MICHAEL DAVIS WORLD

Feel the Heat, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

Martha Thomases — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:00:45 +0000

Twice this week it has been so hot and humid in the morning that I have been forced – forced – to put ice in my coffee. Along with Memorial Day on Monday, this is a sure sign of summer.

Who can think in this heat? Here are some random thoughts on the season, because my entire brain is random this week.

• Just in time to celebrate summer, the World Cancer Research Fund suggests that processed meat products – including hot dogs and pre-made hamburgers — are too dangerous to eat. So have fun at that barbecue in your back yard this weekend.

Also, this makes an attempt to reward Cleveland’s hero, Charles Ramsey, seem more like a punishment than a gesture of gratitude.

• Some of you who may be excited by the news that marijuana may help you lose weight and control diabetes. Well, if you live in a state without legal pot, you better hope for decriminalization soon, because you’re paying a stupidly high premium.

This is separate from the fact that keeping drugs illegal funds criminals, and no, I’m not talking about your friendly neighborhood grower. We could eliminate almost all gang-related crime if we ended this stupid prohibition on pot and other drugs. In the process, we could defund the Taliban. Unfortunately, as with any enterprise that involves tons of profit, the powers-that-be have little incentive to change things.

Maybe legalizing medical marijuana could be the next step after Obamacare. And then my Medicare could cover it.

• That lovable scamp, Joe Biden, recently discussed how fabulous it is that America has her Jews, much as it is fabulous that Daenerys Targaryen has her dragons. “I’m sure this won’t make the Christian Right in the least bit paranoid, nor will it offend the anti-Israeli left”, I say sarcastically.

• Summer heat often inspires additions to one’s wardrobe. Unfortunately for most of America, the clothes we can afford can require inhumane working conditions for those producing the shorts and t-shirts we love. Thank you, Interwebs, for showing me alternatives to the crap at the mall. If this is to your taste, you may be reassured to know that it is produced by people paid fairly and treated respectfully.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, can also recommend this site with no qualms whatsoever. It takes her back to her hippie youth.

You Better Recognize, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #312 | @MDWorld

Michael Davis — Sat, 25 May 2013 02:08:02 +0000

The following is from a recent Publisher’s Weekly article:

This year’s programming included a spotlight panel discussion that recognized the 20th anniversary of Milestone Media, a pioneering comic book company founded by a group of Black writers and artists that included the late Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, and others.

The article was about The East Coast Black Age Of Comics Convention — the Milestone panel was just one of many great things that went on at the convention over the weekend, and it was nice that PW gave us a shout out.

Publisher’s Weekly is a big deal — a mention there, even a small one, is never a bad thing…well, unless that mention is a review and the reviewer thinks the book you wrote sucks ass. I’ve been mentioned and/or reviewed in PW a few times. The last time was a review they did on the book David Quinn and I wrote, The Littlest Bitch.

That review got us a call from a network looking to talk to us about an animated series of the book. It’s safe to say that in entertainment, all the major playas read PW.

So, when I see that PW has relegated Derek Dingle and I to “other” status regarding Milestone, that’s a cause for concern, and frankly PW should have done a better job with their background checking. Milestone Media changed the game so much that we are being celebrated at Comic Con International this year. Comic Con is the biggest pop culture event in the world. You don’t use “and others” to describe founders of ANYTHING that important. It’s shitty reporting at best, and fucked up journalism at worse.

This year’s programming included a spotlight panel discussion that recognized the 50th anniversary of The Beatles, the pioneering rock and roll band that included John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and others.

I mean come on.

Don’t get me wrong, the article was a wonderful piece, extremely well-written but, “…and others?”

Come the fuck on!

I could be wrong, but here’s what I think happened — the reporter got his or her background information from those she or he interviewed at the convention. The reporter’s name is Bobbi Booker — I have no idea if that’s a girl or guy, and YES I do know a guy that that spells his name that way, so it could be a guy, smartass. Like I said, I could be mistaken, but I think whoever Bobbi spoke to gave the impression that Derek and I didn’t matter as much or we were junior partners.

There’s a myth a lot of people have taken as truth that persists about Milestone. The myth is that my dearly-departed friend and partner Dwayne McDuffie started Milestone and everyone came after.

That myth is so strong that a few years ago some clown went on Facebook and called me a liar when I stated at my annual Black Panel at Comic Con the following:

“Denys Cowan created Milestone, I co-signed, but the creation of Milestone is ALL Denys. Anything else you hear is just bullshit”

By “co-sign” I mean, I was with Denys the moment he came up with the idea and said it was a good one — that (white people) is called a co-sign.

Imagine my surprise and anger when this motherfucker went on Facebook and called me a liar during a major forum. He stuck to his “sources” until I bet him $10,000.00 that his information was simply bullshit.

This guy was convinced that Dwayne put everything together then called Denys, Derek, and me. On another Black comic forum someone SWORE Robert Washington both created Static and wrote the Static bible.

WRONG.

Denys Cowan, Dwayne McDuffie, Derek Dingle, Christopher Priest, and I created Static. Oh, and the Static bible? I wrote that. What Robert Washington did was take our good idea and make it FUCKING GREAT. Those books were some of the best comics to ever see the light of day, and that was ALL Robert and John Paul Leon. Speaking of John Paul, I read somewhere that Matt Wayne discovered him.

Nope. That was me.

On many online forums, people who have no fucking clue about Milestone except what they have “heard” are holding court as if they wrote the business plan and pitched it to DC and Marvel.

Oh, you didn’t know Milestone almost ended up at Marvel? I guess Ray Ray didn’t get that from Huggy Bear who knows all. “Word on the street is that Milestone was started by John Lennon and Ringo Starr…”

This is not sour grapes on my part — I’m not bitching because I’m not getting the proper credit for my contribution to Milestone, but rumors and misinformation have a tendency to become fact that can affect everything that you do. I’ve seen news stories that mention no one but Dwayne when discussing Milestone.

Why is that important to correct?

It’s important because brand is important. How you manage or don’t manage your brand can be the reason the business world gives you respect and takes you seriously.

Don’t think so?

MySpace is a fucking joke, Paris Hilton is an afterthought, Blackberry is just another smart phone, and Tim Tebow is fucking unemployed.

Brand management, or lack thereof, is why those above are no longer on any A-list.

Tiger Woods, Robert Downy Junior, Vanessa Williams, and Bill Clinton are at the top of their game after all of them faced career-ending scandals. That’s brand management.

For my money, the single best example of great brand management is Tylenol. Years ago, tainted Tylenol tablets were killing people. Tylenol managed to not only come back, but are bigger than they have ever been.

The Milestone story is too important to let just anyone who heard some shit through the grapevine tell it. If the accepted narrative becomes just Dwayne created Milestone, what happened to me at a meeting some time back will become commonplace. I was in talks with a mainstream publisher about an imprint deal I would have with them. During a meeting with eight people in the room, including the publisher, someone mentioned Milestone. I promptly interjected that I was a founder of Milestone and someone actually said, “No, it was McDuffie who started Milestone with backing from Quincy Jones.”

