Haiku Wednesday

Haiku Entry - Commute

Accidents, weather
All norm for the daily grind
Vacation is bliss

Off The Wall Comics

I've been reading comics now for about 20 - 25 years and well I guess I've been a bit jaded lately. Kind of tired of the same old same. Looking for something out on a limb, something that catches my eye. Always a visual kind of reader, I've been attracted to both the story and the art. Problem with too many books today is that the artist and writer just don't connect. Comics is a visual whiteboard and I believe the essence of the medium. Anyway these three books have captured my eye (interesting that these three all come from Image, a company that practically destroyed the comic world because it took the art form to an extreme believing ((well us readers did clamor for it..)) that art was the form and writing was just a sidebar (((Youngbloods, WildCATS, Cyberforce, Spawn))). Looking back it was kind of a natural evolution...Marvel road the wave of great art (Lee, Silvestri, McFarland, and Liefield) but I think we forget that these artist also had great writer's and great characters (X-men, Spider-Man, and New Mutants ((errr not really))). So anyway these books are interesting...

Killing Girl
The art is catchy. The story has potential. Only one issue into this but love the vibrant colors...and a story that makes me want to read issue 2. Really that is all you can expect from a first issue. Too early to say if the story can carry it but it at least gets you off the shelf and into someones hands.

Repo

Kind of a hard boiled, in your face book. Caught this one at issue 3 so need to get the complete read. Art almost falls into the Aeon Flux category. This title sums up the book with an "edge" Good characters (kind of tarantino like, along with the dialogue) and well any character that has F*&k Y*u tattooed on her belly obviously means business.

Casanova

The most developed book of them all. This one has 8 issues in the bag. The artist get noticed in the entertainment weekly "it" issue so I tracked him down (artist is also working on the Umbrella Academy which I have mentioned in previous posts). I have the first 8 issues hard back collection and have been reading it. The first issue is great. Again great back story and good art. The art isn't that over the top superhero style rather it is underdeveloped, a bit rough that adds to the storytelling experience.

Colorado Rockies - Week 21

A 4-3 week against the Pirates and Nationals. Not a pretty homestand and if it wasn't that come from behind win against the Nationals on Friday night who knows what would've happened to our Roxs. They sort of salvaged the homestand but certainly didn't make up the ground they could have. Again against the dregs of the league, TB, KC, WSH, PIT, HOU, and FL, the Roxs are 16-14. When the Roxs look back at what could have been they will see this and shake their heads. The Roxs are tied for 3rd place (6.5 behind) and 3.5 behind in the wild card chase. The Roxs currently stand at 67 - 63. Currently 39-26 at home and 28-37 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 662-621 (expected wins is 69 versus historical wins at 60). On pace for 83 wins. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey)

This week's WPA leaders:

Jimenez has really settled into his own. Granted this is his is first pass through the teams but he's got something. Morales came back to earth, Fuentes is still trying to find it, Tulo and Matsui both had good weeks, and gramps, helton, continues to show the team some leadership. Can we get October baseball for him?

Yearly WPA list:

Game 128 - Colorado Rockies

Game 128

What to say about the Roxs vs the Nats on a Friday night that just happened to be 80's night? Well if the offensive was any indication through 8 innings then I'm glad we weren't playing during the 80s! A listless game...the Roxs had runners on 3rd twice with 1 out or less and failed to get the run home. The Nats meanwhile built a 5 - 1 lead going into the 9th with their ace closer Cordero coming in. Up to this point the Roxs had just gone 1-3 against the pitiful Pirates and as any hope of a wild card was slowly slipping away the Roxs found life. First pitch, Tulo gets on...second pitch Holliday hits a homerun to the bullpen, 5 -3 hmmm things get interesting. Helton then singles, Atkins doubles, and Hawpe walks. Bases loaded, no outs. Torrealba knocks a single, two runs score the game is tied! A sac bunt gets runners to 2nd and 3rd. A pinch hitter gets the 2nd out. My man Matsui steps to the place, runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 outs, tied game. Can we eck out one more run? A sharp liner to right of the 2B, Matsui is flying, a bobble with the ball, Matsui safe, runner scores, Rockies WIN....yeah! I think it saved our playoff hopes!

Good win...

