Flashback Friday: Space Ghost

~ LobaBlanca

Sticking with a superhero theme tonight, denizens. It’s no wonder, considering what I’ve been reading this past week…but you’ll just have to wait to hear more about that, now won’t you?

So Space Ghost. He wasn’t the greatest superhero on the block (although he’s still cooler than Aquaman). And to be completely honest, I don’t really remember all that much about his adventures. I do remember his theme, though. It was so blatantly 60s sci-fi groovy with the horns, the beat, and that crazy theremin vibe:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ6qpulpmnc&w=480&h=390]

Of all the superhero cartoons that I watched when I was little, Space Ghost’s theme was the one that stuck with me. Probably because, much later on, I used to watch the Cartoon Network’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which featured the same theme, updated with funky 90s electric guitar and some R&B-lite harmonies added in:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNH3CiyDA1U&w=480&h=390]

For those who never experienced the surrealistic joy of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it was a talk show spoof hosted by Spacey himself, with his sidekick nemeses Zorak and Moltar. It was utterly bizarre in the way that only those fledgling shows from the early years of a new network could possibly be. There were no rules, no expectations, no limits to what the Cartoon Network could do in those early days…so they pretty much did whatever the hell they wanted. Throw it against the wall and see what sticks. Well, Space Ghost stuck for almost a decade before finally retiring to that Old Superhero Talk Show Host Home. If you can find some copies, check them out. Here’s a little something to wet your whistle…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixQ7nrimxYs&w=480&h=390]

BookBin2011: A Dark Matter

~ LobaBlanca

Peter Straub is a talented horror writer. Or so I have been told by others. Even Stephen King sang praises for Straub’s A Dark Matter in a lovely little blurb on the back cover.

I’m here, denizens, at great personal risk of retribution from the master of horror himself, to inform you that Stephen King lied. This book is not great. It’s not scary. It’s not even awful. It’s worse, denizens. It’s the worst thing that a scary book can possibly be.

It’s boring.

This is one of the most boring books I have ever read. It’s so boring that I don’t even want to write about it. Don’t want to talk about the plot, don’t want to describe the characters, don’t want to even bash it. It’s just that boring. None of the characters is interesting. In fact, most of them are so pathetically boilerplate that even thinking about them bores me. What’s worse is the fact that it’s nearly 400 pages of boring. Which is why it took me this long between my last entry and this one to finally finish.

Truth is, I should have given up after 100 pages. I knew even before that milestone that this book was going to disappoint me. But I’ve heard so many great things about Straub that I thought maybe this particular book just had a slow start but things would improve.

Nope. Not at all. Boring at the beginning, middle, and end.

Boring. Not a word you want associated with a horror novel.

Straub might have been a good horror novelist at some point, but that point isn’t this book. Don’t waste your time, denizens. Just don’t.

Final Verdict: Back to the library. Never added to my collection. Never.

And So It Goes…

~ LobaBlanca

I had to eject the lair’s computer core two weekends ago. Things had been getting a little tetchy with the system for a while…little glitches and garbles here and there that were only mildly irritating at times, but seemingly not signs of imminent system-wide failure. Then, one day, it just started to shut itself down during boot-up. Did it once, then followed through with full system boot. Next day, shut itself down five times in a row before finally booting fully. Next day? Next day was almost enough to inspire the unleashing of that fabled “red-headed temper” that I constantly struggle to contain (if I were a mutant, that would be my secret super power). However, I was able to trick it into getting past the glitch moment that heralded the impending mystery shutdown. I’m not fully versed in the intricacies of hardware manipulation, but I know enough to get by in instances like this.

I ran a backup of all files to my external hard drive, removed programs that I would want to switch to a new system, hopped on over to Tiger Direct and began sorting through their custom builts (all the while, contending with the fact that the old system was now starting to shut itself down randomly while running). The system I ended up picking out is a nice, solid little gaming system with a quad-core AMD Athlon II processor, a sweet ATI Radeon 1GB graphics card, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, DVD-RW, and a 500GB hard drive. Plus, with two red-trimmed fans and blue, yellow, and green interior LEDs, it looks like a mini-rave when the room lights are off. Check it:

Could I have taken my old system to someone and had them check it out? Definitely. Could it have been an easy fix? Possibly. However, my former system was an amalgamation of parts, some only 2 years old but some more than 6 years old. It was the amalgamation of the two systems during an upgrade that I think might have caused some of the glitches. However, I held onto the old system because…well, it was the last system that my uncle built for me.

