O.k, so here’s the deal…
Nice hand…
…get it?
The “deal”? The guy in the picture is dealing cards…sort of….errrr…
ahem…
Anyway, here’s my plans for TPM during the month of April.
Since I’ll be doing the A to Z Blog Challenge (there’s still time to sign up!) over on my writing blog , and listening to the general consensus, I think that’s where I’ll keep those posts. I won’t be splitting them up between this blog and that, as I had originally thought about. The plan, thus far, is to just put a small recap and/or a link here, mainly to keep doing entries and keeping my schedule (for the most part) intact.
I’ve also been toying with the idea of doing a Sunday “recap” type of thing about my whole experience in doing the challenge. We’ll see how that goes as Sunday is supposed to be the ‘day of rest’ as well as a chance to regroup and catch up/or get ahead on posting as well as commenting.
Again, that’s still up in the air.
I’ve also decided to drop the “The Case of…” type titles as, sometimes, they become more of a chore than organizing the post as a whole.
So, we’ll see how it all works out and expect to see a link, synopsis, or just a redirect over to my other blog for all the “A to Z goodness”….or badness if I’m having an off day.
Until next time….
Gone Fishin’…..
Be back in April…y’all!
As the title of this post hints, I’m going to go on a very brief hiatus until April.
I’ll be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge that month and I want to take a few days off, beforehand, to step back from blogging and get a few things prepared…both here and on my writing blog.
The challenge is to blog six days a week (which I already do) with each day’s topic corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. I’m still toying with the idea of splitting my posts between the two blogs and, maybe, generate some traffic over here…so we’ll see how that works out.
If you start seeing posts about “obscure” super heroes over here, then you’ll know I’ve decided to share the love and, if not, I’ll put a little note up to let you know when….
Until next time….
Extra, extra, read all about it…
'Read it all here on this blank paper...'
I’m sure this will not come as a shock to….well…anyone, but it’s not looking like I’m going to make my A to Z challenge…..
….this month.
I hadn’t even found out about it until mid-month and, blah-blah-blah-insert excuse here-etc….well, I’m just not going to be able to finish. My (semi-hairbrained) plan was to try to knock out two posts a day and easily be to letter Z by Monday. As many good schemes go, though, I just couldn’t keep up. I had my ‘I don’t wanna write’ days and my goof off days as well as many other sorts of ‘days’ where I didn’t get any writing done.
Why am I even posting about this? I dunno…I guess it’s helping me keep track of my journey. When I go back and re-read these posts, I want to be able to chuckle and say, “Yeah, I remember when I used to slack alot…” I’d also like to have some consistency here, just in case a casual reader, who’s lost their way on the information superhighway, might make their way to this humble jumble of thoughts.
I DO PLAN (he types with determined resolve), though, to pick the “Letter A to Z” Challenge” back up next month, starting where all good stories do…from the beginning.
Oh…P.S….it’s looking like my friend Mark Craddock will be finishing his challenge. Bravo! to him and, once again, you can check his blog out right….here!
D: Dark Shadows
"We ain't the Adams Family"
Originally, D was going to be for one of my all time favorite t.v. shows, Due South , but the recent death of actor Jonathan Frid had me thinking that, maybe, I should dedicate “D” to another favorite show of mine, from my youth, Dark Shadows.
The most amazing thing about this show, for me, was that I never knew it was a soap opera. Even back then, I knew what soap operas were, because they were (and still are, to me) borrrrrrring. This show was anything but boring with its cast of ghosts, vampires, witches, werewolves, as well as other supernatural elements. I used to watch it all the time and had no clue. I just thought it was a cool show about an English vampire and had eerie music. I won’t go into a long and drawn out synopsis of the show, but if you’re interested, you can find much more Dark Shadows info here and here.
"Looking a little green around the gills, Barnabas."
