A Very Special Episode - Amazing Spider-Man #96-98

As you may or may not know, Doctor Bitz and I are two of the co-hosts of "A Very Special Episode", a podcast which reviews "very special" episodes of pop culture - those stories where the usual rhythm or tone of an ongoing narrative is briefly interrupted to discuss a serious, topical or otherwise atonal issue, usually with little advance warning or subsequent follow-up. Most often, we review TV episodes, like the infamous child molester episode of Diff'rent Strokes or the episode of Family Ties where Alex Keaton grapples with the death of his previously-unmentioned best friend by turning the show into a one-act play.

But in our recent episode, we branched out  to review a very special comic book story for the first time, specifically the Comics Code-less anti-drug story in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98. Given that a lot of the regular readers of this site read, you know, comic books, and/or are generally fans of Spider-Man, I figured I'd give the episode a special plug here. Plus, Doctor Bitz and I (along with one of our other co-hosts, Full House Reviewed's Ryan Alexander-Tanner) are joined for the episode by the writer of the Chasing Amazing blog, Mark Ginocchio, who also recently wrote the book on Spider-Man, 100 Things Spider-Man Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. 

So while you're waiting in line for Spider-Man: Homecoming this weekend, give it a listen, and if you like what you hear, check out some of our other episodes (and if you want to buy Mark's book, too, I won't stop you...).

The link below will enable you to listen to and/or download the episode directly, but you can also listen via iTunes, Google Play, Podbean or Stitcher, with links to all four on the show's main website linked to above.

http://media.averyspecialepisodepodcast.com/AVerySpecialEpisode021.mp3

The World Turned Upside Down

I was twenty years old on September 11th, 2001, just a few days into my junior year of college. In the closing hours of that day, my dad suggested I take some time to write down how I was feeling, to record my immediate reaction to the seismic events of that day for the sake of posterity. I took his advice, and did so. This morning, in the wake of another, possibly even bigger, seismic shift in the history of the world, I remembered his words, and as an act of both posterity and catharsis, tried to put into words how I was feeling. I did my best to limit the histrionics and hyperbole in what I wrote, while still capturing the essence of what I feel (which is very much filled with hyperbole & histrionics), so as not to drown out my very real concerns and fears.

Back in 2001, I wrote my reactions by hand, in a journal I was keeping at the time. I'm putting this here now because this website is a bit like a journal, and because, in part, it represents a sort living body of my work. Today is a day I will probably always remember, so it feels appropriate to work this recollection into that body.

Generally speaking, I try to avoid making things too political on this site; there are plenty of places online that are good for that, and it's not what anyone really comes here for. But I'm also not shy about my opinions, and any regular readers who have been visiting this site for a long time shouldn't be surprised by how I'm feeling today. I contemplated not allowing comments on this post, not because I want to shut down discourse but just because I'm not really in the mood to get into it with anyone who's celebrating today. But I'm leaving them on, because some people might need a friendly place to vent as well. If not, that's fine. And if you comment, I may respond, and I may not. But if you're a Trump supporter, congratulations, and I hope we can find a way to work together. But right now, today, I really don't want to hear it, so please, keep it to yourself.

Anyway, here's how I'm doing today. Tomorrow, we'll be back to talking about how crappy X-Force is right now, and continue to do so for as long as we're able.

State of the Blog

(Or, as Blam likes to call it, the Slog).

With the summer movie season behind us and the fall TV season about to begin, I figured it was a good time to touch base on what to expect in terms of TV coverage moving forward. I've never felt terribly compelled to do one of these "state of the blog" posts before, usually sneaking them into the first TV post of the fall, but there's a bunch of stuff happening or about to happen that make a quick overall check-in worthwhile.

That is, I can't sneak this into this season's first TV post, because there won't be a regular TV post this year. I'm giving up the episodic TV review game, at least for the time being, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, for those of you haven't heard the news on Facebook or Twitter, my wife and I are expecting our first child (a boy!) at the end of the year (on either 12/29 or 1/3, depending on which medical professional you choose to believe). While I have every intention of continuing to write regularly while doing my best to prevent my son from becoming infected by a techno-organic virus and taken into the future for his own well being, I recognize that, realistically, the amount of time and mental energy I will have to write will be diminished come 2015.

Opera, TV and Comics. Yes, Opera.

First of all, I'm once again here to ask you for money.

