Flashback Friday: Purple Passion

~ LobaBlanca

I don’t remember much more about Purple Passion beyond the fact that it tasted like grape-flavored rubbing alcohol. What else would it taste like? It was made from Everclear grain alcohol. I’m surprised I have any stomach lining or tooth enamel left after drinking this stuff.

Purple Passion’s sole purpose? To lead you quickly down the path to total blitzed status. If there’s another purpose for this drink, I can only assume it involves battlefield emergency triage. On the night I was introduced to it, however, it was about the blitzing.

My best friend was home from college for the weekend and excited to introduce me to this drink she’d discovered at one of the parties she’d been to on campus. And, yes, this would be the same BFF of the infamous sleepovers that caused me to charffle Dimetapp and pepperoni pizza. Apparently, she had a thing for getting me buzzed on purple things.

Slight problem: We weren’t quite 21 yet. I mean, we were emotionally way more mature than 21. Unfortunately, the government doesn’t acknowledge emotional age. Not that big a deal, though. We had one of her friends buy us a four-pack of this high-octane Kool-Aid. He then drove us around down all the rural backroads of the county where she lived while we sprawled in the backseat, splitting the Purple Passion bottles.

Oh, but wait. You have to have music for something like this, right? How about a cassette of The Fugees’ The Score, on constant rotation? I heard that damned album so many times that even while burning a hole through my central processor with grain alcohol, I was able to identify that they’d sampled Enya on their song, “Ready or Not.”

And now I’ve just outted myself as being familiar enough with Enya that I was able to identify her music.

Shut up. I hear you laughing.

You know what? For that, I’m leaving you with the Fugees/Enya song. I told you to shut up…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Oi1gtu_Kw&w=480&h=360]

BookBin2012: Epileptic

~ LobaBlanca

Not wanting the “Public Library” portion of my BookBin2012 widget to go unloved, and because I simply cannot stay out of a library as gorgeous as our neighborhood library, I bring you my latest discovery from the graphic novel section: Epileptic by David B. (or David Beauchard).

Originally released as a six-volume series under its French title, L’Ascension du Haut Mal (which translates as “The Rise of the High Evil”; also, “haut mal” is the French equivalent of the English term “grand mal” in reference to epileptic seizures), Epileptic is Beauchard’s retelling of his family’s journey through the sudden onset of his older brother’s epilepsy when his brother was 11.

Beauchard’s choice to approach his family’s story from his younger version’s perspective brings the narrative to a less convoluted, more accessible level. A story dealing with such a serious medical condition runs the risk of becoming overburdened by medical jargon; telling the tale from the perspective of the little brother who must process all these changes and ordeals as they are happening gave Beauchard permission to simplify his narrative without watering it down.

He balances the various family dynamics and reactions to his brother’s worsening condition, demonstrating not only the extraordinary measures to which family is willing to go in order to save their own, but also the disconnectedness and solitary confinement each member experiences, even in the face of familial cohesion in pursuit of a cure. Though they are together in family experimental journeys into alternative medicinal treatments and alternative religions, Beauchard explores well the varied and separate emotional responses he and his family experience.

Beauchard is not an overly sentimental writer, which I believe serves his story well. He is, however, a phenomenal artist. Just as I praised Craig Thompson for the artistry of his novel, Blankets, I believe that Beauchard is another whose artistic prowess has raised my opinion of graphic novels to an even higher plateau of respect. The inky intricacy of his oftentimes nightmarish tableaux roll over you in swells of beauty, horror, desperation, promise, resentment, and resignation. His artwork is unsettling, reflecting at times the disturbing aesthetic of a Grand Guignol influence.

[Or perhaps I merely think this because they’re both French. This is sometimes how my brain works.]

Admittedly, the artwork is bold and distinct enough that it was a bit overwhelming at first. I pressed through my initial discomfort and soon found myself enraptured by the dark details of Beauchard’s beautiful black and white panels. His view of the world, both the real one and that of his exquisite imagination, is rich and complex and full of the fury and impotence with which so many families are familiar when faced with an intractable disease. At times I found myself lingering over a page long after finishing the text, simply trying to take in the layers hidden beneath the words…layers that provided a deeper narrative unhindered by the boundaries of letters.

Final Verdict: I hope that this novel has already found its way into another’s book basket at our library. Definitely another one for the Amazon wish list.

BookBin2012: The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1

~ lobablanca

I’m feeling a bit peckish for horror this year, denizens. I recently reorganized some of my library and discovered that I have amassed quite a few horror-related novels throughout the years, including a rather impressive list of Stephen King novels never once cracked open in all their years of taking up a lot of room on my shelves.

