Musings of a Fanboy: You Are the One

Hey everyone!

So, as a card-carrying fanboy, I get unusually obsessed with things.  Obsessed is a strong word and it often gets a bad wrap due to its association with mental illness, but obsession isn't always such a bad thing.  Call it extreme determination or dedication, but it's all obsession when you get down to it.  I would like to think that everyone is obsessed with at least one thing but that might just be projecting on my part.

Now, I've been trying to figure out why I get so obsessed with certain things.  For example, I finally got around to watching the pilot episode of The Unusuals (an excellent darkly comedic police show that ran for only a season) and I'm probably going to finish watching every episode tonight.  I know, I have a problem.  So, what is it about The Unusuals (or other current obsessions, like Game Grumps, Ultimate Werewolf, OK Go, Stephen King novels, etc.) that my mind clings onto with such severity?  The truth is that I have no clue.  I am nowhere close to consistent with this sort of thing.  In some cases, such as with the X-Files, my obsession comes and goes in waves, trading casual indifference for hardy interest in a matter of days.

While I can quite nail down the causes of my fanboy obsession, I am certainly glad that I have them.  They inject a bit of excitement into the most boring of days because, at the end of it, I get to indulge in whatever I am currently excited about.  And, hey, I can get obsessed with productive things too.  I can't tell you how many times I've finished papers the day after it was assigned because I get so excited by an ideas just cannot stop writing about it.  As with most things, a tendency for obsession is both a gift and a curse, but it does makes the things I enjoy all the more enjoyable.

Thanks for reading!

Nostalgia Goggles: Dunna Dunna Dunna Dunna Duuna Bat-Ben!

Hey everyone!

So, here's our new Batman:

Cards on the table: I really wasn't that floored by Christian Bale as Batman.  Don't get me wrong, I love this frickin' frack out of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, but the portrayal, in my opinion, aired more on the side of Tobey MaGuire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man than Christopher Reeves as Clark Kent/Superman.  So, the announcement of Ben Affleck as the new Caped Crusader has had me more intrigued than disappointed or angry.  This new photo nearly guarantees that the Batman we are going to see in Superman vs. Batman is going to be different than any incarnation that we have seen.

Now, I've been a pretty big fan of Batman since childhood.  His stories were a combination of two of my favorite genres: detective stories and science fiction.  As I've grown up and seeing all the different adaptations of the Caped Crusader, I've always been impressed by all the different ways creative minds have reinvented the same man over and over, each with an interesting and unique take.  I, for one, am excited to see how Zack Snyder and Ben Affleck will do with the character, even if it is a case of casting gone wrong.

This new Batman seems much larger than all previous Batmans, physically and in terms of presence.  Zack Snyder already revealed that Ben Affleck's Batman will be much further along in his superhero career than previous incarnations, so this grizzled and larger than life picture could be reflecting that.  Now, I could be reading too much into a single picture but this Batman definitely reminds me of Christian Bale at the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises, very worn and very jaded.  It will make an interesting dynamic with Superman, if this indeed is true, who I am hoping with take a much needed optimistic role in the upcoming film.

I'm certainly excited for Superman vs. Batman, even though I wasn't a huge fan of Man of Steel and the fact that the whole movie is just a stepping stone to the Justice League film is a little disheartening.  I think the first Superman and Batman movie should deserve a little more attention than that.  Either way, we are in for something exciting and new from Zack Snyder and company.

Thanks for reading!

Rain Dance in Traffic: Spinning Now #2

Hey everyone!

So, it's Monday.  It's my day off and I have nothing to write about for blog.  At least, nothing that jumps to my mind as interesting enough to post.  So, here are a few of the songs that I'm listening to right now.  Literally right now.  Like, as I am writing this sentence.

