Tagged: Michael Davis

A June tune to make you swoon

A June tune to make you swoon

  • News
  • June 10, 2007

Sooner or later our ComicMix columns will be on automatic front-page accessibility.  Until then, I’ll be here just about every Sunday to round ’em up for you:

And congrats to Mellifluous Mike Raub on reaching his Big ComicMix Broadcast #50 and beyond!:

Now back to my own never-ending catchup…

Game Over: The Follow-up

Game Over: The Follow-up

Last Friday, our Michael Davis opined the inherent suckiness of the Playstation 3. Reuters provides us with an amusing follow-up. They inform us that Nintendo Co.’s Wii game console outsold Sony PlayStation 3 by more than five to one in Japan last month: 251,794 units of the Wii to 46,321 of the PS3. The ratio the previous month (April) was four to one.

Sony’s game division posted an operating loss of $1.91 billion in the year that ended March 31. And you thought the PS3 was expensive!

Sony’s going to be spending a half billion dollars upgrading its censor chips – so if you just bought a PS3, you lose. The consensus in the gaming community is that said half billion would be better spent developing cool new games.

There’s no reason to count Sony out, but I’ll bet its CEO and chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, had stayed at CBS.

 

MICHAEL DAVIS: Game Over

MICHAEL DAVIS: Game Over

I have the greatest respect for the Sony company, but I have major issues with the way they handled the PS3 launch. So, to my friends at Sony: I still feel you are one of the greatest companies on the planet and it’s because of that I write this.

You should have known better…

Not so long ago in a galaxy real real close there was a giant named Nintendo. They were the undisputed champions of the video game world. They ruled the gaming world with their Mario Brothers Franchise and related games. So successful was Nintendo that the words Super Nintendo and Mario Brothers became part of the American lexicon.

So, there they sat secure in the knowledge that most of the market share for video games was theirs. One day a little guy named Sony showed up. Sony was known for televisions and stereos, not video games. So when they showed up with a new platform – the disc format – Nintendo, as they say in the hood, could give a (insert bad word).

No, Nintendo just sat idle while this “Play Station” chipped away at the big giant’s castle. Years before Sony had learned a bit about under estimating the competition. Back in the 70s they developed a video device called Betamax. It was the first affordable home video recorder. Well a year later other companies developed a VHS format and said to Sony,  “Hey Sony, share your Beta format with us and we will hook you up with our VHS format.” Sony, as they say in the hood said “You can kiss our (insert bad word here).

Well, the rest of the industry went about their business and developed VHS leaving Sony holding the video format that America did not want. So you would think they would have learned their lesson.

You would think.

Anyway, as I was saying, Nintendo was so secure in their complete dominion of the video game market that they paid no mind to the little disc driven Play Station. Nintendo could have paid a little more attention to the disc format, but no!! They figured that the entire world would stay with them. They could have met the challenge head on developing a disc system of their own, but NOOOOO the world would stay with them they were *NINTENDO!

* Note: Please feel free to add your own ominous sound track whenever you see NINTENDO!

They were the leaders were they not?  No one could catch them they were NINTENDO! They were so sure that their brand was so strong that they ignored the up start Play Station. Well it was soon evident that Play Station was the coolest thing on the planet.

And Nintendo heard what they thought they never would.

Game Over.

You would have thought that Nintendo would have quickly learned their lesson and converted to a disc system at the moment when Play Station kicked their ass.

(more…)

A memorable week

A memorable week

Hope you’re having a terrific Memorial Day weekend, at least in the US; readers from elsewhere in the world must content themselves with, we hope, lovely spring or fall weather.  Regardless, what better way to while away a lszy Sunday than with a week of ComicMix columns?:

Of course, for your listening pleasure we present Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s most recent podcasts:

Hope your memories of this weekend are happy ones!

MICHAEL DAVIS: I’m with the band… not.

MICHAEL DAVIS: I’m with the band… not.

I am a huge believer in personal choice. I think that you should be allowed to make up your mind freely on all matters. If you don’t like something you have every right to say so. If you do like something then you have the right to say that also. You don’t have to believe what I believe and vice versa.

For the most part I’m a liberal.  Well I’m a liberal except when it comes to violent crime, then I’m so conservative it hurts. Get it? Violent crime? Hurts?

No?

I firmly believe that if you commit a violent crime you should rot in jail or rot in Hell. If it were up to me, first you would rot in jail, then you would rot in Hell. But hey, that’s my belief. You can believe in rehabilitation if you want to, but let me see you hire that convicted murderer when he gets out of jail. Me? Oh hell no. Now that I think of it, I’m very conservative on many things. The reason I have not joined the conservative ranks fully is because they tend to want to tell you what to think. Usually it’s under some "moral" banner. They also throw God in the mix a lot.

Funny, as much as they bring up God, they never bring up "free will." That seems to never make the moral argument. Also, some seem to think that their God is the God. That’s OK but why can’t I believe that my God is the true God without them calling me wrong or wanting to change my mind? Failing both, some conservatives would want me to simply disappear.

I think that whatever you believe is your right and if I disagree that’s all it is, a disagreement. We don’t have to go to war as some countries do. I think that disagreeing on faith to the point of war is the single stupidest thing on the planet. I frankly don’t believe that Allah has a problem with Jehovah.