WTF?

Now, I’m put in the position where I have to address that. Having to deflect, correct, restate, or clarify anything in a corporate setting is almost always bad.

Anytime you take the position that information you provided or spoke is flawed, inaccurate, or wrong puts your credibility in question. The perception that Dwayne is solely responsible for Milestone is problematic because Dwayne was such a massive talent, so future Milestone business could be at serious risk if a company decides they don’t want to be in business with Milestone because the guy who started it is gone. He’s not gone — his name is Denys and he’s even more talented than he was when he started Milestone 20 years ago.

Derek, Denys, and I are truly BLESSED to have been partners and friends with Dwayne. Milestone was a great idea, and Dwayne made it a GREATER idea, of that there is no doubt.

I’ll leave you with a bit of advice Dwayne gave me and no doubt countless others…

Get it right.

The Point Radio: One HANGOVER Too Many? | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:52:36 +0000

This weekend, Director Todd Phillips brings us the final chapter in the HANGOVER saga. we talk to Todd as well as Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis on the pluses and minuses of doing a third sequel. Plus more on the alien life on SYFY’s DEFIANCE as Jamie Murray admits she is just a bit “creepy”. And Amazon is ready to buy your fan fiction.
We’re taking the holiday off, but we’ll be back late next week with our exclusive preview of the new season of THE VENTURE BROTHERS on Adult Swim.

Sunset Observer #2: Doors of Perception…by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

Whitney Farmer — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:19:25 +0000

My Dad went to a routine eye appointment with a complaint of seeing some spots. As a reader who has probably averaged a book and a half a week for the last 80 years – since he learned to read at perhaps age five – the minor vision change was frustrating.

I got a call from Mom a few hours later. She had gone with him because I had to work and he might need to be driven home if his eyes were dilated. Despite being deaf, Mom has one eye that is still good enough to drive legally. In economics, this concept of weighing the risks and necessities of our household is called “Constrained Optimization”, or doing the best we can and hoping no one gets hurt.

Mom’s voice was intense and she spoke rapidly. I found out that another patient with them in the waiting room had had a heart attack when he walked up to the reception desk. Dad had held his hand while the doctor gave him nitro and did an assessment before the EMTs arrived. Mom and another woman in the waiting room prayed together. At the end, it all worked out well and the folks were left with a newly discovered respect for their doctor whose expertise extended beyond eyeballs.

I had thought this was the only reason for Mom’s hyper tone, but then she told me that Dad had been diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. It is the leading cause of blindness today. An urgent appointment with a specialist was needed for first thing in the morning.

That night, we kept Dad away from reading any information on the internet about his new battle. Last I had heard, there was no treatment, and no cure.

The next morning I went with him to the specialist from some exotic country that used to be part of the Soviet bloc (block?). They had pioneered production-line laser eye surgery there, ya know, so I felt it was a good sign. But I didn’t pray any less and was glad I had prayed first.

After admiring the doc’s wallpaper of impressive degrees, we were told that Dad’s condition was now treatable. Five years ago, there weren’t any options. For maybe the first time, I was glad that I had been wrong and ignorant. First time I was glad, not first time I was wrong…

The only problem is that the treatment involves getting shots in the eyeball every month for the next two years.

I’m strong, but I assumed that Dad would want a Valium before they proceeded. He said he was fine and had no concerns. Okay, but what about me…? So I averted my gaze but kept my hand on his shoulder as he got the Clockwork Orange treatment. Almost painless, but we agreed that he would get a heavy pour of Oban scotch whiskey before his appointment next month.

We drove out of the doc’s parking lot shared by Newport’s Fashion Island, feeling richer than if we had the money to shop in Newport’s consumption mecca.

Couple of weeks after Dad’s Door of Perception got the Treatment, Ray Manzarek of the Doors passed away.

I had met him once at the club when he and John Densmore came for a meeting with Dave Brock, the leader of a Doors tribute band called Wild Child. I came into the green room to give Dave an update prior to doors, and Ray opened the door for me.

Dave and I spoke briefly about the upcoming set, then he introduced me to Ray and John. I told everyone that I knew exactly who they were, but that I was trying to be cool and not squeal. The excitement of strangers is part of the currency that compensates celebrities, but I always try to act within context and be mindful of WWJD. If someone isn’t on a press junket, I’m generally not going to ask for a photo. I get photos of friends, and Ray and John had never met me before.

I have The Doors to thank for music that got me into a fight with my high school boyfriend. He was cool because he had a bust of Bach in his bedroom, had toured Europe as Most Favored Son in a production of “The King and I”, started and stopped heroin, and had a band called The Void which had already broken up before he had even got to high school. He didn’t respect my interest in the music of The Doors because I was a new fan, since seeing “Apocalypse Now”. The math of this puzzled me because my only option was to be a new convert. The first time around as they were becoming famous, I had been a toddler.

I also have The Doors to thank for learning about William Blake. They chose a line of his poetry to inspire their band name. Years later at the Tate Gallery in London, I would stand in front of his tortured or liberated pastels and feel like I could sense his breath as he had worked. I wanted his struggles to suit me more than the lush but expected romance of Rodin’s The Kiss which was on display behind me in the same gallery space.

A few months after meeting Ray, Dave Brock emailed me from Paris. He was touring with Ray, John and Robby Krieger now, looking and sounding exactly like Jim Morrison would have if he hadn’t died and had decided to live a healthy life. Once upon a time, Dave had been the Morrison family’s pick for the lead in Oliver Stone’s movie, but Val Kilmer’s people closed the deal instead.

We were getting ready for another show with Dave’s band. After he and I finished the business of advancing for his upcoming performance, he told me what life was like for him at that moment. I told him thank you for returning the emails of a mere mortal after performing in the City of Lights with rock and roll legends.

I was of course wrong again. The people on the stage are just as mortal as those who admire their music and sing along from the cheap seats. But what we can give to this life that carries on after us is vision. This is why art and artists compel and captivate. Known or not, we are kids of the Creator. When we create, we are carrying on the family business. So in a way, perhaps art is nearly close to being immortal.

It says in Habakkuk to write the vision down so that the heralds may run with it. If that happens, the vision can be carried into the future. Once written on the scroll, it can be captured by Dad’s newly stabilized Door of Perception, and passed on to his daughter.

Like last weekend: We watched an “Anne of Green Gables” marathon and watched the heroine recite “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes. Then Dad told me of the first time he had read that. As a boy in Spokane when he had first immigrated to the States…Alfred Noyes had come to his grammar school class and read the poem. Years later, Dad read it to me.

Now, he may read this. Halleluiah.

NEXT TIME: Feliz Cinco de Quatro…

Picture of The Doors with Ray in dark glasses, republished on salon.com.