Guren Yo Yumiya by Linked Horizon

Ok, so yeah.  This is the opening theme for an anime.  Yeah, it's in Japanese.  Yeah, it's freaking awesome.  The visuals of the opening are little bit of an anime fever dream, but, gosh dang guys, watching all those people rise above the rooftops in a giant mass of epicness still gives me goosebumps.  The song is set at an incredible and out of control pace that gets the blood pumping even if you are, like me, stilling on your bed typing on your laptop.  I've experimented with watching animes before but nothing has quite stuck yet in the way that most well-crafted American, Canadian, and European television shows have.  But, if animes could all have freaking epic songs like this as openers, consider me a fan.

Heart and Soul by Twin Atlantic

I discovered Twin Atlantic a couple of years ago with the release of their fantastic album "Free," which I dutifully recommend.  They are amongst a group of pop rock groups from Scotland that I have been very fond of the past few years.  Heart and Soul is their new single for their new album coming out sometime soon, but this song has caused quite a buzz amongst fans.  It is a much more mainstream-sounding effort from the guys in the band and that has sent the "selling out" allegations flying from every corner of the fanbase.  I personally see no problem with a more accessible sound from Twin Atlantic, especially when the song is this catchy.  So, if you'd like, take a listen to some of Twin Atlantic's old stuff, compare it to Heart and Soul, and form your own opinion.

This Too Shall Pass (Marching Band Version) by OK Go

I don't know what it is about OK Go that has had me so fascinated by them these last few weeks.  I randomly popped in one of their older albums on my way to work one day and now I've listened to their entire catalogue several times over.  They have a new album coming out soon as well and the clips that they have put out sound fantastic.  OK Go, as I mentioned in a previous blog, have a reputation for making unique and eye-catching music videos for their hit songs.  It has gotten them a lot of attention and I believe it is rightfully so.  The marching band music video for This Too Shall Pass I think is a great demonstration on how a big budget production isn't always the best way to succeed with a music video.  All it takes sometimes is some enthusiastic participants, some great coordination, and a willingness to have fun on camera to make a music video memorable.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Branches and Roots: Uprooted

Hey everyone!

So there's a pretty mighty storm 'a blowing outside right now.  Everyone reading this that is in the Omaha Metro area, I hope you all are alright, with or without power.  Batten in the hatches because there is more on the way apparently.  We here at the Young house were extremely lucky that the wind decided to cut across the street away from our trees, felling an very large tree into our neighbor's yard.  The rain caused the roots of the tree to come right out of the ground, completely intact.  The root of the tree in my neighbors' yard reminded me of the blog I wrote last Sunday about branches, so I'd thought I'd do a quick blog about roots.

If branches are the future then the roots are the past, and the past has a nasty of uprooting itself.  The storms of life come along and weaken our hold on the pieces of our past that we want to keep in the past.  And, the storm passing and winds stop blowing, all of the bits are laying out everywhere for all of your neighbors to see.  However, like my neighbors and their fallen tree, having your roots exposed reveals more than just your own past.  Without waiting for the wind to die or the rain to let up, people from each and every house on my block spilled out into the streets to help my neighbors clear out the mass of branches and roots from their lawn.  With all of the storms we have had over the years in my town and the tremendous amount of trees in my neighborhood, it has becoming kind of a tradition to form a "neighborhood clean-up crew" during storms.  

The last few months have brought on a large bit of uprooting for me and my experiences with the storm today has made me want to give my gratitude to the "clean up crew" in my life that have been helping me with my splintered roots and branches.  You guys know who you are and please know that I thank God for you everyday.

Thanks for reading!

Top Ten: Episodes of Community

Hey everyone!

So, Community was canceled this week.  Seeing how much of a fan I am of the show, I'm surprisingly OK.  The last two seasons of the show have shown that, with or without creator Dan Harmon, the writers have lost a sense of direction for the show, stranding it in a kind of loosey-goosey limbo that tries to build to a conclusion and ends up with handfuls of nothing.  So, the announcement is met with a kind of bittersweet feeling.  On one hand, I feel like the dying show is being put out of its misery and, on the other, I keep hearing Abed shouting "Six Seasons and a Movie!" in my head.  And, darn it, I really wanted that.  So here today are my top ten favorite episodes of Community for its entire five season run.

