Author: Mr. McLaren

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

One of my favourite possessions is my Tilley. Yes, I know that most people who wear them are at least a generation older than I am. Yes, I know they’re hardly fashionable. I could care less–I am quite fond of my khaki/olive T5. Here’s the thing: it fits–no small thing for a man who was laughed out of a hat… Read more →

Aside

So, for reasons perhaps best described as “masochistic”, I’m watching a DVD of The Spirit right now. I kind of knew it was going to be bad, but this… this is a whole other thing.

Considering this as an attempt to adapt Eisner’s work, and speaking as someone who owns & has read the entire Eisner Spirit oeuvre (in the DC Archives editions) this is an abomination upon the face of the Earth.

Considering this as just an action movie, and not thinking about it as an adaptation of anything, it’s still a terrible, terrible movie. (And I liked Sin City, except for Clive’s voice overs).

The phrase “directorially self-indulgent” pops to mind.

Lots of cute women, though.

Wednesday Night Rips

You know what happens to me all the damn time? I realize I need to listen to a specific song right now, and then I realize that I haven’t actually ripped that CD yet. (I’ve got a lot of CDs, and I’ve only ripped around a thousand of them.) I could, theoretically, go find the CD and actually, you know,… Read more →

What did Suzie get up to?

While working well into the night this weekend, I was listening to a lot of blues. In particular, to the blues of Mississippi John Hurt from the OKEH period (not the stuff from his second career in the Sixties). And while listening to some of his tracks, one in particular popped out at me: Ain’t Nobody’s Dirty Business. Mississippi John… Read more →

I Kind Of Don’t Believe That Worked

So, Dell guy (actually Unisys guy) did show up with the new hard drive today. He basically took one look at me and said “Here, I think you can put this in without me” and left. Admittedly, I could do it–it’s a Lego operation; my Mom could do it–but I thought it was kind of funny. And then, miracle of… Read more →

Dylan Moran

You have seen Black Books, right? That’s a pretty hilarious show–I think it recently overtook Chef! in my mental ranking of funniest British shows. The thing I always find myself thinking when I see Moran perform is that the character he plays–who may or may not be himself to some extent–is That Guy. You know the one–every guy has at… Read more →

Thursday evening notes

Watching Maine becoming #5 this week, it occurs to me that while the process may be terribly slow from the perspective of people who just want to be treated equally (and I know I can only say that off-handedly since I already have all the privileges–white, male, straight, etc.) the whole thing is pretty much inevitable at this point. Even… Read more →

Goldstein interview and story

I’ve been a Lisa Goldstein fan since the first time I read The Dream Years. I have all her novels, including the ones she’s written under a pseudonym. Hell, in a strage bit of synchronicity my desktop wallpaper is Eric Fortune‘s artThis was a Tor.com bonus, so I’m not comfortable hosting a copy myself–but if you know how to use… Read more →

Software Thinking

Most mornings I try to check out the interesting new links on the particular categories of Reddit that interest me. For the most part, I don’t bother with the comments–they are generally noise, not signal. However, the best computery thing I read last week, and possibly for a significantly longer window, showed up in one of those comment threads. And… Read more →

Punks and Parker

For some reason, reading that story about the 84 year old grandpa laying out the punks who tried to rob him makes me think of this panel from Darwyn Cooke‘s version of The Spirit: Speaking of Darwyn, his first adaptation of Richard Stark‘sa.k.a. the recently deceased Donald E. Westlake Parker stories is coming out soon. I was already pretty jazzed… Read more →

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Chris McLaren is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.