The Point Radio: Check Into BATES MOTEL With Nestor Carbonell | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Wed, 22 May 2013 05:57:59 +0000

After a fast paced (and successful) first season, BATES MOTEL has wrapped and we talk to series regular Nestor Carbonell about his role now and in the upcoming 2nd run of episodes, plus we examine the unique alien life on SyFy’s DEFIANCE with Jamie Murray and Tony Curran.

I Wanna Be A Victim, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #326 | @MDWorld

Mike Gold — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:28 +0000

Grand Central Terminal is one of the most beautiful and, prior to the invention of the cellphone, most functional buildings in the world. I’ve been there thousands of times, and at least a little bit of my breath has been sucked from my body each and every time.

That is, when I’m there voluntarily. I enjoyed an extended stay Friday night because of a major train derailment and collision up the road in Fairfield Connecticut. That happens, and quite frankly I got lucky. Service was suspended east of the South Norwalk station, and my car was parked at that station. If I got off at East Norwalk, which is about two-thirds of a mile from my house and within walking distance, I would have been S.O.L. Being lazy and not being cheap actually paid off for a change. Of course, there was a backup as traffic on the lines was heavily screwed up (the derailment happened at the height of the Friday night rush) and I got home at 10 PM, about an hour late. Not a big deal.

Being a news junkie and having an interest in this particular story, I followed it the next day. 60 people had been hospitalized at the time, mostly with bumps and bruises. Eight remained in hospital the following morning and five were in critical condition.

But what I heard and read was that I was a victim because my trip home was delayed. Me and several thousand other people. And that’s simply ridiculous. Maybe there were 60 victims. Maybe. I might agree to eight, and I certainly agree to five. But the broader issue is our lust for being seen by others as victims.

Somehow we have decided to define ourselves as victims and we seek out causes, reasons and conspiracies for our victimization. Christians are victimized by freedom of religion laws. Children are victimized by teeter-totters. Travelers are victimized by air traffic delays. Shoppers are victimized by long checkout lines. Earthlings are victimized by cicadas.

Suck it up. Being inconvenienced is not the same as being victimized. People who are involuntarily subjected to malicious violence are victims. People who have been ripped off are victims and even then, quite frankly, I’m talking about being ripped off for a noticeable amount. If the neighbor’s dog craps on your lawn, you are not a victim. If you have to take an alternate means of transportation to get to and from work for a while, you have been inconvenienced and we are not going to deploy your favorite color for this week’s victimization ribbon.

Defining yourself as a person by the various levels of victimization is pathetic. I’m left-handed. We left-handed people have a shorter life span. Are we victims of… ourselves? Of old-timey school chairs?

And – talk about being politically incorrect – even AIDs victims are not victims. HIV is a disease. It doesn’t single out people for victimization. On frequent occasions I have been a cold victim, and I blame President Obama for that.

Grow up. Save your angst; it’s better for your blood pressure. Sometimes you are inconvenienced, and my sympathy is reserved for people who really deserve it. The world is not taking a crap on your merkin.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check the website above for times. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.

The Point Radio: Pat Kiernan Pleases The Crowd | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:02:17 +0000

He’s not only a newscaster in movies like THE AVENGERS, but he plays one on TV in real life, too. CNBC’s Pat Kiernan’s new show CROWD RULES gives new businesses a kick in the bank account and he tells us how that all works. Plus more with Anne Heche on SAVE ME and an update on The CW’s Wonder Woman Pilot.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #20, by Marc Alan Fishman – Snarky Synopsis | @MDWorld

Marc Fishman — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:00:17 +0000

Written by James Tynion IV, Art by Julius Gopez

There was an old episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” where Ray’s brother was enamored by a new “cult” that taught him to be happy about everything. I tried to channel that episode as I read “Red Hood and the Outsiders #20”. It didn’t work. Start to finish, top to bottom, James Tynion IV’s tale of lost memories, mercurial zen monks, and plenty of predictably loud yelling makes for a book that makes me wish I had my own memory-wiping-monk.

For what it’s worth, I am a not a regular reader of the book. I know enough though: The Joker with all his big boffo Scott-Synder-driven plans of villainy left Jason Todd forever angry at his mentor and then memory wiped. Nothing like wiping the slate clean. From what I can glean from the backstory mentioned at the beginning of the book… the rag-tag gang of Starboobs, Not-Robin, and Junkie-Arrow have placed Jason at the hands (and third eye) of a monk who can deus ex machina all the wonky memory issues of the last few issues. We start in on the book with Jason now expunged of all memories pertaining to “the darkness”. Of course that pretty much wipes him back to somewhere shy of 12 by my account. Roy and Kory are less than thrilled. What follows that is 20 or so pages of meaningless yelling, in-fighting, and soap opera glory.

James Tynion IV, protege of Scott Snyder, would be better suited dealing with scripts for Desperate Housewives, the way this issue unfurls. The memory-monk (whatever his name is, I honestly didn’t see, or care to remember) looks all of 15 years old, and speaks somewhere between the teen he looks like, and the sage old force-of-nature I assume he’s supposed to be. But I digress. Tynion delivers dialogue in swatches of melodramatic malaise enough to grind me to a halt several times throughout the issue. The plot-by-numbers is akin to misadventures I feel like I wrote in high school. The holier-than-thou monk makes it his business to mock Kory and Roy as they attempt to threaten him / plead with Jason / and argue amongst themselves.

The problem of course, comes with the omnipowerful sage. With his abilities to unearth secrets, and share memories, we get a tidal wave of woe with every page flip. Marvel at the double page spread that proves Jason’s life is one big wah-wah-wah fest! Gaze at the dirty secret of Starfire fighting Nightwing! Linger on the “Ghost of Christmas Past” presentation of the night Roy met Jason! It’s schlock at it’s best. If I’m to find a shred of good in the script (and trust me, it took some digging) it would be Roy. Jason’s off in lala land for the entire book. Kory is written flatter than the pages she appears on (in defiance of her amply displayed alien mammary glands). Roy seems to be the only one with an ability to sound realistic. This is in-between pointless verbal bouts and grand-standing though, so consider the compliment sandwiched by regret.

Art is delivered by Julius Gopez. It’s sketchy, angular, and oft-putting. His meaty figures float on the page, and never quite feel a part of the sparse environments he renders. His faces tend to blend into one another as well. A mash-up of rough Finch or Ed Benes would be the best description. Luckily in this case, Gopez’s emotive characterizations match Tynion’s scripting. For those who may like the direction here? The visuals match the words well enough. Special consideration should be given to Nei Ruffino and Blond for their coloring credit. The book’s palate is nauseatingly bright from start to finish. No page is without a glut of knockouts, glow effects, and photoshoppery. In other words? They do their best to hide the flaws of Gopez’s renderings. It’s not that effective to me (as I do the same thing for my own art all the time) but I imagine the target demo of this book finds all the pretty effects part of the book’s charms.

