Tagged: Friends

Martha Thomases: Say Good Night, New York­

Here’s where my plan went wrong.

Ever since Friday, the media have been telling New Yorkers to prepare for the storm. Be sure to have candles and batteries and water.

I do.

Still, I am not prepared. I am too high maintenance to function without electricity. If this was the NBC series, Revolution, I would have died before the opening credits began.

It is not until the power goes out that I realize how much I depend upon it. My hand automatically goes to the light switch when I walk into the bathroom. I know the coffee-maker won’t work, but I don’t know that the gas stove also requires electricity to light. I have to drink my coffee cold, like a Neanderthal. Luckily, I have a friend who only likes instant coffee, so I do not have withdrawal.

There is also no cable, no Internet, no cell service. My iPad is fully charged, but I can’t watch anything on Netflix because I can’t stream.

I can’t send in my column by deadline. With no subways or buses, I can’t go to a Starbucks for the WiFi because no place is open. I can’t even buy a newspaper.

Things are happening outside. I can hear sirens. Because I am old-fashioned and have a landline, I can talk to people. Friends and family from California, Michigan, Ohio and Brooklyn, all exotic foreign lands that have power, have called to tell me what is happening across town.

It would be a quiet day except for the wind blowing over the scaffolding on the building across the street. I have been reading the pile of graphic novels on my coffee table, saving my Kindle battery for later, when there is less natural light.

Then I will hunker down in the darkness, with candles and backlighting. I will eat my cold food and drink my room-temperature water.

There are rumors of light and power uptown. I may gather my devices for recharging and walk the three or four miles necessary to ascertain if this is true. If you are reading this, then I was successful.

I will feel like Kamanda, the Last Girl in Earth.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman, “Team” Player

 

Hurricane Sandy Check-In Open Thread

Okay, if you can read this message, post in comments and let us know you’re okay. We know various ComicMix people from Maryland to Michigan to Manhattan are without power, and we want to hear from you.

Even if you’re not a regular poster here, check in so that your friends and/or fans know you’re okay. If you’re a comic store in the affected area, feel free to post and tell us how your store is holding out. (Jim Hanley, I’m looking at you.)

The Point Radio: Guiding JAMES BOND


Since the day DOCTOR NO exploded on the screen, the fates and fortunes of James Bond has been in the hands of the Brocceli Family, first with Albert “Cubby” Brocceli and now his daughter Barbara. We sat down with Barbara to talk about the rich history of Bond and how they work out each detail from tone of the story to the  Bond Girls, even before the cameras roll – plus G4 gets overhauled and Arnold is CONAN again – really?

The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

The Point Radio: Those COMIC BOOK MEN March On


AMC has given us another season of COMIC BOOK MEN, and
Kevin Smith explains how all that – and the show itself – happened, plus your YouTube favorites are coming to SyFy in a new reality series, VIRIAL VIDEO SHOWDOWN but it’s not quite your regular online videos. Plus The CW gives ARROW a vote of confidence!

The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

The Point Radio: WALKING DEAD Comics, TV and….Movies?


Robert Kirkman, the brain behind THE WALKING dead talks to us about the comics, the TV show – and if the two will ever meet. Or better yet, what about a WD movie? Plus ARGO‘s director-producer-star, Ben Affleck, explains why that film is generating so much Oscar buzz, and why Marvel is using A List talent on new B List books.


The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

REVIEW: Chernobyl Diaries

Producer Oren Peli commanded our attention with the interesting Paranormal Activity, but has since proven to be a lot less interesting to watch. His subsequent works have lacked flaw or much suspense or originality. His latest disappointment is the post-apocalyptic Chernobyl Diaries, which is a horror film using the Russian nuclear disaster as the catalyst. The film, out on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video, lets down the viewer by not being good, scary, or by having anything to say about nuclear reactors at a time when the topic is bubbling up once again as we scramble for alternative energy sources.

The basics of the story show a group of friends take an “Extreme Tour” of Prypiat, the town next door to the fabled power plant which exploded in 1986 and currently sits buried under concrete. When they somehow get stranded from the tour, you know nothing good will come of this decision. Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko), the tour guide, is the one to make the inane decision to spend the night rather than hike through the night the twelve miles to get help or find appropriate shelter. In a thankfully brief eighty-six minutes, we watch several get killed and a few lucky ones survive. Ho hum.

Peli knows how to scare us, having made his name with Paranormal Activity but he and Bradley Parker reuse all the same techniques in a new setting, recycling without any benefit to the audience. At least visually they make things look and feel bleak with Hungary and Serbia standing in for poor Prypiat.

This film was shot on the cheap, reportedly $1 million, which may explain the lack of adequate script or solid cast to convince us something bad is really going on. The quartet of kids is led by singer Jesse McCartney and Norwegian actress Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, neither of whom are bad enough to deserve Razzies, just bland. They run, they hide, they get hunted by who-knows-what, which miraculously transforms into I-don’t-care long before the fifty minute mark.

Before he is allowed to shot another movie, Peli needs to convince us he has something to say or something to show us. Right now, we’ve seen it all and have little need to come back for more.

The movie looks and sounds fine on the transfer. The Combo Pack offers us the Blu-ray, DVD, and Ultraviolet along with a few extras including Uri’s Extreme Tours Infomercial (1:19); Chernobyl Conspiracy Viral Video (2:25); a single deleted scene and an alternate ending that doesn’t help.

