What's syncopantic?
Tuesday, 30 September 2003
Five days later and a message left to die on an office voice mail arrives in the form of a letter addressed to someone with a familiar sounding name. Familiar if the sounds of such were garbled and the vocal chords at the time were reeling from the pain of closing in on an earpiece turned with a layer of suspicious specks of skin or wax.
Saturday, 27 September 2003
Finally things came to a conclusion for hyped ads proclaiming the major death of one of the players in Alias. In the end it wasn't much comfort with an out like it was. At least the continuity of the show was like times of old. Here, there and a little like Black Panther.
Tension, sweat and stress were high watching the finale of The Amazing Race. Reichen & Chip versus Kelly & Jon. Jeff & Dave took a plane to Sydney thinking that Cairns—first they pronounced Brisbane "bris-bane" and then Cairns "karns" —was like one of the regional airports in some other country. It was just a gameshow, but all that orchestral music didn't help with the nerves.
And somehow another late night/early morning crept up again and on was the Witchblade with Yancy Butler as Sara Pezzini and eyebrows that make the scenes look comedic. In the comicbook, the gauntlet covers the entire naked body with tendrils. Yet in the show, an actual knight in shining armour comes by walking around the place like M.A.N.T.I.S or Guyver. Strange for even that time of the day.
Speaking of getting lost in a world, the voice over and host in For Love or Money are absolutely insane. One. Million. Dollars. Worse than any parody of William Shatner's Kirk. The commercial interrupts make no sense either what with the booming voice of impending doom for the format.
But earlier, with the Thaals trying to negotiate a deal with the Daleks in Doctor Who only to have their spokesman buzzed down in the prime of his radioactive life, the laundry called to be hauled in and the time left back met a camera that wasn't able to fix onto any of the faces of the four travellers. Too high, too to the left, too shaky, like an operator on their last legs due to overexposure of radiation levels.
Friday, 26 September 2003
Time out and comicbooks were gearing for a reading, with a new found segment of the day being the morning, that left only the decision to select a few to read. Spider-Man was given to overload with half of the monthly buys featuring the webslinger.
Ultimate Six #1 was no different. At least as it was on the cover. The villains were from the rogue's gallery of Spider-Man and into a mental massage standing around. Had to swap this one for one that wasn't so creased. The cover felt okay, but still a little flimsy.
Compared to Wildguard: Casting Call #1 it was pretty naked. Thick at 48 pages and no ads in this Idol-style superhero team. Read okay up until the end with the preformed badguys' dialogue. The website asks for votes into the fifth member, the comic just came out and already they have four? Segmented Man probably didn't make their cut. Maybe Travel Agent could.
Then, on the same day as the Image, Crossgen's, El Cazador #1. Pirates in a comicbook, felt like a story that needed to be read twice just to feel like a buy worth having. At least the back up end pieces were okay.
Might have to pick up the second issue of each of these to double check. Since The Crew looks to be wrapping up, might as well spend some time trying to find a non-Marvel comic. At least until the 2002-03 run of Peter Parker and Amazing Spider-Man are done.
Savage Dragon looks tempting.
Wednesday, 24 September 2003
These public phones are a scary frontier. All manner of coughs and sneezes collecting on the mouthpiece and left to solidify. Even worse is when the receiver is white or cream plastic. The earpiece manages to turn a colour of brown or darkly stained yellow. Ear wax? The act of making out a phone call to note it on a form leaves reeling the sense of wearing someone else's skin. Cleaning it wouldn't be that hard.
Tuesday, 23 September 2003
An instore at a comic store without a light box out front presented itself with the opportunity to collect the signature of Mark Bagley, artist of such comicbooks as New Warriors, Thunderbolts, and most impressively, Spider-Man.
In the line around the store, wedged between a slathering mess and an unkempt hippie reeking of fanboy sweat, the movement of the queue moved fairly smoothly. Two items and no more, photos with the man optional.