Horror has been my favorite branch of the speculative fiction triumvirate since I was just knee-high to a corpse (I’d rank them horror, sci-fi, and fantasy a solid and very distant last), so I’ve decided that I need to focus a bit more on this part of my library.

First on my list? The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1, a collection of short stories that I bought at a used book sale slightly more than a decade ago (at the same sale that I bought many of my King novels as well as this previous BookBin entry).

For those not familiar with horror-focused literature, Cemetery Dance is…well, allow them to explain themselves:

Cemetery Dance is the World Fantasy Award-winning magazine of horror, dark mystery, and suspense. Each issue is packed with 100 to 140 pages of short stories, articles, columns, interviews, news, and reviews! Plus stunning full-color covers and striking interior artwork! Covering the entire horror field

Flashback Friday: Breakfast-Time Sugar Buzz

~ LobaBlanca

A long, long time ago, I wrote about the joy of cereal box prizes. I mentioned that my favorite was Frosted Flakes. How do you not love the cereal with the mascot voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft?

(Don’t recognize that name? Don’t worry. He’s just a bad banana with a greasy black peel, denizens).

Ravenscroft provided the voice of Tony for more than 50 years. Perhaps it’s just me, but Tony hasn’t sounded quite the same since Ravenscroft died. Here’s one of his early commercials (black and white, even…and what’s up with his teeth? If that’s what Frosted Flakes does to your teeth, you might want to reconsider them as a balanced part of your sugar rush):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VEQbZUVGI&w=640&h=480]

And then there’s this little gem. Well, hey there, “Cathy”!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmcj53NmpUs&w=640&h=480]

I remember this commercial. I always thought it was a sad attempt by Kellogg’s to get adults who grew up eating Frosted Flakes to come back. You know, because it’s never too late to need insulin.

If I wasn’t flaking out, I was going a little fruity. Er, loopy. Fruit Loopy, with my home bird, Toucan Sam. I used to love eating a bowl a Fruit Loops and drinking a cup of coffee while watching Scooby Doo before school (and, yes, there are several things wrong with this sentence). Befitting, then, that I would find this commercial, as animated by Hanna-Barbera (watch closely and you’ll even see a guest appearance by the very first “ghoul” to ever haunt Scooby and those meddling kids):

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5O0EHwfPno&w=640&h=480]

And, before one of them prowled the woods of Sunnydale at the full moon or the other discovered he held the power to electrify the lives of our favorite (some might even say they were X-ceptional) FBI agents after surviving a lightning strike (impress me, denizens, by following this clue), these two up-and-coming Gen-Xers were getting their own Loop-on:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdsV1ROQTZg&w=640&h=360]

Other favorites? Trix, of course…and one of my favorite commercials was this two-parter in which Bugs Bunny tried to help the Trix Rabbit finally get his hands on his own Trix cereal. Didn’t he know? Trix are for kids.

And hookers. But that’s for a different story.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2yRgp3xRYk&w=640&h=480]

Then there were the chocolate cereals: Cocoa Puffs, Cocoa Krispies, and (my personal favorite) Count Chocula. It’s not even that I really liked Count Chocula cereal. I just liked the mascot more than that annoying bird or those rodent-sized elves. Snap, Crackle, and Pop the hell away from my food, dammit.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMjgDjEZfa0&w=640&h=480]

How about a monster sugar buzz for breakfast today?

The true crime isn’t the fact that they now only sell Count Chocula, Frankenberry, and Boo Berry cereals at Halloween. It isn’t even the fact that apparently one or all of them disposed of the Fruity Yummy Mummy (probably as retribution for this commercial). It’s that they still sell any of these teeth-rotting concoctions at all.

Actually, that’s not true. The real crime is that many, many (full) moons ago, somewhere along a dark, lonely highway, Count Chocula and Frankenberry disposed of their first fruity competition, Fruit Brute. A moment of silence, please.

There are tons more of these commercials and cutesy cartoon mascots designed to trick kids into consuming more sugar in one bowl than you’re probably supposed to have in one week…Dig ‘Em the Frog, the Cinnamon Toast Crunch bakers, Captain Crunch, Sugar Bear, Lucky, the Flintstones…not to mention the movie, TV show, or video game tie-ins like C3PO Cereal, Pac-Man, Ghostbusters, Smurfs…we truly were the marketed generation, weren’t we? Thank the prophets we were also the “Fluoride in the Water” generation.