This Week In Comics

Batman 668
Wow a real detective story? Morrison continues his strong stories. This one again centers on all the "cheap" imitations of the real "Batman". A welcome reprieve from the Gotham villains, which Morrison really hasn't exploited. Missed the art normal art team. Not a big fan of J.H. Williams' art. Interesting page layouts but poor follow through as the advertising really interrupted the flow. Interesting to see what happens.

Astonishing X-men 22
Once again Whedon shows that he is the best X-writer in the last 15 years. Amazing storyline, captures the imagination, strong characters, and unbelievable cliffhangers. Whedon has a thing for really beating down my favorite character. This one really leaves Cyke floating into oblivion. First he loses his optic blast, now he is floating into space, but at least he is still the leader, always the leader. Some great lines in this one, Beast's line about, "You know, I thought I'd have a lot more fun if I ever got to say this...that's no moon." and Wolverine's "Good Luck, Summers". That last one is the essence between Wolverine and Cyke. The dueling egos, the constant professionals, the love of the same woman, the constant sparing between two great heroes but in the end the endless respect that both have for each other. Good stuff...good book...not happy about only 2 issues left :-(

Captain America 29
Big week two incredible storylines. Brubaker is doing a tremendous job telling a complex tale and keeping it interesting. I really need to get his first 24 issues! Anyway Winter Soldier plays his card but gets trumped (for now), Stark is realizing that SHIELD is a giant mess and a sinking ship, and hey we even get Natasha doing her best imitation of Spidey. Kind of a linking issue...no real eye openers...but another piece of the puzzle to ponder over.





Ultimate Spider-Man 112
New artist! A welcome site...I was getting tired of Bagley's art...not that it wasn't a heck of a run but it was getting dated. Immonen adds some life to the characters. A new perspective, a new starting point. The story seems a bit fresher...some of the previous series were getting a bit drawn out. Anyway not much to report, a lead off story laying the foundation of the spidey and the goblin.






X-men 202
Reading all the x-books for the endangered species back story makes me realize there are too many mutants running around. When you read Astonishing X-men you get the point...there are 6 tight characters with a good team dynamic. Some of these other books just have too many mutants running around. No dynamic just we have these important characters that should be in a book but their not so let's throw them in. This issue has the new x-men in it which just makes it all the more busy. Aren't they busy with Magik? Ughhhh. At least we have Mr Sinister...he is always a good baddie.



New X-men 41
Well the quest for Magik is completed...yet no Magik at least not one that isn't still in Limbo. Of course what the x-teams don't need is another character but it was a nice diversion to see an old school mutant. This issue we got a surprise panel of spidey and Dr Strange. How about that? And a nice appearance of the astonishing group even though they are light years away in space...can't we sort of have some continuity. How about some book cancellations and get the core X groups together. Really two x-teams and a new mutant type book is all you need. Readers do appreciate some continuity (even though we now that Wolverine has a personal time dilation device which allows him to be in all the books simultaneously! Ha). Anyway the quest for Magik story was a bit disappointed. For 4-5 books all we did was establish that Magik is around and now she is in charge of limbo. No real character developments...pretty weak.

Wednesday Haiku

Haiku Entry - Work

Monday to Friday
Traffic, email, deadlines, yuck!
Got lottery picks?

Skyscrapers

Things that make you go hmmmm...like the new Burj Dubai. A mammouth new skyscraper being build in the desert. Rising to an unknown heigt it is spectulated that it will reach 800 meters! Talking about raising the bar, see the graph below on height through the years. Now that is some ego being built in the desert!

Colorado Rockies - Week 20

A 2-4 week against the Padres and Dodgers (always a tough road trip). Could've, should've, would've type week. Could have been easily 4-2 during the trip. The Roxs just can't put things away. Not to mention a tough week on the mound for starting pitching. With Cook missing a start, the Roxs had to call up another prospect in Frankie Morales. Guess it is good these guys are getting a shot especially during a wild card chase. I realize I said wild card chase but frankly with Arizona playing the way it is, I don't think the Roxs are going to catch them especially being 7 games out with 39 to play...of course we get them 6 more times so nothing is totally out. Tough week overall, be good to get home and have the Pirates for 4 and the Nats for 3. If we don't have a 6-1 week, then forget about it as of now we are 3.0 games out of the wild card race. The Roxs currently stand at 63 - 60. Currently 35-23 at home and 28-37 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 627-588 (expected wins is 65 versus historical wins at 57). On pace for 83 wins. Roxs graphical wins (home in Purple, away in grey) Hardball Times had a nice article on the NL West, kind of a review of what they predicted. The Roxs are at least doing a little bit better...the consensus had them finishing last in the division. The prediction markets still indicate the Roxs have no chance. Even with their recent play and at one time only being 3.5 out and there is still no national love for the Roxs...oh well!

