I Watched The Cutest Movie Last Night

So for several weeks now, I've been hearing how this Disney Channel Original Movie Soundtrack has been tearing up the Billboard Charts. I kind of wrote off given that I am not in the Disney demographic anymore and Disney has been known to produce sersiously bubble-gummy acts such as Aly and AJ, Aaron Carter and even Hillary Duff. Then yesterday morning I read that the soundtrack went back to number 1. So I finally decided to look into it and I found out that High School Musical is soooo cute.

Last night I caught a repeat performance of it at 8PM and I was immediately hooked. It was such an adorable and magical musical movie. I haven't felt this way since I first saw CAMP, which if you haven't seen yet, it's like RENT Jr. (You know how I know I am gay - I said RENT Jr.) The movie starts off at a New Years Eve party, the main characters Troy and Gabriella are forced to sing a karaoke song together. They soon find out that they both can sing really well and they have an awesome time and decided to stay in touch. Afterwards, the new school semester starts and Gabriella suddenly transfers to Troy's school, then the wackiness starts. Troy is the captain of the East High Wildcats basketball team and no one knows he can sing. So Gabriella vows to keep his secret to herself. Meanwhile, the school's drama club puts on productions every year and they're usually dominated by the utterly fabulous sibling team of Sharpay and Ryan. Sharpay likes Troy, but soon finds out that he's interested in the new girl, so Sharpay tries everything she can to stop her enemy. All the while Troy is trying to build enough courage to audition for the school play with Gabriella and keep his secret away from his team as well as his dad, who also happens to be the basketball coach. That sets the stage for the movie and all that happens in the first 15 minutes.

What makes it so cute is that it doesn't feel like a musical. This could have easily been another Disney-fied tween movie, without the musical numbers and it would have been good still, but because it's unpredicatable is what makes it work. The songs kind of sneak up on you. Especially the second song, Get Your Head In the Game, which is sung during Troy's basketball practice. It was this cute little dance number, utilizing basketballs. All of the other numbers are great and not too over the top for the audience involved. One standout song was the cafeteria jam of Stick to the Status Quo, which is an ode to not chase waterfalls and to stick to what you normally do. What was cool about it because it was performed by the entire student body in the lunch room. In this number it's really about the heavyset girl, who's a nerd, but loves hip-hop and loves to dance and to pop n' lock. It's was awesome! Another great song was Troy and Gabriella's audition song Break Free and the end song, We're All In This Together, which is like a new millennium version of We Go Together from Grease.

I would definitely recommend this movie to everyone. It's a mixture of alot of movies, like pieces from Fame, Grease, and Duets. I thought it was a lovable and cute attempt for a Disney movie, that doesn't get too preachy regarding diversity and differences in high school and how mean some kids can get when changes are coming, but it's fun nonetheless. It's a movie for everyone. Check out the website for the next presentation of High School Musical. I'll guarantee you'll love it.

According to Reports...

Al Reynolds, the former gay husband of Star Jones, was not able to rush to his wife's side after complications from her secret breast lift occured in LA on Monday. The same day she was supposed to go under surgery, he was rushed to the hospital here in NY because he coincidently fell at the gym.

When I went to the gym on monday, there was a man being rushed out in a stretcher. I thought it was odd, since I've never seen anything like this come from my gym. I saw my friend Garry and he told me that Al Reynolds slipped in the shower. My immediate reaction was, "Did he fall ass up?"

Up Late (as usual)

Last night I was trying to study for my midterm. I took a break and was flipping through the cable channels, when I stumbled upon E! True Hollywood Stories: Saved By the Bell. This was going on midnight now. Needless to say, I went "oooohhhhh, I love Saved By the Bell!" I remember watching it every saturday morning since I was a kid and loving every minute. TBS shows about 2-hours of it in the morning, but I am never up in time to see it anymore. I am usually being all adult-like and watch the news too in the morning. Must change that. Anyway....

I was enthralled for about an hour about all the creation of the show that I didn't know and alot of other things that I didn't know about the cast and how the show had developed over the years. It was really interesting and I don't watch E! True Hollywood stories at all. This was cool because it showed how the cast members were romantically linked and afraid of the typecasting issues that followed. I was really excited when they got to Elizabeth Berkely's part when they talked about Showgirls, which is like a gay cult classic. She had more gay fans than Mario Lopez did. What I found slightly odd was that much of the interviews of the cast weren't current, except for a few as well as the creator and producers of the show. Alot of the cast were shown discussing the shows impact seen in interviews no later than 1994. Screech (Dustin Diamond) and Mr. Belding (Denis Haskins) were on hand and that looked recent, but none of the other cast were on the show when they discussed updates. If you're a fan or lover of the show you should check this out.