Disclaimer: So, all of these episodes are from the first three seasons.  And, when I think it over, I don't think that's unfair.  Sorry, if you disagree.

THE LIST

10. Digital Estate Planning

• Interesting episode concept and great writing to match
• Visual art style is great and the humor is perfectly matched
• Any episode that humanizes Pierce is fine by me
• The satirization of video game culture is sidesplitting
• Unique and memorable stand alone episode in a plot-heavy part of the season

9. Contemporary American Poultry

• One of the shows first and most successful film parodies
• Great introspection on the characters of Jeff and Abed
• A great gateway episode to introduce new fans to the show
• The story is a bold move from the show's early sitcom formula
• Makes a great use of the show's deeply comedic supporting class

8. Basic Lupine Urology

• A nearly screen-by-screen parody of a standard Law and Order episode done to perfection
• "I transferred or 'downloaded' the picture from Troy's phone."
• The way the episode portrays police and court procedure without police or a court
• A snappy stand alone episode that is subtle smart and infinitely hilarious
• No study group drama just satiristic fun

7. Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design

• Community is at its best when it keeps it simple
• The incredible acting keeps the plot twists from giving viewers narrative whiplash
• Surprising revelations about the status of Jeff and Annie's relationship
• An equally entertaining subplot that builds up to one of the show's best episodes
• Top notch writing and a master class in creating fantastic tension

6. ModernWarfare

• The episode that made Community "that show where they play paintball"
• A challenging and dramatic departure from the show's basic formula
• Danny Pudi's character acting... just all of it
• Balls to the walls hilarious and action-filled insanity
• Comes to define the show's offbeat and unique television presence.

5. Cooperative Calligraphy

• Bottle episode at its finest
• Fantastic meta humor and meta commentary
• Breaks down the thin facade of the study group's true feeling towards each other
• Makes the insignificant significant and the significant insignificant
• Instantly memorable and iconic episode that will stand the test of time

4. A Fistful of Paintballs/ A Few Paintballs More

• Fantastic extension of the show's paintball fun
• Parodies both westerns and Star Wars in the same go
• The action and tension between characters is kicked up several notches
• A thought-provoking end to the second season
• The influence of the main story arc of the season on the paintball action

3. Paradigms of Human Memory

• A clip show with all original clips... Why can't all shows do this?
• A strangely unnostalgic trip through the show's history due to resolved character tension
• Fractured storytelling reveals the new storylines one bit at a time
• Jeff's epic monologue spanning multiple study group adventures
• Superb writing brings a strangely uplifting ending even though very little is actually accomplished

2. Pillows and Blankets

• A near perfect imitation of a Ken Burns documentary with the integration of social media
• An interesting and much-needed challenge to the Troy-Abed dynamic
• Community absolutely shines in a documentary format and this is the clear winner for the best one
• Jeff's surprising reveal in the ending recording
• Leonard likes this post

1. Remedial Chaos Theory

• The finest example of fractured storytelling I can think off
• Begins the "darkest timeline" story arc and ridiculously long-running joke
• A fluid and balanced examination and growth of each individual character
• The ending is fantastically satisfying
• This episode is pretty much the reason I want to write for television

Thanks for reading everyone!  And, Community, you will always be six seasons and a movie in our hearts.

Screen Time: Veronica Mars

Hey everyone!

So, I came home from work today and all my family was watching Frozen.  I sat and watched as I ate dinner and the whole time I could only think how weird it was listening to Kristen Bell doing the voice of a Disney Princess when I am so used to her off-the-cuff and sarcastic performance as Veronica Mars.  So, hey, I thought I'd give one of the most interesting shows I've watch all this year a nod.  Let's give Veronica Mars some Screen Time.