I’ve talked about my anthropomorphic ways before in regard to my old computer. Did it upset me that the last computer he built me began to fail? Absolutely. But then I started to think about it from his perspective. My uncle loved building computers. He loved keeping up with the rapid pace of technology’s evolution. What would he have said if he’d known I was still holding onto a system that was rapidly being outpaced by what was available now? He would have laughed and told me to keep up. Time to move on…there’s bigger and better to be found out there.

So I found it. No, it’s not the fanciest or the fastest system I could have gotten. However, my computing needs aren’t quite what they used to be, especially since most of my gaming now takes place on my XBox and PS2 systems. But this new machine is solid, swift and sleek, and I can’t help but think that even my uncle would call it a great little machine. And, in a way, he still had something to do with setting me up with it. Amongst all the other things he taught me about computers, he showed me Tiger Direct, which has been my computer go-to spot for a while now.

So there it is. The lair is now outfitted with a new computer core. I spent time this weekend getting it set up with peripherals and software. All systems are go. Next? Time to give Sims 3 another try…

Flashback Friday: The Pink Panther

~ lobablanca

I know. Technically, this is not a cartoon theme song. However, here’s the great crime in my life, denizens. The only Pink Panther I have ever seen is the cartoon version. I’ve never seen any of the David Niven Peter Sellers movies (see? I didn’t even know the actor who was in these movies; I told you I’ve never seen the damned things!), and prophets know I’ve never seen the Steve Martin remakes.

Nope. All I’ve ever seen were those silly, silent, and very pink cartoons. I’d watch The Pink Panther Show every morning while getting ready for school. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about any of the cartoons (other than the fact that they had a ridiculously distracting laugh track), but dammit if I didn’t love this theme. Simple, cool, and jazzy, it’s one of those themes that the minute I hear it, I smile. Henry Mancini gave us so many wonderful, memorable tunes throughout his career (and he gets bonus points from me for having scored so many Audrey Hepburn movies, including Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Charade, and one of my all-time favorite Hepburn movies, Wait Until Dark).

Waitatick. How’d I get from a cartoon panther to Holly Golightly? Oh, yeah. Anyway, so I love this theme song. It was the first ringtone I ever downloaded, and the proof of my love for the theme is the fact that I actually enjoyed getting phone calls when I had this as a ringtone (people who know me well know that I hate telephones). So, there you go. And here you are:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp6z3s1Gig0&w=480&h=390]

Bad Reputation

~ LobaBlanca

So some of you may have heard that DC Comics is wiping the slate for all their stories. Going back to #1. Rebooting. Rejuvenating. Shaking the Etch-A-Sketch. Erasing all messages and starting fresh.

Whatever. I’m surprisingly “meh” about this announcement. I’m even more surprisingly “meh” about the image associated with the article to which I linked. The reboot looks for the superheroes depicted all kinda stink. Superman has a popped collar and blue skivvies now. Wonder Woman looks like a cross between punk-era Storm and a stripper. Aquaman…okay, I just can’t be bothered to care about Aquaman. Why? Let me let Robot Chicken explain it for me:

http://i.adultswim.com/adultswim/video2/tools/swf/viralplayer.swf

Yeah. Aquaman. Pfft. Still, why does he have to look like a Swiss model? And, really, they all look a bit young. And…is that a machine gun protruding from the Green Lantern’s crotch? And why is the Flash built like a brick shit house now? How can he be fast when he’s so cumbersome looking?

Hmm. Guess I care more than I thought. Or I’m just a whiny hater.

The good thing is that I did find out that Batwoman will continue to be a player in the DC Comics universe. Not too surprising, considering how amazing her first graphic novel was. And the even better news is that her story will be tended to in part by J.H. Williams, III. This makes the White Wolf somewhat happy.

Happier, at least, than I am over the first look at Cliff Chiang’s cover art for the Wonder Woman reboot. Waitforit…

MEH.

It’s just not…at all enticing.

This, however? This is made of pure awesome:

OMGWTFBBQ!! Wonder Woman as Joan Jett backed up by Zatanna, Black Canary, and Batgirl? This is inspired artwork of the most rockin’ variety.

Seriously, if Cliff Chiang printed this on a T-shirt, I would so buy it.

Someone make this happen. Now.

My Colors Are Blush and Bashful!

