It’s about an insomniac member of the Green Lantern Corps. His mental power to focus his ring’s energy results from hours of sleeplessness.
You think Guy Gardner was a $%^&? This dude’s crankier.
Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan
(I hope they skratch that idea.)
Here’s a thought. If the upcoming “Captain Marvel” introduces the shape-shifting skrull to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as far back as the 1990’s, at least), then does it create the possibility that any major players we’ve seen since the MCU’s inception are Skrull in disguise?
Like in the comics’ “Secret Invasion” storyline?
I kinda hope not, because it’s a terrible idea. But still.
Weird world — I ran this same post on Facebook and it gave me the option of “tagging” the skrull characters on the cover below, in case they were my friends. As Ford Fairlane would say, “Kooky.”
Is there a Pulitzer Prize for puns?
If so, send me to Stockholm. (Yeah, I know that’s where they hand you the Nobel, but I’ve always wanted to see Stockholm …)
My latest:
I’ll never show restraint on social media.
BECAUSE THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEMES.
“Roanoke Summer Midnight” featured by The Piker Press!
I’m honored to share here that my poem “Roanoke Summer Midnight” appeared today over at The Piker Press. You can find it right here.
The Piker Press is an outstanding online journal of arts, sciences, fiction and non-fiction. As always, I’m grateful to Editor Sand Pilarski for allowing me to be a part of its creative community.
The president wants “retribution” against … “Saturday Night Live?”
The morning after declaring a national emergency to fund the border wall without Congressional approval, the President of the United States asked (via tweet, of course) how television networks could “get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution.”
This is the President of the United States, people.
The tweet can (arguably, I suppose) be interpreted as an implicit call to violence against television networks. It all boils down to whether or not you view the word “retribution” as intrinsically violent. In fairness to the president, the various online dictionaries don’t actually require that — “retribution” can be defined as benignly as “recompense” or “reward,” or as ominously as “punishment for a crime” or “the act of taking revenge.”
But I will tell you that “retribution” is a word that I immediately associate with organized crime movies. (The example that springs to mind first is Robert Patrick growling it ironically in 1997’s “Cop Land.”)
Where were you that night, Jack?
I had nothing to do with it. That would be retribution, and that I leave to God almighty. I’m Gandhi.
If it helps to determine the president’s intention any, we can look at the Stalin-esque phrase he invokes, yet again, in his follow-up tweet: “THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT MEDIA IS THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” (And we know the man is sure of his assertion when he types it in all capitals.)
I’m personally reading the man’s comments in the context of what I’ve been reading lately from a few Trump supporters in my orbit via social media. I wrote previously on this blog about one of them openly calling for the large scale execution of “journslists” (they can never quite spell it) and Democrats. I have also heard from these individuals that the Second Amendment was created to protect us from journalists, while another hoped brightly that journalists get “eaten alive” (a metaphor, to be sure, yet hardly one that suggests a peaceable course of action).
But back to the tweet about “Saturday Night Live.” As though he were proceeding from some official Online Imbecile checklist, he was sure to include the term “Fake News” (his dumbed-down catchphrase for whatever he perceives as propaganda), as well as something childish (“very unfair”), something vague (“many other shows … should be looked into”) and something with inscrutable logic (“This is the real Collusion!”)
Again — this is the President of the United States, people.
Enjoy your Sunday.
You know what would be the perfect weekly Sunday morning trip?
A little Fredericksburg, VA, side street with a used bookstore, and indie comic shop, and a diner where you could get tons of coffee and omelettes.
The diner would have wifi. The comic shop owner would be a chill, affable local dude you could shoot the breeze with about the medium, or about current events. The used bookstore would sell a worn, dog-eared pocket dictionary so that you could learn to finally spell the word “omelette” correctly the first time. (I might just tear out that page and carry it in my wallet, along with the page containing “Pennsylvania.”)
And the entire street would be a block from the Rappahannock River, so you could take a stroll afterward.
Throwback Thursday: “I’m Gonna Wash that Gray Right Outta My Hair”
These early 80’s Clairol ads, of all things, came up on Facebook — after I lamented the waves of gray that have flourished across my head with astonishing suddenness. (I swear this seems like something that happened overnight. I honestly thought that there something wrong with my eyes, or maybe the bathroom light.)
I remember this little jingle quite well — it’s catchy, and there were a few variations of the 1980 TV spot that you see below. I never knew that it was a send-up of a number from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” — “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair.” For some reason, my friends thought that was really funny.
My brilliant “Star Wars” joke.
Most of the rebels in “Star Wars” were fighting only for a noble cause.
But Princess Leia hated Darth Vader for Alderaan reasons.
[Update: a pal of mine told me that this joke was “a bit forced.”]
Let me be clear.
If I write a blog post, check or e-mail and date it 2020, I am not a &^%$ing imbecile who still can’t manage to write the new year correctly.
I have mastered time travel, and I actually am contacting you from the future.
A short review of “The First Purge” (2018)
“The First Purge” (2018) isn’t the best horror-thriller I’ve ever seen, but it certainly isn’t the worst, either. I thought that I would be all purged out by now, but this fourth entry in the film series is a solid prequel — I’d rate it an 8 out of 10. (There is also a TV show set in “The Purge” universe, which USA has renewed for a second season, and I’m told that it’s pretty good.) I suppose this is a durable franchise because its premise could be explored through countless different characters.
The movie has some weaknesses. The pacing is off, and you could argue that the political theme of “The Purge” films, though compelling, is getting redundant by now. (There are some specific jabs this time out at Donald Trump and his following; they’re heavy-handed, but they’re fun to spot.)
But “The First Purge” is still a suspenseful and disturbing dystopian horror film. It’s got a terrific bad guy in Rotimi Paul’s “Skeletor” psychopath and some surprisingly damned good action sequences. There is another difference here, too — this “Purge” is far less campy than the second and third films. There are fewer plot twists, fewer over-the-top characters, and far fewer trippy visuals — it feels more like a straight horror film instead of a zany one. Depending on your preferences, you might find it superior.
One more thing — given its obvious love for Staten Island, this film would make a great double-feature with “Bushwick” (2017), another thriller which seems like a love letter to its own setting in Brooklyn. And they are both urban neighborhood thrillers with a similar storytelling style.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 