I’ve got many posts drafted but none ready to publish. I’ve got tonnes of photos but not sorted. I’ve got two class assignments to do. I’ve got a new shipment of comics arriving. I’ve had appointments all day so enjoy my photo of this rose from Leu Gardens in Orlando. I’ll be back tomorrow once I’ve caught up!
I live in a quiet neighborhood. Our house is just over 70 years old. We’re typical of the community. We like it here. It offers a good mix of ages, people are friendly, there are sidewalks (a must for me as a walker), conveniently located to things, and over all it’s a slice of Americana. One problem was high speed traffic cutting though on our promenade street. It’s a street where the median separates the two directional lanes. The median is wide and has grass, gardens, and is edged by ancient walnut trees. This runs diagonally through the square of our neighborhood and complaints of people speeding (going above the posted 25 mph) have been a normal chorus among residents. Requests for speed bumps or speed tables or other traffic ‘calming’ devices fell on deaf ears. Then one day construction started. After neighbors that live on that street questioned workers they learned a round-about was being installed to slow traffic flow. No hearing, no public debate, just being done. It’s an answer to the speeding problem.
Now, don’t get me wrong I’m glad to have an answer. I was mildly annoyed by the cut-through, and made a point of holding them up by driving 23 mph when on the road. Nope not faster than going on the main roads now is it cheater! I was for repaving the place and putting speed tables in. We had them in our neighborhood in Tampa and they worked like a charm but didn’t disrupt traffic flow.
You see I’m not a big fan of roundabouts. They were diminishing in popularity when I was getting my driver’s license. Many communities were paying to take them out and install traffic lights. I can remember driving to Kingsport when I was learning to get experience with them. All of those are now gone to except Church Circle. But it seems roundabouts are making a resurgence in popularity at least in this area. I can think of four that have been installed in the past three years (not counting the one in constructions just two blocks away). I strongly object to them because I find they don’t help traffic flow but hinder it. I think a light is more helpful and you don’t have people starting, stopping, cutting you off or riding your butt because they aren’t sure what the hell they are supposed to be doing.
Now back to my neighborhood, the road is closed and torn up now. The project was budgeted to take 4-6 months depending on the weather. Some residence can’t get in or out of their driveways for days during construction. My days with the windows open are fill with back-up beeps, shouts of construction workers, clangs of construction, and loud machinery. When I work on my porch I get to watch speeders slam on their breaks at the road closed sign then speed down my street to blow the stop sign on their cut through. There’s been two wreck there so far despite the added warning signs.
I’m left wondering is this the most cost effective way to address the problem? I watch the large crew work as I walk Rappy and wonder if this is less expensive and more effective than speed bumps/tables in ‘calming’ traffic. Really do we need this BIG production and expenditure? I guess the city fathers/mothers thought so and we’re getting it. I’m just wondering how many decades before they fall back to the thoughts of that were popular when I was learning to drive – then go around removing roundabouts that are being installed now.
Until Next time!
One of the Summer things I look forward to is fresh Gazpacho made from Mike’s garden. So far this year we’ve made and consumed gallons of the stuff. It is WONDERFUL! So here’s the basis of it. I never cook by a recipe (much to my mother-in-law’s chagrin) I tend to cook by feel, taste, available ingredients, and health requirements. So this is the source of my inspiration when making Gazpacho but the results always vary a bit depending on how many tomatoes, peppers, onion, etc. are coming in from the garden.
Gazpacho
1 ½ pounds tomatoes peeled and diced
1 medium white onion chopped
1 medium cucumber peeled seeded chopped
1 cup green bell pepper seeded chopped
2 cups tomato juice
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lime juice
2 large cloves of garlic peeled and finely minced
Seeded chopped jalapeno to taste
½ teaspoon of Nature’s Seasoning (or ¼ teaspoon each of salt and black pepper)
Combine all ingredients in large bowl refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve each bowl with 1 Tablespoon of fat free sour cream on top.
10 servings Each serving contains 83 Calories, 6g fat, 1g Protein, 8g Carbohydrates, 2g Fiber Exchanges 11/2 Vegtable 1 Fat
It’s a team effort to make it. There’s a lot of chopping and peeling and seeding involved. Sometimes when there’s lots of tomatoes I puree tomatoes with salt and pepper to use for the tomato juice part. The nutrition information was estimated by my MasterCook program. I usually don’t use that much olive oil, about half that. I at times I add a bit more lime juice just so the color stays bright and I like the kick it adds. It’s really better if it sits in the fridge over night before eating. Then enjoy! It’s worth the effort!
