Sandler sings "Werewolves of London," about the cheesiest thing I've ever heard and it makes me want to cry. I saw his son Jordan with the Wallflowers do a song on Letterman and, uhm... suck. The rest isn't worth mentioning, except for The Pixies version of "Ain't That Pretty at All." It's good because they manage to make it sound like a Pixies song, instead of trying to emulate Zevon's style. They play it like it's a good song and they're a good band.

These tribute albums are always dodgy at best, so I shouldn't be surprised. Usually when I want to pay tribute to someone I open the window, let the sun glare in, and crank up his albums. Nothing else should be neccesary.

The Pause that Refreshes

Man. I've mostly been sorting comics as opposed to reading them. Theraputic, yes, but it doesn't leave me much to write about here. "Put some bags and boards on my Fantastic Four comics and stuffed them in a box. That Mike Wieringo sure makes a fine cover." And he does, and I'm gonna miss him and Waid, but... bags and boards. Booooring.

Mostly I'm planning my trip to see Amelie for the Christmassy times. She's nuts about this stuff and she makes it fun for me again, 'cause I've been over Christmas for a while now. It probably happens to most of us, but knowing someone who didn't have Christmas for the first half of her life makes you appreciate getting and giving stuff all over again. We're in it more for the capitalism than for the Christ. Who isn't these days?

I had completely forgotten about Thanksgiving until someone mentioned it yesterday, so caught up in planning this trip am I. Turkey, though... how could I forget about turkey? 'cause it's not ham, probably.

Hey, some folks mentioned me in the blog-o-roll evaluation things a little while ago. That was pretty sweet, I gotta admit. I don't much interact with the blogosphere at large, not out of any sense of contempt (except for Rick), but mostly because I don't update daily, and partly because I only try to post when I have something terribly entertaining to say. I try to treat this more like a magazine column; a lofty goal, I'm sure. But deep in my heart I'm glad people read and appreciate this crap and send others here to read it. It warms my heart in this coldest of seasons: November Sweeps.

I found a copy of the Clash's London Calling in the house. Don't know whose it is, how it got here, or how long it's been here, but I'm claiming it as my own. I've never heard the whole thing (but I've heard more than I'd thought), and these guys are a rather jaunty rock 'n' roll quartet. But flipping all those records is a bitch.

... but I am reading comics. In fact, I just started reading Fantastic Four Versus The X-Men, by Jon Bogdanove and none other than The 'Mont himself. Don't know why I have it, but you guys are gonna hear about it when I'm done. And that's a threat.

The Manliest Superhero of All

So, anyone else see the gay man dressed as Guy Gardner during the Tron Guy's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel last night? They sent the poor bastard to a gay Halloween parade/party in Hollywood and in the first shot he was standing with some dudes, one of whom was dressed like Guy Gardner. I'm not sure, but there could have been a John Stewart there, too.