A lot of the guys had the red cover version of Ultimate Spider-Man #1. But, not to be swayed by any sort of logic—the comic is supposed to have at one stage hit the $500 mark—pulled out the rare white cover version. One previously signed by series writer Brian Michael Bendis. Bagley was about to sign over the top of Bendis! only to pull a stop to the heart skip and mark Bagley!! just under the writer. Two down, one to go.
Friday, 19 September 2003
On a harddrive in a tower or cage of metal are around 300 mp3s on nothing more than theme songs for TV and cartoons. Dr Who has a couple and finally, with the return on ABC, starting from the glorious black and white Dr Who of Will Hartnell at least there's a point to place in the listening on hours end. The theme song was always pretty spooky, but the show itself is a lark.
Andrew Firestone's reign as The Bachelor came to an end and surprisingly, unlike other finale shows that haven't been watched, this was pretty nice. Found out a long time ago who the bride to be was but forgot and didn't pick it until a certain look in the kitchen popped up.
Wednesday, 17 September 2003
Getting edgy, watching the line slowly crawl along with an even edgier security guard. Only two spots ahead in the line, fixated on a slight dent in the nose of a blond who once had a nose ring. Too much time spent staring in the one spot meant it looked like an ogle. Teller time came up and unlike everyone else who leans over looking for a rest a short pace was taken, a pace that involved walking away from the counter window. As soon as the back was facing the trainee's red head, a snappy little command and plea shouted over asking for patience again. Seats lined the wall that looked like a temporary destination while the deposit was made. Edgy little teller.
Tuesday, 16 September 2003
As The Price is Right ran through the showcase they kept focussing on an elderly woman clutching her bunched up face. Pensioner's windfall getting up and making the show a little more cruel than usual. Then, striking the magic number of $25802, a handlebar moustache named Peter stepped up the big board. The old lady in the audience was his mother. Looking defiantly proud as he relayed her choice the hopes were struck down with 3 and 4 sharing a large gap of about $1300. It was all over the place and the woman named Edith looked devastated.
Just a little earlier in the show a woman was trying to decide what items to buy to creep closer to the $10.50. One of her friends were motioning toward the option of buying a bottle of shake and bake pancake mix.
Friday, 12 September 2003
First ever time watching a film on a Wednesday and it wasn't one wasted. Massive urge to enunciate Caribbean, Caribbean with everyone else saying it as Caribbean.
Funny.
Never quite gotten around to watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, caught a few scenes and almost looked as if the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson was coming through in Capt. Jack Sparrow. Stayed around until the very end with a good number of other people also for some reason back in the seats not really expecting that little grab at the ending, but then the lights were out and that's an indication of a promise.
Kah-rib-be-un vs Care-uh-bee-ann.
Friday, 12 September 2003
Settled in a breathing skull to watch The Amazing Race 4 pull up a loose foot race between Millie & Chuck and Jon & Kelly.
The Chronicle: News From the Edge had a headless biker from hell like Ghost Rider and Chris Elliot was on The Late Show with David Letterman about something if it was anything at all.
The TV guide was nearby and a shaky feel of the carpet crawling up the walls was an okay sign to stay on a little more to see just if it was the Witchblade telemovie with Yancy Butler. A movie based on the Top Cow comic of the mystical gauntlet that finds a chosen woman and strips her bare in order for the power to be fully utilised.
The carpet looked like jumping down from the ceiling to wrap in a blanket of carbon dioxide to knock in some sleep.
Friday, 12 September 2003
An opportunity arose to rummage through the boxes under the back issues, boxes with comics marked 50¢. Nothing came in for either the US held Labor Day or the standing order didn't pull down anything for the week's release. A chance to check out just what fell out of the way.