Suffice to say, I have all this information now stored in my mental warehouse about the show, which I think replaced my much of my Marketing Research study notes. So I have to try extra hard tonight to better sort or treat my academic information the same way instead of harnessing this large Trivial Pursuit level brain I have with useless Saved By the Bell info. Ask me when the Battle of 1492 was and I couldn't tell you, but ask me to recite word for word the Hot Sunday song from the episode when Kelly, Jessie, and Lisa started a music group and Jessie got addicted to No Doz - I am all over it. So no tv tonight for me. I have to study. It's more important. But damn it all for about an hour when Prison Break comes back on tonight!!!!

Brokeback He-Man

He-Man was one of my favorite cartoons from the 80’s. It was one of those cartoons, like The Transformers or GI Joe, which helped shape and make me love my childhood. I can’t wait to start getting the DVD season box sets and relive that time again. However, due to my recent surge in all things He-Man related and my excitement gaining momentum again after all of these years, I started exploring some of the odd things about He-Man. Not only in behavior and personality, but oddly enough, my roommate brought this to my attention this week: He-Man could have been gay.

If you look at many of the cartoons from the 80’s there were always some sort of relationship going on. In GI Joe, there was Flint and Lady Jaye and Duke and Scarlett. Even Destro had the Baroness on his metal jock. In The Transformers, even though she was the one of the more rare robots, a female Autobot, Arcee was dating the triple changer, Springer if you remember. Yet in male dominated shows such as these, there was some form of a male to female relationship somewhere or at least the damsel in distress shtick that would be in a storyline or two. So where did He-Man’s come in? In would seem like never. So let’s begin with the thought or the theory: Can a hyper masculine 80’s cartoon icon, such as He-Man, be perceived as gay-identified by today’s standards? Let’s take some of He-Man’s characteristics, friends, families, background and environment into consideration. Then with the current state of the evolving gay mindset, let’s develop 6 theories that He-Man could be in fact homosexual. Are you with me? Yeeaah!!!!

Perception #1: Prince Adam. He-Man’s alter ego. Prince Adam was an extremely effeminate coward and a wuss. Who, for a prince, always wore a tight white, shirt, purple furry underwear, lavender spandex pants, a pink tunic and to top it off purple UGGS (which I believe was attributed to Man-at-Arms’ influence - more on him later.) Prince Adam would appear to come off as a huge ole girl if this cartoon were to come out today. Prince Adam was given the power to change into He-Man through the mystical power of Greyskull. So he would hold up this huge, phallic symbol of a sword, repeat the magic phrase to turn him tan, butch and gave him a fur loincloth. He also rolled with a cat named Gringer, not a dog, a cat, who when imbued with the same powers became the stronger and more masculine, Battlecat. Teela was constantly teasing him when he was Adam, which was probably a factor in his emasculated nature. Not to mention when Adam turned into He-Man, only Man-at-Arms, Orko and the Sorceress knew of his true identity and no one else. Thus, He-Man never came out to his parents or many of his closets friends/allies about the life he was leading. Technically, He-Man was in the closet. Well in his case the Superhero version of a closet. Although, Queen Marlena, his mother often suspected that Adam was He-Man, but then again aren’t the mothers always then ones who know before anything is said?

Perception #2: Man-at-Arms. Prince Adam’s mentor and confidant. Like I stated before, Man-at-Arms or Ducan, could ideally be seen as a father-figure to Prince Adam, since Adam’s real dad, King Randor was apparently never around. You think as prince, Adam would be training to be a warrior or at least a king under Ducan’s tutelage, nope. Adam just usually sat around in skin-tight white spandex, listening to war stories of Man-at-Arms. If you take a look at this relationship by today’s standards, Man-at-Arms could/would be in our terms a leather daddy. He was really the only one on Eternia with a heavy mustache, much like the leather-clad men in Chelsea would wear at a biker bar. Not to mention that not once did Ducan mention to Adam that his foster daughter Teela, was attractive and available. Man-at-Arms could be seen as the reason why Prince Adam never had a girlfriend. He admired Man-at-Arms. Maybe a little too much.

Perception #3: Teela. Daughter. Warrior. Friend. Fag hag? It could conceivably be said that Teela and Adam were raised together. They are similar in age, but of course Adam’s a prince and Teela’s the leader of the Royal Guard of Eternia. However, they’re relationship was slightly strained. Teela was often seen goading and teasing Adam. Wanting him to be more of a man and to live up to the king he’ll eventually become. This teasing could be a factor in why Adam never was attracted to Teela or why it was never explored. He never came out to Teela about him being He-Man either. Why was that? Was it that he felt emasculated to the point where his alter ego had to constantly “out do” her? Teela was headstrong and often was captured. He-Man always had to save her, just in the end to tell her to “stay out of trouble” with a complete women are nothing, but trouble tone to it. Was this how he perceived women? Was this his way of saying, “and you’re the reason why I don’t like women?” Think about it. In today’s standards, Teela not being involved or not being attracted to someone as hot as He-Man is odd, clearly Teela was his fag hag.