This is a 4 issue limited series. It takes the characters of the Wolverine stories and casts them in a hardboiled private eye Noir story set in in 1937 Bowery NY. All the characters appear as versions of themselves Logan, Dog, Mariko, Yuriko, Smitty, Thomas Logan, Victor Creed, and Rose. They all put in an appearances in the tale. None of them are mutants, just regular people. It is well done and I enjoyed this take on them.
The series is written by Stuart Moore; C. P. Smith, Artist; Rain Beredo; Colorist, Jeff Eckleberry, Letterer; Daniel Ketchum, Editor; Axel Alonso, Executive Editor; Joe Quesada, Editor In Chief; San Buckley, Publisher; Alan Fine, Executive Producer; C. P. Smith and Dennis Calero, Covers.
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.
As I said when I placed this on my pull-list I love Noir fiction. I’m not sure what my passion for dark tales with no one is clearly a hero but there are clear villains says about me personally but I do enjoy a good dark tale. This certainly falls in that category and pulls all the tropes of Noir into play.
Wolverine is cast as Jim Logan a private eye with his “brother” Dog Logan they run a seedy detective agency in the Bowery called Logan and Logan. Dog is a simple muscle head with Jim being the brains of the outfit. The story starts with the high class dame walking in off the street and hiring them. Classic! This is Mariko’s role. She’s a rich Japanese woman here on business for her father. She needs them to find out who has been following her and why. Clues lead to a local flophouse. Dog pleads to investigate that on his own and Jim lets him go. That’s when Dog goes missing and Jim sets out to find him. Along the way we meet Amiko and Victor Creed. In flashbacks we get the story of how Jim and Dog wound up in the Bowery and in doing so meet this story’s versions of Smitty, Thomas Logan, and Rose. In true fashion the story ends with Jim not being totally innocent over all but being a victim all the same. The twist at the end is who is behind making him the victim. Like all good Noir tales it’s a shocker but makes sense. I’ll not divulge it well worth the read.
I love the seedier versions of the familiar characters. Some actually wind up better in this tale they they are in the main continuity. Thomas is a preacher. Victor is rich and gets the best of Jim at every turn. Some are worse, Jim doesn’t get all the noble qualities of our Logan but has enough to make him recognizable. Amiko comes out equal but Mariko get short changed of true love in this tale. Rose is totally different but still is the ‘Little Redhaired Girl’ of Jim’s heart. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but I don’t want to see it continued. Sometimes a good tale is enough – don’t mess with it.
The art suits the style of the story. I like it here very much. It’s dark gritty and never quite gives you a clear image of what is really going on. Which matches what a true Noir tale is completely. However I’d find this annoying in a regular comic. I think it is important to match art style with the script and this is a perfect marriage. The perfect match gave more punch to the story overall and made this a success in my book (and I’ve read A LOT of Noir books). Cudos.
This covers all the completed recent arcs in my in-box until my next shipment. When that shipment arrives several titles will be completing arcs. Until then I’ll hit some older issues I like of various titles.
Next – panel and pages comments:
While we were car shopping what was left of Hurricane Isaac hit Wisconsin. The cloud formations were interesting. It moved through in a ban and then it was cooler and clear. I shot photos of the approaching when we were test driving various vehicles. The BOY did the rain come and need all the rain we can get this year. Enjoy the odd clouds.
With Aaron off to college and taking his car we are down to two cars, one of which is only driven on special occasions. Both the vehicles we have are Mike’s, his every day truck and his special occasion 1966 Mustang. So with Aaron taking his car, I’m down to no vehicle. I’ve been driving Mike’s truck which means he’s been putting miles on the Mustang.
We’d been out once doing some scoping of what’s out there. I had a Saturn Vue for years that I loved. It was perfect but it died. Since then we’ve gotten along with Aaron’s car and the truck. It was fine since his Freshman year Aaron didn’t take his car to Madison. This year is different.
