LIKED
– Okay, so this isn’t techically “this week,” but damn, do I love my Vivo Barefoots. I got a pair of Dharmas on sale about a month ago and I am pretty sure they are my favorite shoes ever. I put on a pair of Airwalks the other day (and Airwalks are not exactly a big-soled shoe) and they just felt weird, because I’d gotten so used to the natural feeling of walking in the Vivos. I definitely feel my posture’s improved as a result of them, too. Indeed: best shoes ever. I need to get more of these.
– Also I like drinking beer and lookin’ at titties. (I feel the need to mention these after posting about a pair of shoes.)
– Finally read The Umbrella Academy: Dallas and Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba are definitely taking their story to a new level; it’s ambitious in a way that most superhero-ish comics just aren’t, weird and gloriously creative, creepy in all the right ways and never in the wrong ones. Have you not read Umbrella Academy? You are missing out on a comic book that has talking chimps for no discernible reason and where they must kill John F. Kennedy to save the world.
DIDN’T LIKE
– Finally went to a Pillowfight League event, and… I’m putting it in the “all hype” category. It’s funny for about five minutes, and then you realize they’re gonna do it for another forty-five minutes, and you die inside. It’s one joke, and although the girls are clearly doing their best to make the joke as good as possible, one joke is still one joke.Plus, the only beer at the event was Pabst Blue Ribbon. I don’t think I have to say much more than that.
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Amen to Umbrella Academy. It had a fair amount of attention given to it, but then Dallas went right under most people’s radar when it was coming out in single issues. Fortunately people seem to be paying attention to it again now that the trades’ out.
I admit I was getting a little turned off by the comic’s reliance on blood and violence–I feel like that stuff is ruining DC and Marvel, and Umbrella Academy was so witty and imaginative and poingant in the early going that I didn’t feel it needed to go to that well as often as it does. But there’s no denying that Hazel and Cha Cha are just freaking brilliant, and they have to be violent to be as funny as they are, so I’m cool with that.
Damn, do I love me some Umbrella Academy. One of my favourite things ever.
So the moral is “Don’t PBR MGK ASAP”.
I read the first volume of Umbrella Academy and was underwhelmed by it. It’s weird, but it often just feels gratuitously weird, and I didn’t feel much connection to any of the characters.
Umbrella Academy: Dallas would be the best book of the year if Atomic Robo wasn’t so damn good, too.
The audience were all shifting uncomfortably in their tight black trousers, white belts, and Cosby sweaters while they sought to out-do each other with cuttingly snarky comments?
Dude, the PFL got _so_ much better after you left. I know you won’t believe me, but that’s okay, it’s true.
I’ve never heard of a Pillowfight League. Do people actually pay money to see that?
I’ve never heard of those shoes you mention, either. Until I got to the word ‘shoes’ at the end of the second sentence I was really confused as to what you were talking about.
The only issue of Umbrella Academy I’ve read was the free one from a couple of years ago. The thing that impressed me was a girl called Rumour. That has got to be one of the coolest super-powers ever. I did think it was a bit violent for a silly book, though. And the art was ghastly. I’ve always been one to care far more about writing than art in comic books, but you have to draw the line somewhere, and that issue at least, failed to meet even the most minimal professional standards.
Dollars to donuts Pabst sponsored that event. Pabst Blue Ribbon has probably the sneakiest marketing of any beer company – they’re owned by a conglomerate alongside a dozen-odd “traditional” regional beers (like Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Olympia, and Lone Star), whose profit strategy consists of A) change nothing, and B) spend next to nothing on marketing. They don’t buy commercial time, they don’t solicit banner ads, they don’t put their name on neon clocks and concerts, the PBR promo van doesn’t drive around metro areas and college campuses. All they do is sponsor rollergirl derbies, bicycle rallies, skateboarding parties, or Cross-stitch Mud-wrestling or whatever monstrous sport the hipsters have come up with this time. In other words: they know exactly who their customer base is, and they’re doing what it takes to keep them.
ooh, Vivo Barefoots – I also have a pair, and I have also noticed everything that you mentioned, especially the weirdness of going back to other shoes. Although it is nice to get back those extra couple inches.
You should go all the way and get a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. They make you feel like a superhero, because your feet are telling you you’re barefoot, but nothing is hurting! Best shoes ever.
I’m sorry, did someone just call the art in Umbrella Academy “ghastly”? I didn’t just imagine that, right? Someone just dissed the art of one of the most beautifully drawn comics currently being published?
This is the problem with superhero fans, they’re programmed like lab rats to accept one type of thing in both writing and art, and any deviation from that confuses and frightens them.
Unfortunately they also make you look like a Muppet.
So you can be a character in my new movie: Muppet Watchmen.
Funny, I haven’t seen my friends’ feet flopping around after their body when they wear those.
Yeah, not liking Gabriel Ba is mind-boggling.
I really don’t understand how Ba’s art could be considered “ghastly”. His two page spreads are absolutely stunning and make me drool.
I said I’d only seen the free issue from a few years ago. The art was ghastly in that one. It could very well be much better in other issues. I wouldn’t know.