Suffice to say: Red Hood and the Outlaws is not for me. Trying to make me care about Jason, Kory, and Roy is immensely hard to do when they bicker, blast, and yell seemingly at every opportunity. Jason’s “mind-wipe” is as likely to stick with the character as Kory deciding to put on a pair of pants. The inclusion of a self-name-dropping Green Arrow in the final pages also did nothing for me. Sorry to be such a stickler for reality in a cape book, but for God’s sake: Who refers to themselves in the 3^rd person? All Seinfeld jokes aside… it’s camp, it’s a waste, and it was the icing on a cake made of sadness. Red Hood and the Outlaws can continue to be on the run without me. I’d seen Joker’s plan for amnesia as an opportunity to really start things anew. There are seeds of greatness with all three of these characters. Putting them on the run makes for a kinetic ride. Instead, the book seems stuck in stalemate. It’s a sad state of affairs that seems to bolster the continuing opinion of many people seemingly disparaged by the ‘New52′. James Tynion IV seems to want to take the book forward by way of clinging to the recent past like my son clings to his binky.

It’s time for both of them to grow out of it.

Cold As Ice, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #311 | @MDWorld

Michael Davis — Sat, 18 May 2013 18:10:23 +0000

Try as I might, I cannot maintain my blissful disposition all the time. I’m a happy chap more times than not, and that’s how I like it.

I endeavor most days to bring a smile to those around me, especially people I consider friends.

I’ve learned to keep my circle of friends small. I don’t have many people who are in my “inner circle,” and those who are really get the most loyal, understanding friend there is.

I’m a great friend. Really, I am.

But I can only take so much drama, no matter who you are and what you mean to me. I have a dear friend who I thought would be in my life forever. After a series of really bad disagreements, I realized that having that person around has been more toxic than healthy.

I admit I can be pill. I’ve been known to stick to my guns, regardless of logic or facts.

I am who I am.

That said — I allow people their demons. When said demons continue to cause me pain, I forgive them often, most times with love and hopefully understanding.

I tell people upfront where I stand on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some people get it, some don’t. Those who don’t never become close to me.

If a friend of mine tells me they now worship Satan — I’d say, “Good luck with that” and be gone. I NEVER stick around people who actively engage in behavior I find iniquitous or agree to do things I don’t want to do.

Guilt trips don’t work on me either. If asked to go see a film I don’t want to see, I’m not going. Period.

“I’d go with you to see a film I didn’t want to see,” She said with big puppy dog eyes. “I wouldn’t ask you to,” I said, then added, “Anyone ever tell you have eyes like a dog?”

Fuck being noble.

But — lets say some drop-dead gorgeous Asian woman invited me to see a movie I did not want to see. If I decided to be noble (on the off chance after the movie we play “love you long time”) she would never know I wanted to scream, OH FUCK THIS SUCKS, while screening whatever fucking art film she dragged me to. No, I wouldn’t pout or complain, nor would I gloat if by chance she hated it also. I’d SUCK it up and try at least to have a good time…long time.

People who agree to something they didn’t want to do, then BITCH the entire time, are just fucking morons.

What never fails to amaze and piss me off is when someone tells me they are OK with something, when it’s actually a problem for them. As an example, lets say your wife asks if you mind if your mother-in law came to stay for a month. If you mind, then say you do. That does not mean she won’t come, but your wife knows how you feel. When your mother-in law gets there and crashes your computer, the very same computer you told her she couldn’t use, then you have a right to be EXTRA pissed.

EXTRA pissed because she fucked up your computer AND your wife is well aware you did not want her there.

BUT…

If you co-sign on a visit and give permission to mother-in law to use your computer, then you have NO right to be pissed. YOU agreed to something you did not want to, so suck it the fuck up.

No one has the right to object to however the fuck you live your life. If someone objects to something in your life, they do have the right to decide whether or not they want to deal with you.

It burns me to no end when you are upfront with someone about something, anything, whether it’s something trivial, like you prefer paper to plastic at the supermarket, or something significant, like you hate your mother or something secretive, like you enjoy stuffing gerbils up your ass.

If the person you share this information with is cool when the subject is first broached, they do NOT get to bitch at you later. This is a particular problem with some women when you first start dating them.

I’m sure it’s a problem with men also, but as I don’t date men I could give a fuck.

But that won’t stop me from using my manly self as another example. ME, I do give a fuck about.

I once dated a woman with two kids. She told me I would not get to meet them unless she was sure I was going to be in her life on a serious basis. Her reason — she did not want her kids to become vested in me, only for me to leave..

I got that, and told her I respected it.

3 months later I didn’t get it. “I still have not met your kids, it’s been three months,” I said. “It’s too soon,” she said. “It’s been three months!” I countered.

This went on for a while until she got up and walked out of the restaurant. I thought she went to the bathroom — nope, she went home. When I finally realized she wasn’t in the bathroom and had left, I called her.

She explained to me quite clearly and cold as ice, “YOUR time limit doesn’t matter when it comes to my kids.” With that she hung up, and that, as they say, was that.

Like I said, cold as ice.

Fuck her I thought. Some time later I felt extra shitty. EXTRA shitty because I agreed to wait, then tried convincing her she was in the wrong.

I have a friend that continues to question my evaluation on a matter I thought I had their support on. After years of friendship, it’s gotten to a point where it’s not just the elephant in the room, it’s Tarzan and the fucking elephants in the fucking room.

So be it.

I don’t have many real friends, and losing one is never easy, but neither is pimping.

Such is life, I’ll survive.

Just Another Moral Monday, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

Martha Thomases — Sat, 18 May 2013 14:00:11 +0000

In the midst of exploring this week’s scandal, that the IRS targeted right-wing groups applying for 501 c4 status, I discovered something I didn’t know. Which is great, you know, because that’s why one does research, to find out things one doesn’t know.

For example, I thought 501c4s were a rather new invention, but, in fact, one of my favorite organizations, the NAACP, is one. And, true to form, was subject to a political inquiry because of its political leanings back in 2004.

So, if I wanted to, I could start a diatribe about left vs. right, the role of taxes in our society and the authority of the federal government in determining who pays how much.

But I don’t want to.

Instead, I want to talk about this: the fact that there have been demonstrations in Raleigh, North Carolina every Monday for close to a month now. Dozens of people have committed non-violent civil disobedience and been arrested at these “Moral Monday” events.

How have we not heard about this? If any story seemed perfect for a so-called left-leaning media, it would be this.

Here’s the thing: the news media doesn’t really lean left. Sure, there are people with opinions in charge, and their choice of story varies from news outlet to news outlet, but, in the end, everyone is working for a paycheck. And that paycheck is issued by a big-ass corporation that wants to protect its big-ass corporate interests.

