Outside Counsel

I like cartoons, but what I really like is the over-analyzation of cartoons. I also like comics that are waaaay too over-analyzing, like this fine example, from Living Between Wednesdays.. Of course, what makes this panel so terrifically great is that it shows Cyclops doing what Cyclops does better than almost anything: being consumed with self-pity. "Boo-hoo-hoo, I have to wear glasses. I wish I had wings. Stupid rays that shoot from my eyes and almost killed Warren. He sure is lucky he doesn't have rays that shoot out of his eyes."

And with that, I think I have officially announced that I am pretty much useless for the rest of the day.

From Esquire, The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master. 75 is a lot, but I think I'm okay. (Via Flutterby.)

I'm not seeing the breakdown by district, but if Lake County isn't in, I don't think HRC can claim to have won Indiana. As I write this I am listening to her speech, and I think she knows she has lost. She's running for VP right now.

I'm not sure how to categorize this. Don't read it if your laughing will disturb anyone.

When I saw this picture on the front page of the NYTimes Arts section today I knew I was lost. The trailer was great, but great trailers for comic book movies don't always mean that I'm there for the opening night-- sometimes I want to share the experience with my daughters, sometimes I'm traveling and my faithless family sees the movie without me-- what I'm saying is, circumstances can intervene, but for "Iron Man" I was going to be there.

"Well, it was funny, and explode-y," said A. when we walked out tonight. I'm not sure how she ranks comic book movies, because she never really read the source texts. "Iron Man" is certainly funny, and explode-y. It is a terrific piece of acting by Robert Downey, Jr., and it has some mighty nice work by Gwyneth Paltrow as well. It's funny to think that a character like Iron Man might be make coolest Marvel movie-- Shellhead is not really as iconic as Spiderman, or the Fantastic Four, but that is part of what makes the movie work. The mistakes most superhero movies make are things that "Iron Man" skates by. Is it true to the canonical text? No, it is not, but who cares? You really have to be way more into comics than anyone should be to think that the best way to make a movie about Iron Man would be to have Tony Stark captured by the Red Chinese-- having him held prisoner in a cave in Afghanistan works fine. The shrapnel near the heart thing-- about as subtle as Stan Lee or Jack Kirby ever got-- is beautifully done here, and if the advanced armor Stark invents once he is home doesn't fit into a briefcase, well, who ever thought that was "realistic"? There are loads of other details that don't really fir into what the strict frame of the comic books, but they get the main stuff right-- Stark is kind of an asshole, but he's trying to do do the right thing, too. Also, the tin suit is cool, and there are many explosions. There are also a lot of good jokes-- A. didn't catch it, but I laughed aloud when I heard Stark's ringtone. And even though he was a big idea stealer, at this point watching for Stan Lee has become like watching for Alfred Hitchcock, and Stan's cameo is a good joke in this one.

It's funny-- in order to make Iron Make work as a movie I think you really do need to have an actor with the ability of Robert Downey, Jr.-- you just wouldn't care otherwise. Iron Man is an impassive appearing suit of armor without that-- it would be a movie about a robot. The other thing that is interesting to think about is that in a lot of ways a charater that looks like a robot is more interesting to us than a lot of other superhero characters because the armor is, in a funny way, more realistic than what most superheros wear. As a fantasy the idea of climbing into a kind of space suit is a lot more appealing than getting a special ring and wearing a spandex unitard, even if the unitard is mostly slimming black. We may never see a good movie about the Hulk-- there is a new one coming this summer, and it looks like it is probably going to make the same mistakes as the last one-- but Iron Man, for all that he's probably not anyone's real favorite, works well in the movies. In a way he is sort of the ultimate James Bond.

"Iron Man" is explode-y and good. Go see it.

I should get back to writing something about the Law sometime. Would it count if I complained about the single-spaced papers I got the other day? What about if I added that the author of these papers turns out to be one of those people who put things between quotation marks for emphasis? Don't you "hate" that? On top of that, this character is one of those people who never learned the rule about "its". Every time he wants to make "it" plural it's like a thumb in the eye. I mean, please. We are in federal court. They have rules about margins, and spacing, and probably about apostrophes. Why hasn't the Clerk of the Court stepped in and done something?

In Bob Dylan related news today, fans of "Theme Time Radio" should check out "Dreamtime-- Commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour". Talk about niche programing, and yet it works. I will absolutely be following up on the recommendation to pick up on the "Invisible Republic" collection.

Dylan's Greenwich Village time is probably the most over-documented phase of his career, but I'm interested to read what Suze Rotolo has to say about it. She has kept her silence well, and if she wants to write about Dylan now, some fifty years on, well it hardly seems as though she is taking advantage of a long-ago lover