I find that if the comic or the music is particularly good (or just fits for whatever reason) I start associating the two in my head. For example, when I was reading the Metabaron series I was listening to a lot of Daft Punk and I think they work well together. Now everytime I hear Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, it makes me think of the Metabaron. It's even tied into Kanye's version.  

For now, this is just a general talk about music. If you couldn't tell, I listen to a lot. Rap, metal, rock, country, classical, etc. The list goes on. I think what I enjoy most about music is the memories or emotion it can invoke. A lot of the stuff I listen to has to do with what I'm feeling at the time. Sometimes I just enjoy the raw aggression, or I feel like mellowing out. Sometimes it's the lyrics that hook on to my feelings, saying what I can't to the people I want to say them to. Music is life. Music is a friend. It's never let me down, never sold me on false promises... I can just listen and enjoy.  

Songs are a rage with youngsters and middle age people alike. They form one of the main sources of entertainment for a large part of the population. In fact it would not be an exaggeration to say that watching the songs have been imbibe din our culture for a long time now. A lot of people prefer watching the  song videos in their spare time. In fact, there are many sources that let one watch their 2010 favorite songs online apart from the various popular songs from yesteryears.

The craze can be traced back to the whole ritual like practice of the whole family watching their favorite songs on TV when Door Darshan was the only source for audio visual entertainment. Families used to sit together to watch Chitrahar every Friday evening and Rangoli every Sunday morning. They were an important part of the whole entertainment based practices followed by families everywhere. With the change in time and emergence of the satellite television channels, the programs grew in number and so did the craze.

Now with the emergence of websites that offer video base content, the viewers have the liberty of watching the song videos anytime they want to.  The whole process is so easy that even kids are doing it these days. One simply has to find a good website that offers good video based content for the gratification of the viewers. One just has to run a simple search using keywords like ‘2010 favorite songs online' and their will be a number of results produced by the search engine. One just has to go through the different results and choose the website that offers the best collection. There are many options so one can never fall short of choices.

Also one very important thing that makes the whole practice of watching the song videos online so popular is the fact that they can be paused and played whenever one wants to. Other than that one can easily rewind the whole video and watch their favorite bits again without any hitch. The whole point behind watching the ‘2010 favorite songs online or other song videos is plain and simple, one not only gets to entertain himself or herself by listening to the songs but he or she also gets to enjoy the splendid visuals created by the exciting choreography in the videos.  

So here's the top 100+ songs of my generation. Oh wait, I almost forgot, I have to tell you something too. A short time ago I thought Comic Vine and Giant Bomb was just not for me. I was Wrong. I realized that I'm just Too Legit To Quit. Every time you come in my sanctuary, you will hear my praise..... 

First off, I would like to thank you for reading. I makes the time I spent venting not totally wasted.  
 
Now, I am not the first person to write about this and I doubt I will be the last, but many of you have seen the thread "A Good Cop" in the The PS section. It's been around for a few days and it was made by a new guy who was trying to stir interest for future SPs. The character looked good and everything was going well, until as a joke (and I can't possibly stress this point enough) someone posted a picture of a black person (Jim Wilson, a character from the Incredible Hulk) with the caption "I hate cops". I don't know the whole story, but apparently someone took offense to this and one of the administrators locked the thread down.  
 
This seems really unfair not only to the person who made the thread to get his character out in the public eye, but also for the person who posted the picture to begin with! It would be a bit different if this was a guy who goes out of his way to stir up trouble, but it wasn't. the RPGer who posted the picture is a great guy who I have never once seen causing any sort of trouble. Now, I don't know whether it was a random Gamer who saw the picture and took offense at it or if the Admin. who locked the thread was going for a pre-emptive strike, and I don't really care. It was absolutely ridiculous of them to take it as a racial remark. Don't get me wrong, I am all for sensitivity to issues like this, but not over-sensitivity. There was no ill-will meant to anyone in anyway whatsoever. A lot of the things most people say in everyday life can be misconstrewed as racist or sexist or intolerant in some way.  
  
If we take offense at every single one of these instances then we as a people will find ourselves in perpetual conflict. There will be no rest and no peace all because someone didn't want to be thrown into a negative stereotype. The truth is by acting that way they will find themselves in a different, but no less negative stereotype. Everyone on Earth is a cliche in some way, it's your job to choose what kind you want to be.

I realize I'll probably get banned for speaking out like this, but I don't care. People need hear about these things and they need to start thinking about what these things. If you stop hearing from me it means someone saw this and took some sort of offense to it, which would only further prove my point that people are being over-sensitive. If you do hear from me again it means that either no one saw this, or I've actually managed to get through to some people.    