This long weekend was the time to find me a vehicle. We went to several places. Can you believe the first two not a salesperson approached us. Nope we wandered the lots looked over styles and at one dealer even walked through the show room!
After several test drives we settled on a Ford Escape. I love it! This winter I’ll be all snuggy in heated seats. I’ve joined the 21st century with voice activate phone and Sirus radio in my vehicle. I’ll enjoy the sun roof my answer to Mike’s convertible. So now I’m set to travel in style! Once I figure out how to use all the things this vehicle can do.
This is a new comic book to me but I’m jumping in at issue 6. Saucer Country touted this as a good jump on issue and it is. I’m sorry I missed the past five, I’ve got them on back order. This comic dovetails into my fascination with paranormal, flying saucers, and the like. I’ve been fascinated with them since a bulletin board in the hallway when I was in third grade collected ‘true’ flying saucer tales during a big surge of interest in them in the early 70’s. (These times are know as flap among ufologist.) I have to say this issue gives a good over view of the classic cases and various theories about what these unknowns are.
First off we’ll get the legal disclaimer out of the way and give credit where credit is due. 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.
Credits for the issue are: Paul Cornell, Writer; Jimmy Broxton, Art & Color; Sal Ciprano, Letters; Mark Doyle, Associate Editor; and Will Dennis, Editor. Other special credits listed are thanks to Mark Pilkington for research help. Also Saucer Country created by Cornell & Kelly.
I’ve enjoyed reading flying saucer/UFO stories for going on four decades now. I’m pretty familiar with the classic stories and various theories about them. The highlights are well summed up in this issue from Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of crescent shaped craft just before the Roswell thing happened to how modern movies change what’s the predominate reports to blurring the lines between what was believed to be nut & bolt alien craft and paranormal occurrences. Even the current rage (I remember the first time it came around & I read Chariot of the Gods) of ancient gods being aliens is hit upon. It’s all covered here. Cudos for to the writers even in fiction on fringe topics do your research and get it right.
The frame for this summary of UFO lore and history is a lecture by researcher to a Senator and some other people. Apparently the audience had some unexplained experience in the first 5 issues and are now interested in the history of these types of events. The Professor gives a great history of the origins of the terms flying saucer, little green men, the greys and so much more. It’s a fun recap of what you’ll see bandied about should you delve into this subculture of UFOs. The frame works well to present it all. Along the way there are some twists aside – like who are the ‘sources’ the professor refers to? I’m sure that’ll be built upon in other issues. What the audience does with the information is another building block for the stories. Will they buy current theories, will they take the dubunker’s perspectives, or will they build their own explanations for what they experienced? This was enough of a taste to have me add this to my pull-list. I love a good alien story and have for over 40 years.
The art is excellent! I really enjoyed the panels illustrating what the Professor was saying. It gives a rich take on what was basically a lecture issue but instead became a travel through time. The art is sharp and realistic when it comes to the people but soft and at times cartoonish when it comes to the aliens. Perfect to walk that line without buying or discounting the various perspectives put forth in the lecture.
Okay I know you are wondering “Is she a believer or not?” The answer yes and no. I do believe that most, the vast majority of sightings and experiences can be explained in terms of things we understand today. They can be such things as hypnagogic sleep paralysis to test flights of secret experimental aircraft. BUT I do think that a very,very small bit of them are truly unexplained. What those things are – I haven’t a clue! BUT I enjoy hearing other people guess. I’ve not found an answer yet that I’ll buy. In the end I find it all great fuel for the creative engine and inspiration for stories of pure fiction.
So I’m sold on Saucer Country it’s on my pull list now! I’ve been a sucker for a good alien story for 40 years.
Up next on Comic Comments is Wolverine Noir this was a limited 4 book series telling an alternate story of Logan and Logan Private Investigations run by James Logan and his brother Dog. Next is panel and page comments.
Wednesday was Aaron’s last day here. He spent the day waiting on the car. Once it was ready from the garage at 5pm he wasted no time in loading that puppy. I can’t say I blame him. I remember being so excited to get to a place of my own back in my college days. I know he feels the same. Also he wanted to get up there and unload his stuff. Thursday morning bright an early (5:45 am) he had to report to ROTC for weight training. That’ll be a regular occurrence on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Don’t worry on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays he gets to report at the same time to run 5 miles. The first Thursday up there he had to be available to help his girlfriend Sara move into her dorm.
