#317. Yoshimi, Comic Books, Your Face Tomorrow, Jabroni Companion

#317.

I've slowed a little, recently, working around my Mouldwarp family of blogs, but I'm always the scouring kind.  I've been working at the conclusion of Yoshimi (hopefully to be first-draft-finished by the end of next week), so I'll use that as my excuse.

Sigild V did recently see my "Occupy Wall Street" story completed in five acts, and there has been a little bit of interest from readers, probably more or on par with my most popular writing to date in that forum.

Comics Reader has easily seen the most activity in recent weeks, with some feverish manipulation of my regular schedule, so that it has sometimes been possible to read the regular Reader column and the Quarter Bin column in the same week, plus some specials like another look at Green Lantern, and shout-out to Karl Kesel's web activities, and an earlier review of the graphic novel Dear Creature.  Most recently I've talked about Grant Morrison's inspirations from the Black Casebook trade collection, and will very soon be talking about the 1980s trial of Barry Allen.

Hub City hasn't really caught on with readers, but I'm continuing to plug away at it, listing books from my personal library, the Reading List, and thoughts on Your Face Tomorrow, the latest of some modern literary classics I wish everyone were aware of.

Fan Companion continues, still discussing professional wrestling.  Readership on this blog has slowed considerably.  I'm not sure if it's because of the wrestling talk or what, but I did have for an extended period some lightly feverish reading of my Star Trek fan thoughts, which launched the blog last year, while the Film Fan was a fairly successful follow-up.  I guess I'll wait and see about this one.

I'm not sure if it's because I made a Google profile recently or not, but I've had some huge spikes of interest here at Scouring Monk, the most of all the blogs, which hasn't exactly translated to business throughout the whole family.  I guess that's another thing I'll just have to accept.

#316. Occupy Wall Street

#316.

I've concluded my "Occupy Wall Street" story at Sigild V, rounding out a look at four representative figures of the movement from a literary standpoint, plus an investigator's impressions following the central assassination event.

I myself have not attended any OWS-type rallies or gatherings, but being unemployed since the end of Borders and enjoying unemployment so thoroughly, I can certainly sympathize with those frustrated to an apparent breaking point with the economic situation in America (and elsewhere), who feel they've been overlooked, ignored, and marginalized by those in power, both in government and the general job market.  No, Americans are not generally considered among the most impoverished and disadvantaged peoples, and perhaps it's for that very reason that those who represent us should insist on the highest quality of fair play among the citizens, so that everyone has an equal chance to succeed without fear of unreasonable restrictions and artificial limitations that harass development and potential, so that even those immediately qualified to succeed at a basic level are denied their ability to make a living in a manner of their choosing.

#315. Flawless Kitty Logic Returns

#315.

Flawless Kitty Logic

When considering possible solutions to a problem,

probable outcomes are not a necessary factor.  So,

stealing a toy blaster to battle invading ants

does not require any thought to said blaster's

effectiveness, nor the ultimate fate of blaster.

It's the thought that counts!

#314. Halloween

#314.

Happy Halloween!  I am seriously writing this in a Starfleet (circa TNG) costume I originally wore in grade school.  It still (mostly) fits.  But it's not the most comfortable thing in the world.  I hope the chitlens appreciate it later.

(For the record, I did grow considerably since grade school.  I suspect it may have been fairly large originally.  Or it stretches a lot.)

#313. Tie

#313.

So, a week of some setbacks did produce one glowing victory:

I tied my first tie.

In the words of the late Harvey Pekar, "Today I am a man!"

#312. Cardinals 2011 World Series Champions

#312.

The Flawless Kitty says, thank you very much.  Congratulations, Cardinals!

#311. Hub City, Occupy Wall Street, Jabroni Companion, Flashpoint, Message Boards, Good Reads

#311.

Just some quick updates about current activity around my family of blogs...

Hub City continues to host the Reading List, recently featuring Dave Barry, Roberto Bolano, and Javier Marias's Your Face Tomorrow. 

Sigild has begun a special Occupy Wall Street series, a literary look at some of the influences that have brought that group/movement together.

Fan Companion continues to talk professional wrestling, with recent topics revisiting the Nexus and JBL (a "Wrestling God").

Comics Reader just looked at a completely different Flashpoint mini-series.

I've also recently begun posting at the WrestleView message boards, and continue to visit the Comic Book Resources forums, to the possible regret of some members. 

Also, got a Good Reads profile, maybe establish my writerly credentials a little.

Also, debuted Flawless Kitty Logic here at Scouring Monk a few days ago, which will probably reappear.  Because cats possess flawless kitty logic!