Perception #4: The lack of women on Eternia. Have you noticed this? There are no women around. At best, you can count maybe at least 4 women: The Sorceress, Queen Marlena, Teela and Evil Lynn and none of them are remotely interested in He-Man. Have you seen the man? He’s blonde, well-built, has muscular thighs that could break a walnut. He can lift mountain ranges. He’s got ass and I’m sure he’s got a fat, uncut piece too. You know how them Eternian’s roll -- and not one women admirer?! If you take a look at Eternia, the population is mostly comprised of buff and other highly masculine men. So we can take this type of environment and relate it back to current standards. If a man is placed in an environment, such as Eternia and the male populace out weighs the women by 5:1, what’s the probability that the barbarian might be more inclined to sleep with men? I say highly fucking likely. Eternia’s is like an all-boys school. Just man-meat everywhere. Envy turns to lust people. Yoda said this.

Perception #5: He-Man’s sister, She-Ra is clearly bi-sexual. She-Ra/Adora, He-Man/Adam’s twin sister was more comfortable with her situation. She-Ra was a more gay-identified icon than He-Man ever was, because of her lesbian-esque personality. All of her friends knew about her duality issue. She went from lipstick lesbian to bull-dyke in one charismatic swoop of her sword as well. However, She-Ra, unlike her brother had a love interest in her show, which was so odd given He-Man’s series came out first. I guess the developers felt that She-Ra’s core audience was female, that they’d have something similar to a Barbie/Ken dynamic. So why not have a similar dynamic for the all-male demographic watching He-Man? He-Man could clearly have a woman interested in him, but that was never explored. Why not? They do it in the WWE; throw in some really hot chics to offset the rampant homosexual overtones of the sport. Also, He-Man was really tight with his sister. Not many straight guys do that. He’d go hang out with her and her homegirls all the time on Etheria. So given today’s standards, what brother hangs with his sister’s all-girl group of friends unless he was a homo?

Perception #6: Both opening theme uses the word “fabulous”. In He-Man and She-Ra’s opening theme songs, they both exclaim “one day they were given the fabulous secrets of Greyskull”. Now I can think of 20 words that could have taken the place of the word fabulous to describe the power they received. “Awesome” and “Immense” are just two of them, but “fabulous”? That’s the gayest thing since Jack from Will & Grace and Ruby Slippers. Even their theme songs had gay traits.

With these 6 perceptions in place, could one possibly see He-Man being a gay icon of the new millennium? I’d sure give a resounding hell yeah! Given that He-Man’s and the Masters of the Universe is a 22 year old franchise, it’s amazing that his apparent gayness was so unrelenting, but yet no one said anything about it. I guess our minds weren’t so wrapped up in something like that, especially us children back in the 80’s. Hell I didn’t even think about it until about a few days ago. However, could you imagine the outcry given the state of things today, like with Brokeback Mountain or all things homosexually charged? If religious groups thought that Sponge Bob Square Pants was gay identified, they would have had a field day with this one.

Mmmmm....hmmmm

A friend of mine from work passed me these photos. I wasn’t necessarily shocked, just concerned at what I was seeing – Tyson Beckford at a gay event? Clearly from the first photo, no straight man in their right mind would wear something like that, unless he was a model and was forced to. Then I looked further at some of the other guys and the crowd of people it was. Yup pretty fucking gay. I immediately “googled” this to do some quick research and I turned up an interesting piece on AOL’s Black Voices, where Tyson Beckford was doing some promoting of his new 2006 Calendar at a gay club in DC. Apparently, "he didn’t know what kind of crowd it was going to be", but from the looks of it he couldn’t be happier to be in front of the fans that actually still give a damn about him. He should've realized by now who his market is and this event pretty much nailed it - cuz it ain't women. I don't think he's no longer relevant in the heterosexual market anymore.

Air Shackles

As I walked past the Foot Locker on 34th and Broadway the other day, I saw a sign in the window that said the “Melo 5.5. Will be available on Saturday 3/11/06”. At first glance, I was like what the hell? But then I remembered what it really was. It was an announcement for the new colors to the Carmello Anthony 5.5 Air Jordans. I walked away from the window and I was like “Great. Someone’s gonna get robbed or die for those later.” Later on I thought about it, and I am like that's not a normal comment I would say, but then I thought about it a bit little more. Historically for me, Air Jordans have and always will be an expensive item and because of that expense, I’ve seen some pretty harsh things happen to I can’t see myself paying that kind of loot for a sneaker. However, much of the young, urban, African American male population seems to find how to acquire every single Air Jordan with or without money. In many ways, the guy who buys Air Jordans could be seen as a collector, but then you have those who need to be the first on the block to have the highly anticipated kicks, before everyone else. I know we all have our vices, hell I spend money on comics books and DVDs, but no where in the price range as one pair of Jordans are going for these days. I sometimes think that Air Jordans are the new shackles of the black man.

