UNANIMOUS!

This should be the worldwide dress code from now on.

BACK IN THE GAME

I fell off for a little bit. Too much work and too little motivation.

Also, I spent most of the past two weeks watching seasons 3, 4 and 5 of Six Feet Under and it depressed the hell out of me. That usually doesn't happen because I tend to keep a fairly positive outlook, but that did me in. Everyone on that show is just a shitty, selfish human being. I don't know if they set out to purposely make every single character completely unlikable, but they managed to do just that.

Except for George Sibley. I like that guy. Doomsday paranoia and all.

But seriously, watching that show put me in a rut for a good week and I just sulked around feeling completely misanthropic.

Shook it off and watched Groundhog Day to get out of it.

I'm back now and broadcasting will resume for your entertainment. All three of you.

FLASH GORDON VIA DEADWOOD

This was a great book. And that cover is just fantastic.

EXODUS

AV Club -- San Diego simply may not be large enough to hold all the Twihards and Iron Man fans out there. Comic-Con, the massive convention for all geek-friendly media, may be leaving its home base come 2012, when its contract with the San Diego Convention Center expires.


According to The New York Times ArtsBeat, Comic-Con organizers are looking to Anaheim as a potential new host, given its proximity to Hollywood and larger facilities that can accommodate some 126,000 attendees. In response, tourism officials in San Diego are launching a campaign to remind Comic-Con how much the city appreciates hosting the convention. San Diego hotels are increasing the number of rooms reserved for the convention and offering the organizers ample more meeting space, free of charge. The Comic-Con board is expected to respond to the bids from the cities of Anaheim and San Diego within the coming weeks.


Comic-Con not only brings plenty of revenue for local businesses, but has also evolved into a requisite stop for film and television studios that hope to foster a loyal fan base for their fantasy and sci-fi related projects.

Be a real bummer if this went down. I love San Diego. I do not love Anaheim. Of course, Comic Con in Anaheim would open the door for a day at Disneyland when the convention gets too crowded.

Right now you're probably thinking, "What are you, nuts? You're going to skip a crowded day at a convention center for an arguably more crowded day at Disneyland?"

You're god damn right I am. I love Disneyland.

5.6 TO GO...

I could watch this clip all day long.



And this is pretty good, too.

CITY OF DREAMS

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

WOLVES & MARTYRS: THE ORIGIN OF VALENTINE'S DAY

Let's talk a little about Valentine's Day. If you want to get all comic book-y, we can call this kind of a "Year One" type story.

Shall we?

In 3rd or 4th century BC, The Parentalia and Feralia Festivals of Purification were celebrated from February 13-18 to coincide with the Fertility Festival. The latter was a ritual not unlike the "Casual Encounters" section of CraigsList. All of the willing females would enter their names into a box and one by one, eligible men would step up for their turn. With a name in hand, the two would go off and what happened next was reffered to as a "rite of passage." Use your imagination for that one.

Before that began however, there was the LUPERCALIA (from the Latin lupus meaning "wolf"). During this day, priests—known as Luperci—from two colleges (Quintillii and Fabii) would meet at the Cave of Lupercal in the Palatine Hill, where a she-wolf was said to have nursed Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome. There, Vestal Virgins would offer holy salt cakes and the priests would sacrifice a dog and a goat, smearing the animal blood onto the foreheads of youths of noble birth. Clad only in a goatskin thong, those same youths would later lead a band of revelers known as the luperci in the performance of such antics as whipping fields of crops and bystanders with a goatskin strip (known as the februa). Women gently lashed in such a fashion were thought to become fertile—even those known to be barren. The act of such lashings or whippings was known as februatio. Both this word and the word februa come from the Latin meaning "to purify." The naming of the month, February, is believed to have originated from these meanings.

Basically, February means "to purify by beating with a goatskin strip."

No flowers or candy hearts yet.

When Christianity was eventually formed, it was attempted to replace the rituals with something a little bit more uplifting. Pope Gelasius outlawed the Lupercian Festival, but kept the name drawing part—just slightly tweaked. Instead of available women, the names of Saints were written on the papers and it was believed that the recipient (boys and girls participated in the drawing) would emulate the life of whichever Saint was chosen. This new system, while much more noble, was a lot less fun. Eventually, it was abandoned and the old "rite of passage" returned.

Those are the ones you don't hear too much about. This one however, is the most widely known part of the origin.

In Rome, 270 AD, Claudius II passed an edict that abolished marriage. He felt that married men made poor soldiers because they were loath to leave their loves ones for battle. The emperor craved a strong army far more than he cared about popularity and banned the act of marriage all together.

Valentine, a bishop of Interamna, disagreed with the Emperor and invited young lovers to come to him in secret to be joined in the sacrament of matrimony. Claudius soon learned of this "friend of lovers" and had the bishop brought to the palace. The Emperor, impressed with the young priest's dignity and conviction, attempted to convert him to the Roman gods to save him from otherwise certain execution. Valentine refused to renounce Christianity and imprudently attempted to convert the Emperor. It didn't work and he was sentenced to death. While Valentine was in prison awaiting execution, he fell in love with the blind daughter of the jailer, Asterius. Through his unswerving faith, he miraculously restored her sight. He signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine."