Not for myself of course (but feel free to mail either me or Dr. Bitz checks or loose change if you're so inclined), but for another cool Kickstarter project, this one to help out Jason Powell, the internet's foremost Chris Claremont scholar and author of the most insightful X-Men reviews you'll ever read (not that you shouldn't also read mine). Back in 2012, he wrote and staged an original superhero opera, and is now hoping to raise funds to put it onto CD. Check out his Kickstarter page here.

As a fan of both superheroes and musical theater, this seems like a win-win, so I'll be helping out. The world needs more superhero operas.

Secondly, a new TV website was recently brought to my attention, What to Watch, a site which is basically an engine to help you pick new TV shows to watch based on your current tastes. The database of the site is chock full of current and popular programs, and I hear tell that the creators of the site hope to eventually expand the selection to include more classic shows and one-season wonders.

It's a neat little site, and even if your TV viewing schedule is full (like mine), it's still fun to see what kind of shows get matched up with your favorites. Check it out.

Finally, Dobson, a frequent commenter on this blog, has launched a new blog, The Pouch Files, with the aim of examining the highs and lows of comics in the 90s on an issue by issue basis, celebrating and mocking comics' decade of excess, with an emphasis on the books from that era which don't get much love elsewhere on the 'net. I've already both laughed and sighed fondly with nostalgia during several of his posts, and am looking forward to more.

Fifteen Minutes & Dark Moon Digest

I try not to shill things too often here, because

A. Nobody comes here for that.
B. We all have plenty of drains on our income even before we get to potentially fun stuff.
C. There are some people out there who are getting irritated by the seemingly-constant shilling of crowd-sourcing projects via things like Kickstarter.

But, every once in awhile there's something I feel compelled to use my relatively-microscopic little corner of the internet to promote, and right now that's the original graphic novel Fifteen Minutes by Anthony Hary. In addition to being a supremely talented artist and all around good guy, Anthony is the co-author, along with yours truly, of Crimson Masquerade, a sci-fi/fantasy novel we are in the midst of revising, which will hopefully be out sometime this year (and I apologize in advance for shamelessly shilling that when the time comes). So supporting Anthony now will also help support me in the future, and who wouldn't want to do that?

If you're so inclined, you can donate to the Fifteen Minutes Kickstarter here. Even just a buck or two will help make a difference, and will be greatly appreciated.

Also, as long we're talking about things you can buy from talented friends of mine, my pal, crit partner and fellow blogger Sarah recently had a story published in Dark Moon Digest (her second to be published by that magazine); the latest issue of which, containing said story, can be purchased here.

So if you've got a few extra bucks and want to check out some great stories while also helping out some friends of mine, there's two ways you can do it. If not, no harm, no foul.

X-aminations in December

We round out the year in X-aminations with a pair of issues from each series, a pair of limited series intended to capitalize on the X-Men's growing sales success, and, appropriately enough for the day after Christmas, a twelve issue series involving most of the Marvel Universe's biggest characters created to support a toy line.

December 5th: Uncanny X-Men #179
December 6th: Magik #1-4

December 12th: X-Men and the Micronauts #1-4
December 13th: New Mutants #14

December 19th: Uncanny X-Men #180

December 20th: New Mutants #15

December 26th: Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1-12
(depending on how my schedule shakes out, this may get pushed to the 27th, or split into two posts, with the second half on the 27th. We'll just have to play that by ear).

Also, in the interest of continuing to share cool new (to me) X-Men related blogs with you, I've added a few new sites to the blog roll.

Game of Thrones Humor

So my buddy Blam has gone to town lately with a series of hilarious images inspired by Game of Thrones, my favorite of which is above. For any GoT fans who haven't checked out these posts yet, be sure to do so. You can find them here and here.  

The Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest (Dr. Bitz)

Teebore inspired me to create my own list. (You can read more about the specifics here.) I tried my best not to sound like a creepy horndog pervert. You'll be happy to know I failed on all counts. 

Christine Taylor
As seen in Hey Dude and many Ben Stiller movies post Dr. Bitz's teen years.

Well, it's a little wild and a little strange but I'd like to my home out on her range. Yeah, I watched a lot of Nickelodeon growing up but there wasn't a whole lot there to appeal to my baser instincts. (Rightfully so, I guess?) My point is, I would have held Hey Dude's sweet Melody's hand anytime. Apparently Ben Stiller agreed with young Dr. Bitz since he later ended up marrying her. I'm unsure if that helps or hurts my argument? But I am sure that you can't get a ride...if you can't hold on. Yippee kai yai yay!