“Are you the one that can't sleep the night before a new Jordan release? The one that remembers the memories Michael Jordan created with each shoe. Air Jordans are a piece of art. Some people buy paintings, Michael Jordan fans buy Air Jordans. Every time you slip that Jordan shoe on think about the history behind the shoe and those amazing times when MJ amazed you with his unbelievable talent. He may be retired, but a piece of him walks through every city in this country.” – 23isBack.com

Air Jordans aren’t new. The rambunctious behavior from the youths in dire need to get them isn’t new either. Jordans have been around for 20 years, but it’s that length of time where nothing has changed, but the price and people still spend an exorbitant amount of money on sneakers. Michael Jordan is no longer in the damn game, but yet his legacy lives on. You didn't see people going this nuts over his underwear endorsements or that cologne of his. I guess we don't need draws or need to smell like we're clean, all we need is some decent kicks and debt flying out our assholes from the lack of underwear to hold it all in. It’s not new either that many families are on welfare, but yet their toddlers have Air Jordans on. Go figure.

Okay granted, connoisseurs of Air Jordans are a rabid fan base, equivalent to the same zeal one would find in collectors of comic books or even baseball memorabilia. Some people genunely have the income to collect the sneakers and I am not knocking them. If you have the disposable income, you can do with it as you please. Remember when the 17s came out, for like $200, people went nuts over them. I remember one man said that he applied for low-income housing so he could “afford any new pair of Jordans when they dropped.” It’s that mentality that I don’t like that’s associated with owning a pair of over-priced sneakers, that half the time look like they are wrapped with the dry-weave center of a maxi-pad. It’s frightening to think of the lengths most urban men will go to obtain a pair of Jordans. It’s been reported that some have gone as far as thievery and homicide for them. Actually, I remember growing up seeing a few kids getting robbed at gunpoint for a pair. They had to walk home in socks. However, this isn’t new either. In fact, since the Jordan brand was created in 1985, it revolutionized the basketball sneaker, making it the must have item for inner city youths for the next two decades, but there was one problem - who could afford them? Thus sending us into this never ending game of whom can outdo whom.

"Ohh you got them 22s yet? I got em in black and silver.”
"Word son? I got them in 5 other colors, not even in stores yet kid. You don’t know about them, son."
"Oh word. How you cop'd dem?"

It’s a constant competition on and off a basketball court for what? Status? You don’t get any special treatment because you’re first person on your block to get them. There’s no special award for it. You don’t get free meals at restaurants or VIP treatment at clubs or events. "Yo he got dem new Jordans, he gets to skip the line." That shit doesn't happen. There’s pretty much nothing you can get from it, but envy and rage half the time. What gets me the most is that kids today think that material items get them the respect you deserve. Dude you may have some classic Jordans on your feet, but your baby’s hungry, you’ve got 2 baby’s mommas, you live at home and you’re not even out of high school at 19. See where at all that status gets you? No where.

The price tag associated with the Jordans has always infuriated me too, not because I want the shoes, frankly I think there are the ugliest things sometimes, but because it insanely drives poor people to get them with every release. Not only the poor buy them, but the rich as well. Nike knows this and insists on making multiple colors or extremely limited edition Jordans. The proliferation of this product is scary. Like sneaker crack. They are easily accessible for some, but not all due to the price. I remember growing up, the kids in my neighborhood, would work an entire summer just to get a pair of Jordans for the new school year. They would spend entire paychecks on them, which I always thought was insane, because they would be buying another pair in another 6 months. Maybe it was the way I was raised, but I always agreed with my mom that those sneakers were expensive and that I didn’t need them. Besides, could you see me on the block with $100 pair of sneakers on just get them scuffed up and dirty playing in the street? My mom would whip the living shit out of me. When did we stop saving for our future and starting saving for them 23s?

What’s even more shocking is that in America, it's the impoverished Blacks who buy 40 percent of the Air Jordan catalogue, Nike and other athletic shoes. Air Jordans account for between 70% and 80% of the Jordan brand's annual sales, which for Nike is approximately $300 Million and only 4% of their total revenue” according to a 2004 article in Business Week. Black America is spending that much on sneakers? It’s insane! If you think that’s crazy, check out this article I found online from 2004 – Tough Choices for Tough Times. It makes what’s happening even worse. We’re consumer more than we’re producing and it’s utterly sad.

I just don’t see why we have to spend so frivolously and things like sneakers or jewelry, cars, clothes and liquor for that matter. If this was a purely radical opinion on the subject matter, or if I would present this as a very, Farrakhan-esque statement, I would say "Air Jordans is another form of slavery, an economical form of slavery, stopping the black community and black men in general from saving money or even managing their money correctly to keep them in a low-income bracket for their natural born lives. Black America has this relentless need to justify their existence through material things because plantation owners created an inferior complex during what was called the "breaking" a slave process. We never had any resources and what little we had, we used to make ourselves look good so we can feel good about ourselves. Although helpful on a short-term basis, it was ineffective from a long-term perspective. We really had no choice back then. We do now however. Over the years it has now been etched into our culture (the norm), through various mediums, all of which you know and yet we are still carrying on like some new millennium plantation hands.

Get a fuckin clue people.

Lack of Patience Not Withstanding

There’s not much more aggravation I can take from this place. My job sucks. It really does and the most fucked up part of it is, I can’t leave. At least not yet.

If you’ve been following along in the last several months, my company has been acquired by another bank wishing to enter the New York market. For months, the company was on eggshells as far as who were going to stay and who was going to go and effectively everyone started referring to themselves as a letter A, B, C, D. We had been patiently waiting for 4 months to get assigned letters. What the fuck is this Sesame Street? This letter, according to the merger team, would determine your fate here at Independence. A of course meaning most likely to retain a job and D meaning least likely. I fell into the B category. B’s are people who are only needed until the merger is complete. So I have a job until mid-September. After that, adidos pato.

What’s really ticking me off is that since the merger announcement, my work has been sporadic at best. It comes in waves, either really fierce or slow days or weeks worth of work. It gets quiet and then revs up again. Then there’s also the massive levels of frustration abound in the office. A few of my supervisors are in the running for a new position, which one of them is dreading. Why is she dreading something like that you ask? She, just like everyone else here is afraid that the new owners will offer us a new job. We found out that if you are offered a new job and if you don’t take it, you don’t get your severance. Nothing. Nada. Nichts. Which entirely sucks for someone who’s been at this place for some time. You can build quite a nest egg in severance if you’ve been here for years. Could you imagine that amount of money and time off being taken away just because you didn’t like the new job they were offering? It’s so fucking us out of everything we’ve worked for or the years of service put in, that people are petrified to be recommended or even offered a new job. You can’t quit after the new job starts either, because you’ll be fucked out of money then as well. Fucked! Fucked! Fuckity, fuck, fuck!!!

Many employees are viewing the merger as the kick in the pants to get the hell out of here (like me), while others are looking at as a nightmare waiting to happen. I am happy that they didn’t offer anything to me. For one their main offices are in Boston and I heard there’s so much overlap in their Marketing Department, that as company they wouldn’t need us after conversion. My only issue is that I have to wait until September or close to that time to look for a job. I really don’t want to wait that long. I think it would be better to be let go soon, but the longer and longer I have to wait becomes increasingly frustrating. I am just really unhappy here. I don’t really like being here, because the challenges I am faced with are no longer challenging, sine they’re being chased down by an ill-conceived, wannabe supervisor, that doesn’t want to take chances or even remotely want something different for our creative. She’s fucking insane and cheap. The Devil Doesn’t Wear Prada, she clearly wears Dress Barn!

As you can see, I have no patience for this place any longer and it’s starting to affect me outside of work. I am seeing more sarcasm and dark humor wafting from my inner-core. It’s basically making me a bigger asshole (no pun intended). My patience is shot. I so want the fuck out. Counting the days isn’t working. It’s like counting months. Geesh, looking at the calendar I have six more months of this crap. At least I am getting paid for it, even if the pay is shitty. I am trying to concentrate on the good. I am really am, but this shit is definitely bananas. I might ape shit here at any minute.

Dreams of a Beautiful Day/Spring Time

It's so insanely beautiful outside today and I am stuck in my office. Right now, I am fighting deadlines trying to get my company's new corporate website to launch. So I am designing away, dreaming of the outside. Dreaming of covering those sidewalks with superhero art made in kids chalk all the while listening to the soundtrack to Transformers: The Movie. More than meets the eye muthafucka!

Oh well, I at least can leave a bit early, oh but wait I can't because I have to send some things to our printer. Grrr. So it'll become a normal day for me. Work. Gym. Maybe hang out a little. I want to enjoy what's left of the sunlight on this beautiful day, that's not for me.

I don't have the power, unlike He-Man to get the hell out earlier, but oh well. I have the weekend.

Cyclops R.I.P.