Scores of Thundercats looking like they never even lasted a week on the regular stands as normal back issues. Should have waited until they hit these boxes instead of buying them and never getting around to reading them due to a convoluted stacking system and dental floss covering the dust. Previously expensive 411 prose pieces from Marvel that were given the boot because not a single person wanted to even pick them up. Just like Killeroo. Seemingly justly. Glances were given to The Maxx and Savage Dragon and a handful of other comics. Racked up only five dollars at the counter.
Biggest ever haul of comics for one week cost only about half the price of a regular two on any other week. Might not get a reading until 2004, if at all.
Tuesday, 9 September 2003
A lazy eyeball saw a few minutes of Lateline with guest host Maxine McKew along with studio guest Tanya Plibersek from Labor and via feed in the Adelaide studios, Christopher Pyne from the Liberals. The liberal was absolutely frothing at the mouth ranting and raving delivering an answer that wasn't even related semantically with the question thrown into the air. Feeling paranoid and marginalised, Pyne would chew up the entire question doing the standard dodging and protesting the lack of talk time despite for the rest of the 80% he did use. Plibersek asked a simple question and Pyne let out a cry of unfairness about being in another studio in another state all while giving off the air that his pretense was masking a supposed unwillingness to do what he'd probably do in a heartbeat, use other people's money for a free trip.
Saturday, 6 September 2003
Winding up somehow in the city missing out on Alias, to watch a thriller of a viral nature. Not exactly post-apocalyptic, still rather lonely in a world decimated by rage. Kookiness in the infected who sound like they want to hock something big, bad and nasty from their toes. Funny, fast and free. The alternate ending was there for the folks who didn't forget about staying behind. When that finished, yet another bout of laughter as it felt like what must have been the first time many have stayed around for the disclaimers at the end.
Wednesday, 3 September 2003
Getting to the cinema, the kids starting filling up faster and faster, the booster seats were running out and arses were going hungry. Then the lights dimmed and the trailers started. One after the other, G and PG rated films went on by, one of which was Brother Bear. The joke was good the first time so someone thought about showing the trailer twice, and then the movie finally made its way into the eyeballs of the rapturous crowd.
A hapless snowman in a snow globe started things off with Knick Knack, fun in a dome for all of its short few minutes.
Throughout the entirety of Finding Nemo, the parents kept on pointing to the screen and calling out "Nemo!" whenever a clownfish was spotted. They were only right two thirds of the time.
A teenage girl on the right couldn't decided on whether or not it was the right kind of weather for a top with sleeves. Clothes on, clothes off, making up her mind was hard to do.
Forget the stunning visuals, the movie is pretty funny and ties up rather nicely. One point of contention lies in the credit roll. Unlike the treats from previous PIXAR outings, no out-takes. Sad that.
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
One reason for spending someone else's weekly train ticket, other than the intended movie about a kidnapped fish, was the chance to spend some unearned money on a few items to a useless degree at The Comic Shop. Getting there just a half hour after opening, the move toward the film first was met with a sickening feeling of regret and lost opportunity. Worse than bombing yet another interview, a chance lost due to hours passed on snatching an extremely cool Phantom bust. Another fleeting pass was given to the newly arrived T3 action figure 4-pack. So packaged due to the rarity of the Terminatrix.
That was on the weekend.
Checking back after another horrendous bout of thermal printouts, the T3 4-pack was there on the rack. Hidden, it seems, from the sale's discount of 50% which would have seen the four taken away for only $60. Another bit of relief was that the Phantom would be on reorder. More time to mull over the merits of spending some money on a character for absolutely no reason other than to feel like one of the enslaved.
Tuesday, 2 September 2003
Elemunk scrambles the loose connections bouncing about the mind of Soon Van.
Feel free to ask questions on any topic. Or spend some quality killswitch time poking about reading the vintage synapses
Or maybe a torrid trail of job interviews?
Elementary Funk by Soon Van is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Feel free to read up on the scope of the copyright over the posts and photos.
To leave enlightened is to arrive delusional