As with most big-budget sci-fi films nowadays, many viewers will spend half the running time of the new Tom Cruise vehicle Oblivion mentally tallying how many refurbished components they recognize from other sci-fi flicks. That doesn’t automatically make the film bad in my book, but it can be a pervasive distraction that turns my viewing experience into one long Highlights for Children puzzle. (Score one point for every borrowed element you spot! If you spot ten or more, you’re a Certified Movie Maven!) Oblivion is the second feature film from Joseph Kosinski, the director of Tron: Legacy, which was a visual wonderland and a surprisingly classy act considering it was a Disney sequel to a film I’ve disliked since I was ten.
Chicago Photo Tribute #1: Up and Up and Up
My wife and I find ourselves traveling to Chicago more and more each year as opportunities keep presenting themselves, and as we find fewer barriers and excuses to keep ourselves trapped at home. We’ve both lived in Indianapolis since birth and don’t anticipate dying anywhere else (Lord willing), but Chicago has numerous advantages over Indy. Entertainment conventions such as Wizard World Chicago and C2E2 have been our primary motivations, but those are just the first items on the brainstorming list.
Next weekend is the fourth annual Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (that “C2E2” thing I won’t shut up about) at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, which my wife and I will be attending for our third time. As a tribute to this fascinating city, and an intro to C2E2 newcomers to provide ideas of what else Chicago has to offer while they’re in town, a few of this week’s posts will be dedicated to out experiences in the Windy City when we’re not gleefully clustered indoors with thousands of other comics and sci-fi fans.
I’ve had this miniseries in mind for a long time, but had trouble deciding where to begin. In an amazing bit of timing, the WordPress.com Daily Post finally sparked a moment of clarity for me on Friday with their latest Weekly Photo Challenge. Thus we start with the most blindingly obvious attribute you can’t possibly overlook when you arrive in downtown Chicago proper: everywhere you turn, it won’t stop reaching up to the heavens.
Exhibit A: the south end of the Magnificent Mile, their world-famous stretch of big-name upscale shops and shopping plazas, seen here from the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.
MCC Q&A #4: Because Blogging Award Disqualification Can’t Stop Me
Now taking requests! Anyone wanna hear “Edelweiss” for the 300,000th time?
Two slight problems:
(1) I already did a Liebster Award entry previously, and probably shouldn’t repeat myself any more than I already do. Unless that somehow draws more readers, in which case I suppose I can spend the upcoming MCC Year Two simply reblogging my previous twelve months’ entries one by one and live the high life at the corner of Easy Street and Lazy Boulevard.
(2) According to the Liebster Award rules set forth in myriad versions by the mysterious governing body that refuses to step into the spotlight and claim authorship of their works, it was my understanding that the Liebster Award nominations are permitted only for bloggers with a limited number of followers.
Thanks to MCC’s social media connections, a growing number of live readers (for whom I remain humbly grateful, and from whom I always welcome input), and an even more rapidly growing number of spammer followers (about whom STAB STAB STAB STAB), I believe my current Follower count, though still puny by the standards according to pro bloggers who earn a living at this (in front of whom I remain consistently humbled), still disqualifies me from the Liebsters based on the limits I’ve seen in other Liebster Award entries (200, 500, 1000 whatever).
Regardless of my heartless exclusion from the proceedings by that Mysterious Governing Body, the nominating post did include questions for the nominees. If the MGB would like to emerge from the shadows and try holding me back, I welcome the chance to meet them face-to-face in the light of day.
Anyway. Mrs. van Heerden’s questions, answered in order:
Will “Man of Steel” Be the First Good Superman Film Since Jimmy Carter Was in Office?
You’ve seen the newest trailer for Man of Steel that was just released Tuesday evening, right? The one labeled as “Trailer #3”, with lots more Jor-El in it? At least once?
No? Really? No one mentioned it in your social circles? Do you believe in watching movie trailers online? Is your Internet connection above 56K? You don’t hate super-hero movies, do you? Not that I wouldn’t respect that, mind you. My oldest relatives aren’t super-hero fans, either. I’ve included it at the end of this entry, just in case. See, I even saved you a few seconds of Googling.
Our C2E2 Photo Archive, Part 3 of 3: the TV and Video Game Tributes
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.
Part One featured movie-based costumes. Part Two was all about Marvel and DC Comics — “the Big Two”, as we comics fans know them. Here in the action-packed conclusion, it’s everyone else’s time to shine.
One such couple of lovable misfits: Pee-Wee and Globey!