I'll periodically post things here. I'm Writing this because it seems to be all I have left for now. 
 
The choice between sleep and being awake is treacherous

My mistakes play over and over again in my head

Tangible, letting me feel my torment all over again

Inside a fire burns

Nearly extinguished as I wake

It’s replaced ice as I cut myself off from what I feel

I’m reminded that I’m supposed to be learning about myself

I’m reminded that I’m supposed to be embracing my feelings

The ice begins to thaw

A flood of emotions

Anger

Regret

Punctuated by joy, to cleanse my mental palate

I see all the beauty in the world

I miss the moments when I had it

The wolves smell blood

They circle

I drive them off with the fire

Burn myself out

Return to regret

Regret slips in to anxiety

Anxiety slips in to sadness

I listen to music thinking it will make me feel better

This time, Joshua Radin

The sounds of the Sesame Street theme

Doesn’t help

Reminds me that I used to be happy

That I used to have love in my life

I’m blind to what I still have

I push it all away

I log on

See her

Reminded again of loss

I walk outside, and leave my coffee on the table

No caramel machiatto can sooth me today

I cry on the curb for a few minutes

Call from my sister

I pick it up and she hears me sobbing as I ask if I can call her back

She says okay, and texts instead

So much love

I miss my tiny dancer, and Heidi, and even her boyfriend who I don’t know all that well

Reminded that someone loves me

I walk back inside

I want to go to Sesame Street

They all seem so happy

Puppet bastards

Feel bad about hating puppets

Apologize to Elmo in my head profusely

Starbucks closes

I ride back to work for a few hours

The regulars cheer me up

Tony, the British one reminds me of my older sisters ex-husband

I liked him, nice fellow, wish things could have worked out

Reminded of my own failed relationships

I cry a bit more

Three A.M. now

Tired

I put on my gloves, spend a few minutes letting the bike warm up, and let the cold air on the ride home numb me a bit

Contemplate whether I should go to bed

Finally end up doing, thinking I’ll feel better

Repeat

Just writing down some ideas I had for some characters not from DC that could be cool with Rings. Since most of the Corps can do pretty much the same thing, these characters focus more on what they’d create or how they’d fit into the Corps War. Since Earth already has so many Lanterns, imagine these guys are all from another planet and though they look human, they’re really not. All histories are intact except for when they’re not.

Sinestro Corps

Bullseye – He's very basic, but for some reason I really like this guy. Bullseye is a SC member that creates projectiles to throw with his ring. It's impossible to tell if he is really accurate or just aims the yellow projectiles with his ring. He’s also capable of hitting targets from planets away. (That last thing comes from that snail guy of the SC who already got killed because I think it fits.)

Midnighter – The first of the two Authority members to get a ring. Midnighter used to be a friend of Jack Hawksmoor but always thought Jack was too forgiving in his methods. When Midnighter was offered a ring he jumped on the chance and saw it as an easy way to strike fear in the hearts of anyone who disagreed with him. He is naturally gifted with the two abilities; to know his opponent's moves before they make them, and to know what will cause them the most pain, both physically and emotionally/mentally. The first lets him know exactly how to beat almost anyone he fights (especially with a ring to create the perfect weapon for the situation), and the second makes him incredibly skilled at inducing fear, which only makes him more powerful.

GL Corps

Multiple Man - He's not a mutant, just a man who uses his ring to create copies of himself. For some reason he’s incapable of making anything else with his ring, but he makes up for it by being a one man army. His copies are so realistic that they all have their own personalities and are capable of individual thought and action (even manifesting their own weapons, something the original can’t do). The Guardians recognize his potential and have allowed him to patrol his sector without a partner, figuring that his duplicates more than make up for it.

Jack Hawksmoor - An alien with amazing acrobatic abilities, Jack Hawksmoor used to be part of a team with the Midnighter. Now that he has a Ring of his own, Hawksmoor has made it his life’s goal to stop his old friend. He uses his ring to create entire environments to act as his weapons instead of individual objects like most GLs. He has an unexplainable fixation on cities, so he makes these most.

Bruce Banner – Similar to my Bruce-as-Jedi idea, a Zen Bruce (meaning all the strength of the Hulk, but calm and in his human form) with a Ring. Though he’s in control, the willpower that fuels his ring is from the Hulk. For this reason his constructs are all either enormous or resemble the Hulk himself. If he loses control and Hulks out he stops using the ring and relies on his own strength (sorta like that rock guy).

Grunge – I’d like to see Grunge get the ring. I haven’t worked it out yet, but his personality would make him entertaining. His powers might end up turning him into a GL ring.

