I Just Don't Get Fanboys.

2012-06-19, 4:42 pm
Categories: Cartoons, Comics, Stream of Consciousness, TV

Last week I wrote a post on fanboy entitlement, as exemplified by people who are positively enraged that the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is for kids instead of thirtysomethings.

It included this bit:

Of course, muddying the waters a bit is last week's announcement that Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has been cancelled in favor of a new Avengers cartoon series. And this does look like a case where a cartoon got low ratings due to complete mismanagement (there were no episodes airing when Thor and Captain America came out last year, and the decision to pull the plug was clearly made before Marvel/Disney had the opportunity to gauge any ratings boost caused by the Avengers movie or the USM synergy) and replaced with something that looks like a potential Jeph Loeb Pet Project. So, you know, that is an actual example of the fanboys probably being right -- except, you know, the part where they declare the new series to totally suck based on one (admittedly sucky) promo image and absolutely nothing else.

Well, funny story about that: Bleeding Cool ran a piece today about that announcement.

And there is one internet user called Nabil Elmjati who seems to have started a one man covert war against [Ultimate Spider-Man] and Marvel Animation.

[...]

Nabil appears to have created the site Marvel TV News which runs stories about [Marvel] animation and games, but mostly about how awful the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is, and how everyone hates it. It is registered to a "Nabil Mjati" in Morocco. So, you know. That's him.

And then he posted the news that the Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes would be cancelled and [replaced] with the cartoon Avengers Assemble. He also [quoted] from a press release, purported to be "print only", saying "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes won't be renewed for the 3rd Season. Marvel Animation will present their newly developed series Marvel's Avengers Assemble in 2013."

[...]

Only problem was that the quote was made up. There was no official press release. It was a lie that few chose to question.

There is certainly the rumour that Earth's Mightiest Heroes has been cancelled. It may well be replaced by the new Avengers Assemble. But no official word. Marvel TV News made up an official quote and all the websites followed suit without checking.

Mea culpa. Dude "quoted" a "print-only" press release and I didn't question it. I've updated my earlier post in light of the BC piece.

In my defense, by the time I wrote that post the linked TV Guide interview had been posted, with Loeb confirming work on the Avengers Assemble TV series. That supports the claim that Earth's Mightiest Heroes is cancelled but does not actually confirm it, and is certainly not the same thing as a print-only press release. And before we go any farther, it bears noting that Bleeding Cool is the British tabloid of comic book news sites, and itself best taken with a grain of salt.

But, still and all: there was no press release, and Marvel TV News is a bullshit site by some guy who just really, really hates Ultimate Spider-Man.

Which is just, you know, fucking weird.

I get into it a bit with a guy in the comments section of that Bleeding Cool post -- one of those guys who just does not understand why Marvel wants to target its cartoons at the kids, and who just doesn't care anymore and wants to make very sure that everybody knows just how much he doesn't care. Okay. So that's run-of-the-mill fanboy entitlement. A basic lack of perspective. I don't really get it, but it's a common, somewhat mild condition.

It stops somewhere short of this Elmjati gentleman's apparent obsession -- per the BC article, he hasn't merely set up a phony news site to "quote" completely made-up press releases, he's also repeatedly harangued Joe Quesada on Twitter and actually set up a phony Jeph Loeb Facebook profile and then encouraged people to deluge it with angry comments.

And...I mean, just god damn, what is wrong with that guy?

Christ knows I've wasted a lot of time arguing with people on the Internet about superheroes, but running a full-time campaign of astroturfing, sock-puppetry, and downright fabrication has seriously never crossed my mind.

Joe's Garage: The Stage Musical

2012-06-18, 8:25 pm
Categories: Music

You know, I always wanted to see Joe's Garage as a stage show. And, poking about zappa.com last night, I found that somebody did it in 2008.

zappa.com notes that the choreographer was Jennifer Lettelleir, and the show won the LA Weekly Theater Award for Best Choreography. Lettelleir links favorable reviews in LA Weekly and Variety. The show was adapted by Pat Towne and Michael Franco and directed by Towne, performed by Open Fist Theatre Company.

I've been hoping to see someone adapt the show as a full-on rock opera for years and years -- glad to hear somebody did it, and I hope it's not the last time.

And I hope there's more video out there somewhere, too.

Groening on Zappa

2012-06-17, 5:48 pm
Categories: Comics

Life in Hell: Bongo pledges allegiance to Frank Zappa.

My dad had this up on his fridge for years, and I stuck a copy on the door of my dorm room in college. It ran a couple weeks after Zappa passed.

Groening, of course, famously said "Frank is my Elvis."

(Sorry for the lack of attribution on the scan -- which is much more legible than any other copy I've found online -- but this really is the copy I printed and put on my door about a decade ago and I have no idea where I originally found it.)

Monkeys Aren't Donkeys

2012-06-17, 1:45 pm
Categories: Games, Movies, Stream of Consciousness

Something that always bothered me:

Okay. So Cranky Kong is supposed to be the original Donkey Kong, right? Except now he's old and cantankerous and has a long white beard.

Except here's the problem: Donkey Kong was released in 1981. Donkey Kong Country was released in 1994.

Now, I'm no expert on anthropomorphic video game gorilla physiology. But it seems to me that thirteen years is a bit of a short time to shrivel up and grow a long white beard. (And that's without even considering DK's appearance in the 1994 Donkey Kong remake just months earlier, looking perfectly healthy.)