For the week lots of titanic collapses from pitchers this week especially Affeldt. If teams win and lose by their play up the middle then this week was pitiful. Torby, Tulo, Matsui, and Sullivan all were in the negative. Jimenez and Morales both had good weeks. Stewart has also played steadily. Seems we have a bit of a log jam with offense these days (and too many try out roles for pitchers, Elmer Dessens??? eeks!)

Weekly WPA Leaders:

Clive Cussler - Trojan Odyssey

The 17th Dirk Pitt novel and I'm caught up...why caught up you ask...well last summer on vacation I read the 18th novel and suddenly Dirk had two kids and he was head of NUMA and yada yada yada. I had not read a Dirk Pitt book since Sahara so I had no ideal what was going on. In an effort to change that I went back and started reading the ones I missed so I could catch up. Well 16th novel introduces his long lost kids from way back in his first novel. The kids much like Clive's son seems to be taking over for the intrepid Dirk senior. With this one both Al and Dirk appear to be disappearing into the admin of NUMA and Dirk Jr and Summer start to take over. Especially surprising was Dirk's decision to finally get married! My question is when does Dirk finally bite it? My guess is he'll go done to save his kids and that will be Clive's final book. Or he'll sail off to sea never to be heard from again. Anyway as is the usual formula, Clive gives us a little history lesson. This one actually is pretty interesting. Based on a book, Where Troy Once Stood by Iman Wilkens, it lays out a theory that Troy was actually in England and that the Battle of Troy was fought over tin between warring Celtic tribes. Looking into it a bit further it seems plausible but I guess Greek historians aren't ready to take the leap on this one. Not for sure why...this could be a "In Search Of..." (bring back Nimoy, bring back the show!). Anyway this book is an above average Pitt adventure as well as Black Wind. Perhaps his son's influence is allowing for some better story telling as some of the teen books were a bit dry. Don't forget Uffington White Horse

Ohio

In the great state of Ohio for work. Always interesting to see another part of the country. It is interesting to pick up on the little things that make the region a bit different from home. Couple of things I've noticed...people are overweight and they smoke alot. When I mean alot it means almost like chain smoking. You just don't see that in Colorado. Other things of note: On Friday I was trying to find the Dan Patrick show on ESPN on AM. Go figure the ESPN station had Jim Rome on during the time spot (how is that if you are an ESPN station and you switch?...girrrr). Anyway in my effort to find anything resembling Dan I did come across like 9 Rush stations. Good golly I know Ohio is an important battleground state on all but do you really need 9 Rush stations? Frightening what 20 electoral college votes can do to a state.

Went into Cleveland today and went to the Rock and Roll Museum. Decent exhibits although not terribly well laid out. I prefer the EMP in Seattle. Interesting things of note is that famous people are alot smaller then what you think. They had U2 outfits and Bono is kind of tiny. Decent Doors exhibit. Hard to believe the Doors were only together from '67 to '71. Oh and by the way if Cleveland is the birthplace of rock and roll where are all the good radio stations? Ughhh, I've been driving around not listening to anything because the music is awful. Lake Erie is a big lake. Cleveland isn't a very exciting downtown. Drove around not much to see. Saw the Jake and the Q. LeBron has a huge Nike billboard in town saying, "We are all witnesses". Witness to what? Bad basketball? Missed seeing the Indians...oh well. Also if I'm from a town I probably don't want to live in a town when during traffic reports they talk about the "dead man's curve!"

Did find a nice running spot in the Cuyahuga Falls National Park. They have a 30 mile trail following the old Ohio and Erie canal from Akron to Cleveland. Ran in the rain today and it was a downpour. Of course driving back to the hotel it stopped! Only five more days and back to Colorado...the more you travel the more you like being at home!