Cover to “Grendel: War Child” #7, Matt Wagner, 1992

Dark Horse Comics.

 

616525

A few quick words on the Season 3 premiere of “Fear the Walking Dead” (2017)

I’m going to go ahead and commit horror-nerd heresy here … at this point, I think I enjoy AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead” more than “The Walking Dead.”  The characters feel more “real,” and the stories move far, far faster.

Last night’s first episode was a hell of a lot of creepy, disturbing, pathological fun — enough for me to give it a 9 out of 10.  And to make it a little cooler, we’ve got a couple of terrific “that guy” actors in supporting roles.  The first is “Band of Brothers” and “24” alumnus Ross McCall, the second is “The Following’s” Sam Underwood.

Good stuff!

 

 

Cover for “Grendel: War Child” hardcover, Matt Wagner, 1993

953109b

Random Rabbit Returns!

Hey, my neighborhood’s home-crashing hare is back!  I call him Random Rabbit because he has no burrow — he just randomly selects backyards to occupy.  He was my guest for a while, but then he ambled across the street and inhabited another backyard.  (I think he was annoyed by my picture-taking.)  I think he just crashes random residences like a big, weird, puffy white houseguest.  (Think Kato Kaelin.)

Roanoke’s ecosystem puzzles me.  This is a slow, truly torpid prey animal who seems to have little healthy apprehension about other animals.  He’s doing just fine, though.  A nearby pit bull usually just gives him a wary stare … maybe dogs and cats are afraid of him because he’s so huge?  This picture doesn’t do him justice — he’s the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen.  He’s probably about the size of General Woundwort from “Watership Down.”

[Update, 6/5/17:] Okay now all my friends are telling me he is very likely an abandoned pet.  So I might start feeding him.  My pals are recommending “dandelions, lemon balm, and carrot tops.”

I myself am just relieved that other people can see him.  I was harboring a pet hypothesis that he was my equivalent of “Frank” from “Donnie Darko.”  (He’s almost as big.)

 

20170524_135817

I PROMISE I’ll stop with the covfefe jokes tonight!!

And I know it’s poor form to publish a blog post containing only memes.  (That’s what social media is for.)  But these two were just too good not to share with as wide an audience as possible.

This blog WAS supposed to be about writing, when I started it once upon an idealistic time.  And typos are an occupational hazard for writers, so I figure it’s okay.

Anyway, I cannot take credit for creating these … I found them on Facebook.

 

18835763_1428652643858102_6448167347333282859_n

 

18813326_1541118212574701_4835065421735937127_n

“Justice League America” illustration, “Who’s Who in the DC Universe” #7, Adam Hughes, 1991

Drawn by Adam Hughes, inked by Karl Story, and colored by Anthony Tollin.

(I had to consult the Facebook nerd-hive-mind to find out the creative team behind this piece — thanks to Charlie McElvey for the info, and, by extension, Frank Becker. 🙂 )

 

e4d36e3100a0882969be1c9acbd8d840

Damian Lewis as Antony in “Julius Caesar”

This was one of the “Shakespeare Solos” series that The Guardian produced last year on the 400th Anniversary of his death.  It’s damn good.

The series also features David Morrissey and Ralph Fiennes doing monologues.

 

“NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCOVFEFE.”

*Covfefe dooon’t like it …
ROCK the Casbah, ROCK the Casbah!
Covfefe dooon’t like it …
ROCK the Casbah, ROCK the Casbah!

*In best doctor voice: “Okay, now turn your head and covfefe.”

*”Covfefe at me, Bro!!!”

 

Okay, I will stop making these jokes tonight.

I was chatting with Dennis Villelmi today, and I told him the entire situation is stupid on so many levels. The president is stupid for tweeting “covfefe;” WE are stupid for finding it so funny, as though we were a group of junior high school students; the press sounds at least a little stupid for asking about an obvious typo’s “meaning;” Trump’s supporters are stupid for buying into the idea that it was a message in Arabic; Sean Spicer is stupid for trying to pretend that it was … a coded message? To a “small number of people?”

At the same time he’s trying to avoid the implication that Trump or his people are passing information to the Russians?

 

 

Depiction of Perseus pursued by the Gorgons, 580 B.C.

From Wikimedia Commons: So-called “Gorgon Painter’s dinos” black-figure technique with crimson appreciations. From Etruria, ca. 580 BC.  Detail of the shoulder: Perseus followed by the Gorgons after the murder of their sister, Medusa.

 

Dinos_Gorgon_Painter_Louvre_E874

“Bluebird,” by Charles Bukowski

Bluebird,” by Charles Bukowski

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.

there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?

 

 

charles_bukowski

Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers