Month: February 2007

Am I the only person who looks at pictures of those big honkin’ ossuaries that purportedly have the bones of the whole Jesus clan and wonders if female ghosts are going to emerge and melt the heads of anyone opening them?

Anyone? Anyone else at all?

In case you’re not up on this, a documentary entitled “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” produced by James Cameron–who is king of the world but not, so I’m told, king of the Jews–details the discovery of some bone boxes bearing the names of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and…best of all…the latter two’s son. This has resulted in the expected reactions ranging from dispassionate curiosity to outrage over another perceived attack on Christianity, and everything in between. Naturally my own leanings are toward the dispassionate curiosity side: I find it interesting, but I simply don’t see how it’s possible to prove it definitively. Still, I have to admit I was in stitches over the comments of one Rev. David Knapp of Port Jefferson Station in Long Island who asserted:

“This is all hocus-pocus. Jesus died and rose from the dead and left the tomb and went up to heaven–and there were 500 witnesses to that, so there are no bones to be found. This is not going to shake our faith.”

It’s not the sentiment that breaks me up so much as the phrasing. The announcement of a scientific discovery, an archaeological find, is considered “hocus-pocus,” while the notion of rising from the dead, departing your burial place and being transported to heaven…a concept rooted in, at the very least, the supernatural, the uncanny, the magical…THAT he’s got no problem accepting.

I’m just really saddened that Jesus is no longer a character on “South Park.” They’d have a field day with this.

PAD

Okay…were they TRYING to kill viewership?

The first half hour of an endeavor such as this is crucial, and it was as if the producers were doing everything they could to make sure that, when 9 o’clock struck, people would be off trying to find just about anything else.

The opening documentary-style launch wasn’t a bad idea, but poorly executed. I had no idea who the majority of people were, it went on for way too long, and most of them didn’t have anything all that interesting to say. (Eddie Murphy, Peter O’Toole, Clint Eastwood were among the few bright spots.) Ellen I thought did great, but there’s plenty of people who simply don’t like her style (above and beyond the jerks who tuned out because “it’s that lesbo comic.”) And then the first, what, ninety minutes of awards were for, my God, sound editing and such? Yes, yes, I know that’s crucial, and yes, I know it’s important to the people nominated, but they used to be smart enough to have the “Best supporting actor” categories early on to grab the viewers’ interest. What the hëll–?

The fact that Eddie Murphy’s brilliant turn was shunned over Alan Arkin’s sentimental but less compelling portrayal for best was second to me in annoying only to “Pan’s Labyrinth” not winning for best Foreign film, although admittedly I hadn’t seen the one that won so I can’t say which was better. But Murphy should have had it.

Plenty of good moments, yes, but that’s all they were: Moments. The people behind the white scrim were an interesting diversion every now and then, and Al Gore was bloody brilliant, and Jack Nicholson’s head warred with Will Ferrell’s for the most WTF follicle moment of the evening. But with ratings continuing to drop, Johnny Carson long gone, and nomination tastes continuing toward less and less populist fare (I think it telling that the last really big ratings night was when “Titanic” was up, no pun intended), I think it’s time to admit that the Oscars should be two hours max, focus on the main awards, perform the nominated songs, and call it an evening.

At least “Happy Feet” won for Best Animated.

PAD

Here at the New York Comic Convention, I have a tale of two Stephens.

Stephen Number One:

Got to meet Stephen Colbert. Actually, believe it or not, he wanted to meet me because of his cameo in “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.” I was at my table in Artist’s Alley when a convention rep showed up and said, “Stephen would like to see you.” In point of fact, Colbert (so I’m told) was perfectly willing to come over to my table at the Alley, but the con folks were concerned about crowd control (and I can’t blame them.) So the mountain happily came to Mohammed and we had a nice chat about kids, science fiction, and comic books.

Stephen Number Two:

One of the major panels at the convention was the Dark Tower panel, attended by the entire DT team and the man himself, Stephen King. The vast majority of questions were for King, which is of course as it should be. How many opportunities, after all, do both comic fans and DT fans have to tell The Man himself what his work means to them or pose questions about his work. For me the best moment was when one fan said that King and I are his two favorite writers and that he’s thrilled that we’re actually working on a project together, and King reached over and we high fived.

In the course of the convention I’ve also had the chance to meet and/or chat with Stan the Man, Nick Brendon, Hayden Panettiere (Heroes Cheerleader), Juliet Landau, George R.R. Martin, James Leary, and a host of comics pros. And there’s been none of the overcrowding fiasco of the previous year. Saturday passed, to the best of my knowledge, without incident, unless one counts the barrage of flashes going off in King’s eyes when he showed up for the panel. I’m amazed he wasn’t blinded by them.

PAD

I have been informed through a rather terse note from my photo site that the name Fluzzie is trademarked by two individuals in California. Understand that when I first used the name that Peter came up with out of the air, I did a search of the trademark database and only found a dead trademark (2000) for a set of stuffed dinosaurs. So I am officially changing the name to Phluzzie and have started the process to trademark that name as mine all mine. I wish Stephanie and her partner all the best with the word and look forward to seeing what they have come up with to attach the name to since it is a cool name.

So now they are Phluzzies and are still for sale.

http://homepage.mac.com/kathodavid/PhotoAlbum42.html

Please make a note of it.

Kathleen

For those who haven’t checked out JK’s website recently, he’s put up more pages from “Fallen Angel” including some gorgeous shots of our heroine. Check ’em out.

http://www.jkwoodward.com/fa7_9_16.htm

PAD

The short story collection, “Heroes-in-Training,” which will feature the first new “Sir Apropos of Nothing” tale in several years–a novella-length story entitled “Sir Apropos of Nothing and the Adventure of the Receding Heir”–is available for pre-order on Amazon. So now you know.

http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Training-Martin-H-Greenberg/dp/075640438X/

As a lesbian trapped in a man’s body, I gotta say I loved this…