So I missed the new, full trailer of X3: The Last Stand last night on FOX, because I was taking a test last night. However, another comic book fan emailed me a link to some clips of the trailer. I can't however view it the trailer at work, because the Frodo Worshiping idots in IT have blocked any websites with the words "streaming media" in it. Remind me to have a talk with them. Anyway...here's one clip in particular that caught my eye. It's pretty blatant what's happening in this scene. It's a funeral, but who's? We can speculate 3 possible X-people to get axed in this movie: Jean Grey, Charles Xavier or Cyclops. From what I've seen and heard Charles and Jean are pretty much throughout the movie, interacting with other characters, including some of the last fight scenes, however Cyclops has only been seen in one scene. Hmmm...I think it's pretty obvious at this point that good ole, Cyclops does not live to see the final stand. FOX is not even trying to cover it anymore. At least let him go out in a fight. Fuck! He is the fuckin' leader of the X-Men you know! I am pretty sure how I heard he died is still intact, which means he goes out like fuckin wuss. If it is, you will hear the biggest boo from me in the theater that day. Grrrr.

I see Beast,Coloussus,Shadowcat,Iceman & Rogue,but no Cyclops. You know why? Because he's six feet under that's why!

As for the trailer, I'll check it out when I get home, but the buzz so far on the internet was strong prior to its showing and reading posts and other websites this morning, I've noticed that opinions are so split down the middle. You've got the fanboys vs. non-fanboys at each other's throats. Many fanboys believe that not only X3, but the previous movies took too many liberties in changing things to make them work on film, which is okay, at times. However, you have your non-fanboys, who haven't read the X-Books in years and are not as interested in the final product, but just that this is going to be one of the better adaptations to hit the big screen, which is also okay, at times. Either way there's people, who like me, believe that Brett Ratner is not doing the movie any justice and FOX was trying to rush this to get it out before Superman Returns. Thus the movie could potentially be bad. I am sure there will be some bright spots, but I am more concerned with the creative license in killing/depowering major characters in the movie. If this was to be a great franchise entity, so far it ain't looking so good after this one. There's more than enough X-Men and stories to go around. Why do it this way? Now, no one said that it won't make any money. It's not going to bomb in ticket sales, but it could be potentially devastating to the fans of the series who consistantly buy the books as well. (Like me.)

In conclusion, killing off any X-Men in the movies, whether it be Cyclops or others, is like breaking one of the seven deadly sins or having sex with a cousin - you just don't do it. I know I am going to go see it, even though it hurts my heart that Cyke could/will die in the process. I wore my custom made Cyclops shirt when I went to see X2 and I am getting another one made for this one to show my support for my favorite X-Man.

Do I sound angry? Yup. Do I sound bitter? Absolutely.

The Flux Capacitor

On November 5, 1955 Doc Brown came up with the idea of the flux capacitor after slipping off his toilet while standing on it to hang a clock and bumping his head. In order to travel through time it requires 1.21 gigawatts (GW) of electricity originally supplied by some kind of a plutonium powered nuclear reactor. To enable this time travel, Doc tricked out a De Lorean that needs to travel at 88 mph to break the time barrier, which is achieved by its gasoline powered internal combustion engine. Now that just flowed right out of me. So how come I had a hard time on my Marketing Research quiz tonight?

I'll never know. I studied alot over the weekend. Gave myself little quizes and even made a study guide from notes I wrote to keep it in my mind. When the time came to take the test, I was okay up until I got to the math part. It's not big secret that math and I are not the best of friends and I haven't had to do math like this in over 7 years, so needless to say - I am way beyond rusty. I was slightly anxious anyway because it has been a long time since I took a test. I was nervous all day.

I think (actually I know) I choked big time when it came to it and I tried to do the best that I could, but I don't think it was enough. I looked around and clealy I have been out of the school shit, because I misunderstood the professor when he said we can bring the formulas to the test. I did, but what I did not know was that, many students brought entire diagrams or completely worked out problems. Can we say doofus here? I don't know why I didn't think of it. I guess the honor system is dead or I was like not really in the mood to be caught cheating.

I'll know better for the next time, now I know how this professor does on his exams.

In the meantime, plutonium was used once again for a trip forward in time at least 30 years to get Marty back to 1985. In 2015, Doc Brown replaced the plutonium reactor with a "Mr. Fusion" home energy generator that was somehow fueled by garbage. Due to the accident that casued a costly trip further back in time to 1885, and from the lack of gasoline and a broken fuel line, the De Lorean's final trip from 1885 to 1985 was partially powered by a steam locomotive pushing the vehicle up to 88 mph, while using Mr. Fusion to generate the 1.21 Gigawatts required to activate the Flux Capacitor and break the Time barrier.

This! This I fuckin' know!!! Ain't that a bitch!

My First Comic Book Convention

Warning: This post is for hardcore nerds only.

Last Saturday was my very, first comic convention and the very, first NY Comic Con. It was held at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center and it was all weekend long. I headed up there in the morning with some of the guys from my job, Orlando and Tommy. We trooped over to 10th Avenue in the coldest temperatures that week. It was about 12 degrees and of course my dumb ass was headed towards the water, which made it worse. We get there at a decent time, (a little after 11am) even though the show started at 11, the line snaked and doubled inside. I was slightly concerend that there was this amount of people out that day. I figured that most of the people would have been inside already. Little did I know that wasn't the case. We then finally found our place in line. There was some initial confusion and anger, because none of the staff knew what to do or what was going on, until one of the ticket ladies asked for anyone with advanced tickets. We had some and was able to skip a few hundred people. We get to the mainhall with ease and as I stepped through the ropes, I was swept away to my version of OZ. Not the prison and definitely not that magical place where all of us homos love, but the kind of OZ where huge nerds like me could die happy.

