A Rose...

I live less than a mile from The Transfiguration Catholic Church--or as I like to call it, The Transmogrification Church. On their marquee at the moment is their latest welcome aboard message for the ever-changing Priest club. (A Priest that I know once told me that they like to change out the staff about every year--I guess to keep God guessing who's going to be talking.)

In any case, the new marquee welcomes in their latest: Father Arcangel.

Oh yeah. That's a Priest name! It did make me wonder if he changed his name when he decided to enter the Seminary, or if it was one of those "born-to-be" situations. Kinda like naming a kid Jeeves, knowing that he only has the option to be a butler at that point.

What's more, with a name like that he's set up to go beyond the pulpit, and get really into the action. Think about it: Father Arcangel, Private Eye. Or maybe he's a movie-style action hero, fighting the good fight in the name of the Catholic Church. Kinda like Indiana Jones, but with a more Pope-influenced mission to his adventures.

Or he could be a super-hero in his spare time! Holy fill-in-the-blank wouldn't even seem vaguely out of place. And with that name, he could be right out of the Silver or Golden Age. Jack Kirby could have fit Father Arcangel into his Fourth World stuff and not even hiccupped.

It is also possible that the obvious has happened. God has sent an angel down to lead his flock at this particular church. Of course, you would think that God would be a little more creative in a name, but hey, who am I to judge. If that's the case, though, I do expect some of my property rates to go up, what with the proximity to angelic proof and what.

I would like to further the efforts of The Transmogrification Church, and extend a hearty hand of welcome to Father Arcangel. No matter what the scenario that brought this magnificently named, true white-collar worker into our midst, just knowing that I have a would-be action superstar/private eye/ heavenly messenger so close to my home will help me sleep a little better tonight.

So to you, Father Arcangel: Mazel Tov.

Movie Stuff

I saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer today. Like most of the people that I know, I enjoyed it. I liked it at least as much as the first one, and possibly a little bit more. It's always hard to tell that sort of thing right as you walk out of a movie; I feel I can judge where it sits in scope a few weeks from now as I've let it digest in my memory.

The changes that they made to the story were perfectly understandable, and I feel that the movie overall had a very solid pace and structure to it. Not too many pitfalls, and the ones that were there didn't drag me out of the movie (unlike any of the "blockbuster" films that have been released to date this year). After talking to my friend Cliff, he cited that he thought the new FF film was an A-Class B-movie, unlike several B-Class A-Movies that are out, such as Spider-Man 3 (a film that I didn't hate, but it didn't live up to the first two--not by a long shot).

But that's not really what I wanted to talk about...

You might have noticed a video-presentation that happens in front of movies these days. It's little more than ads for upcoming films, television series, or whatever any advertisers pay to show on the screen before a movie. The productions are slick, and the ads are as innocuous as anything you would see on TV, and just as easy to ignore. (Though on a quick side-note, I will say that between the trailers, movie ads, and voluminous television ads, I don't think that I'm going to go see Evan Almighty. I was GOING to, because I like Steve Carell, but at this point I don't think that there is anything left to be revealed in the film. I'll wait for DVD or TV.)

One of the things that has bugged me about one of those video presentations is simply this: the title. I don't know if you have it in your part of the world, but here we have one called The 20-wenty. Yeah, you read right. The 20-wenty. This trend in graphic design bugs me. Sure, I understand that the name of the piece is "The Twenty" in the minds of the people that made it, but that isn't what it says. It clearly has the number "20" followed by the letters w-e-n-t-y. The 20-wenty.

It reminds me that we are living in an era where people can't spell because they "text" to many messages. They only know shorthand. And now those people have moved into the professional field, and they are bringing their habits with them. It's not a new trend, and one that is sure to fade--I hope and pray--over time, but for right now it's the trend, and it's one that I could live without. I hope that the whole "texting" craze dies soon, too. I hate watching people type letters that mean words during a movie. It just seems...rude.

Guess I'm old, but all those thoughts just rambled through my mind today while sitting in a movie theater with friends.

LOL

...aw damn...

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder...

It was announced this week that the 1980's cartoon The Thundercats was optioned for a feature film. Much has been made of whether the film will be live action or CGI animation, but nothing has been discussed about the STYLE of the film. Therefore I have a simple suggestion that can change the whole outlook for the film:

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Thunder-Cats.

Think about it. We can have such wonderful characters as Mr. Mestopholiono. Or the Rum Tum Tigra. Or Jellical Snark.

And the songs! The songs could be amazing. Songs like Old Jagarotomy. The Naming of Thundercats. Slitheshanks the Railway Mutant. And everyone would tear up at the singing of Mumm-ra-ies.

You know you want this.

Gone Too Soon

I was cleaning my house today, and at one point I cleaned one of my bookshelves with graphic novels on it. One of the books on the shelf was Reality Check by Rikki Simons and Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons, a delightful comic about a virtual reality game world and the people that play in it. Mostly, though, it is about a cat that plays in that game world.

The two folks that created the series could have taken the book down a bad path with the boy who owns the cat (Collin) and the cat (Catreece)--who naturally turns out to be a cute cat-girl in the virtual reality world--with the two of them hooking up romantically. But they don't. The book takes the high road and it deals with Collin having to deal with keeping it a secret that his friend Catreece in the VR world is his cat in the real world.

It is a comedic delight, with wonderful social awkward moments designed to amuse. And what's more, it also has some great characters. All in all, a great read.

The two Simons who created the series work as Studio Tavicat, and they have other books that are equally entertaining, but to be honest, I miss Reality Check. I miss the characters they created there.

And it made me think that there are too many comics that went before their time, or worse, were forgotten before they ever had a time. So, this is the start of what will be a semi-recurring series of posts about comics that I wish were still around.

And I have a cat in a VR helmet to thank for the idea.