So, why Veronica Mars?  Well for starters, it's one of those shows, like Firefly or Freaks and Geeks, that has such a rabid and loyal fanbase that I was insanely curious to find out why.  I am now only a season into the show's "three season and a movie" run and I can tell you right now from the bottom of my heart that Veronica Mars is completely worth its incredible fanbase.

The show is anchored, as you might imagine, by the fantastic performance by Kristen Bell in her breakout role as the inquisitive, intense, and insanely entertaining Veronica Mars.  Veronica is a middle class girl living in the upper crust world of Neptune, California where she lived as the daughter of the local sheriff and rubbed elbows with the sons and daughters of country's richest men and women.  However, after the mysterious murder of her best friend and her father's failure to solve the case, Veronica's world is shaken to the core.  Her mother leaves, her father gets fired, and they are forced to move and Veronica watches her perfect life slowly dissolve.  When the show starts, we get to see Veronica rejecting her cheerleader persona of the past and embracing the life as a private detective, under the tutelage of her father who had opened a private investigations agency after getting fired from the sheriff's office.  However, her past life refuses to stay dead as evidence concerning the murder of her friend begins to resurface after a year of silence.

I think the reason I like Veronica Mars so much is that it is so similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Both have incredibly engaging female leads that are strong and smart with being overly and annoyingly feminist (unlike a certain character from Frozen).  Both also deal with the world of high school drama in a surprising authentic and compelling way that hardly feels forced in the least bit.  Veronica Mars, while pulpy and sarcastically humorous, is a show that deals with some tremendously heavy material such as drug addiction, underage sexual relationships, and date rape.  All of these are handled with intense care and appropriate emotion.  However, the most engaging part of the show is the tenacious way that Veronica solves the crimes in her town.  Kristen Bell shows off an incredible and flexible acting range, playing many different roles and personas to get information from others.  She has fantastic chemistry with the entire supporting casts, her enthusiasm bringing bringing great performances out much of the cast.

The legacy of Veronica Mars has transcended the canceling of the show as a movie tying up the remaining character arches was released in the film festival circuit earlier this year.  However, as it is all that I have seen, the first season of the original show comes highly, highly recommended by me.

Thanks for reading everyone!

Once Upon a Blog: Lady in Red

"Excuse me, where are you going?"

She tossed her head backwards, her smile acknowledging the fact that she had never answered that question in her entire life.  Her eyes, however, invited me forward with an impish glint that betrayed her eagerness to see what lies on the other side of the street.

The scarlet wings of her dress flew gracefully above the gritty pavement beneath her as she moved across the street with a succession of graceful hops.  The whole movement of time and traffic seemed to stop around her as if the sun wanted to remain hovering just above the horizon so it could continue to shower her in its golden red glow for a few moments longer.

The lady did a small spin in the middle of the road, fearless in the face of the frozen traffic.  The outer rims of her dress spun and wobbled on the axis of her enthusiastic burst of energy.  For some reason, to this day I still don't know what powers of nature compelled me to do so, I pulled my camera up to my eye and placed the lady in red in the center of the viewfinder.  Through the limited perspective of the lens, she really was the center of the world.  The center of my world.  My dazzling lady in red who stopped all of time for me.

I paused and dropped my eyes to take a look at the picture I had just taken.  The photograph had perfectly ensnared the moment.  The image of the lady in red seemed to almost move in front of my eyes, as if even the ghost of her essence could not be held in a simple photographic facsimile.  

When my eyes returned to the street, the lady was gone.  I knew, somehow I always knew, that she would disappear one day back into the sunbeam that she had appeared from.  As the sun finally decided to slip back into the cover of the horizon, the traffic of the city roared back to life and I was left staring at the camera in my hands.  It was left embroidered with the frozen moment of beauty and freedom, a final aprting gift from my immaculate lady in red.