I guess that, of all the places to draw a line in the sand for suspension of disbelief in a game about anthropomorphic, barrel-hucking gorillas, "How did that one get so old so fast?" seems rather an arbitrary place for it. But dammit, it bugged me.

And it gets worse: Donkey Kong Country Returns, released in 2010, a full 16 years after the original DKC (and 14 after DKC3) -- nobody has visibly aged. Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong, and all the rest look exactly the same as they did in 1994. 1981-1994: dramatic visible aging. 1994-2010: no aging whatsoever.

Unless -- and here's my theory -- the original Donkey Kong died of old age, the Cranky Kong in DKCR is actually the 16-bit Donkey Kong now old and decrepit, and the Donkey Kong you're playing as is actually...a now-fully-grown Kiddy Kong.

Course, then you still have to explain Diddy, Funky, and the rest of the Kong family.

Anyway. Here's the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph. Which, while not technically a movie about Donkey Kong, appears to be a much-better-thought-out story of Donkey Kong's journey from villain to hero than the Donkey Kong Country series.

200 Motels Trailer

2012-06-16, 10:06 pm
Categories: Movies

The trailer for Frank Zappa's 200 Motels:

The complete film is on Netflix.

I watched it the other day. It most closely resembles one of the weirder Python sketches -- like if you took, say, "Where Have All the Fishes Gone?" and stretched it to 100 minutes.

I found that, after two beers, it couldn't quite hold my full attention -- I imagine it would be more fun to watch with friends who are equally as interested in Weird Shit, and/or on stronger drugs, or possibly as background noise at a party, especially if it's late and most of the guests have gone home.

Selling a Product

2012-06-16, 8:24 pm
Categories: Music, Stream of Consciousness

I wonder how many lost sales Bookman's can chalk up to stupid application of stickers.

I was there today and there were several CD's I looked at that had price tags or security stickers plastered right over track listings or album descriptions.

Now, I don't have a smartphone, but if I did have one, odds are pretty good that using it to search for album info would point me straight at sites selling the same album for cheaper -- and likely in digital format, removing even the "instant gratification" advantage to buying it in a store.

Guess I could have asked a clerk, but unless the clerk actually knows the album, that still means opening up the case and removing the sticker.

And anyway, I firmly believe that if somebody makes it harder for me to give them my money, I shouldn't reinforce them by giving it to them anyway.

HUT! HUT!

2012-06-15, 10:10 pm
Categories: Movies, Music

Tonight we are taking a break from Frank Zappa to honor what would have been Waylon Jennings's 75th birthday.

Waylon had a long, storied, and illustrious career, but I'll always remember him from the very first thing I saw him in, when I was just about three years old:

For any locals reading this, there's a tribute show this Sunday at the Yucca Tap Room; local great Hans Olson will be playing, among others. I'll try and be there, but, you know, I might not, so hey Internet please don't take this as an opportunity to rob my house while I'm gone.

YUMI

2012-06-15, 10:03 pm
Categories: Tech, Work

Had a spot of trouble with a hard drive at work today and decided to see what thumb drive Linux is like these days. I found a program called YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) at pendrivelinux.com and discovered that it's pretty great.

YUMI is a simple Windows executable. It's got a long list of Linuxes -- Ubuntus, Fedoras, server OS's like CentOS, small OS's like Damn Small Linux and Puppy, and non-Linuxes like FreeDOS, as well as special-purpose diagnostic software like Ultimate Boot CD and various AV vendors' recovery discs.

Click on one of the supported OS's, point YUMI at an ISO, and it'll install it on your thumb drive -- as many as will fit, with GRUB to select which one you want at boot time. Better still, if you don't have an ISO, it's got a one-click download for every single one of them.

And while it's got dozens of supported OS's built in, it'll do arbitrary bootable ISO's, too; I tried two and found that one (the latest FreeDOS installer) worked while the other (Hitachi Drive Fitness Test) did not.

As for Puppy, it's definitely seen some progress in the years since I last used it but my gripes remain much the same: instead of programs being labeled by name, they have generic descriptions (hypothetically a good idea for neophyte users who don't know what Seamonkey is, but in practice I think "Web" would probably be a better name than "Browse"), and the package management system is less than entirely intuitive. Still, for coming in around 100MB it's a damned impressive, and a whole lot easier on the eyes than the last time I tried it.

Anyway, YUMI's made it easy enough to set up that you can easily spend a couple hours (or more) screwing around with various USB bootkits. It's an impressive piece of software and one I'll definitely be keeping in my admin toolkit.

(There appears to be a Linux equivalent called Multisystem LiveUSB Tool. I haven't tried it out yet so I can't vouch for it, but if you're looking for, you know, a Linux tool for Linux, that might be something to check out.)

Montana

2012-06-14, 6:49 pm
Categories: Music

My baby's coming in from Montana tonight, so in honor of that, here's Montana, live at the Palladium, Halloween '81:

I realize I'm going a little heavy on Over-Nite Sensation in my selections. There's a reason for that: it was one of my first two Zappa albums and I've always had a soft spot for it.

My dad was updating his collection from vinyl to CD at that point, and he picked up three Zappa CD's: The Grand Wazoo, Over-Nite Sensation, and One Size Fits All.

He held them out and said "You can borrow any two of these you want."

I pointed at Grand Wazoo.

He said, "Not that one. Any two except that one."

So I took Over-Nite Sensation and One Size Fits All. Never did give them back -- I offered but he said no thanks. He never really did get into CD's; live shows are much more his thing.

And YouTube. I bet he watches a lot of Zappa on YouTube.