#310. Lost Hangover

#310.

This has been a pretty interesting year for the creators of Lost.  Damon Lindelof was involved in Cowboys & Aliens, which in some ways might be considered his own interpretation of what that series might have been.  J.J. Abrams delivered Super 8, which again shared similar themes.

Now we have ABC's Once Upon a Time from Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and it happens to feature a girl who had to give her special child up for adoption.  Hey, I'm just sayin'...If you think this one's just about fairy tales, definitely pay attention to the Kitsis/Horowitz/Lost connection.  It's more relevant than you might think.  The pilot episode is a little slow to start off, but it definitely builds, which is interesting.  I have to imagine, given this pattern, that the show will probably be pretty good overall.  We'll see.

#309. Flawless Kitty Logic

#309.

Flawless Kitty Logic:

With a convincing performance in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series, Albert Pujols guarantees victory for the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he'll be happy to resign. And Mark McGwire will no longer be a black sheep in baseball. Also, something about rally squirrels distracting pesky dogs permanently.

#308. Bobby Roode

#308.

Just wanted to comment on the new TNA champion.

Since Sunday I've heard bitching and moaning over the fact that Bobby Roode didn't beat Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory. It was absurd, because 1) there was really no reason for it and 2) Roode probably wasn't the guy to win that match.

So tonight on Impact Wrestling the right man won, and that would be James Storm.

Let me just acknowledge, too, that Angle probably should have won, one way or another, at BFG, simply for his appearance in this year's best movie, Warrior, the story of two brothers who compete in a massive MMA tournament, which Angle's character is favored to win, being the fearsome Russian Koba (Kurt has no real lines in the movie, for the record).

In using a tag team like Beer Money during a time when audiences and fans should be remembering Angle in Warrior (I say should because very few people have seen it, and even critics have been douchebags about it), TNA was far more ingenious than anyone is ready to admit.

Throughout the tournament the company held for the championship opportunity at BFG, TNA seemed to be going any number of ways with the winner, before settling on Roode and Storm in the finals. This ostensibly set Roode up to be the man, the homegrown hero TNA fans could cheer. When he lost on Sunday, some fans felt cheated (TNA "fans" and wrestling fans in general who like to feel cheated).

So to pull the trigger less than a week later on his partner, who frankly has more charisma, is a pretty awesome irony.

As for how long and how far Storm can go, only the future knows.

(For the record, my sister, who is a casual viewer and didn't really know any of this, she thought Storm's win was unimpressive, and considers him a Stone Cold knockoff.)

Storm's superkick-out-of-nowhere, by the way, is very appropriate for anything with a Warrior shine on it.

(Seriously, watch Warrior!)

#307. Spider-Man, Dear Creature, John Morrison

#307.

Just some quick notes:

Completing my Sigild Spider-Man saga, Just Imagine Tony Creating...The Amazing Spider-Man is what I might have done with a fourth Raimi-verse film (and has no judgment intended concerning the upcoming reboot).

At Comics Reader, I reviewed Dear Creature, at the prompting of creator Jonathan Case. I haven't done one of these prompted write-ups since the the Paperback Reader days. It felt good, especially for the Comics Reader blog.

In wrestling thoughts, I wonder if John Morrison is just getting the brush-off from his contract expiring soon, or if he's in the midst of a major new push. On Monday, he looked like a modern Bret Hart. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

#306. Hub City, Yoshimi, TV, Wrestling, New 52

#306.

Hub City is humming along nicely (new addition to the Reading List up today, for those keeping score). Maybe it's insane to try and maintain a billion separate blogs, but so far it seems to be working. Probably doesn't hurt that I'm also looking for a job at the moment.

I'm also spending some of that time working on Yoshimi, including three days of 10,000 words each, which is pretty remarkable, considering I could sometimes struggle to fill my old pace of 1,667 (NaNoWriMo), and scramble like mad when needing to catch up for several days. Well, I guess the more experience I get writing, the more I can write in a single day. Yay for progress!

The new TV season has been a little interesting on my end. I've been staying with my sister since Borders bit the silver bullet, so some of my habits have changed. I haven't watched many of the new shows (Person of Interest being the one I was always most keenly interested in, conveniently enough). I also haven't really had an opportunity to watch Raising Hope or Community, either, the latter because it plays at the same time as The Big Bang Theory, which is something of a family obsession. That also means I haven't seen The New Girl yet, even though that's another new one I'm keen to see.