I walked into a proverbial paradise of geekdom. There were people dressed up as characters from film, cartoons, anime and comic books, there were toys and more toys, and comics and all around cool stuff. We didn't know where to begin. I had printed out the program, but I was not prepared for what was there. The program became useless, because at this point I wanted to see everything. I spotted the Marvel booth due to the large, flags of comic book icons floating high in the air. However, it was wall to wall people in there. It was so crowded and apparently roughly 20,000 people showed up.

The Marvel Comics booth was bananas. There were already some artist signing things and nerds alike clamoring for the free stuff the company was handing out. I got a chance to check out some of the new toys coming out under the Marvel Legends imprint. These were wickedly, awesome figures. We continue through the massive amounts of people checking out toys, drooling on the display cases like I was. We got stopped by some folks from MOCCA (Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art) regarding the Todd McFarlane Exhibit they just opened. For those of you who don't know, Todd McFarlane is the most popular artist to ever draw Spider-Man in the late 80s to early 90s and the creator of Spawn. I told myself that I would check that out later. Down the path we go, I found cool stuff like an entire Smurf Village, which from now on will be called Smurf-ghanistan. We found this really cool booth about a guy who's written a comic book called Hatter M and a novel called The Looking Glass Wars, which is this insanely cool concept about Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland book and how apparently he got the story all wrong. It's this cool fantasy, sci-fi book which comes out in Sept. We keep going. I see so many rare and exclusive comics and statues that I am absolutely bonkers over. I am trying to be strong and not buy everything I see, but there was awesome, awesome stuff indeed.

Without realizing it, time had flown by and we were starving. We had some really expensive Nathan's, but it was so good and yet so bad. Sci-Fi Channel promos played on every flat screen in the place. Everyone was sitting around talking about the show. Kids were playing Magic: The Gathering Card game, dudes were playing WarCraft. Orlando, Tommy and myself couldn't help, but discuss so much of the comic book information we had just found. We discussed how excited we were about The Looking Glass War novel and the direction it would go in. Tommy had to leave early, so Orlando and I headed back to the show. At this time, it was early afternoon and the show was still packed. We at least got to see a really, cool Batman statue made entirely of LEGO while we waited. It took us about 30 minutes to get back in, because of the crowd. We then decided to check out some of the anime booths, see if Kevin Smith was around, checked out some more indie artist and picked up so many free giveaways. Luckily we received a free anime tote bag to carry our stuff in. We made our way to the DC Comics booth and I got to see a personal hero of mine, artist Jim Lee. I also shook Phil Jimenez hand, who just happens to be the only gay and out artist in the a major company, which is entirely freakin' cool and so inspirational.

There was still so much to see and when I checked out the clock it was only a little after 4. We then found an isle called Artist Row, which was the area where other artist were showing off sketches, selling sketches, and autographing their work. We then found another favorite, Steve McNiven, who is going to draw the ultimate Marvel storyline, Civil War. Orlando and I had nothing for anyone to sign that day, because we figured it wouldn't be easy to accomplish, but Mr. McNiven was accessible. So we scoured some boxes at some nearby retailers and found an issue he had drawn and we asked him to sign it. We continue on and the more and more I look around and check out all of this cool stuff, the more the sad I got. I had this feeling like, what the hell am I doing with my life? Orlando looked at me at the same goes, "Dude, I so feel like going home and drawing for the rest of the weekend." I totally agreed with him. After looking at all of these talented people, I felt so creatively negligent of my own artwork. This slight feeling of regret swam over me and before I was in this downward spiral of self-hate, I caught myself and I snapped back. I turned what I saw into this totally inspirational and highly influencing experience. I saw at this show where I want to be or at least a goal I want to reach: I want to draw professionally and this show was the spring board. I met so many independant artist and creators that all of this got my own creative flow moving in a positve direction.