Sometimes, there is a simple explanation for the news choices — money, which is earned by ratings. So this week, we’ve seen O. J. Simpson more than we’ve seen the Reverend William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP.

And sometimes, there is elitism at work, and the people in charge of the news think we, the people in the audience, are too stupid to understand a political story that isn’t about sex or scandal.

In this case, I’m willing to cop to the paranoia and say that the people demonstrating in Raleigh are simply too dangerous to the status quo. Their demands combine issues that those in charge don’t want combined. Voting rights, education equality, healthcare for all, worker access to collective bargaining — these are things that even network-employed Democratic pundits don’t want to discuss.

Look, I understand that the corporate news media isn’t going to discuss the relationship among labor rights, voting rights, healthcare, job creation and economic mobility in 21st Century America. I can even understand that the media that claims to “support the troops” doesn’t want to discuss a system that forces soldiers’ families to go on food stamps. A news media that thinks Obama is a leftist doesn’t know how to talk about Guantanamo.

Still, 49 people were arrested this week. At the same place. At the same time. That’s more than were arrested in Boston and Cleveland combined. If 49 members of Operation Rescue (or whatever they call themselves these days) were arrested at a women’s health clinic, I bet they’d be on the news.

But then, that’s about sex.

This is about jobs and being able to get a living wage. Who could be against that? Oh, yeah, right.

Despite the lack of national media coverage, the Raleigh demonstrators seem to be upbeat. It’s also possible that their message is getting out to other groups who are inspired by their efforts.

I know I am.

Media Goddess Martha Thomases remembers how difficult it was to get tax-exempt status for Friends of Lulu.

Sunset Observer #1: Parking Close…by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

Whitney Farmer — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:04:48 +0000

Mom said yes when I suggested we play hooky from our spring cleaning and hit IKEA for plastic stuff and cinnamon rolls. Since Mom hasn’t died as soon as she thought she would, she has instead decided to put shelves up in her room. This makes sense if a person is planning on staying somewhere for a while.

Wanting to take advantage of her energy reserves before the effects of her chronic insomnia crush her in the early afternoon, I quickly put on hoop earrings and red lipstick in order to look good from a distance, and raided my cleaning supplies to douse myself with Febreez. Unlike my reorganized bathroom, I hadn’t been scrubbed yet. Why not perfume? Wouldn’t that work? Ha. Take the pebble from my hand, Grasshopper…

Being Mom’s designated driver has the advantage of being able to use handicapped parking. She carries the car pass in her Africa print purse so that her entitlement goes wherever she goes. In Orange County, those blue passes make you a blue-ribbon VIP. You can even valet park at hospitals for just a tip-out.

I parked close to the exit in the blue VIP section because exhaustion and arthritis hit my heroine at the end of shopping adventures, only after she is done hunting. Before that, the endorphin pump from fantasizing about living in one of the 400 square foot display rooms gives everything a glow. The heroine is high on (natural) heroin imagining being single in the city with Swedish books crammed into her newly installed shelves. It’s not that she hasn’t loved Dad for over sixty years and the other generations that have flowed out from them in the wake of their lives. But with Mom, stopping and staying in one place is a choice. Just like with her choice to follow Jesus, it is a genuine act of will instead of just a painless unconscious reflex. Her natural disposition tends to anonymous shenanigans.

We decided to first go to the children’s section because of the liberal use of primary colors which Mom loves. Kids were climbing all over everything, clearly relaxed in their natural habitat. Mom commented that she was glad that we had come during feeding time. They are more active then. The viewing abruptly ended when we saw a darling toddler try to clean up a fake bedroom by putting some trash into a crib, and Mom told the mom that she has a very responsible little daughter. Honest mistake due to the long ringlets on the little boy that the mom must have thought conveyed “Europe” rather than “Girl”. We backed away and moved on…

Walking through the aisles, our laughter and banter was accessible to anyone who cared to listen. She talks loudly now and I’m okay with it. Mom’s hearing loss has left her with only her wits and newly developed skill at lip-reading to hold a conversation. Wearing red lipstick helps her capture my words as long as I make the effort to articulate. My volume doesn’t help her so much as making sure we are face to face before I speak and slowing down my pronunciation. She now reads faces and mouths as well as she reads books. And when she is tired of ‘listening’ to you, she simply shifts her gaze away from your lips. It’s brutal, but I don’t blame her. Like other aspects of growing old, being deaf is hard work.

We left the DIY cathedral minus $27 but carrying a huge blue bag filled with clever things and a dozen warm cinnamon rolls. Despite wearing my healthy patent leather Mary Jane clogs with my cutoffs, I was hot and tired and glad that I had a Handicapped VIP with me so that we had scored a great parking place.

But to be honest, I would rather that she didn’t qualify for the blue pass.

Author’s note: I haven’t written in too long. My apologies and warm thanks to everyone who has been concerned. My life is very different now and I’ve needed to figure out how to write truthfully. No angst, and everything I’ve written in the past was honest. But it has felt now like I was putting on clothes that don’t fit anymore. A big part of my life now is being with my parents until – as Mom says – “well…you know…” I’m witnessing things that I hadn’t expected that are very important to me. I want to write about them whenever I can because they might be important to someone else as well.

NEXT TIME: Dad gets injections in his eyeball…

Picture of me, from my sister’s cell phone.

The Point Radio: Anne Heche Is Out To SAVE NBC | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:00:20 +0000

Actress Anne Heche returns to TV in the new NBC comedy, SAVE ME (premiering with two episodes Thursday at 8pm). She talks about the message the show delivers and her reasons for turning to more comedy in her career, plus John Krasinski shares what it was like to close the door to THE OFFICE one last time and DC axes four New 52 titles, including one surprise victim.

The Dream Thief (Review), by Christopher Derrick – Sympathy For The Devil #35 | @MDWorld

Chris Derrick — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:55:07 +0000

There are many a great things I can say about Jai Nitz and Greg Smallwood’s The Dream Thief (Dark Horse Comics), like the intricate and graphically powerful page layouts, the naturalistic dialog and the true-to-live friction in the relationship between the lead, John Lincoln, and the women in his life. Smallwood’s characters “act” quite well in their close-ups, and the coloring is stylized, but to the point of being distracting. However, the southpaw curve ball that Nitz throws at us a little more than halfway through this first issue, amps the story quite a bit and took me to an unexpected place.

If I talk about it, I’ll be unleashing a spoiler and there’s nothing I hate more than spoilers. That being said, The Dream Thief does dive into its characters’ dreams and in those segments the narrative is rendered in a loopy, miasmatic manner that is perfectly suitable for the mental instability that this presents to not only us, but also to Lincoln.

Truth be told, I wasn’t too fond of Lincoln; he seemed like kind of a dick. However, the jailhouse letter from his estranged father that runs throughout the book (as sort of an off-kilter expositional device) fanned the interest flames. It should be noted that not being fond of a character, doesn’t mean that he’s not well crafted or isn’t compelling. Lincoln is like one of those guys you know who has good intensions and big dreams, but can’t seem to get it together. And this is why the jailhouse mea culpa letter was such a key narrative device.

