Mike and I already have the Turkey in the oven! Hard to cook a 20lb turkey when under doc’s orders not to lift more than 10lbs. So I am now the sous chef to Mike’s being the chef of the dinner. Hopefully it doesn’t go to his head like it did Marnie’s in this internet classic (psst this is a REAL letter with names changed) :
Have a great day if you are in the US enjoy the holiday and if you aren’t have a turkey sandwich and enjoy the day!
Until next time.
I just wasn’t feeling like beading. That takes more attention that I was wanting to give. I felt like crocheting. It’s something I can do without too much thought and feel productive. Also the DVR was getting full of tv shows I needed to watch and clear out. So I decided to do a day of crochet.
I had to give up crocheting all the time because of arthritis. It made my arms swell and hands ache. It was too much repetive movement so I took up beading with many different hand motions and such. Yet I have a stash of yarn and do enjoy the comfort of doing small projects.
I chose to do some soap savers and coffee cozies. I’ll give them as small Christmas presents. What are those things?
Uh, well soap savers are small crocheted bags for soap. If they are made of wool they will felt and make felted soap. That is wonderful and makes a bar last longer. The ones made of other yarns are nubby and great for exfoliation. They also can hold slivers of soap so you use up all the soap you have easily. Both kinds are reusable by opening the pouch and sliding in a new bar. Want to wash them sure you can…. but in felt it’ll shrink more. The ones I made were cotton and one is pictured with a new bar of soap in it. When I give it as a gift I’ll get a nice bar of soap, say a Kiss My Face olive oil kind.
The coffee cozies are of two types. The ones I made this time are like the paper sleeves you get at the coffee shop but they are reusable cotton ones. I made three of these too. I’ll hit the grocery to put the sleeve on when I give it and fill the cup with say tea bags for tea drinkers or candy for coffee drinkers or nuts or something. The other kind are the type to fit ceramic mugs with a handle. These cozies style cozies usually have a button or tie or Velcro to adjust them to the mug and reach around the handle. I don’t like them very high where you’d sip and touch the fabric. I’ll pick up some mugs at the dollar store and make cozies to fit them. Then again fill with goodies and wrap for a small gift.
I also like making all cotton wash/dish clothes. I made one of those too that day. Those are fun to give as gifts can put nice little hand soap in the center run a ribbon around in the wave of the cloth draw them up and ta-da a little remembrance gift.
However, my hands were sore the next day. My heart wanted to hook but hands knew better. Sure I could but I would really be sorry. So I have to pace myself with my hooking (aka crocheting). It wasn’t too bad and I knew that after a day or two of rest I’d be back to it.
Until next time!
This is a decent tie-in to the AvX. If you’ve been reading you know my issues with AvX and I’m not following it beyond when it interrupts my pull list. This falls into that category. However I will say this issue is much better than the last issue which didn’t center on the school AT ALL. This centers on the school even though it’s a date between Kitty and Piotr (Colossus who is possessed with the Phoenix). We see the strain on the staff to have Hank, Rachel, Bobby, and Logan all off in the stupid war. We also see the strain between Kitty and Piotr differences over the school concept as well as the Phoenix force.
All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
The creative team for the issue is as follows: Jason Aaron, Writer – Jorge Molina, Penciler – Norman Lee, Inker – Morry Hollowell, Colorist – Chris Eliopoulos, Letterer – Nick Bradshaw & Justin Ponsor, Cover Artists – Jordan D. White, Assistant editor – Daniel Ketchum, Associate Editor – Nick Lowe, Editor – Axel Alonso, Editor in Chief, Jow Quesada, Chief Creative Officer – Dan Buckley, Publisher – Alan Fine, Executive Producer.
Since the Scott/Logan issues from Wolverine and the X-Men title this is the best. That’s not saying much really but it’s something. This one like those centers on the school and tell how the AvX interruptus effects the staff and students at the school. Let’s face it I come to this title to read about the school, preferably Logan and his staff, students and how they interact AT THE SCHOOL he founded. I don’t come here to read about some alien race fighting the Phoenix force or some big sales pitch multi-title arc. This issue gives me what I buy the book to read and for that I am thankful.
There are many plot threads here that are developing – the return of staff that sided with Scott at first but don’t like what he’s become. Will the be welcomed back or turned away? Toad’s collecting Husk’s discarded skin and playing house with them. That’s gotta surface in some odd way some time. The relationship of Bobby/Kitty and Pitor/Kitty which is the future and will the headmistress stay at the school or go for a man? Oh and how is the school coping with so many of the staff gone? What if they are attacked when at low staff will Logan’s edict of ‘kids don’t fight’ stand? All great plot threads started in this issue and all centered around the school at the school.