Reflections on a Golden Gate

~ LobaBlanca

As touristy and predictable as it is, whenever I go to San Francisco, I always end up taking an excessive number of photos of the Golden Gate Bridge. I simply can’t help myself. It’s stunning, no matter what time of day or what type of weather surrounds it. I’ve seen it damasked by fog, gilded by moon glow, and shimmering in the brilliant sunlight, and I’ve yet to tire of its beauty.

This past trip, I decided that I needed to mix it up a little bit…get a different perspective. I also wanted to visit yet another filming location from Vertigo, one of my favorite Hitchcock films. I ended up at Fort Point, right beneath the bridge and just as the sun was reaching a prime position in the sky for some gorgeous Golden Gate glow.

I would have liked to have gotten even further under the bridge or closer to the water’s edge for some of these shots. Unfortunately, the fort was closed and surrounded by a pesky security fence. Oh well. Perhaps next time.

Here, then, are my favorite shots, including one of a drippy-billed seagull who seemed quite amused by my impromptu photo shoot…

And, finally, here’s my favorite shot, which I took specifically as an homage to Vertigo. It came out so exactly as I had hoped it would that I couldn’t resist taking it into PhotoShop and turning it into my own “poster” for this movie:

Using The Carrot To Stick It To Us…

~ lobablanca

First, allow me to vent for a moment to the companies, corporations, organizations, etc. who hide behind the “green” concept to keep more money for themselves. I’m talking about the businesses that do things like no longer provide printed instructions with their merchandise under the guise that they are “protecting the trees.”

No, you’re not. You’re saving yourself the cost of providing us with what we now must provide ourselves. I don’t think you’re being environmentally friendly. I think you’re being capitalist dicks.

[Yes, Loba is in a less than chipper mood this afternoon.]

Tangentially, I have a gripe about the local government where I reside doing something quite similar. Beginning January 1, 2012, all stores (with the exception of pharmacies and fast food restaurants) now charge 5 cents for each bag that they provide their customers. The stores get to keep 1 cent while turning over the rest to the government. The government claims that they are doing this to help reduce litter in our landfills.

Allow Surly Loba to call shenanigans.

Mind you, I have no problem with the concept of BYOBag to stores. We’ve been taking our own bags to the supermarket for almost 3 years now. Back then? Stores actually rewarded us eco-friendly shoppers by giving us…a 5-cent-per-bag discount on our bill. Now? Nothing.

Unless you don’t remember to bring your own bags.

I get it. Governments all across the country are strapped for cash and are trying to figure out how to bridge the gap in frightening financial shortcomings without raising the ire of idiotic TEA baggers by raising taxes. So they’re coming up with inventive ways of side-stepping the scary “T” word by doing things like this. But not only can I see through your rather flimsy “we’re being green” smokescreen, I can also do enough math to put 2 and 2 together and see that what used to be a positive reinforcement toward eco-responsibility on the part of consumers has now been turned into a big fat negative.

Essentially, they’ve taken the carrot of rewarding our conscientiousness and stuck it right…well, you know.

I guess what irritates me the most is that I’m tired of all the pretending that these things are being done for anything other than purely financial reasons. It’s for the same reason that where I live insists that I have Sammy inspected every 2 years to confirm that his emissions aren’t polluting the air and killing all the wildlife in the state. Oh, and by the way, that’ll be $14 for the hassle.

Are we as a society really this dull-witted that we don’t balk at such blatant manipulation…but we’ll go bat-shit crazy if the mere suggestion of raising taxes is brought to the table? Call me crazy, but I would much rather you just raise my taxes than nickel and dime me (literally) in these frustratingly capricious ways.

Photo Fun Friday: Prophets’ Pogue

~ lobablanca

A little known fact about the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-part episode “Past Tense” is how much it was altered between first draft and final product. While the storyline about Commander Sisko and Dr. Bashir becoming involved in the “Bell Riots” was always there, what wasn’t was the subplot about Jadzia ending up in the past with them and her quasi-romantic interaction with Christopher Brynner. In fact, there was a completely different subplot that involved Major Kira and Chief O’Brien getting lost even further back in the past during their trip through the timelines in search of Sisko and Bashir.