Smallwood handles all the art chores – from pencils to coloring and even the lettering… while this might have produced diminished returns in the hands of a less skillful art talent, Smallwood excels with the responsibilities. As the final designer for every inch of every page, he weaves together all the various elements quite well. Little things stood out that elevated some of the deeper concepts in the story, like how he integrated Cardova’s residual dreams/thoughts within a sound FX or how he renders the location chyrons (reminds me of Fincher’s titling in PANIC ROOM).

I love that Nitz and Smallwood dig up and use the near-extinct Thought Balloons to add barbed quips that reveal character in a more immediate way than using captions. I never understood why Thought Balloons were run out of town on a rail from the comic creators’ toolbox, but I’m glad to see them back (although I wonder who is going to be so bold to regularly put them on the covers like in the Silver Age). Nitz and Smallwood even incorporate the Facebook “Like” icon in a thought balloon… which reminded of something Matt Wagner did in his Comico Grendel run (yeah, I’m gonna back that far… I’m sure this technique has been done hundreds of times since, but Wagner used it for maximum effect… it’s how his characters communicated in that one issue; brilliant and indelible in my memory).

One of the things that you’ll be asking yourself once you’ve put this book down is, are our subconscious dreams the flipside of wish fulfillment? And is the reverse also true?

The final beat leaves us hanging with a LOT of questions, but that’s a thing good, it’s exactly how you want a comic end (and something the movies ardently eschew; Nitz is huge film fan as evidence by some of the dialog exchanges)… so you can come back and read the next issue to find out those answers (and be confronted with a lot more questions). I’ll be back for the next one, and you should pick up this one, so you can hop on the ride too.

The Dream Thief will be on sale in stores tomorrow.

Swamp Thing #20, by Marc Alan Fishman – Snarky Synopsis | @MDWorld

Marc Fishman — Sun, 12 May 2013 14:00:35 +0000

Written by Charles Soule, Art by Kano and Alvaro Lopez

When last I wrote of Swamp Thing (and his brother book, Animal Man), I was ready quite honestly to pitch it to the wind. Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire’s epic amalgamation of the Green and Red turned out to be nothing more than a terrible buddy cop picture set in the apocalyptic wasteland. At the end of the day, Swamp Thing lost his love—Abby Arcane—and lost Scott Snyder. Charles Soule has been handed the reigns, and on this, his second issue, I am optimistic again at the possibilities of the character and the book. Such a rose has never smelled as sweet… and the one that comes back to life in the face of its own demise.

Soule’s first arc, a brief 2 issue jaunt, focuses on Swamp Thing’s next steps in the New 52. With ‘Rotworld’ a slowly dying memory, Alec Holland now deals with life moving forward. In order to restore balance to the world, Holland gave up his organic and mortal body to become one with the green as their avatar. In lesser words? He’s a plant-guy through and through. Soule accepts this, and uses it as a springboard for a new direction—one more in line with the super-heroics than the macabre. The basic gist is this: Faced with a near limitless power set, and lingering humanity, Alec arrives in Metropolis to talk to the one man who might just feel the same way. Prior to getting his one on one with the Kryptonian, Scarecrow makes a villainous appearance. Issue 20 catches us up after Dr. Crane doses Swampy with a fear toxin that actually effect poor Alec. And hilarity ensues!

The gas pushes Swamp Thing into his own mind—his physical body now lashing out throughout Metropolis like our own body might attack the flu. And there on the astral plane, Alec Holland and Swamp Thing are able to converse with one another. As we’ll learn in due time, Holland of dreamland is merely the representation of his own fears and regret. By giving away his body, is he human at all? Add in some taunting visions of family, of children, and scientific accolades, and you get one sad nightmare. Meanwhile, Superman helps his city fend off what might otherwise be called ‘Poison Ivy’s wet dream’.

Soule’s scripting is solid. What he lacks in frills and chills, he makes up with nuanced and punchy dialogue. As Holland taunts his greener self in the dream, there’s truly a few zingers worth their salt. And when Superman and Swamp Thing share a final thought with one another, it’s clear that the big blue boy scout would be in decent hands, should Charles ever be tapped to do so. While I’ll admit that the use of Scarecrow was tepid at best… Soule’s placement of him was handled with appropriate intelligence. The fact that he posed very little threat in the book makes it clear our new writer has a finger on the pulse of the power levels the book should be dealing with. And based on the flippant banter when Swamp Thing needs to take action? I’ve no doubt that we’re in good literary hands as we continue along this green and lush pathway.

Art duties are delivered by Kano and Alvaro Lopez. Kano’s angular style is quite different from Yanick Paquette, but suits the book just the same. Equal parts Neal Adams and Rags Morales, with a flavor all his own… Kano pours plenty of detail into his realistic figures. His rendering of ‘Big Green’ is lush, meaty, and perfectly monsterous. And when we dive into nightmare-land, he has no issue showing off his chops there either. Backed by a deft inking hand of Lopez, and the smart colors of Matthew Wilson, the book looks as sharp as its ever looked. And given the small-yet-still-epic scope of Soule’s script? Kano is doing some of the best work I’ve seen from him. As one of the biggest fans of his work on H.E.R.O. (penned by the under-appreciated Will Pfeifer), I’m elated to see him on a great book like Swamp Thing. Given the pedigree he joins? He sits alongside them (thus far) with ease.

Ultimately, Swamp Thing has had to evolve. Snyder’s 18 issues were mostly strong, and anchored in horror. Charles Soule’s Alec Holland is a little more heroic. A little less angsty. A little more powerful. And certainly for now… a bit more entertaining. I’m excited to see where things go from here. With our first jaunt into Metropolis done, it’s time for Big Green to spread his leafy wings further into the DC New 52. If he can no longer be “dark”… if he can no longer be saddled with Vertigo depth and maturity… if he must be a super hero…

Then this is as good as it may get for a good long while. I suggest ya’ll eat yer’ greens.

I’m Every Woman, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

Martha Thomases — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:00:58 +0000

This hasn’t been a great week for women in the media. There have been events in which women have been depicted as ignorant sluts, or too stupid to know what’s good for them.

The most sensational of these is the discovery of Amanda Berry and two other women held captive in a house in Cleveland for more than a decade. They were beaten and raped repeatedly, forced to have children or forced to miscarry, by a man who tricked them into getting into his car, claiming to be the father of a classmate.

(By the way, this was true in at least one case).

If the charges are true, I would call the accused is one sick puppy, except that would be an insult to puppies. Yet I am more disturbed by the second, less tawdry report.

The Pentagon reports that sexual assault of women is an epidemic throughout all branches of service. And the man who was supposed to investigate this problem is himself accused of violent behavior towards women.