A few months ago, I found that DS was streaming on Netflix, so I started watching them from the beginning. Re-watching them brought back a lot of good childhood memories, as well as gave me some laughs, seeing just how low-budget the show really was. A lot of times you’ll see sets move, actors flubbing their lines, missed cues, as well as just a general sense of ‘b-movie’ from the whole thing. Even with all the flubs, the show managed six seasons and spawned tons of show related merchandise. 
"Biting necks is no game..."
The sad thing is, though, I’d still rather watch an old episode of Dark Shadows as opposed to about 80% of what’s on t.v. these days.
So, rest in peace Mr. Jonathan Frid…to me, you’ll always be the one and only, Barnabas Collins.
If you have Netflix Streaming, and enjoy cheesy, over acted, drama….you could do a lot worse than Dark Shadows.
C: Count Dooku
"Don't 'count' me out, yet....muahahaha!"
When people as me the question….
Star Trek or Star Wars?
I, immediately, answer Star Wars. No hesitation at all. In fact, I’d consider myself a huge Star Wars fan and probably couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how many times I’ve seen the first three (or last three, depending on how you look at them) movies…New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.
That said, though, as a fan I’ve taken umbrage at some of Mr. Lucas’ decisions in creating his world. Not that I know better than George, but I do know what I like. Like many people, I wasn’t overly thrilled with his newest offerings, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith but it was nice to see some ‘new’ material, which did spawn cooler things, such as the true power of the Jedi and The Clone Wars.
While the ‘newer’ movies were a bit threadbare on plot (in my opinion), they did turn out some cool and dynamic characters…..and, no, I’m not talking about Jar Jar Binks.
One of these characters was Count Dooku. Next to General Grievous, I think The Count is one of my favorite ‘new’ characters that came out of the second trilogy.
Played by the great Christopher Lee, Dooku was once a respected Jedi Master and pupil of Yoda. He began being seduced to the Dark Side by Darth Sidious, becoming the evil Darth Tyranus. During the Clone Wars, Dooku helps train General Grievous and is the leader of the Separatists.
Lee played Dooku with finesse and class and, supposedly did most of his own light saber swordplay. It’s been reported that the “Count” portion of his name was meant to reflect his time as one of the most famous Dracula actors to ever play the role. Lee was also a contemporary of Peter ‘Grand Moff Tarkin’ Cushing, having starred in many Hammer films together in the 1950s.
If you’re looking for a villain with style, look no further than Count Dooku.
B: Battlestar Galactica (the original)
Back in the 70s, there wasn’t the glut of sci-fi and fantasy on television that we have today. We only had three channels, four if you were lucky and could get a decent UHF signal, so when something (anything) sci-fi came on, it was a pretty good bet that I was watching it.
Battlestar Galactica debuted in 1978 and ran for one season. Supposedly, it was meant to cash in on the ‘Star Wars’ craze on a weekly basis but the show became just too expensive to make, even though it received good ratings. Created by one of the biggest names in television at the time, Glen A. Larson (who also did such shows as Magnum P.I. and Knight Rider), BSG starred screen veterans such as Lorne Greene, Lew Ayers, and Wilfred Hyde-White. I even remember Fred Astaire and Lloyd Bridges guest starring in a few episodes. It also starred a few new, young, actors such as Dirk Benedict, Richard Hatch, Jane Seymour, and Larry Manetti, who would go on to co-star in Larson’s Magnum P.I.
Next to the Six Million Dollar Man, I used to think this was the coolest show out there. I had the toys (back when the Cylon ships actually shot things), coloring books, etc., and never missed an episode. After not having seen it for many years the Sci-Fi Network ran some episodes around Christmas time, one year, and I watched all those as well. It still held up (somewhat), at least for me, and I guess my childhood fondness for the show helped me overlook the really cheesy (at least by today’s standards) effects and dialogue.
A few fun facts about my BSG experience:
- I never realized until years later that Patrick (Steed of The Avengers) McNee was the narrator for the introduction.
- I never realized until I was looking things up for this post, today, that Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) was the voice of Lucifer …. By your command.