A Current look at New York Comic-Con…

New York Comic Con logoAs we finally get back to speed here, let us take one more quick look at this year’s New York Comic-Con, from friends of ComicMix John Fugelsang, Phil LaMarr, and TV’s Frank Conniff from Mystery Science Theater 3000, via Current TV‘s new show, “So That Happened”, airing Fridays at 6E/3P and again at 9E/6P.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6N_nVkPP98[/youtube]

The Point Radio: Matthew Perry Beats The FRIENDS Curse

After two previous attempts, Matthew Perry has broken the alleged “FRIENDS Curse” and struck comedy gold again with NBC’s GO ON. Matthew shares the secret of mixing comedy and drama and making it all work. Plus Andrew Lincoln and Chandler Riggs tells us how the cast of WALKING DEAD reacts when one of their fellow stars meets their fate.

The Point Radio  – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Win a Copy of The League Season 3

While we’re almost halfway through the current football season, hard to believe, fans who cannot get enough of the sport should know that season three of The League is now out on home video.

We have two Blu-ray copies to give away courtesy of 20th Century Home Entertainment. The semi-improvised hit comedy is about a fantasy football league, its members, and their everyday lives.

To be a fan of The League, you don’t need to know much about fantasy football, or sports at all. You just need to have friends that you hate. The ensemble comedy follows a group of old friends in a fantasy football league who care deeply about one another – so deeply that they use every opportunity to make each other’s lives miserable.

Taco lost the Shiva Bowl in season three so what advice would you give him for the current season? The two best answers received by 11:59 p.m., Sunday, October 21 will be winners. The judgment of ComicMix will be final and the contest is open to readers only in the United States and Canada.

The box set includes the following Special Features:

●   The Lockout – Extended Episode

●   The Sukkah – Extended Episode

●   The Au Pair – Extended Episode

●   Ol’ Smoke Crotch – Extended Episode

●   Bobbum Man – Extended Episode

●   Deleted Scenes

●   Camenjello – Extended Episode

●   Thanksgiving – Extended Episode

●   The Out of Towner – Extended Episode

●   St. Pete – Extended Episode

●   The Funeral – Extended Episode

●   Alt Nation

●   Taco Tones

●   Gag Reel

 

GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART TO CELEBRATE ILLUSTRATOR JACK DAVIS WITH FALL EXHIBITION

The Georgia Museum of Art is planning an exhibit of famed illustrator for MAD Magazine, comic books, movie posters, record album covers, and more, Atlanta native, and University of Georgia alum, Jack Davis to run from November 3, 2012 until January 6, 2013 in Athens, Georgia.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Michael Lachowski, 706-542-9078, mlachow@uga.edu

Georgia Museum of Art to celebrate illustrator Jack Davis with fall exhibition
Athens, Ga.—The Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) at the University of Georgia will present the exhibition “Beyond the Bulldog: Jack Davis” from Nov. 3, 2012, to Jan. 6, 2013. Organized by guest curator Patrick Dean, a cartoonist himself, who sits on the board of the Jack Davis Foundation, the exhibition goes deeper into Davis’ career than the sports and caricature work for which he is best known, focusing on his black-and-white drawings in particular. This exhibition is also part of UGA’s Spotlight on the Arts festival, to be held Nov. 3–11.

Perhaps best known in Georgia for his depictions of Southeastern Conference mascots tussling, Jack Burton Davis Jr. (b. 1924) has had a lengthy career in illustration and cartooning, with an immediately recognizable style and an influence that extends far beyond his home state. Having published his first cartoon at the age of 12, Davis studied with the artist Lamar Dodd in the University of Georgia’s art school, which he attended on the G.I. Bill, and honed his skills drawing for the Red and Black (the student newspaper) and Bullsheet, an Athens humor publication. After graduating, he moved to New York, where he attended the Art Students League before landing work with William Gaines at EC Comics.

Famed in particular for his speed and a tendency to create images overflowing with colorful characters, he was one of the founding artists of Mad magazine, supplied covers for Time and TV Guide and designed album art and movie posters aplenty. Davis created his first art for UGA’s athletics program in 1948, when he drew Coach Wally Butts for the front and back of that year’s media guide, and the relationship has lasted ever since.

Dean said, “Davis’ prolific career goes further back than most people realize. Some of this exhibition displays his work from EC Comics, including two complete comic stories for museum visitors to read. These pages show his skill as a sequential artist, with an emphasis on people’s pained and terrified faces and hand gestures. Still, even in these comics, his familiar style hints at his trademark humor and warmth. There’s also something particularly southern in his work of all eras, like his running figures with clumps of red clay stuck to their feet.”

This exhibition attempts to show Davis’ range by bringing together a selection of his original work that demonstrates his breadth of subjects and his skills as an artist focusing on American popular culture.

Dean continued, “The point of the show isn’t to shun his more popular sports drawing, but to bring attention to his work that may not be as well known to the general public. Visitors may recognize some of these images, but I hope they appreciate the level of detail Davis put into his work. Some of that detail gets lost when the images are shrunk down and printed on paper stock of varying quality. Studying Jack Davis’ crosshatching and brushwork will be a real treat to anyone who’s admired this man’s work.”

Dean will speak on Davis’ career Sunday, Nov. 4, at 3 p.m. at the museum, with a reception to follow.

This exhibition is sponsored by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.

For high-resolution images, reply to this email or contact Michael Lachowski at 706.542.9078 or mlachow@uga.edu.

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About the Georgia Museum of Art
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. 30602-6719. For more information, including hours, see www.georgiamuseum.org or call 706.542.GMOA (4662).
Mailing address:
Georgia Museum of Art
90 Carlton Street
Athens, GA 30602
706.542.GMOA (4662)
www.georgiamuseum.org

Copyright (C) 2012 Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia All rights reserved.