Just as Mike rolled in from work he got to help in the final moving out of his son. I can’t say a tear was shed because it wasn’t Not by me, not by Mike, not by Aaron. We were happy and excited. We laughed as Mike flounced carrying out the Army uniforms “Look at me I’m in the Army!” said the old salty Navy Captain. Aaron was all grins with a car of his own and place of his own to go to. There hugs and cheers and off he went to waves.
I have to say I don’t feel an empty nest, never got that concept. This is why we have kids for them to mature and go out on their own. This was the purpose of raising them not to mother them but set them off on their life prepared. Empty nest stuff seems so selfish like your kids are there to make you whole, they aren’t. Kids are just loaners we get for 18 years or so. We train them a bit and do our best to prepare them then if all is right we watch fly. The trick is to raise them so they don’t need you. That’s what parenting is about, making yourself obsolete.
I feel we’ve done well. At 19 my son has job security for the next 8 years and his college education paid for. He’s serving his country just like his father as he does it. He’s got a good head on his shoulders and bright future ahead of him. He’s an honor student in college and has plans for his future. I have nothing to shed a tear about. Actually I’m joyous! Honestly the parents I feel should be crying are the ones who have kids that aren’t moving on with their lives in an independent manner.
OH the places he will go, the adventures he will have and the messes I no longer have to clean up! Here’ to you Kid you are off to a great start!
Until next time!
This arc of Grimm Fairy Tales: Myths & Legends takes Issue 16 and 17. It deals with the story of Helios and his relation to the searching for an artifact today. I’m newish to this title and am still learning my way around the characters and universe. I tried to get into the main title Grimm Fairy Tales but never could. I did enjoy the last arc in this title and have kept it. I’ll explain more once the legalese and credits are out of the way.
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 credits are a bit long and complicated given each issue has multiple covers. Just hang in there with me and let’s thank those who make our comics possible. Issue 16 story by Raven Gregory, Joe Brusha, and Ralph Tedesco; Raven Gregory, Writer; Joyce Mauriera and Ilias Kyriazis, Art; Jeff Balke, Sean Forney, & Ramon Ignacio Bunge, Colors; Jim Campbell, Letterer; Cover A (Pictured here) by Stjepan Sejic; Cover B by Robert Atkins & Sanju Nivangune; Boston Comic Con Exclusive Cover limited to 500 Copies by Elais Chatzoudis; Edited by Matt Rogers & Anthony Spay. Issue 17 Story by Raven Gregory, Joe Brusha, & Ralph Tedesco; Raven Gregroy, Writer; V. Kenneth Marion & Marco Constino, Art; Jeff Balke & Roland Pilcz, Colors; Jim Campbell, Letterer; Cover A (pictured here) by Ale Garza & Sanju Nivangune; Cover B by Mike Capprotti; Big D Comics Exclusive Cover limited to 500 Copies by Nei Ruffino; Phoenix Comic Con Exclusive Cover limited to 500 Copies by Eric Basaldua & Nei Ruffino; Phoenix Comic Con Exclusive Cover limited to 250 Copies by Eric Basaldua & Nei Ruffino; Pheonix Comic Con Exclusive Sketch Cover Limited to 75 Copies by Eric Basaldua; Edited by Matt Rogers & Raven Gregory.
Okay like I said I’m new to this and still trying to catch on to all the characters. The set up of each issue is a frame story of things going on today in the modern world with a fairy tale being told that has a bearing on the events of today. In the modern aspect there is a female police detective that is aware of these magical/fairy tale goings on slipping into our world from theirs. She acts as the police here to get them back to where they belong. While doing that she’s trying to keep down the freak out here over things we think aren’t real. Actually they aren’t real in this dimension but they are in other dimensions. That’s the basic concept and we’ll build from there together.
This two book arc has to do with the tale of Helios. He was born with the power of the sun in him. Unfortunately this meant he could touch no one without burning them to a cinder. He finds a way to control his power but must perform a secret ritual nightly for it work. He builds a normal life but the secret eats away at his wife. Where does he go nightly? What does he do? She sets out to find the answer and learns more than she bargained. In the modern story various entities are scrabbling to find parts of a medallion that contains the power of Helios. If someone gets all the parts and puts them together fire will be let loose upon the dimension where they are assembled. Needles to say our detective doesn’t want that to be here! or any where if she can help it.