So I hope it’s clear from my too long intro that I believe people should think for themselves. So, why don’t they?

I go to this great Karaoke bar in L.A. The KJ (that’s the host) loves Elvis so someone in my Karaoke group suggested that we do an Elvis night for his birthday. The sheer venom that rocketed across the insuring emails made it look like Elvis took part in 9/11. This from a group of people I love hanging out with. These are good people. Every year I get invited to great New Years Eve Parties given by A-list celebrities. I prefer to be at this Karaoke bar because the people are just really cool.

(more…)

Our weekly haul

Our weekly haul

By the time this posts I should be nearing my comic shop (which I’m visiting for the first time in ages) to pick up the last couple weeks’ worth of comics, so why not treat y’all to the last week of ComicMix columns first?:

And crank up that MP3 player for Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s most recent podcasts:

That should keep us all pretty busy for awhile!

A mother of a week

A mother of a week

Friday the 13th done fall on a Sunday this month, so we’re off to celebrate Mom’s Day with family members.  But first, here’s our round-up of regular weekly columns, now including our weekend regulars:

Don’t forget to check out the debut column from Ric Meyers, DVD Xtra #1: The Thai’s have it, and of course our regular weekly podcasts, courtesy of Mellifluous Mike Raub:

Happy Mother’s Day, everybody!

MICHAEL DAVIS: What about me? What about my needs?

MICHAEL DAVIS: What about me? What about my needs?

I have no idea what this piece will be about. I really don’t. I’m sitting in a Chicago airport waiting to get a plane back to L.A. and my mind is a complete blank. I sent my last Straight No Chaser in last night (Wednesday) and I am determined to get a jump on my next one. The problem is I usually wait until something bugs me or interests me before I start my weekly rant. I would call this another random thought article but I have no thoughts random or otherwise.

Let’s see, lets see. Well I got another angry email. This one was about what I said about how my dogs are pets and not a member of my family. People are really passionate about their dogs, eh?

 

There is a TV show called Me or the Dog. I think it’s on Animal Planet. This show is about how dogs run the lives of people. There was a woman on one of these shows who actually said she preferred her dogs to her husband and son. She said if given a choice between her family and the dogs she would put the family out of the home before the dogs. I think she thinks she’s a dog. Well if she thinks she’s a dog then I will address this in a way she would understand.

That bitch is crazy.

Ah, I have found my rant for this week… ranting!! One of my absolute favorite TV shows is Cheaters. I love that show! Every week the show exposes someone who is cheating on his or her partner. Here’s what I don’t understand: when you find out your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, sheep etc. is cheating on you, why are you mad at the person they were cheating with? Shouldn’t you be mad at the person who cheated on you? Being mad at the other party is like being mad at the mailman for bringing you your phone bill.

Well, mark my words someday Joey (the host) is going to put that camera in the wrong person’s face and BLAM! Can you imagine what will happen if they run up against that guy or girl?

Fade in: The Cheaters crew prepares to jump out of their band. Joey turns to the client, Lewannabe.

Joey: Would you like a chance to confront Ray Ray?

Lewannabe: No, you go ahead Joey. I’m not crazy.

Joey jumps out of the van with his crew and confronts Ray Ray.

Joey: Ray Ray, I’m Joey Greco from Cheaters. Do you want to explain why you are cheating on your wife Lewannabe?

Ray Ray: I’m not.

Joey; We have you on tape.

Ray Ray: That’s not me.

Joey: Really, well let’s just look at the tape.

Ray Ray on tape: I like cheating on my wife, my name is Ray Ray.

Joey: Still say that’s not you?

Ray Ray: That’s not me; it’s my twin brother.

Ray Ray on tape: If Cheaters ever shows up I will say it’s my twin brother and not me.

Ray Ray has produced a handgun and is pointing it at Joey’s face.

Joey: You know that does not look like you at all Ray Ray. What were we thinking?

Joey: (Yelling) Lewannabe! Why did you waste our time??

(more…)

May sweeps at ComicMix

May sweeps at ComicMix

We’d like to welcome Michael A. Price to the Mix — see his Forgotten Horrors #1 below.  It’s always nice to have another contributor take the heat off an overworked news editor!  Between him and Martha (who’s occasional column now has a name, Brilliant Disguise) and Robert and Matt and Glenn, I’m starting to lose count…) Here’s our round-up of regular weekly columns:

Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s podcasts keep getting Bigger and Broader:

And don’t forget our very special premiere videocast, in which EIC Mike Gold hints at greater things to come…

Sunday go-to-reading day

Sunday go-to-reading day

  • News
  • April 29, 2007

Where has the week gone?  We’re still not recovered from the last few 9to5’s of our day job, so it’s a good thing we have Sunday to peruse all the regular ComicMix columns from this past week:

Okay, we confess, we actually read all of those already.  We even wrote one.  But listening time has been nonexistent, so today’s activity will definitely consist of getting up to speed with Mellifluous Mike Raub‘s last three podcasts:

Now that I’ve switched back to first-person singular and taken care of the review of and visuals from yesterday’s Kids’ Comic Con (see below), I’ll be awaiting the Pittsburgh news from the rest of the crew whilst I spend the rest of the day catching you up on all the items I haven’t had time to write for the past few days…

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