Coming Attractions

This is more a note to myself than for any of you, but here's what I'm planning on talking about in the days to come.

---

Inspired by Rick and his month-long tribute to his favorite horror movies, I'm going to re-watch some of the all-time worst horror movies. And frankly, the fear I'm experiencing thinking of having to watch House of 1,000 Corpses again is far more acute than any good horror movie could ever generate. Or House of the Dead, which, as I may have recently mentioned, is not just the worst movie ever, it's the worst anything ever. Hell, I may as well stick with the theme and watch House on Haunted Hill (the remake), House II: The Second Story, and, I don't know, Road House, just to make it easier to pick titles.

---

More TV. Shocka! Specifically Desperate Housewives and Boston Legal.

---

All the damn books I've bought recently. Stephen King's The Dark Tower, The Daily Show's America (The Book), John Moore's comic fantasy Heroics for Beginners, McSweeney's Thrilling Tales collection (I've had that one for a while, but just recently started reading it)... it would be nice if I actually finished one of these books. Then I could write about it.

---

That applies to comic TPBs, too. I still haven't finished the giant Bone collection. In fact (brace yourself), I still haven't finished Blankets. I read the first dozen pages or so, set it aside for a moment, and then never picked it up again. I need to get on that.

---

And, oh... everything.

POTPOURRI

COMICS: Reading the Bone one-volume collection is exhausting. It's 1300 pages long, and thick as a cinder block, and it weighs more than a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with ball bearings. I've been getting quite a workout just from cracking it open. And the page size is slightly smaller than a regular-sized issue, which means I have to strain my eyes more than usual. This thing's gonna take forever to read. Let me put it in perspective for you: if I read one issue per year, it will take me FIFTY-FIVE YEARS to finish this book.

Yeah. You see what I mean now.

Also, even after the many years it's been since I read the original issues, I can still pick out some of the revisions Jeff Smith has made for this collection. And I'll tell you, I don't mind the odd reworked sentence or two... but all that hardcore porn he added is really jarring. I'm not sure I would've made the same choice, were I in his shoes. Well, to each his own.

Oh, no, wait, I was reading XXXenophile. My mistake.

MOVIES: Tough decision this weekend: The Village, or Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle? Possibly both, if I pull a theater-hopping double feature tomorrow. If I have to choose: White Castle wins. I love M. Night Shyamalan's films, but this one's been getting some bad reviews, and I'm just not as much in the mood for a moody, suspenseful period piece as I am for a stoner comedy.

But the one movie I can't miss this weekend is Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. I'm not even sure how, because I thought Murdoch had gotten an injunction against this film, but it's playing at my local theater on Sunday, one show only. It's all about how Murdoch blatantly uses Fox News as a promotional tool for the Republican party, with stolen footage from Fox News illustrating exactly how they advance that right wing agenda (which is why there is/was an injunction against it). From what I hear, the documentary as a whole is fairly amateurish, but when it gets to the Fox News footage, it's stunning. I can't wait.

TV: Celebrity Poker Showdown next week features Amy Poehler. I love Amy Poehler. That is all.

COMICS: Stupid, stupid lack of a better Bone themed quote!!

I forgot to mention: I got the phone book collection of the complete Bone series, because apparently I have poor impulse control.

I've heard people talking -- mostly negatively -- about Jeff Smith's penchant of returning to his comics and altering them for the trade collections, a la George "Greedo Shoots First" Lucas. Word is Smith may even have altered his previous alterations for this new phone book (like the upcoming Special Special Edition DVD of Star Wars). Might even alter them again for the future color Scholastic collections.

I don't really know how much has been altered; it's been a long time since I read the original first few issues (if I have the originals, why did I get the phone book? Because I only have the first 20 issues or so; after that point I decided I would wait for the series to end and collect the trades -- smart move!), so I have no way of knowing off the top of my head if he just fixed some misspelled words, or tidied up some glitches in the art, or actually made wholesale changes to the story. My impression, though, is that the changes aren't very drastic, and won't affect my reading. Normally, I'm a stickler for the original version of anything, but if Smith has made the book a little better in his eyes without ruining it for the reader (I'm looking at you again, Lucas), I'm just fine and dandy with that.