While I’m in what I like/don’t like mode let me say I still don’t like Colossus being alive. Nope I don’t. When he was brought back in Ultimates I thought it was a disservice to his character that made a noble sacrifice to kill a virus that was deadly. I thought okay this is a separate universe I’ll go with the what if he survived in the Ultimates but don’t dare bring him back in the main 616 universe. But some how it bled over – why some things that happen in the Ultimates stay in the Ultimates and don’t bleed over but other stuff does is beyond me. It makes no damn sense. Then to bring back a character that performed a heroic death only to make him the monster he’s been becoming over the last year I don’t like at all. In my book Piotr is dead from the virus stayed dead and is a noble hero. Don’t care about the Ultimates any more and if he lives over there so be it. Don’t cross streams Marvel and for gosh sakes DON’T CROSS STEAMS ARBITRARILY!
As for the art – VAST improvement over the first arc in this line where it was so busy I had to cling to dialogue to tell what was happening in the story. There is no distortion of mouths or hands, no curling greyhound-ties, no pointy feel girls. It’s good solid art that I enjoyed VERY MUCH. I do think the color palette was a bit too far on the light or pastel side. I enjoy bolder colors but it didn’t bother me at the school so much as in the date scene. As for the cover, I love that art. Oh please please let that team do a few arcs in the story some time. PLEASE for me…
In the end I liked the story for what it was a forced tie-in from the title to the overall marketing arc that was undoing the House of M stuff for now at least. I’ve learned don’t count on Marvel to ever do much that lasts or is new and lasts. They almost always go back and forth on the same road. Yet hope does spring eternal and I hope that one day they will grow up and move beyond that. If only the money would let them.
As for this title there’s a few more AvX interruptus issues then they get an arc of their own. Shall we hope it’s as good as Alpha and Omega was? ohhh dare I hope even BETTER! Yes yes I’m climbing down I won’t go over the edge into insanity.
*** a few scanned pages that might be deemed spoilery** I didn’t want to spoil how the date went so here’s the staff meeting I enjoyed more than the date any way.
I love my morning coffee. It’s my joy and comfort. I don’t pollute or dilute it with anything. The darker and richer the better! Ahh, nothing smells better than coffee. I love it. From good old Folgers to the expensive favorite of Jamaican Blue – I adore my coffee.
When I first started building a home of my own I thought I had to have matching coffee cups. Since then I’ve given way to MUGS. They keep the precious fluid hotter longer. I also have given way to mugs that express or remind me of things. Matching is boring. Matching is bland. Matching is so June Cleaver. I want expression and the morning nectar of the gods. So my morning mugs have become a collection of favorites. All give me a bit of cheer in the morning. Here are a few of my favorite mugs.
Until Next TIME!
Last Friday I reported to the hospital bright and early for surgery. I have to give a great big CUDOS to the Froedtert Hospital team they made it as comfortable as possible. I came home Saturday as predicted and all is going smoothly. It will take the six weeks to recover despite my wanting it to go faster. I do get very tired very easily. Shower is a workout that requires a nap afterward. Pathology showed all was benign. So now the slow walk to recovery. If I don’t respond quickly rest assured once I wake up from my nap I’ll get to you.
My son is now 19 years old, a college sophomore, an E3 in the Army, and rents his own home. Right now he’s in the stand-on-my-own-two-feet time where he doesn’t call regular, doesn’t answer all the texts, and is busy building his life. That’s fine I get it. However we did make an appointment to go up to Madison, see his new house he is renting, and take him and Sara out to lunch.
His new digs were built in 1904. It has narrow staircases, hardwood floors, and exposed stone basement. The bathroom was obviously a converted bedroom but why they choose the largest bedroom in the house is beyond me. As for condition – it’s a typical student slum. LOL! I’m sure he loves it just as much as I loved my student slum apartment.
We drove down to State Street which is the street from campus to the State Capital building. It’s also the center of shopping, dining, and drinking. The main drag if you will of Madison. At University of Tennessee in Knoxville we had Cumberland Avenue. They have State Street. We wound up getting a deep pan Chicago style pizza and watching football at bar.
Below are a few sites of Madison and the trip to see Aaron and Sara.