Housekeeping

Just a quick post about Blogger's annoying new approach to comments.

As anyone who has commented on any Blogspot blogs in the last week has likely noticed, Blogger, in all their infinite wisdom, recently rolled out an unannounced change to the comments page of all its blogs, in which the page now has an odd layout and is ugly. More frustratingly, they have removed the ability for readers to subscribe to comments by email, unless the blog uses embedded comments.

Not surprisingly, this makes the back and forth dialogue generated on many blogs, including this one, much more difficult. Anyone wanting to follow/participate in a discussion must now go out of their way to keep track of comments on a particular post, rather than having new comments handily emailed to them. As a blogger, I understand our readers are already giving us their time to read these posts, and even more time to comment on them. Now, Blogger is forcing those readers to spend even more of their time to continue following any discussions sparked by our posts. It is, to put it mildly, horseshit.

For what it's worth, I have expressed my displeasure about this situation to Blogger, and I know several fellow bloggers who have done the same thing. I'm not naive enough to think that will make a difference, but it's all we can do. For now, I'm reluctant to switch to embedded comments on this blog. I'm not a huge fan of that layout either, and I know they cause problems for some people's browsers. In time, though, that may be the way we have to go (and even if we switched to embedded comments here, it wouldn't make it any easier to keep up with comments on any of the other blogs that don't).

Needless to say, if we had the time and money, we'd move off Blogger entirely, something I'd like to see us do at some point in the future. But for now, we're sticking around here, for better or worse.

Sorry for the hassle, and know that it's nothing we have any control over.

The Teenage Heartthrob Blogfest

You can read more about the specifics here, but in essence, the purpose of this blogfest is to list seven of the characters/celebrities you crushed on back when you were a teenager. So without further ado, here's my list, and be sure to check out the other participants posts, handily listed at the bottom of this one. 

Scarlett
As seen in GI Joe: A Real American Hero 

Scarlett is the the chicken/egg scenario of my infatuation with redheads. I have no idea if I was drawn to Scarlett in the early goings of my attraction to the opposite sex because she was a redhead, or if my ongoing infatuation with redheads is born of my initial attraction to Scarlett. At any rate, Scarlett represents the first time Lil'Teebore thought "hey, that girl is hot!"

Twitterpated

Never let it be said that I don't eventually come around on these newfangled technological fads: Teebore is now on Twitter!

That's right, you can follow me on Twitter @AustinGorton (there goes my secret identity...), or via this blog (my five most recent tweets now appear beneath Dr. Bitz's infrequently-updated Doctor Manhattan Twitter feed on the sidebar).

In addition to learning stalker-ish and generally pointless things like when I'm going to the gym or how much I liked the dinner I just ate, I'm planning on tweeting immediate reactions to the TV shows I watch, as I watch them (including shows not regularly covered in the "Last Week in TV" posts), as well as a weekly heads up about which issue of X-Men is coming up next in "X-aminations" (which will become increasingly useful as the year goes on and we start covering random non-X-Men issues like Avengers Annual #10 more frequently). 

Also, I'm already following a ton of people funnier and smarter than me on Twitter, so you'll be privy to all of their great stuff that I retweet.

So welcome to 2007 folks; it's gonna be a great year!

Ten Pop Culture-y Things For Which Teebore is Thankful

The Uncanny X-Cast
I'm not much of podcast listener (aside from the Fantasy Focus baseball podcast and the lie-filled Lost podcasts with the producers back in the day) but I stumbled across Rob and Brian's X-Men podcast this last year and have been slowly catching up on their old episodes while following along with the new ones. It features great discussions of X-Men issues old and new as well as hilarious comic and non-comic related bullshit. Download it on iTunes or check out their website.

Star Wars on Blu-ray

I've geeked out about the deleted scenes already, but two months out and I'm still having fun with this set. The movies look and sound great (Mrs. Teebore and I recently watched Jedi) and I just learned the animated sequence from the infamous holiday special which introduced Boba Fett is on one of the discs as an Easter egg. 

Geography of the DC Universe

While the Marvel Universe has always been billed as "the world outside your window" (despite the disappointing lack of radioactive Spider-Men outside my window...) and uses a reasonable facsimile of the real New York City as the backdrop for many of its stories, the DC Universe (home of Batman and Superman) has, from the earliest days of Gotham City and Metropolis, presented geography further removed from our world, one which features several major fictional cities.