Soon after, on February 14th (or so history claims) Valentine was clubbed, stoned and then beheaded.

To recap, in case you got bored: Valentine's Day is essentially the celebration of blood, sacrifice, random sex, wolves and martyrs.

I want a card with that on it.

(*Note - I wrote this after reading a few different histories relating to Valentine's Day on the Internet. It's entirely possible that none of this is true or historically accurate at all. But it's far more entertaining.)

AMERICAN IDOLS

 

If I had to choose two comedians that have influenced pretty much anything I've ever attempted in the form of humor, it would be these two.

YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I WANT AN iPAD

I've wanted an iPhone for years, but I hate AT&T with a passion deep inside my heart. Ever since they lied and gave me a $600 phone bill and a story of having a two year, unbreakable "verbal" contract I have avoided them. Apparently "free long distance" from AT&T (in 2004, of course) means only on I-15 and no further south than Flagstaff, AZ. God damn crooks.

But really, all I want an iPhone for is Apps. That sounds silly, I know, but I have T-mobile and have never had a single problem. But I do love those iPhone Apps. Mostly though, I'm excited about the iPad because of comics.

See, I love reading comics but I hate having to store them. There's a storage unit with 30 boxes and thousands of comics sitting in it. None of them are worth anything substantial and I can't bring myself to give them away. With the iPad I'll be able to download and read the comics and still be able to get the full detail in the art without needing to buy a new short box every six months. The Wednesday tradition of heading to the comic shop will still exist for some books, but overall I'd love to be able to just turn on my iPad and have my new comics download in minutes.

Sure there are bound to be a downside or two to the thing, but I don't really care. As long as I can get my comics it'll be worth it.

I like where this is going.

MIDDLE CYCLONE

I wish I had discovered this a year ago. Been listening to it all day.

WES ANDERSON'S SPIDER-MAN

Okay, not really. But close. I don't think I'd be able to handle a real version of this movie.

PULP FICTION

My favorite section of any book, antique or thrift store.
So much great stuff.

BEST COMIC EVER

Hands down. And somehow the Cleveland Plain Dealer got an interview with notoriously press-shy creator Bill Watterson. I just wish it was longer and they talked a little more in-depth.

Bill Watterson Interview.

NO EXCUSES

After watching a whole bunch of movies last week, I didn't feel like doing anything. Thus, I fell way behind on those reviews (that most likely no one was really reading anyway).

I haven't been motivated to write them up but I have notes and will get to them.

Eventually.

In the meantime, did you see this? Something to look forward to, right?

LIMA – Peru was Tuesday conducting an airlift evacuation of more than 2,500 foreign tourists trapped in and around its famed Machu Picchu ruins by rain and mudslides that killed at least seven people.
The operation, which began Monday, had rescued 125 of the foreigners by late Tuesday, emergency services said.
Most of them were waiting by a helipad near the ruins themselves, though 670 were blocked on the Inca Trail, a narrow Andean pathway up to Machu Picchu that takes four days to complete and which was cut in several places by landslides.
A 23-year-old Argentine tourist and his 33-year-old Peruvian mountain guide died on the trail, buried under mudslides, the National Culture Institute in the nearby town of Cusco said.
The other fatalities occurred along the valley leading to Cusco and in the town itself. Two Peruvian men drowned in the valley's swollen river, another died in a landslide, and a mother and her child were killed in Cusco when heavy rainfall made their home collapse, emergency officials said.
Some 400 Americans were among the stranded near Machu Picchu, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington.
The US embassy in Peru has sent four helicopters -- usually used as part of anti-drug efforts -- to help with evacuation efforts, he said.
"We are very grateful for the efforts of the government of Peru in trying to help with the evacuation of American citizens near Machu Picchu," he said.
Fernando Celis, one of 300 Chileans blocked in Machu Picchu, complained to the online news website Emol that some tourists were bribing rescuers to get them out first.
"A helicopter arrived yesterday to take out the elderly and the unwell and some tourists who had more money. There are almost no North Americans left, only the backpackers, and British backpackers. People on tours who were waving their money about, they were all evacuated," he said.
He said food was running short.
"We haven't been given anything to eat. Each one is left to work out his rations," he said, adding that the vendors at the tourist site had immediately doubled their prices when it became clear the foreigners were stuck.
Machu Picchu is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in Latin America, attracting more than 400,000 visitors a year.
The 15th-century Inca fortress is located on a high mountain ridge 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Cusco. A railway that transports tourists to the site was covered by a mudslide.
The country's civil defense service estimated the homes of 1,300 people in poor rural areas -- many of them riverside dwellings made of clay and straw -- had been destroyed. Another 12,000 people were affected to a lesser degree, losing possessions or suffering property damage.
Authorities were sending tons of food and other aid from Lima to Cusco by air and by road, including 1,000 tarpaulins for those left homeless.
Peru's presidential chief of staff Javier Velasquez traveled to Cusco with emergency-level ministers and officials to evaluate the situation and coordinate rescues.
The town has declared a 60-day state of emergency after seeing two bridges collapse and 250 houses destroyed.

LOST

It starts tonight. I'm ready.