~ lobablanca

Okay, I could say that I was sorry for quoting from probably the girliest movie I will ever willingly admit to liking. But I’m not going to. Besides, I know at least one person is laughing at the title of this blog entry, and that’s enough for me.

So I’ve been working on this template for a while. I confess, I didn’t build it from scratch. I don’t have that much free time. However, I was so pleased by the basic concept of the original theme that I knew I wanted to take it and make it my own.

I’m pretty pleased overall. There are a few things that I think I’m going to change, but they’ll more than likely be minor. I just really dig the clean, crisp nature of this new layout. I do a lot of design work that, while being lovely in its own bold and brash way, is far from the rather minimalist design concepts that I’ve taken to preferring lately.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new look of the lair. And, yes, in case you were wondering, I did “borrow” the color scheme from the image in my last entry. I’d been toying around with different color schemes for an embarrassingly long time. When I saw the color elements of this particular design, I knew I’d finally found the right colors. Plus, the primary color is teal. And we all know who wore teal, right?

Yep. The look might be new, but the geekery is par for the course. Geek on, denizens.

Everyone Needs an Editor: Sidel

~ LobaBlanca

This floors me for several reasons:

  • This is a professionally prepared one-sheet for a high-profile television series.
  • As such, this had to have gone through several rounds of review from several different people. Hell, I’m a design peon in comparison with someone who works for CBS and everything I do goes through at least four levels of review!
  • There are several far more difficult-to-spell names on this one-sheet, and they are all spelled correctly (Helgenberger, Szmanda, Guilfoyle, even Jorja!).
  • The character of Sara Sidle has existed for 12 years now. You’d think that would be enough time for the spelling of the character’s name to soak in, right (especially considering the fact that almost every episode, she can be seen wearing a vest with her surname stitched in white CAPITAL LETTERS)?

This isn’t the first time I’ve dinged CBS and its affiliates for poorly edited CSI materials. And, to be honest, this is nothing in comparison with that book and all its editorial SNAFUs. Still…

I know, I’m just being nitpicky because this happens to be my favorite character, but I’m also nitpicky because, dammit, take some pride in what you do, people! Especially when millions of people are going to be seeing it. My stuff is only seen by a fraction of the people who see stuff related to CSI and I’d be mortified if a mistake this glaring went out on something I’d done. Hell, I even go back and edit posts if I catch a mistake later on. Yes, it’s that bad, denizens. It’s that bad.

And yet another tip of the paw to Jorja Fox: Online for giving me something to howl about on a shiny, happy Monday morning.

Flashback Friday: Tiny Toon Adventures

~ lobablanca

So I’ve decided that since June rhymes with tune (and toon) that the Flashback Fridays this month will all be…toon tunes.

Mainly, I decided this because I’ve had the theme song to this cartoon stuck in my brain for the past few days and I’m not really sure why. It’s the theme to Tiny Toon Adventures, one of the few things to carry Steven Spielberg’s blessing (and backing) that doesn’t make me want to gag from all the excessive schmaltz.

I loved this cartoon when I was a teenager (yes, I did mean teenager). The animation was a much higher quality from the myriad Saturday morning cartoons I grew up watching as a wee wolf; the writing was also a lot more sophisticated. There were plenty of jokes for younger viewers, but a lot of what was going on on-screen was delightfully multi-layered, with plenty of jokes for older audiences.

Also, this is one of the cartoons that really made me fall in love with voice-over artists. There were appearances by classic voice artists like Don Messick and Frank Welker (the one and only original Scooby Doo and Freddy Jones) as well as June Foray, better known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel or, for my generation, Jokey Smurf. Then there were artists like Cree Summer, who we all knew as Freddie from A Different World…and then there was Tress MacNeille. By far, MacNeille was one of the standout artists from this show. Her performance as Babs Bunny was always perfectly timed, perfectly delivered, and perfectly funny. Quite the proliferate voice-over artist, MacNeille is probably most well known to most people for her roles on The Simpsons (she pretty much does every voice not done by Harry Shearer…okay, maybe not that many, but pretty close). Plus, she’s Crazy Cat Lady. Seriously, how do you not love that character?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-15mYWpmA&w=480&h=390]

She’s also done Futurama voices and can even be heard as various voices on a Star Trek video game. Ace.

So, there you have it: Tiny Toon Adventures. Not everything that Steven Spielberg has been involved with makes me feel like I need an insulin injection.

Happy Toon Tune June at Flashback Friday, denizens.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HW7YTWeg20&w=480&h=390]