I watch How I Met Your Mother on Mondays, plus WWE Raw, The Biggest Loser, NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles on Tuesdays, Survivor (down with Hanz family! up with Mustache Rick!) and Criminal Minds on Wednesdays, TBBT and as much TNA Impact as I can on Thursdays, WWE Smackdown and Fringe on Fridays, and then The Amazing Race on Sundays.

I haven't seen Terra Nova yet, for any number of reasons. I still think I'd enjoy it, but part of me looks at previews for the newer episodes and sees Earth 2 kind of written all over it. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you.

Haven't seen a movie since the terrific Warrior. Examiner.com wonders when I'll see something else. I wonder when Examiner.com will pay more than a few cents into my account.

The whole walkout thing on Raw this past Monday is certainly interesting. It's a direct extension of what CM Punk made possible a couple of months ago (quite frankly), but his presence is a little on the backburner at the moment. Maybe that'll change soon.

Jeff Hardy's return to TNA will certainly prove interesting. Will people actually give him a chance? Wisely, TNA is making his return all about that. I expect Bobby Roode to beat Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory, but I wish the company had a different homegrown star they could be elevating for the first time. The whole card looks pretty spectacular, even the "fight" between Sting and Hogan. TNA has done a pretty good job in recent months making things that work for them actually work for them. Hopefully they will get over that hump and be accepted as a legitimate rival to WWE by the wider wrestling community.

ROH, meanwhile, also looks like it's doing the right things with its new TV deal, even if it's making wrestling observers question them by pushing Haas & Benjamin as one of their most visible components. You'd think those fans would be happy, because the World's Greatest Tag Team is finally getting the respect they deserve, from a company that can really appreciate them. But we are talking wrestling fans here...

My enjoyment of DC's New 52 has been handicapped by not technically making money, so I haven't been able to keep up with all the comics I'd like to. That and Heroes & Dragons apparently doesn't see the wisdom in stocking the hot new relaunch they themselves are promoting in their store. If I were at the other end of Colorado Springs right now, the situation would be different, at least halfway. Escape Velocity is doing its best to keep up. Well, I'm going to try on Wednesday at Heroes to catch James Robinson's The Shade #1. Wish me luck...

#305. Hub City

#305.

Okay, so I've begun another spin-off blog, Hub City, all about my love of books, which will now house my Reading List, which has been a feature of Scouring Monk for the past few years. Like Comics Reader, it also features a strong link to Amazon.com, including my new Austen Paradise bookstore, which is located at the bottom of the page. The origin of Austen Paradise is a long and complicated one, just something that started to dawn on me the longer I worked at Borders. I read Pride & Prejudice in college, and then just a few months earlier Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, so I knew of Jane Austen's rich skills as a writer, and her enduring appeal in the world of literature. But I began noticing just how many books Borders had that had been directly inspired by her writing, spin-off that imagined what happened next, or delved deeper into characters like Mr. Darcy (on whose legacy the career of Colin Firth continues to rest, Oscar or no). I dreamed of opening a physical bookstore where I could sell these books directly, which gave birth to a wider idea of a store that catered to literary tastes, the idea behind the name "Hub City" itself (comics readers will known The Question called that place home). The blog and the online storefront, then, are my first steps toward making that dream a reality. Hopefully there are readers out there who find merit in all of this...

#304. Comics Reader, Fan Companion, Sigild V

#304.

Last Friday I revamped the functionality of my three spin-off blogs, Comics Reader, Fan Companion, and Sigild V. I made it slightly easier to navigate each of them, including lists of the most-read posts (which was especially relevant to Fan Companion. Comics Reader, additionally, now sports some direct Amazon.com links, showcasing some of my favorite graphic novels, ones I've talked directly about on the blog, in the hopes of driving sales and establishing it as a destination for serious fans.

I haven't exactly lit the Interweb on fire with the traffic my blogs have attracted, but without any considerable advertising, they have still managed to attract a steady stream of readers, which is certainly something I'm proud about, and extremely thankful to those who've taken the time to check out what I've written. The Fan Companion is the oldest spin-off, now a year old, while I've been maintaining each of them throughout 2011 on a regular basis.

#303. Sigild V, Comics Reader, Jabroni Companion, Warrior

#303.

Some of the recent activity from around my blogs and somesuch:

Just Imagine Tony Creating...Spider-Man 3 from the Sigild V short story blog. This one's the conclusion of three entries that feature a version of what I would've done with the three Sam Raimi movies, given the same general premises but with an increasingly divergent result. The first is basically an origin story that only brings Peter to becoming Spider-Man at the end. The second retains Dr. Octopus but continues the themes and plots from the first installment as well. This conclusion brings Green Goblin back as the primary foe, includes the famous death of Gwen Stacy, and suggests a possible continuation with Kraven the Hunter.

