Where pop culture meets geek culture and they make out a little.
Posts tagged Random Normality
This Week in Normality (Short Edition) — Heroism
Nov 12th
This week’s (shortened) theme was inspired by the following story:
Driving home from Yankee Stadium last night, drunk with power (and champagne!), Girardi stopped to help an accident victim, even though each World Series winner is specifically granted the right to run over one pedestrian, no questions asked.
So here’s what happened. The Yankees, you may or may not have heard, recently won the world series. Joe Girardi is the manager of said Yankees, on his way home from the stadium (after the actual winning of the world series), Girardi drove past a car that had wrecked on the side of the road. He pulled over (keep in mind, this is at 2 in the morning after attaining of the the biggest accomplishments in all of sports) to help the victim.
I’m not sure Deadspin got that last part, about running over a pedestrian, correct but what I can tell you is that, were I someone who had just managed a major league team to a world series victory, I doubt I would have stopped to help an accident victim just hours after my triumph. Likely, I would have laughed at the victim for not being as awesome as me.
My self-serving nature notwithstanding, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to at least offer this small bit of karmic goodness to the universe.
Surprisingly…or not surprisingly…the “submissions” from the other NR staff for this particular theme were particularly lean. So lean, in fact, that we have all of one…even after I allowed for an extended time in which submissions could be, er, submitted.
I don’t know if that speaks poorly about the NR staff, in that we could find almost nothing worth writing about when told to write about Heroism…or if that is a reflection of the greater world, and its lack of heroism. Perhaps it is simply a matter of the topic being too serious minded for us. Or, more likely, everyone (save one contributor) has chosen to abandon me to face the grueling mistress of (quasi)weekly interwebz puclication on my own.
Is not, I ask you, soldiering forth, in the face of overwhelming evidence that you should give up, not heroic in and of itself?
Am I just trying to make myself feel better?
Probably.
This Week in Normality — Things Change, Things Remain the Same…
Nov 3rd
Greetings Faithful Normalinauts,
Consider this week an unofficial/official/unofficial again reboot…sort of. Some time ago we (read: I) decided to start posting content at the beginning of the week to afford the weekend time to write stuff and, theoretically, allow for us (read: me) to write more for the site. Most of my weekday hours are devoted to bookmines duty, teaching, grading, bathing and feeding the kids, etc. After all that, I don’t have the time and/or energy to write anything else. As it is, I’m lucky to get more than 3 hours of sleep a night during the week.
So what the hell does this have to do with this?
This week’s theme, “Things Change, Things Remain the Same…,” is a fairly esoteric one and can be molded to fit any topic, I think, but is particularly appropriate when considering the history of this site. By that I mean, we’ve always gone through stretches of relative silence and stretches of frenzied activity. No doubt this state of affairs will continue until I win the lottery or in some other way become independently wealthy. So while we’ve undergone a lot of changes in the last six months, as always, we remain Normality Restored.
There are some more changes up ahead, not the least of which will involve a lot of begging on my part…but more on that later… Regardless of the changes, or the down time, I want to assure the few of you that have been consistent visitors to this site that it remains a priority for me…even if the kids and jobs must take precedence at times. I ask all Normalinauts out there in cyberspace not to lose hope, for as long as I have breath in my lungs (and the ability to pay the hosting fees) you will always have this little corner of the interwebz to call your own.
Now, I’d like to say that the above impassioned plea/apology/rant was the actual inspiration for this week’s theme, but it was not. In fact, this theme came to me as I pondered, some months ago, the release of The Gathering Storm, the most recent release in The Wheel of Time series that has now been taken over by Brandon Sanderson.
I would go into it in more detail here but that’s actually the focus of one of my articles.
D. Composition illuminates for us a re-discovery from our collective childhoods and a story from his past that was particularly special to him.
Lastly, I consider what it means to re-imagine both a foundation of fantasy literature as we know it…and the most popular contemporary fantasy story…all in the same book.
This Week In Normality – Zombies VS. Vampires
Oct 16th
I suppose it’s a matter of preference when you ask which is better: the Zombie or the Vampire. Both have origins in superstitions and folklore, and both have seen their respective mythologies evolve with the needs of storytellers. The original zombie stories originated in Vodou stories, where witch doctors or priests known as bokors would revive and control the dead. Some of the old vampiric folktales involve bloated corpses visiting their old neighborhoods. Zombies now eat flesh, or brains, or what else? And Vampires dress in leather and vinyl and drink blood?
But who would win in an all out battle between the two? Many would say the Vampire. This makes sense. They have sentience and therefore may understand themselves, thus possessing the ability to influence their enviroment. Zombies as they stand now, well, they are rather one track-minded, aren’t they? Brains, or flesh. The movie “Interview With The Vampire” utilizes conversation for its frame story. Ever sat and listened to a zombie in a movie reflect about themselves? Or sunsets?