- When I was younger, I was convinced that the android pet, Muffit, was a real robot and not a monkey in a suit. How naive’ I was.
- It’s thought that the BSG episode Experiment in Terra was, in part, the inspiration for the t.v. show Quantum Leap, though Donald Bellisario denies it.
For me, there are some shows that will always have a place in my heart and Battlestar Galactica is one of those shows.
A: Alpha Flight
Move over, eh....thank you kindly.
Back in the 80’s I was getting re-acquainted with comics and had seen an ad for this new book called Alpha Flight. Back then I wasn’t all that familiar with the group but, I knew they were super heroes and…they were from Canada, and I like Canada. In fact, when I was younger, I wanted to be a Canadian Mountie but that’s another story for another time. One thing I was familiar with was the artist.
John Byrne.
Next to George Perez, Byrne was one of my favorite comic book artists, so it was natural that I’d pick this up and give it a try. This was a time before I had found local comic shops, such as Comic Book World, so I remember a friend and I taking a hike to downtown Cincinnati….leaving our Northern Kentucky stomping grounds in search of this elusive (at least to us at the time) issue. For some reason, the little United Dairy Farmers store, where we had usually bought our books, didn’t get AF 1 in so we had to trek across the Ohio River.
Like I said, I had a very passing knowledge of the group so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had seen them in a back issue of X-Men where they had come to take Wolverine ‘back home’, much to the X-Men’s chagrin. What ensued was a big brouhaha with the X-Men winning, of course (hey, it was their book, so..) and Alpha Flight sent packing back to the Great White North. Even in those two X-Men issues, the team looked pretty cool….and they were from Canada!
You had Vindicator (who had changed his name to Guardian…more heroic sounding, I guess..the leader who wore a cybernetic battle suit), Snowbird (a mystic shape changer who I always figured was named for the Anne Murray song), Sasquatch (a big Hulk-like type, who looked like Bigfoot and could stand toe to toe with Colossus, the twins Northstar and Aurora ( super speedsters who could produce a huge flash of light when they touched hands), and Shaman (a tribal medicine man who could pull almost anything from his mystic bag).
In issue one of AF, we’re also introduced to two ‘new’ members….recent recruits from Beta Flight, the second tier team….Marina and Puck. Marina was an aquatic type who could swim faster than anything in the water and survive there indefinitely. Puck was a dwarf (suffering from achondroplasia or ‘lack of growth in the long bones’) who had, seemingly, been everywhere and done everything. He was working as a bouncer in a run down bar when he got ‘the call’.
Needless to say, the Byrne issues were really well done. Some great characterization and backstories were set in place and, for a long while, it was my favorite book. Then, inevitably, as all things Byrne do……the creative team changed. Byrne left the book and, from that point on, it just wasn’t the same for me. The stories were still decent but the art….well, for me, John Byrne is a hard act to follow, so I began losing interest before, finally, dropping AF altogether. I tried picking a few of the later issues up, just before the book was cancelled, but still…no interest there. Not that they were bad issues but, they just didn’t seem like my Alpha Flight. The new creative team had gone their own way, as creative teams do, and it just didn’t click with me. I even tried the ‘brand new’ Alpha Fight when they revived the series but, again, still not my thing.
It’s a shame, but all things change…especially in the world of comic books and we either go along or move on. One thing’s for certain, though, I’ll always have a soft spot for Canada’s premier super team….
Alpha Flight. (from Canada!)
A to Z Challenge: The Way Late Edition.
My pal Mark Craddock posted something to his blog about the A to Z challenge for April. The goal is to post something to your blog using a letter of the alphabet each day. Well, like my buddy Mark, I’ll be starting way behind and I’m not sure if I’ll catch up. My goal is to finish by the end of the month, so that may mean two or three posts a day. To make things simple, I’ll be posting about whatever strikes my fancy…no real theme going on, I’m just looking to finish.
Can I do it?
Stay tuned…..
The Phantom M-pire 