Stars be my destiny from the Comics Reader blog. This is my ode to James Robinson's Starman, maybe a decade and a half late. The link helps explain why.

Jabroni Companion #22 from the Fan Companion blog. Here I continue my series talking about professional wrestlers (topics this time include AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar, Booker T, Scott Steiner, Lex Luger, and Too Cool). In the past, as readers are apparently continually rediscovering, I've written about Star Trek, as well as movies. Which leads us to:

Warrior is the best movie of the year, my latest article for Examiner. As you can tell, I really liked the movie. Over at my Facebook account, A.C. Hall, from the world-famous Hall Bros. Entertainment, publishers of my upcoming book Yoshimi, chimed in and agreed with my modest assessment. Not too bad!

#302. Reading List: Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic

#302.

Finished Bright Shiny Morning pretty quickly. James Frey is a great writer. Not sure I would actually want to hang out with him, though. Who knows?

Next on the Reading List:

Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones. I obsessed over this book for years, scouring used book shops and having absolutely no luck, having passed on its original publishing in 1997. Regular bookstores don't carry it, naturally (which always baffled me). Finally found it at Poor Richards in Colorado Springs last year, and now am finally going to read it. (!!!)

#301. Reading List: Bright Shiny Morning

#301.

Just submitted a story to a Glimmer Train contest. One slight problem here is that I submitted the same story to Hall Bros. Hopefully everything'll sort itself out...

Next on the Reading List:

Bright Shiny Morning from James Frey, a writer who was publically hosed by Oprah a few years back. This book was his comeback, and notably did not receive near as much attention as the inciting material, which is a real shame, because true literary fiction deserves to have trumpets heralding its arrival. It appears this really is one of those works.

#300. Reading List: Star Trek

#300.

Good news! I've been blogging here at Scouring Monk for a decade, and have just reached three hundred posts!

In slightly less pathetic news, I've got a new book in the Reading List:

Star Trek novelization by Alan Dean Foster. Back in 2005, I would have been devastated to learn that the next Star Trek movie would be a reboot. I did and still do love the Star Trek franchise with about as much totality as you can get (onscreen version, anyway), as readers who keep digging up the the Fan Companion at said blog can attest. I originally posted a season-by-season, series-by-series, film-by-film review of the franchise last year, but I keep getting hits. I don't mind! Anyway, when I learned that J.J. Abrams, genius behind Alias, Lost, and Fringe, not to mention Super 8 and Cloverfield, would be helming it, my apprehension quickly turned to enthusiasm. I wasn't disappointed. So it's another nice little diversion to read this novelization, too.

This past Wednesday was my last-ever day working for Borders. I purchased The Beaufort Diaries and Charles Simic's Master of Disguises, the last things I'll ever buy from the store. (I bought too much from the liquidation process, but these were only a dollar each!) So long, valiant crew and faithful customers of Borders 500 in Colorado Springs!

#299. Reading List: Heidegger & a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates, The Dark Knight

#299.

The Reading List continues:

Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, a stroll through philosophical ideas about life, the universe, and everything. Loved the jokes!

The Dark Knight novelization by Dennis O'Neil. The movie was instantly one of my all-time favorite movies. I don't expect O'Neil's book to quite reach a comparable level, but it's always fun to read these things (not that I do it that often).

The John Adams book, meanwhile, was pretty interesting, a nice little consolidation of American history from around his lifetime and times, if a little dry on analysis. I'd call him an inconvenient pragmatist!

#298. Fan Musings, CM Punk, Finnegan

#298.

I realize I have a whole blog dedicated to fan musings, currently set directly at pro wrestling, but I figure I can still indulge a thought or two here at the main blog...

Picked up the Money in the Bank PPV last weekend, this year's stellar CM Punk renaissance event, but was actually more impressed at how much Randy Orton has been flourishing at reinventing himself on Smackdown. I'm one of those weird people you seldom hear about, I don't have cable, so, as with wrestling in general, I haven't seen Smackdown since it went off free TV (and doesn't it figure? ROH will be available in Maine, where I lived for the first quarter century of my life, but not here in Colorado). That's good news, because he was incredibly stale last year, even as WWE champion during the height of the Nexas angle (which again was just weird).

Also, had a chance to resubmit Finnegan to McSweeney's with the revisions I did earlier this year. Hopefully good things will come of it.