In this arc the strong story is the fairy tale. It’s a tragedy but it’s well spun and brings out a life lesson about secrets, trust, and love. All good fairy tales have a lesson to them. Most fairy tales if you go back before the Disney-ification of them were not sweetness and light. They were warnings of dire consequences if lessons weren’t heeded. This one is a good illustration of what secrets, even well intended ones, in a relationship can do.
The modern one flashes so many characters I don’t know that didn’t have much meaning for me. I did get the idea of who is good and who is evil. Easy one – Devil = evil! I get that some of them have faced our detective before and want to destroy her for what she did in their last confrontation. Apparently some have newly allied to this purpose of striking down our dimension and its guardian detective lady. Don’t worry she’s got the glowy girl that talks in squiggly bubbles to help her out. She provides the back story to what Helios’s powers were.
As for the art, it’s cheesecake art. Yes just like the cover so goes the interior. I don’t mind topless mermaids I get that. I just don’t get some of the outrageous poses or going to battle in less clothes than you wear at your desk back in division headquarters. Hey I love some beefcake as much as the next person so I get cheesecake is the other side to that. Fine but there are times it’s practical and times it’s just ridiculous. Which I think is a fundamental difference between fangurls and fanboys – just where the suspension of belief is in favor of the cake of your choice. I think this title which is known for it goes over my boundary but I do enjoy the fairy tales so I’ll hang on another arc and see if the writing over comes my eye rolling.
The other thing that annoyed me was the changing font. I get doing something to bubbles to let us know this person speaks mentally (mind to mind) rather than out loud. I get doing something to the bubbles to indicate this person sounds different than anything around this dimension. I don’t like all the odd fonts for that. It throws off my reading. It’s like reading one of Aaron’s 3rd grade papers when he discovered how to change fonts, do bold and italics. Very annoying – stick to one font and change the bubbles.
This title is on probation with me. I can’t say I dislike it because I don’t. I can’t say I don’t enjoy it because I do. I can say that finances spent on comics are limited and this one isn’t as liked or enjoyed as much as others. If a really interesting new title comes along and I need to drop a title this one is on the short list to be dropped – unless the next arc will blows my socks off or given the cheesecake art should I say pants?
Next up on Comic Comments is Saucer Country Issue 6 which was touted as a good jump on issue entitled A Field Guide To Flying Saucers. Panels and pages comments after the jump (warning could be considered SPOILERY)
Again I’m learning things about WordPress as I work through my course. I’m the geezer of the group by age and with the oldest blog. So assignments that are related to doing things on our personal blog are much time intensive for me than others. That’s okay I’m there to learn to do it right and correcting all my posts is part of the upgrade process.
I’d say we’re all familiar with the pop-up image menu that happens when you place an image in your post. Here I’ll just grab a random image in my WordPress Media Library:
I don’t know about you but I’ve always wondered just what Alternate Text and Description do. I know Title is what pops up when a mouse hovers over the image in a post. I know caption shows beneath it when posted. I didn’t know what the other two fields did. Now I do.
Description is for the back-end of the blog administrator’s information. It tells them more about the image. You can use it to note title of posts that use the image, more about the image than contained in the other fields, or whatever you want.
However Alternate Text is another beast all together. I’ve almost always left it empty until I learned its function. There are three reasons it should be filled in:
Our assignment was to go through all our images contained in our post and ensure the Alternate Text field was completed. For me that was over 108 posts with many images in each post. I did it. It took three days but I did get some description contained in the field that added to the title. Not as much as I would like given the first reason up there. But there are limits on my time and I figured something was better than nothing. I vowed to pay more attention to the field going forward. I’ll try to give a description for the visually impaired of what the image contains. I don’t know if it applies to any of my readers but if anyone needs it I want it to be complete. Sure the search engine indexing is nice but to me the real reason to do a good job there is to provide a good experience for all my readers not just those with good eye sight.
With that assignment completed I’m starting my three-day weekend. We are going car shopping. Then we’ll find things to do around here and I’ll make pictures to share. Have a great one folks! Until next time!
Mary Louise Eklund 