As you can tell from my previous Saucer Country reviews I am highly impressed with this comic thus far. I even went back to get the first complete arc before going on with the next stand alone issue. This issue is Saucer Country: The Bluebird Perspective another stand alone that is a companion piece to A Field Guide To Flying Saucers that was issue 6. In that issue the Professor introduced us to the lore of alien beings visiting humans. Here a group of scientists and engineers have taken the the perspective that yes UFOs do exist and they are actual spacecraft from another planet or dimension.
the required legal statement – All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
The creative team for the issue is as follows: Paul Cornell, Writer – David Lapham, Art – Giulia Brusco, Color – Sal Cipriano, Letters – Mark Doyle, Associate Editor – Will Dennis, Editor – Saucer Country created by Cornell & Kelly.
We are introduced the Bluebirds through the new member Astelle Johnson a rising star in aerospace design. We’ve seen her in previous issues at a meeting being introduced and using the Bluebirds’ computer hacks to follow just what Professor Kidd is doing with the Governor’s campaign. Good plot thread connections coming together into a bigger picture here. That takes writing skill and Cornell shows he has that in every issue.
In this issue we learn that the Bluebirds were founded by WWII vet Joe Bermingen an RAF officer who saw Foo Fighters (no not the rock band the UFOs reported by allied pilots in WWII). He knew from his sighting that they weren’t Nazi test craft but alien. From there his life was centered on engineering craft like it and later upon finding crashed alien craft and back engineering it. The further the story goes the stranger it gets, but Astelle listens trying to understand it all just like us the reader.
This book does well to weave together all the various thoughts on the belief that UFOs aren’t paranormal but real machines to bring aliens here. It is ironic that the Bluebird spokesman dismisses Professor Kidd’s mythology with a grain of truth approach as going down the rabbit hole, given how far down the rabbit hole the story of Joe Bermingen goes. By the end of it even Astelle is left asking her mentor “Do you believe?” Science doesn’t need belief that’s an issue of faith – something Professor Kidd is investigating. So just like all the various lines of thought and mythology around UFOs in the real world become vastly inter tangled so do they in Saucer Country plot lines.
The story isn’t confusing at all Cornell has composed it well so that we the reader can follow Astelle, the Governor, and Professor Kidd down the rabbit hole without question. It all leads us deeper into his story of what happened to the leading Presidential candidate and her ex-husband that night in the New Mexico high desert? Will it change the election? If elected will that experience that changed her life change the world as a result of her Presidency? Just what is the truth of it all? I’ll keep reading for answers which is more that I ever expect to get in real life.
The art is up to the high standard as usual. I’m intrigued by the Bluebirds coming into the forefront of the tale. I want to know what role they will be playing. Now to bring the conspiracy group out more and ohh those spooky not quite human like but human non the less men in black we see here and there in the story. Lapham is excellent in working in Easter Eggs and visual hints to later issues in his art. I’m sure the SERPO screen we’ve seen Astelle viewing will come into play. Along with the fact that there are visual hints the Men In Black aren’t really men. The manner he handles the illustrating of the Joe Bermingen story is fantastic and just shows us enough to question what the rest of the story is, what did Joe really see as a Foo Fighter?
Well written story getting more complex but leading the reader on to more coupled with excellent art that adds more visual clues to the story telling makes this one of the best comics on my pull list. In short Vertigo has hit another home run with this issue.
Excellent scene that pulls on reality. It is true that control towers get radar ghosts they cannot determine the cause. I’ve talked to a few people in the industry most feel it has to do with weather and the earth’s own electromagnetic field. I’ve been told the newer systems are set up to filter out this anomalies. There are others who wonder if this is such a good idea. Should such things just be ignored? That’s where the rabbit hole goes – to tie them into the Joe B. story at the center of the Bluebirds was another great writing touch.
This draws on the theory that what is seen is actually top secret craft being flown. Before the Stealth lines were de-classified there were reports of triangle shaped UFOs – were these the stealth planes? Aurora is a line in the US budget for top secret military something. Retirees from the real area 51 contend that yes, yes it is. Again another excellent job writing in another of the ideas of UFOs into this story and illustrating them well.
I can’t wait to read issue 8!
Remember I blogged about the round-about construction in my neighborhood? Well it’s now finished. Boy is it a fancy thing! As soon as the removed all the road closed barricades someone came flying through there like it was the old short cut it used to be. They ignored the new warning signs of the round-about. The ignored the BIG ORANGE FLAGS on the signs. They ignored the large looming mound in the center of the circle surrounded by the smaller but still significant concrete mounds to direct traffic. They ignored the posted speed limit of 25 as well as the new flagged in yellow yield signs. They plowed right into the circle. Yep just crashed over the directional concrete barrier and right into the big circle in the center! Oh well so much for slowing that clueless one down, it down right stopped ’em. Over all I’ll say it seems to be working. Then again I didn’t notice it as much before not living over on the road. Chatting with the people there the amount of traffic is down due to the road being closed off for so long. They aren’t sure if the new roundabout is working or just closing off the street for months broke people of the habit. Only time will tell. Here’s a few photos of the finished product just before they put up the flags and opened it for crashing traffic.