“Revolution” 4/15/2013: Pre-Empted on Account of Evil
Please accept this placid aerial shot of Boston in lieu of ripped-from-the-headlines shock and horror. (photo credit: walknboston via photopin cc)
At the tail end of a day-long email volley, in which my wife and I had been taking turns trying to one-down each other and see which of us was having the worse work day, that’s how I learned about Monday’s horrifying bombing tragedy at the Boston Marathon. “Wait. What?” I thought in boldface as I realized she’d just buried the lede.
I had no idea what she was talking about. I’d been so wrapped up in my own pedestrian issues that I was oblivious to anything happening outside my immediate environs. I commenced ignoring what I had been doing, checked CNN.com, felt my heart sink, and closed that browser tab after one jarring image too many. Once again some inscrutable lost soul or an entire defective collective has created a moment to weep for humanity as a whole.
Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 3: the Marvel and DC Tributes
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
[T]he following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.
Part One focused on movie-based costumes. For this installment, our focus is the attending majority who support Marvel and/or DC Comics. Some were more inspired by Marvel films than by Marvel comics, but wouldn’t exist without the comics’ success in the first place.
In a rare moment of Big Two detente, WWII Captain America costars in his own special inter-company crossover with the grim-‘n’-gritty 1980s version of Green Arrow, the first version of the character to retire the trick arrows and fight crime using only traditional, pointy, frequently lethal arrows…except in this photo, because C2E2 has strict weapons policies. Armed WWII Cap will be fighting to defend the both of them, then.
“GI Joe: Retaliation”: a Big-Budget, Old-Fashioned Military Cartoon
Once again our old friend the White House is humiliated, this time in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Our C2E2 2012 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 3: the Movie Tributes
We’re now two weeks away from this year’s C2E2, the fourth installment of Chicago’s up-‘n’-coming comic-book-’n’-entertainment convention that hopes someday to achieve the size and reach of the San Diego Comic Con if enough of us Midwesterners support it.
Every C2E2 has plenty of activities for the hobby enthusiast: entertainment guests signing autographs; popular comic book creators speaking at panels, holding Q&As, and likewise autographing for fans; aspiring young creators gathering in Artists Alley and hoping to sell you on their own proud efforts; comic-shop owners and SF collectors selling vintage back issues, rare toys, and bargain-box oldies by the pound; booths representing the major comics publishers, including Marvel and DC; and — most noticeable of all — fans attending in costume, resplendent in their creativity and/or audacity.
Part 1 of MCC’s C2E2 2011 retrospective has a much longer intro with more information about the con and its history. As with that two-part miniseries, the following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in three parts, was previously shared elsewhere online last year, two weeks before Midlife Crisis Crossover was born. (Someone should remind me sometime to tell the story of how C2E2 was indirectly responsible for MCC’s creation in the first place…) For the sake of bringing my works under a single, unified creative banner, it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this memory parade of our second time at C2E2.
We commence with the wider-appeal characters first to stress that the ‘E’ in “C2E2” stands for “entertainment”. Comics are a major part of the proceedings, but there’re more to most comics fans’ interests than graphic storytelling alone. Exhibit A: the outlandish stylings of Effie Trinket and Caesar Flickerman from The Hunger Games.
“Community”: Subjective Observation of Carcharodon Hurdling Symptoms
I’ve tried to watch the fourth season of Community with an open mind. I promise I have. I wanted the privilege of cheering it on as it defied the cliché of the TV series that falters after the departure of its creator. I wanted to witness a strong group collaboration surviving the loss of a single participant, no matter how integral he was. I wanted to see a show continue defying convention and seeking eccentric storytelling methods within the corporate IP context. I wanted more of the same Community whose first three seasons had repeatedly surprised and outsmarted me.
Perhaps I wanted too much. Perhaps I wanted all the wrong things. All I know for sure is that I didn’t want an ordinary sitcom. With each passing week the evidence keeps pointing in that disappointing direction, no matter how hard I wish for the opposite.
Welcome, New Bloggers! Your Default “About” Page is Showing.
Far be it from me to convince myself that 350+ consecutive daily MCC entries and fourteen years of Internet participation experience (dating to the era when Usenet was ebbing but not dying, and “social media” wasn’t a labeled thing) are sufficient credentials to hoist myself upon an ornate pedestal and begin dispensing wisdom from above to fellow WordPress users about The Correct Way to Do Blogging. For reasons that would require a separate entry altogether, I don’t even like dispensing constructive criticism to other online writers, let alone have the ego to declare myself in the sensei business. One glance at MCC’s minimal visual design should provide evidence enough that I have a multitude of lessons yet to learn for myself.
Regardless, longtime bloggers can agree on a few of the most basic of basics. Today’s message is about one of those super-basic basics.