Majestic – C’mon, he’s my favorite, I had to include him. Just have to find something for him. 

Note: Old Blog Post deleted. So don't confuse yourself with this and the comments. 
 

Tony Stark is a drunken bastard. It was bad enough that as Iron Man he has a suit of armor or a device that could take on virtually anyone. He can operate any number of his suits remotely giving him the power of all Iron Men he has ever been at once, all without any physical danger to himself. He modified extremis so that he is not only more Iron Man than ever (which is bad enough), but this "virus" has given him the ability to tap into any electrical device in the world remotely to do his bidding. He pretty much single handadly sparked the Civil War, resulting in the deaths of Goliath and Captain America.  

Add to that the fact that he took over S.H.I.E.L.D. making him the head of one of the most powerful covert orginizations in the world (not to mention the tech, money, and connections at their disposal) and this position has put him directly in charge of the 50 state initiative as well as the registration of superheroes meaning that he alone commands a strike force of superhumans that is probably one of the most powerful in the entire Marvel Universe.  

He was one of the few who decided that it was their job to fling he-whose-name-shall-not-be-spoken into space, ending with the green one getting royally pissed off and bringing a war to the Earth that is rumored to be at least House of M or Civil War in scope. He then demonstrates further disregard for the super-beings in his command by infecting She-Hulk with nannites that remove her powers (whose next?). He has developed technology powerful enough to upload his consciousness into the computer in his armor meaning that even in the event of death he can go on living indefinately (a sequence of events that has actually occured in at least one possible timeline). 

He has spent his entire career being an alocholic womanizer pioleting one of the most powerful pieces of tech in the world (often under the influence) with a complete disregard for the general public and now that he is sober(ish) he has decided to take it upon himself to become a general holier-than-thou prick and has become overpowered enough to rank as one of the worst Dues ex machina characters ever to be introduced into comics.  

 Have I missed anything? I think I've covered most of my bases here. Marvel is making it so that there is nothing Tony Stark cannot do or be. Sure he is currently host to Ultron in one of Marvel's magazines, but we all know that it won't last. Tony Stark needs to die. We all know that it will never happen, so here is my idea for what should. Tony Stark needs to be knocked down a few pegs. So, my idea:

Ultron is currently using extremis + Iron Man armor to take over Tony Stark's body (I'm hoping it is actually him and not some automated suit of his). Naturally the Avengers are going to find some way to make Ultron leave Stark's tech. From there things can slide into place simply and wonderfuly. Ultron (upon leaving the armor or by the simple act of being there in the first place) taints extremis.  

It is a techno-organic virus after all, is it not? Now it will take a while for us to realize that anything is going wrong at first because extremis continues to allow Stark to act as the god of the machine while it slowly consumes his body. By the time that Stark realizes that the extremis is cancerous it is too late as his body is already being consumed by living machenery. Now force him to live perpetually in his suit of armor (a contingency that even Stark has planned for) as a software/techno organic hardware hybrid. He is no longer a man, but is now a shell of his man.  

Death is not good enought for Stark now, they must take the humanity away from the Cap-killer. Getting him expelled from S.H.I.E.L.D. and a triumphant return of Nick Fury could be a cool coincidence as well, but otherwise the plan feels solid. And since it is a comic book they can even give some clean reason to undo it in the future (clone him a new body and upload his consciousness into it, set it up where he has a cloned body stashed away with an older consciousness sitting on ice, etc).

By now those of us who care have heard the news, there will be a new Batgirl? But most if not all the focus has been centered on, "Who she'll be," not, "Where's Cass and why is she no longer Batgirl?" So my question is this, what are some possible reasons for the shake up? Is Cassandra Cain to be killed off yet again?

Note: Old Blog Post deleted, so don't get confused with the comments from the old blog post before. 

On Friday and Saturday my school hosted a comics conference like they've been doing for the last six years. This year's conference was called "ImageSext: Intersections of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality".

I wake up at like midday so I missed the first half of both days but I did get to hear some interesting things. (I took no notes so I really have no specifics for you. Sorry.) My favorite speakers were Phoebe Gloeckner (pronounced "Glek-ner" if you ever meet her, everyone gets it wrong) and Gail Simone.

Phoebe was crazy (not joking, the word “crazy” doesn’t even accurately cover it, but I’m not being mean, I loved her) and talked about her current project which is a book she’s doing about girls who were raped and killed in Mexico. There were other things, personal stuff like her nephew Guy, her previous work, her recent experiments with dolls (she’s known for her drawn art but she’s doing some new stuff with dolls she’s made herself, it’s some really good stuff, you’ve got to see it, my words don’t do it justice), a family she met while doing her work, sex, lots of sex, her cat, and whatever else she could think of. It was great to just sit and listen to her. Can’t really tell you anything specific (even if I had taken notes, her presentation was too random for me to nail anything down), just to check out some of her work.