Sentience makes the monster. The only zombies that I’ve come across that retain their intelligence are the Marvel Zombies, with guilt-ridden Peter Parker carrying even more angst now that he’s eaten his aunt and wife. Will other storytellers take a note from this cue and explore the possibilities of sentient flesh eaters? I’d like to think so.
In the meantime, who would win between the mindless zombies and the sentient vampires? There are factors to consider here. First, is the battle being decided on who wins supremacy over the food supply? (yes, that’s us folks, being thrown under the bus by yours truly) In a practical perspective, this should be the only battle worth fighting. Which leads me the next scenario: who would win in a world with either an exhausted food supply? (yup, we’re not there anymore, folks)
Zombies, let’s face it, you are the underdog. Your lack of self-awareness and your inability to communicate with one another and thus cooperate in a sustained group effort might be sending you the way of extinction as the Vampires coordinate your demise. Of course, whether or not vampires are successful is irrelevant, as they’ll be starving. See, your bad meat with very contaminated blood, dear zombie. I suppose both of you will lose in the end, since eventually there won’t be any food for either one of you. Yet, therein lies your victory, zombie. Your lack of intelligence will make you unaware of this, while the vampire will get to reflect on every last spasm of hunger pains in their bodies.
For those who have seen Zombieland, which rule was it that said you should always enjoy the little things?
With that, Killian offers us a series of confessions which I guarantee you, folks, I will personally ensure he does not forget the error of admitting this to anyone.
D. Composition meditates on both the vampire and the zombie in pop culture.
And while I might have something else to add later on, I now turn the discussion over to you, the Normalinauts. I’ve briefly explored one Zombie VS. Vampire scenario, but I say let’s open this up for discussion. As a matter of fact, I say let’s have a contest.
This Week in Normality — Epic Death **Updated with Comic!**
Jul 17th
Next week brings upon us lowly mortals the annual nerdvana lovingly known as the San Diego Comic Convention. While you can rest assured that next week’s installment of NR will, of course, be focused on said convention, we thought that, as a lead in, why not devote this week to the theme of Epic Death, a tried and true comic book convention if ever there was one.
Not coincidentally, much of this week’s offererings focus on that media.
Stoker brings us a review of Chew #1, and a list of the top ten epic deaths from comicdom.
Not to be outdone, Mustardseed shares his thoughts on Grant Morrison’s Final Crises series.
Jezmon, taking a break from all things Star Wars, breaks down the new Harry Potter film.
And for you, faithful Normalinauts, I humbly submit a review of the Chuck Hogan and Guillermo Del Toro Vampire Novel, The Strain, a “review” of Percival Everett’s new novel I Am Not Sidney Poitier, and consider the new summer television show Merlin.
See how there aren’t any links for my articles is only one link for my articles? That’s because I suck and they aren’t complete right now, when everything else is going live…so stay tuned, and I promise to have my shiznit done tonight…
hugs
Yes, for anyone who’s interested, there will be an actual comic for this week. Unfortunately, schedules and stars have not aligned properly yet to make it reality at this exact mintue. But soon[ish]. Comic is up!
One of the reasons that this is so is because I’ve been bogged down with the insane and awful prospect of having to move, yet again. April December and I have only been in our place for what is less than 3 months right now, and because we’re not fucking assholes, have agreed to try and help our landlords in their urgent need to sell the house we live in, in order for said landlords to not get sucked completely into financial ruin. We have found another place, not in Mount Washington but in Pasadena. The new house is awesome in an entirely different way than our current one. Sadly, we’re still waiting for our landlords to pay-up the money they owe us (and is due no later than today) which will be needed for the move by our target date of Aug 1st… we’ll see if they come through. In my head it could go either way, and I’m so tired of fighting with them, that I’m really hoping they don’t fuck up.
Also to add to the growing pile of too-much-going-on, San Diego International Comic Con. Or, how it is locally known: Nerd Prom (also, as SDCC for short). Because of the sudden need to move (again. 10 months before we were even considering it) April December and I were not sure that we would be able to attend. However, for this, I do have good news! Although our original plans of full, four-day attendance are still sunk, we will be there on Sat and Sun it looks like, which will allow us to see a lot of people we don’t get to see very often, and be at a con again. I apparently (without previous knowledge, except thanks to Drew Rausch) been listed on the SLG signing schedule. I will still be signing at SLG as far as I know, likely on Sat, possibly on Sun, for The Cemeterians. I will post an update when I know the details for that. Otherwise, we will hopefully be talking to the folks who are set to publish my next Graphic Novel (tentative/working/project-only-and-will-likely-change title: Dorothy) as well as some other great folks in the industry.
Nerd Prom is upon us, much faster than we could imagine, and there is still much to do. With that, I must away myself to said things.
SLG booth (#1815, right next to the DC Compound). Current times listed on the SLG site, and blogs are probably not accurate for me right now. Will list updated times as I discover them.
I love you all,
PS
Will update later as I said when I have details for Nerd Prom, SLG signing, and when the comic for this week is uploaded.