“Room 237” Asks: Was “The Shining” About ALL the Things?
One of my least favorite moments in college was sitting in an intense English class and concentrating on maintaining a straight face while a classmate explained his theory of how the scene from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Morgue” in which a gorilla stuffs a victim up a chimney somehow, in his mind, represented a return-to-the-womb motif. I have no idea how he thought that related to the rest of the story at all. After the few first few sentences my mind turned to white noise in self-defense.
This evening I had flashbacks to that moment while watching Rodney Ascher’s thought-provoking new documentary Room 237, an examination of hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining. Whether you hated or loved either or both, few would accuse Kubrick of taking a slapdash approach to the project, regardless of the lengthy list of differences between it and the book. Room 237 is narrated by five Shining enthusiasts: ABC News war correspondent Bill Blakemore; playwright/novelist Juli Kearns; author/conspiracy theorist Jay Weidner; history professor Geoffrey Cocks; and Excepter frontman John Fell Ryan. Each one has their own interpretation of the recurring motifs and subliminal imagery buried in the mix, all adding up to a grand design on Kubrick’s part in their minds. The nature of that grand design, though, varies wildly by viewer…very wildly, in this case.
“Revolution” 4/8/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. Neville vs. Neville
“No one’s a good guy.”
Thus does our hero Miles Matheson (Billy Burke) sum up the current state of mankind in the final minutes of tonight’s new Revolution episode, “The Song Remains the Same” (another Led Zeppelin song title, for annotation fans). If the power is restored for one and all, to oppressors and oppressed alike, who’s to say the warring factions of the country formerly known as America would set aside their differences and reunite for the good of mankind? If adversity wasn’t enough to inspire peaceful cooperation, why should we expect the restoration of power access to be any less divisive?
It’s a question worth asking, in light of the surprise revelation about the true nature of Ben and Rachel Matheson’s secret invention responsible for the worldwide blackout. Bets were won and high-fives were exchanged for any viewers who guessed that the correct answer is…
…insert drumroll here….
…redundant pause for tension effect…
…one last pause for no good reason…
College Dropout Prepares to Pass on the Opposite of His Legacy
This weekend’s main event was eighteen years in the making, an experience I never imagined because few parents want to daydream that far ahead in their children’s lives. Sure, we look forward to a few milestones — first steps, first words, first day of school, all the best parts of the cute years. I suppose some parents dwell on the long-term forecast and begin planning for the arrival of their grandchildren. I’ve taken more of a walk-before-they-can-run, crawl-before-they-can-walk approach when it comes to second-guessing my son’s future for him.
That being rambled on about: Saturday I drove my son up to West Lafayette for a tour of the campus of Purdue University, where he’s been accepted and is scheduled to attend this fall. Needless to say, our family is mostly thrilled (there’s always a naysayer, isn’t there?) and, having seen what’s in store for my former infant, I now feel ten years older than I did last year.
“Very Inspiring Blogger Award” Nominee Considers It an Honor Just to Be Allowed Internet Access
I’m well aware that my scattershot topical approach, my avoidance of narrow specialization, my complete lack of millions of share-happy friends, and my refusal to curse probably sabotage the chances of Midlife Crisis Crossover ever being seriously considered for the sort of major awards that have committees, budgets, perks, or multiple voters. I appreciate it, then, when another writer in the Internet trenches takes the time to send an encouraging gesture in my direction.
The Very Inspiring Blogger Award is one of many such gestures available to us. It’s not an official commendation with a nomination process or a governing body or a brick-and-mortar hall of fame that our family could visit on our next road trip. Quite the contrary, the VIBA is a pass-it-on pick-me-up that comes when least expected, means no harm, and provides opportunities for networking and paying forward to others.
Special thanks are owed to Tony Roberts at A Way With Words for this duly acceptable nomination. It’s especially noteworthy to me because Tony is one of only three other WordPress.com users from Indiana that I can recall encountering in MCC’s eleven months of existence. If I include WordPress.org, the head count expands to a whopping four. Truly we Hoosier bloggers are a mighty, tiny army. (If any other Hoosier bloggers are out there, that’d be nifty to know. I can’t even hear you breathing.)
Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 2 of 2: Villains in Chicago
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:
The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online [in 2011], but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.
Last time we focused on some of the good-guy costumes we encountered. Now it’s the bad guys’ turn. Darkseid, Shredder, and Dr. Doom bid you welcome and insist that you submit or else.