Another hour or so goes by, there's still so much of this show we haven't fully explored and I still had all of Sunday to do that. It was getting late and Orlando and I wanted to check out at least one panel of the night. It was about 45 minutes of movie trailers. We got to see extended trailers of stuff like, V for Vendetta, Mission Impossible 3, Scary Movie 4, Superman Returns, X3: The Last Stand, then one for Silent Hill with 5 minutes of movie footage afterwards, which looks like it's going to fuckin rock! And many more. We then headed for our way home. We talked about all the stuff that we saw and then began discussing our own artistic endeavors. We get to the train and see a girl chillin, with a huge TokyoPop bag, which were given out at the show, then she saw that we had bags as well. A conversation ensues, enter Phiephy, (yes I know, that is her name) who's going to the MOCCA event downtown. Orlando has a look in his eyes like he wanted to go and I agreed, so all three of us head down to SOHO for more comic goodness with Todd McFarland. We get there a little after 8, which was the starting time of the show, but Todd isn't there yet. There's a cover charge, but free food and drinks, so I was good. We walked around looked at his work that his camp furnished for the exhibit. I saw some really fond art from him that I loved from his early Spider-Man run, however he's running late. Todd didn't get there until close to 11pm. Three beers and many, many laughs later Todd McFarlane gets there and apologizes for making us wait. He gives a talk on his history in the industry and where he is today and how much has changed since he came out. He even let us in that he just finalized a deal with DC to another Batman/Spawn crossover. Coolness. So it's autograph time and we got free with our ticket a special 3D issue of Spawn 1-3. He signs it and as a joke, since he was taking so much time talking to each person, Orlando asked if he knows the meaning of life. The creator of Spawn gives us a 10 minute speech on integrity. It was insane.

Afterwards, Orlando, myself and Phiephy were starving, so we chilled in McDonald's till about 1am and then headed home. Turns out Phyphie lives in Boropark, which is a few stops away from me and I also found out that she was going back to the show on Sunday. Sunday was a little different, because I got the chance to sit in on some panel discussions from Marvel, DC and Wildstorm about upcoming projects. I also got to check out some of booths for a second time, because there wasn't as many people there on Sunday. I got to purchase a few issues I was missing, picked up some fan films, which in my opinion, have better plots, ideas and action than most studio released movies. Listen good Hollywood producers - who better to write a comic book movie, than a fanboy. I also got to see a lightsaber exhibit/choreography by NY Jedi Academy. It was pretty cool, because they showed you how to do stuff for a fan film. I wanted to participate, but I kept my nerd quota to a minium that day.

All in all, I had a great time and I can't wait until next year.

Creatively Negligent

Over the weekend, I realized that I have been creatively negligent for a long, long time now. I love to draw. In fact, one of my goals in life is to draw for a major comic book company, but yet my drive and determination has been somewhat marred by responsibilities and just life in general. My ability to draw has been scaled down and is now more akin to a hobby; it's something I do in my free time. To add insult to injury, I should be really doing this as a profession or just more than what I am investing in it now.

Over the years and not since my college days, my drawing past time has gone from idea-popping drawing (when an idea pops into my head, I draw it) to only drawing as a form of escape from pain or just hard times. It's actually kind of frustrating really. To draw based on emotions like anger or a singular event, I feel it dampens the creative process. Who the hell am I? Van Gough? Matisse? No, I'm just me and I don't like that I do this, but I do. It's a hard habit to break. I had asked myself some hard questions, like why did I allow myself to be pulled away like this?

Have you ever wondered why don't you use your God-given talents more often? It's hard to answer that, because there's a sense of shame that comes from it. Ignoring something like a skill or a talent is a bitch especially, when you're unhappy that you don't express it. It's a reality check. Let's face it, it makes you feel less than accomplished or give you a sense of failure.

I've been going through alot lately and somehow my inner capacity to want to draw is usually pulled out of me by some mundane real-world incident, which always pulls my attention away from what I love to do. This negligence is not something I like, but I do regardless. For years, I've been hating that I practice this, absurd laxness in something that I have enjoyed and loved since I was 8 years old. I was happy when I was drawing. I want to be happy again. In the last few months, I've been pushing myself to draw more, but yet again, life has a funny way of fucking with you. Picture a bright light bulb as my imagination. Imagine the years that go by and how it can dim that light bulb. I am down to a tiny, flicker and it's not sitting well with me. I've made a promise to myself to do more drawing no matter what. Thus one of the factors in the creation of my BklynJedi site. I had drawn a few things, but yet again, life kinda forced me to stop and only draw when I was feeling an intense emotion. I don't want that for myself anymore.

So I want to change. I need to change. I miss the guy I used to be. I miss what I created and I miss how much I had created since I was in high school. I created a book a long time ago that I used to dump all my characters, their stories, sketches and complete artwork in and never did a thing with it. It's grown so much and I've created a little pocket universe of my own made of my unbound imagination. That imagination has dwindled and I barely remember what I had done. I dusted off the book and got reacquainted with my art. I immediately felt the excitement I once had. I want my determination back.

How would I go about it? I brought a book the other day to help me with some new techniques, which is awesome because it's tailored to my style. I even found a cool drawing table I want to buy. I found some more pencils that would help with my sketching as well. So I am on my way. I have some plans and I would like share it with everyone soon. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.

So here's to me and my artistic return to my roots. Wish me luck.