Siskoid, of the excellent Siskoid's Blog of Geekery, recently asked his readers to take a list of ten of DC's most notable fictional cities and assign them a fictional state, along with the general location of where that state would be (the Earth of the DC Universe is physically larger than our world, so these new states would simply fit in and around existing ones).

Gentlemen of Leisure v3.0

Check out our new banner up top, compliments (after much cajoling...) of my uber-talented brother. You can see more of his work here.

Pretty awesome, huh?

Show Me Yours Blogfest

Fellow blogging buddies Falen, Hannah and Summer are hosting the "Show Me Yours" blogfest, in which participants share a 500 word (or so) excerpt from their finished or unfinished novel from last November's National Novel Writing Month challenge. Below is an excerpt from my unfinished NaNoWriMo 2010 book, Dawning Equinox. Be sure to check out any one of those lovely ladies' blogs for the full list of blogfest participants.

Housekeeping

First of all, my next Last Week in TV post should be up sometime tomorrow. Due to the new Harry Potter movie, the Thanksgiving holiday, and my desperately futile attempts to keep my head above NaNo's waters last week, I didn't watch much TV and had even less time to write about it, so the post'll be delayed until tomorrow.

And then, on Wednesday, in addition to another X-aminations post, I'll be starting something that will probably quicken my descent into madness: daily content.

They're dogs...and they're playing poker!!

Starting December 1st and running until Christmas, I will countdown (in no particular order) 25 (mostly secular) things I love about Christmas and the holiday season, everything from movies to songs to TV episodes to traditions. Every day, in addition to whatever other craziness is happening on the blog, there will a Countdown to Christmas post. I hope you enjoy them.

Horror at Hannah's

My good buddy Hannah has been spending the month of October celebrating all things horror on her blog, Musings of a Palindrome (so named because her name is a palindrome, not because she thinks she can see Russia from her house). As part of that celebration, she hosted a short story contest (less than 1,000 words) in which she asked for stories in the horror/suspense genre designed to freak her out.

And I won! Wahoo!

Go here to check out my story. I'm totally surprised, as this is probably the first horror story I've ever written (I don't read a lot of horror/suspense, and thus I get very few story ideas in that vein). I was just trying to freak Hannah out, so I'm glad I accomplished that.

And now the new Stephen King book (amongst other goodies) is winging its way to me! Thanks Hannah!

NaNoWriMo!

November is almost upon us, which means it's time once again for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or "NaNo", to the kids) challenge: write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.

Last year, I finished a novel, but it came up short at around 48,000 words. I'll be trying again this year, with a more densely plotted novel (read about it here) that I hope will put me in the winner's circle (the prize? Pride...). If you'll similarly be handing over your November days and nights to the crafting of a novel, be sure to buddy me on NaNo's page (I'm Teebore, natch).

Blog-wise, I'm not planning on disappearing entirely, and plan to keep at least the "Last Week in TV" and "X-amination" posts on their regular schedules, but don't be surprised if there's one less post each week (most likely the Friday post) or more phoned-in posts (like this one) on occasion. Once November has come and gone, the holiday season will be upon us, and I've got something in mind for the blog that I hope will be fun. Stay tuned for more on that!

Dirty Dozen: Teebore's 12 Favorite Movies

Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting a "Dirty Dozen" blogfest on his blog, in which he asked the participants, "what movies have changed your life? What movies have changed you as a person? What movies are your ultimate enjoyment from start to finish? If you could only round up twelve, what movies would be your Dirty Dozen?"

Here are mine. Bear in mind, as in most of my lists, these are my personal favorites, not the twelve movies I think are the best, ever. This list is largely driven by nostalgia, personal significance, re-watchability, and theme. 

Blog Pimpin'

My good buddy Palindrome is hosting a contest in honor of her birth, over on her blog Musings of a Palindrome. And because pimping this blog is a key element of that contest, it's only fair that I return the favor. One good pimpin' deserves another, after all.

So check it out, for a chance to win some cool books, but more importantly, for the undoubtedly cool and interesting posts she has planned for the duration of the contest featuring notable pop culture moments in her life.

And to all our new followers, driven here under the contestorial whip of Palindrome, welcome! Hopefully, you'll find something you like here.