I’d heard good things about Saucer Country from the first issue. When I read that issue 6 was a good jumping on point, I jumped. I didn’t regret it. Honestly that issue was strong enough to put the title on my pull list and send searching for issues 1-5. The first arc of the series is entitled RUN. Just like the excellent writing in this book the title has layers of meaning and can apply to the high strangeness of the story or the mundane. That’s what makes this book so compelling it’s written with all the complexity, tightness, and layers of an excellent science fiction thriller.
All images are the property of their owners I reproduce them here under the Fair Use Doctrine of the copyright law for commentary and critique. No more than three pages total from any one issue is reproduced.
Now the creation team: Paul Cornell, Writer – Ryan Kelly, Art & Covers – Giulia Brusco, Colors Issues 1-3 & 5 – Guilia Brusco & Lee Loughridge, Colors Issue 4 – Sal Cipriano, Letters – Mark Doyle, Associate Editor – Will Dennis, Editor – Saucer Country Created by Cornell & Kelly.
The story centers around Arcadia Alvarado the Governor of New Mexico who is the leading Democratic candidate for President. She and her ex-husband had a strange experience in the desert that is causing strange flashbacks for her and emotional disruption for him. This first arc deals with two types of running – Gov. Alvarado deciding to run for President and her ex-husband running from his memories of that night.
It is a nice contrast between her reaction and his to their shared missing time experience. He’s terrified but she’s determined to get to the bottom of it. At first their paths diverge. He goes to a known hypno-therapist that specializes in alien abductions. She confides to her campaign manager and personal assistant saying she doesn’t want it to go public but wants answers. They turn to a Harvard professor that studies mythology believing the UFO phenomena is modern mythology with some truth in the center spawning it all.
Eventually the two paths conjoin again but not without first going through many of the common threads of the UFO/Alien abduction discussion. More angles are brought to play by new characters. The arguments that the hypno-therapist leads the subject comes into play. The conspiratorial/disclosure group that believes the government not only knows about the aliens but may be in cahoots with them show up. The UFOs are nuts & bolts from another planet are represented. The concept that it’s inter-dimensional/paranormal occurrence is there. The hostile alien take over contingent has it’s thumb in the story pie. The friendly human like aliens here to guide us past our warring ways are in the waiting room too. The remarkable and impressive thing is Cornell weaves all these things together in a riveting compelling story.
I must praise Cornell for researching the topic well. He’s got it all and woven it together seamlessly without making it a confusing mess. That’s talent as a writer. The layers of story going on is impressive along with the number of players that are converging but not confusing the plot. At the core of his story is the unknown event where what’s true and what’s fiction blur as much as reality and fantasy for the characters. Much applause to him and I’m anxious to see where he takes us next.
The art is excellent and among my favorite art in current titles. I like the realism with just enough comic flare to make the people seem believable but still better than real life. The flashes into the alien memories, thoughts, and concepts are well done to evoke the feeling of the character experiencing them. From the evil torturing aliens to the friendly guiding ones that reveal cues to the future – all are beyond normal but yet fit their roles. The excellent execution blends well and supports the fantastic writing.
This title is firmly planted on my pull list. This along with several other new titles coming along are proof that excellence in writing and art will create a buzz in the comic community. You don’t need a big franchise or formulas to sell comics the first print of these sold out quickly and even went into 3rd printings on some issues. Comic book fans are hungry for great art and stories. The big guys are meeting the market for it but the small guys are. Saucer Country didn’t only meet the market it made a slam dunk!
**YOU KNOW WHAT’S NEXT POSSIBLE SPOILER SCANS** Enjoy!
Thankfully we weren’t slammed by Sandy like Cuba and the upper East Coast of the US were. However she did get here going against the usually pattern of getting our weather from the West. We got mostly winds from the storm.
One night when it was in the upper 20sF here we got a wonderful ice ring around the moon. Bigger than my house- here’s a few photos of it.
The next day the wind rolled in and we got some great waves. Many people were out at the point and on the beach making pictures of it. I was one of them. Rappy went with me and enjoyed the crowd much more than the waves. The waves scared her. Our usually blue lake was brownish being churned up by the high winds.
Mary Louise Eklund 