Another psychopath? Maybe. But in the military, at least from remarks like this, it seems as if the psychopaths are in charge. The general described in the link blames the increase in rape on a “hook-up culture” prevalent today.

Let’s think about that. Because women may have consensual casual sex, they can no longer complain about being raped. I mean, a woman who agrees to have sex with the partners of her choice has no right to refuse to have sex with partners she doesn’t choose. It’s not fair to the men who might be in the latter group. How are they supposed to know?

Reasonable people might assume that women who can be trusted to serve in the armed forces and carry weapons might be able to express themselves, and that their words might be credible. But that assumes a climate in which women are presumed to be rational humans.

(By the way, doesn’t this show that the NRA proposal to arm every living human to prevent crime won’t work?)

Instead, both stories reveal men who think of women as interchangeable collections of body parts. She is either assorted orifices to fuck, or a uterus to carry a child. She certainly has no brain to decide how she might choose to use these parts.

If there is a way to prevent people from growing up to be psychopaths, I don’t know what it us. But I do know that a civilized society doesn’t cater to crazy people. And it certainly doesn’t put those who do in charge of the military.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, may someday decide to use her parts again.

The Point Radio: Leo Loves GATSBY | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Fri, 10 May 2013 23:00:39 +0000

This weekend, the lavish remake of THE GREAT GATSBY his theaters. We sat down with Leonardo DiCaprio to talk about how this experience topped his career – so far. Plus we begin our look at the end of NBC’s THE OFFICE. Showrunner Greg Daniels and star John Krasinski talk about the bittersweet wrap up coming next week. And..can it be true? 24 coming back?

Paradise Regained, by Christopher Derrick – Sympathy for the Devil #34 | @MDWorld

Chris Derrick — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:00:41 +0000

A few weeks ago my brother and I were watching this disturbing HBO documentary (view it here) called PARADISE LOST: The Child Murders of Robin Hill directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. Paradise Lost chronicles the 1992/3 trial (if you can call it that) of the infamous West Memphis Three – three teenagers who were inexplicably convicted of raping, castrating and murdering three 8-year old boys in the woods of West Memphis, Arkansas known as Robin Hill. It was some hardcore shit; the crime scene video alone is forever burned into my retinas… and it wasn’t even any up close and personal shots. The way it was shot appeared as if the police videographer, who no doubt had NEVER expected to see this kind of mutilation, couldn’t get closer lest his vomit up his KFC and donuts!

PARADISE LOST just made me mad, because the West Memphis Three (as the teen suspects were eventually called) defense attorneys didn’t seem to know how to slip out of the the noose that was closing in around their client’s necks. The first kid — Jessie Misskelley — who was tried first solo — got convicted, because he was basically a true idiot, in that his IQ was like 72! 72! Can you believe that? And the West Memphis police “interviewed” this kid for over three hours BEFORE they turned on the tape recorder and exacted a questionable signed confession from him (more on this later when I get to the CENTRAL PARK 5).

The two other kids – Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin – were tried together, and the main evidence against them was completely circumstantial – no physical evidence, no eyewitnesses, no motive; aside from the fact that Damien and Jason had a scant interest in Goth culture and the favorite bete noir mystic/occult figure Aleister Crawley. Hard to be this intangible evidence was the KEY piece of evidence that was used to convict these kids – who were forced to swallow life sentences (’cause three redneck boys were not just dead, but cut down when hope was still abundant); all this so-called evidence only hinted at the possibility of a Satanic ritual (as erroneously injected into the mind of the jury by fear-mongering DAs). Ironically, again, absolutely NO evidence of an actual occult ritual was introduced at trial.

And what’s super-duper crazy is that Jessie’s confession and damning, yet coerced written testimony wasn’t even used in the Echols and Baldwin trial. So you have convictions based upon fear. Fear! Can you fucking believe that!?!?

When you watch PARADISE LOST and see the forensic evidence (or lack thereof) and hear/see how the God-fearing, overall ignorant town was cowed by hints of a Satanic ritual (Memphis is in the heart of the Bible Belt, where illogical behavior based on Christianity rules the roost), you’ll be scratching your head at how ineffectual our legal system can be — if you don’t have any money.

So the other night, we saw WEST OF MEMPHIS (directed by Amy Berg) a follow-up documentary of sorts that was financed by Peter Jackson and his wife (yes, that Peter Jackson… he has money to burn, doesn’t he?) to help bring justice to a situation that was bleak and wholly unfair; Jackson also secretly donated huge chunks of money for the legal defense. WEST OF MEMPHIS, of which Berg paired down 800 hours of footage to an engrossing 2.5 hours, tears the lid of the case and shows how there was conflicting and perhaps exonerating evidence that wasn’t properly presented at the first trial (at least that’s how the two documentaries portrayed it; there is a 3rd doc – PARADISE LOST 2 – which I haven’t seen, and that probably adds more to the stew).

WEST OF MEMPHIS flashes us forward to 2012 and the Echols-led legal team has fought hard for twenty years to get the convictions overturned, because of potentially exculpatory evidence, and a new suspect (one of the dead kids’ stepfather is practically painted with a “guilty son of a bitch” sign) and you see how over the last 20 years the West Memphis 3 attracted the attention and financial & awareness support of the likes of Eddie Veddor and Johnny Depp.

However, what’s really nastily apparent throughout the documentary is how the players in the legal system in Arkansas didn’t want to stand for justice, but to stand by their original rulings and actions. For instance, the DA rejected any attempts to change his mind when exculpatory evidence was shown to him; so when he ran for election for a higher post, there was a concerted effort to block his ignorant ass (he lost that election). The presiding judge refused to re-examine the case, too, so he blocked a lot of opportunities to overturn HIS previous judgment and sentencing.

Echols et al had to wait until the judge was elected to a higher office, before they could present a case to the Arkansas supreme court to get them to alter the state criminal statutes/rules of using DNA evidence to retroactively reverse criminal convictions. Some fuck shit, if you ask me. And when the Attorney General of Arkansas does hear the new evidence, and decides to make a deal that will get the kids — who have wrongly spent 20 years in jail (Echols spent those years on death row basically in solitary) — the AG demanded an Alford Plea; which is some legal technicality that allows you to plead guilty, but then have the sentencing thrown out (I don’t pretend to know all the legalese about it, but THE GOOD WIFE used this one time in season 2 and thought it was a joke).

The key thing about the Alford Plea, from the point of view of the state, is that if and when it’s accepted by the defendants, it precludes them from suing the state for wrongful imprisonment. Thus the West Memphis Three can’t shake down the state of Arkansas for millions and millions and millions of dollars.

The truth behind the murders may not ever be known, but Damien, Jason and Baldwin got railroaded by a miscarriages of justice in the post-Civil Rights era (I mean, it was a Southern court and Blacks get sent up the river more times than anyone can count prior to the late 60s, and even to this day).

