Bottomless Links: The Ho Ho Ho Edition

Holiday Tunage

Kellen muses about Vince Guaraldi's genius soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas." (a personal fav of mine too!)

Came across this blog dedicated entirely to Christmas music on record. I now feel very inspired to dig up my 1983 Care Bear Christmas album and play it on my record player.

Winter Wonderlands

Neil posted some beautiful pics of his Midwest home in the snow.

... so did Swinebread in Portland.

Holiday Inspiration

from Races In Places encouraging you to run off those holiday cookies!

Bottomless Links: The Superchick Edition

I haven't bought a comic book in over a month.

It makes me sad and I miss them. But hey, times are tough and it's just too hard to go into Midtown and buy just one.

And then I hear news about cancellations and I get even sadder.

Word came out a few days ago that DC was canceling not only Batman spin-offs Nightwing and Robin, but also my beloved Birds of Prey. Reports are not sure whether these cancellations are in order to tie into Grant Morrison's Batman R.I.P. or just a result of bad sales. Either way, I may have to dig through the couch cushions for enough change to buy the remaining few BOP issues.

Sad as I am, this commercial cheered me up:



Now I'm sure this commercial offended some people, but I make no apologies. I love Christina Aguilera and if any celeb was going to make a comic book reference, it may as well be her!

Speaking of celebs as superheroes, I learned from Occasional Superheroine that Beyonce is vying for the role of Wonder Woman. Matt Brady reports further at Newsarama.

My take? If the still unannounced movie is going to go the route of shiny PG superhero movie, then why the hell not? I still have my fingers crossed for a darker take on the Amazon Princess, more Batman Begins then Superman Returns. Personally, if we can't have Joss, I would love a WW movie directed by Quentin Tarantino!

Bottomless Links: The Lazy Saturday Morning Edition

Its a sunny, albeit cold, NY morning.

Grab a cafe con leche, turn up the brazilian music, curl up in front of your computer, and click away.

Something Positive

In light of recent turmoil regarding the tentative Watchmen movie, Something Positive pokes at the less than thrilled Alan Moore.

[Via Neil]

Wonder Dolls

My geekdom does not extend to the collection of figurines, but I do reluctantly admit to owning not one, but two Wonder Woman Barbie Dolls. And it turns out I may need to purchase another as Mattel has announced it's 2008 line that includes not only WW, but Black Canary, Batgirl, and Supergirl.

[Via Wabbitseason]

Mixtape Flashback

Long time readers are well aware of my fondness for the art of the mixtape, so it is no surpise how much I appreciate this little Valentine's Day gift from BeaucoupKevin.

[Via LOHCACB]

Benefit Concert

Speaking of tunes, most of you jazzers out there are already aware of the upsetting news regarding Andrew D'Angelo and his recent discovery that he has brain cancer. Even more upsetting is that as a typical jazz musician, he has no health insurance.

For you local NYers, come out next week to one of the many benefit concerts being held to raise money for Andrew's illness. Details are on Darcy's blog.

In complete honesty, I am not really at all familiar with D'Angelo's music, and I've never met him. But we all know how hard this society makes it for the creative type to survive the more mundane aspects of life (and I'm not talking just musicians here). I feel especially grateful to the various musicians, comic writers, and artists of all types who have done their little bit to help me out, sometimes without ever having met me. In the name of solidarity, I will definitely be in attendance to at least one of these concerts, and I hope you, faithful reader will join me.

Bottomless Links: The Premeire Edition

Taking a cue from Occasional Superheroine and her clever Occasional Links feature, I give you a brief list of links that have caught my attention recently:

Good Morning Captain America

This morning's edition of Good Morning America featured a cheeky interview with the new Captain America regarding his decision to carry a gun. The cool thing about this video is that it features short interviews with Joe Quesada and patrons at Midtown Comics!

Fair is Fair

Andrew Durkin from Jazz: The Music of Unemployment reports on a Craigslist posting regarding the continual audacity of Starbucks:

In response to this CL ad:

Beaverton Town Square Starbucks is reaching out to musicians and bands alike to come play for us. Gigs would be Fridays and Saturdays at 9pm, sorry but we can't offer reinbursment of any kind, but you can sell cd's and put out a tip jar. We don't
provide equipment, and we don't comp drinks. If interested E-mail Paul at
"blackbox098@gmail.com" for more information.Thank you and we hope to hear from you.

There was this:

Come make coffee for me at my home! I am reaching out to all Starbucks to come to my home and make coffee for me. The gig would be Fridays and Saturdays and sorry, I can't offer reimbursement of any kind, but you can put out your tip jar. I don't provide equipment, and I don't comp donuts. If interested email me for more information.Thank you and I hope to hear from you.

It's all here.

If you're unfamiliar with Durkin's Industrial Jazz Group, you really need to check them out!

Tourblogging: Latin America

Speaking of jazz... drummer John Wikan is on the road in Latin America. Check out his guest blogs on Darcy James Argue's Secret Society blog where he recounts his time in Nicaragua and Panama.

Some Serious Serialism

I've decided to make the opening statement of Blaine a 12 tone row. I haven't studied serialism in much depth so as I played catch up this morning, I came across this amazing scan of a Schoenberg tone row chart:

I suppose I should study and analyze it, but really, I just think it looks pretty!