Jadzia (who stayed on the Defiant when Sisko and Bashir attempted their ill-fated beamdown to their present-day San Francisco) ended up losing Kira and O’Brien as they materialized in 1960s Haight-Ashbury San Francisco. The episode then alternated between Jadzia and Odo working to rescue all four lost officers, Sisko and Bashir in the Bell Riot timeline, and Kira and O’Brien in their own hippy love-in timeline. This subplot was meant to provide the humorous juxtaposition to Sisko and Bashir’s story and showed Kira and O’Brien forming a band as a means of making enough money to get a place to live and food to eat while they tried to figure out how to contact Dax and Odo. Their band, Prophets’ Pogue, was a BajoraCeltic folk fusion that almost instantly caught on because of the familiarity of the Celtic sound mixed with the exotic alien stylings brought in by Kira’s Bajoran roots. Soon, they found themselves with a recording contract, mingling with the likes of Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, the Doors…all wanting to know more about that groovy, trippy sound and the weird lead singer who always wore a band-aid over her nose.

There were even hints at a developing romance between Kira and O’Brien when they began to lose hope that they would ever get back to their time and their respective partners. Though lost to this two-part episode, this concept would later appear during the Season 5 storyline in which Major Kira plays surrogate for the O’Briens after Keiko is injured and Dr. Bashir is forced to perform an emergency transfer of the fetus into Major Kira in order to save it.

Unfortunately, the cost of the royalties and the CGI to add the likenesses of all these famous 60s rock musicians became too prohibitive to completing the subplot as originally envisioned (it wouldn’t be until the fifth season episode “Trial and Tribble-ations” that they would finally get the opportunity to mix the DS9 cast with CGI characters from the past, only this time it would be Captain Kirk and his crew). Also, the writers realized that they needed a subplot that worked more in tandem with the primary storyline rather than detracting from it the way they ultimately felt this subplot did. The script was reworked, that subplot was traded in for the Jadzia subplot, but in deference to the idea, the writers left in Kira and O’Brien’s brief moment in the “peace and love” era.

One of the recently discovered props that was prepared for the original script was this cover for the Prophets’ Pogue debut album, p

BookBin2012: Secret Identity

~ LobaBlanca

I promise, this will be the last book review for a while. It will also be much shorter than my last two reviews. I don’t want to overload you.

I’m now finished with the stack of CSI graphic novels that I purchased last year, with the fifth in the series, Secret Identity. I thought this was the last one illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, but it looks like there might be one more, although it doesn’t seem to be part of the longer serial novels. I think it might be a one-shot novella done back when Ashley Wood was still doing the abstract artwork. More investigating is required.

For Secret Identity, Rodriguez again paired with Steven Perkins on the abstract art. Steven Grant took over from Kris Oprisko as the writer of this story. It’s a shame that this was the last novel Rodriguez and Perkins worked on together, because I believe this is the best of the bunch. Not only did these two artists’ divergent styles merge beautifully for this novel, Rodriguez really came into his own for the main artwork. He invests a great deal of care and creativity into exploring the space of each page, each panel, bringing a sense of grace and artistry to what is also the darkest, and in my opinion, best written story from this batch of five novels.

Steven Grant did a tremendous job writing this story, giving readers something that not only can compete with a television script, but might in some ways surpass what we’ve seen from the show (especially in recent years). It’s refreshing to see such a cumulatively extraordinary effort put toward a medium that, when done in such a mass market style as comic book tie-ins to television series, typically tends to suffer from mediocrity and apathy from all involved. Case in point? Go flip through a stack of hastily written/drawn/published Trek comics and tell me what you think…you know, after you finish peroxide-washing your brain and eyes.

The coloring is again superb, drawing from a palette of soothing to passion-infused, and enhancing the almost cinematic-quality angles of Rodriguez’s cleverly drawn panels. Also, IDW Publishing returned to the standard size for this graphic novel (although it looks like they also offered it in the smaller “New Format” size; avoid this one at all cost), which means larger space for artwork that truly deserves every inch and more.

Final Verdict: Definitely a keeper. I’d vote this the best of the first five CSI graphic novels, hands down. If you’re at all interested in seeing what the comics can offer you, this would be my top recommendation.

BookBin2011: CSI Graphic Novels

~ lobablanca

No, that isn’t a mistake, denizens. This will be the final book entry for my 2011 reading endeavors. Even though I was in the process of reading several other books (my attention span seemed to shrink significantly toward the end of last year), I decided I wanted to end the year on a fluffy note. Therefore, the stack of CSI graphic novels that I picked up from Amazon Marketplace a while ago seemed like a great place to go. Besides, as I mentioned in my last post, there was road-tripping to be done this past weekend, and since I wasn’t driving, I chose to entertain myself with reading.

Okay, so here’s the deal: After reading the first CSI graphic novel, Serial, I decided that