KCRW cinefile Elvis Mitchell hosted a live Q&A with Damien Echols and Lori Davis (the woman who fell in love with Echols while he was on death row, led the charged to get the convictions overturned and eventually became his wife), and Echols pointed out something that is so damningly poignant — the DAs and AGs and all the other ELECTED legal system officials, and just like every other politician, in that their main objective is to get re-elected. So they have a vested interest NOT to see wrongful convictions overturned — because it not only says that they’re incompetent at their job, but to screams to the public that a rapist or murderer is still out on the streets walking amongst you.

We are erroneously led to believe, by TV and the movies, that the officers of the court are out for justice — they’re not, they’re out to keep their jobs. And they’ll overlook evidence that doesn’t fit their theory about a crime, or conjure evidence to fit their theory… which is exactly what happened to the five Black & Latino kids who were wrongfully convicted of raping a white investment banker, known as the Central Park Jogger.

Ken Burns’ daughter weaves a chilling and despicable tale in CENTRAL PARK 5 (see it here for free on PBS.org); without going into the same detail (now), what you see in the Central Park jogger case is that the police held these five kids and kept them up for close to 30 hours — without access to an attorney — and the coerced them into signing confessions; all that completely conflicted with each other and the physical evidence of the case. Even when the DNA tests CLEARED the kids, the two female NYC DAs who were trying the case, refused to have their theory debunked.

Watch this film, ‘cause I’ll have more to say about this in a week or two, as the impact on the media landscape regarding young Black men and the harsh way in which NYC is policed today (e.g. the minority-targeted stop-n-frisk) is a result of the public outcry that rang out in during the trial of the Central Park 5.

Documentaries as essentially political pieces are designed (at their best) to entertain, but also to educate and to foster change of some sort in the world. Crimes against humanity – large or small – only get changed when the public is aware and cares about miscarriages of justice.

I See The Future, by Michael Davis – Straight No Chaser #310 | @MDWorld

Michael Davis — Fri, 10 May 2013 05:30:02 +0000

I see the future.

I do.

There is no joke coming — I’m serious when I say I see the future. I have an uncanny knack for predicting events with keen accuracy weeks, months, or years before they happen.

I’m not clairvoyant. I don’t get visions, and unless you are a hot Asian girl, I don’t read palms.

I predict the future because I understand human nature, human behavior, and the human condition.

I’m almost scary when it comes to foreseeing events.

Consider the following: when Disney bought Marvel, Denys Cowan called me and asked if I heard the news. I said, “Yep. Paul Levitz is out of a job.” Denys said, “Disney brought Marvel, not DC.” I then explained to my best friend that the Disney move would change the way Time Warner looks at DC Comics, and that means two things: Paul is out and DC will open offices in L.A.

A few weeks later, Denys called me and asked me “How the fuck do you do that?” meaning how do I consistently predict events. Paul was out, and guess what comic book company have these new badass, and I do mean badass, offices in L.A.?

Here’s a hint: their initials are DC.

Denys has been my best friend for many years, and in that time I’ve shared many a prediction with him, but he’s always amazed at my “power.”

What I do is simple to explain but difficult to do. I look at a situation, consider the people, environments, and occurrences that lead to the moment in question, and from that I predict what would be the most likely outcome.

One more example — a full year before the network announcement was made I predicted (in a Comicmix article) that the soap All My Children (AMC) would be cancelled.

Up until the moment ABC announced the cancellation, AMC was looked at as untouchable, like how The Tonight Show or Saturday Night Live both are seen as television gods and the thought of either of them being cancelled is laughable at best. Laughed is what some of my fellow AMC friends did to me when I predicted AMC would sleep with the fishes.

As I was fond of saying to my students who dared to laugh at my advice from time to time…

Who’s laughing now?

Rarely am I wrong, and 99.9 % of the time I am wrong, it’s because something is missing from the information I was working with.

More than a year ago Denys and I were talking about a project. I predicted some people would be problematic to the venture, and we should have a plan to deal with them in advance.

I predicted exactly what they would do and how they would do it.

The project is almost ready to roll and because of that, last week those people did exactly what I predicted they would do last year.

Those people have no fucking clue. I’d KILL to be a fly on the wall when they get the news their plans were killed over a year ago.

Dead and buried, all that’s left is to tell the corpses.

Airing Things Out, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #221 | @MDWorld

Arthur Tebbel — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:40:08 +0000

Dear Art,

This has been an awful week for the United States Air Force. There was some commotion last week about the military not being allowed to proselytize to servicemen and in most reports it was presented as a virtual matter-of-fact that the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is completely under the thumb of evangelical forces. That was a serious but survivable PR nightmare. Then this weekend the lieutenant colonel in charge of sexual assault prevention, Jeff Krusinski was arrested for sexual battery. Come on! What does a guy have to do to get a break around here? Should we just pack things up and go back to being part of the army?

-Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force

Mike,

I don’t know anything about who handles public relations for the military. If you hire outside firms or if people enlist with the goal of writing press releases r dreaming up commercials. If it’s an outside firm you have you should fire them immediately because your headline with this whole sexual assault scandal should have been “Hey, at least the woman Lt. Col. Krusinski forced himself upon wasn’t a fellow airman” or something like that. His job was to reduce sexual assault in the Air Force so he was doing the right thing and taking his sexual assault outside the service. With that line of reasoning you could practically fish out that old “Mission Accomplished” banner for the press conference. Sidebar: airman is the least gender-neutral term for servicemen in any branch of the armed forces. Please work on that.

I really hope your embarrassment over the infiltration of your academy by dominionist evangelical forces is genuine. It’s a damn shame that recruits are encouraged to convert to a specific faith and are frequently shunned for not converting. It’s especially tragic because the Air Force is, by far, the coolest branch of the military. The Marines might get the macho glory but you guys have fighter jets. I’ve seen Top Gun and I would put up with an awful lot of homoerotic volleyball to get to fly an F-22. A hypothetical version of me that isn’t too tall to fly a fighter jet. Also who isn’t a pacifist. Furthermore, roller coasters kind of scare me and I don’t imagine I’d do well with extreme g-forces. I’ve also been in terrible shape most of my adult life. My point is I could never have done this but better versions of me shouldn’t be excluded because they won’t be a very particular kind of Christian.

Should the Air Force go back to being part of the Army? No but not for really fantastic reasons. There are also a lot of shitty problems in the Army right now and combining a different set of problems isn’t going to make them simpler to fix. Our Military is an amazing institution capable of solving a lot of problems but only if they’re willing to identify them and work to make them better. I believe that can be done.

The Point Radio: What’s Ahead For GRIMM | @MDWorld

Mike Raub — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:17:37 +0000

We’ve got more with David Giuntoli, star of NBC’s GRIMM, on what is the big reveal for season two and what we can expect in Season 3, plus Free Comic Book Day fun & profits, Image’s big sales and comics in general with another good month in the shops, except for DC.