Gail talked about a lot of stuff I liked but one thing that kind of went through most of what she said was her desire to see variation in comics. Variation in character types (dark and gritty is done to death, so are blade bearing killer women; happy characters are good too), sexuality (gay, straight, transwhatever, all or none of the above are all good), body type, race, ethnicity, personalities, experiences, motivations, outlooks, etc. She says the industry needs to embrace all kinds of readers and show that straight white males aren’t the only superheroes.

Something she said that I really didn’t expect (especially from this conference) was that the problem with how females are portrayed in comics isn’t necessarily super heroines in skimpy costumes, it’s super heroines who never get past the skimpy costume and show that there’s an actual character there. If the character “owns” the fact that she dresses how she does, is such solid character that she can wear it without it detracting from who she is, or there’s a meaning or reason for it, then it’s good. That kind of got into female character’s having their own “voice” just as much as males do (you never confuse Superman with Batman, but sometimes female characters seem like they could be switched without anything changing) and some other topics, but that’s what stuck out most. I’ve been reading Wonder Woman, Gen 13 and Welcome to Tranquility, I think I’m going to see about reading Birds of Prey and look for the things she was talking about in it.

I was born in the horrible year of the 1990's. Why so bad? Because Midnight Oil released an album that year, god do I ever hate them. 
 
(Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast also released, which evens it out) Regardless, when comics whored themselves ever so badly to teens and tweens. Not only with books, but with boardgames, toys, and horrible trading cards (take that Marvel!). Comic book characters were plastered everywhere at the time, yet there was this stigma attached to not only comics, but those who read them. The perfect example is Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons". This is what the American public thought all comic book readers, and especially those who work at the stores, were like. Overweight, snobbish, elitists who would smite you down the second they found any minor flaw within your argument. And this is what they all thought of us, and they treated us as thus, until now.

Thanks to wonders that is Heroes, the stigma of the comic book dork has lessened if not faded away entirely. Why? Because after the first season or so, everyone that loved the show realized they were watching a live action comic book. People stand around the water cooler talking about things like, "Well if I was that cheerleader, I'd jump at Syler and like, stab him!" Yes, I've heard that awesome conversation before, but that's not the point. The point is, it's happening all across America. when the DVDs come out, they sell-out. Heroes Fever I guess is the best way to describe it and I thank NBC. Not only for putting out a great compelling show, mostly by hiring people in the comic industry to make it even better, but mostly for getting rid of the stigma of the dorky comic book reader.  
 
And comic book reading has picked up a lot in the past couple of years. Heroes isn't entirely responsible, but in conjunction with all the comic book movies making the big bucks, it helped out a lot. It's a simple to understand show, people have  powers, some use them for good, while others use them for evil. Good fights evil and vice versa. What has probably captivated the audience the most is the fact the show follows numerous characters, not just one or two.  
 
And each of them has their own abilities/powers. There's someone for everyone. And in addition to that, everyone can collectively hate Ali Larter's character. The show has done a great deal for removing said stigma from the comic book community and also opening doors to the public for comic book reading.

I can't find a decent comic book artist to save my god damned life right now. I have Jordan working on a project or two, which he probably hasn't done shit on, and every other artist I find says the same damn thing. "I won't work for free, pay me up front." Fuck you, you're artwork isn't that good anyway. How many fucking films did I work on/write and not get paid a god damned dime? Too many. And, I was never a dick about it, I was fine with it. I've been writing my ass off, trying to get something off the ground and these pre-madonna assholes want money? Not only that, they want to be paid, and then they want profits and credit... I want a new house.... Shit doesn't happen like that. 

Being a writer, sucks ass right now. I want someone competent, with at least 3 years trained experience under their belt. I have 6 years professional training and the same amount of professional experience in the film industry. I have a god damned degree in screenwriting. I know how to tell a fucking compelling story, the frustration is building up so god damned much, I'm about to blow. 
 
The worst thing in the world is picking up a comic, off any shelf from your local comic book store, reading it, and knowing that you're a better writer than they are. It happens with quite a bit of the indy comics I see. And the reason I'm not on any label as of now isn't because I'm lazy. Shit, I have anthology deals lined up with some indy companies. But, my bigger stories... just sitting there... And it's because no one is will to work on something unless their paid upfront.. 

A half-assed artist will ALWAYS get picked up over a phenomenal writer.ALWAYS. I've noticed this trend over the past 3 years. Bullshit.