Siskel & Ebert at/and/with/for/vs./because of the Movies
photo credit: Articulate MediaWorks via photopin cc
I can’t remember what impressionable age I was when I first encountered their popular syndicated movie-review series Siskel & Ebert at the Movies. Our local affiliates sometimes aired it on Saturday afternoons, sometimes in the dead of night, and occasionally found it useful for filling any programming holes outside primetime. I’d never seen anything like it; thirty minutes of two movie fans sitting in a deserted theater balcony and telling viewers whether they thought the latest movies were good or bad. It sounded like a dull concept for a TV show. I could imagine the fun if they were brandishing weapons, but just sitting there? Talking? Why?
Our C2E2 2011 Photo Archive, Part 1 of 2: Heroes in Chicago
This year my wife and I are gearing up to attend our third consecutive C2E2 comic-book-‘n’-entertainment convention up in Chicago, happening April 26th-28th, 2013. We missed the inaugural year in 2010 due to a schedule conflict, but I’ve made a point of prioritizing it on my calendar ever since. I rather like the idea of someone attempting a Midwest version of the San Diego Comic Con.
Most people in our hobbies are familiar with the longer-running Wizard World Chicago con, whose present incarnation emphasizes its celebrity autograph show while casually including some comics on the side. Though C2E2’s 2013 guest list implies that their entertainment-guest budget has been exponentially increased, they nonetheless attract a much wider lineup of comic-book writers, artists, and fans as well. C2E2 has one major advantage in my book: the major comic companies — Marvel, DC, Dark Horse — have sided with C2E2 over WWC, appearing each year at the former while having sadly eschewed the latter for years.
* * * * *
C2E2 is nowhere near the size of San Diego, but obviously dreams of being such someday. It presently uses only one section of Chicago’s enormous McCormick Place convention center, which has plenty more room to offer if Reed Exhibitions decided they needed some value-added sprawling space. 2012 attendance was pegged at 41,000, up from 32,000 in 2011 and well above its 2010 debut of 27,500. San Diego could still beat up C2E2 and steal its lunch money, but I’m eager to see it keep growing.
The following photo collection, to be curated and presented here in two parts, was previously shared elsewhere online at the time, but never on a site I could call my own…until now. Midlife Crisis Crossover wasn’t created until a few weeks after C2E2 2012; thus it’s my pleasure to present to you, the Viewers at Home, this retrospective of our first C2E2 — chiefly, pics of some of the most interesting costumes we witnessed. For the average con attendee, the costumes are one of the most fascinating, creatively engaging aspects of the convention experience.
(Not that it was all about costumes. Your humble author and his even humbler wife were each allowed a moment to strike our own poses courtesy of Dark Horse Comics.)
What Evil Lurks Inside the Forgotten Can of Terror?
While plumbing the deepest, darkest regions of our pantry for quick supper ideas tonight, my wife discovered an ancient artifact not seen by mortals for uncountable years: a mysterious can of applesauce that expired April 7, 2011.
We don’t recognize the brand. Neither of us remembers buying it. I didn’t even know applesauce could be legally packaged in anything besides glass jars. If someone gifted it to us, their moot kindness was forgotten long ago.
For a moment I wondered if it was haunted — cursed, even. Maybe this applesauce belonged to the previous homeowner, who ran away from it screaming because it brought death and destruction to him and his loved ones, a sort of fruit-flavored monkey’s paw straight from the grocer’s clearance aisle.
“Revolution” 4/1/2013 (spoilers): Charlie vs. the Humvees of Hate
Tonight’s new episode of Revolution, “Ghosts”, divides its time between two primary threads, each about former partnerships torn asunder but looking for common ground to reunite, and finding it in the form of evil armed henchmen. Nothing mends fences like common foes.
Of the episode’s two halves, more interesting and personal is the tension between Charlie and Rachel, as mother and daughter grieve the loss of son/brother Danny in last week’s mismatched showdown between a pair of working helicopters and one thermal-guided surface-to-air missile launcher. As the Rebel Alliance relocates its Annapolis base from its now-missile-ridden digs to a nearby former hospital, Rachel wallows in guilt and blame (when she’s not busy drawing electrical diagrams of the mysterious blue-light device she retrieved from her dead son’s innards last week), while Charlie rebuffs her and instead looks for opportunities for action, doing whatever she can for the resistance so that Danny’s death won’t be as much in vain as his hard-fought rescue from Independence Hall ultimately was. She storms off without Mom’s permission to assist in an overnight militia raid and returns the next day with an ugly shoulder wound, rebuking any attempts at assistance and talking back in hardcore Wolverine tough-guy whispers. Their argument ends with Rachel slapping Charlie. That doesn’t help, and seems unnecessary now that Tracy Spiridakos’ performance is showing signs of improvement.
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 