Okay, I have decided what songs I would want covered should we still have Collider play for us at the wedding. Earlier I had thought of having them cover "Funny How Love Is" from the Queen II album, a delicious deep cut indeed. It occurs to me that probably one of my favorite Queen songs is on the same album, actually right before FHLI. It's called "The March of the Black Queen" and it's a kick ass eight minute or so mini-rock opera. It has all these different parts that I could totally see this band playing (they are good musicians) and all those patented Queen "aaaahhhs" that I love so much. The best part is that it goes directly into Funny How Love Is on the album, so it will make an awesome Queen rock block. And like I said, it's about a deep a cut as you can get, and I know the Collider guys like that.

I'm psyched.

Decided on a whim last night to try and go see the Matrix Reloaded. So walked over to the theater near the house thinking I could pick up tickets. No such luck. There was a big crowd outside, and even though they had movies starting every half hour, the first non sold-out show was midnight. So Aliza and I just went and got some dinner with her brother and his friend from out of town.

I should have known better though. I gathered through the nerd-grapevine that people bought their tickets to see this movie over two weeks ago. You can't go see anything on opening night in this city without buying the ticket six months ahead of time it seems. Oh well, I don't care that much, The Matrix has never been a movie I was particularly fond of. Interestingly, I was reading John Byrne's forum a few days ago, and I saw that he has the same exact problem with the first movie as I do: which is that the "heroes" of the movie kill a lot of innocent people in their quest for freedom. At some point Morpheus says something about how Neo has to regard the humans that are still a part of the Matrix as enemies, and then when Neo and co. go to bust Morpheus out of the building they shoot the shit out of a bunch of security guards and stuff. What was their crime? That they were not "enlightened" as to the true nature of reality, the way that Neo and his cool leather buddies were. Whatever, I'm sure tons of people have beef with this movie for the exact same reason, but it was a pleasant suprise to see John Byrne felt the same way I did. He was a favorite creator of mine as a kid, and I was a little saddened to see that his online persona had become this shrill and angry man. But, maybe I mis-judged, who knows?

Today begins Aliza's Birthday Festival which will carry us through monday with it's various celebrations and get togethers. Tonight's activity is Dinner with My Folks, and they've even come into the city for it. Tomorrow is the Meal with all the Friends, and sunday is the Meal with Aliza's Folks. Then monday is the Meal for Just Me and Her, and after that life returns to normal and Aliza loses her VIP birthday-girl status.

New review of Gabagool! #1 Special Edition here. This guy seemed to like it, but doesn't seem to think the ugly nature of the book is for everyone. He will probably not like the newer Gabagool! stories much at all...

Trounced Alex in Heroclix last night. 2 games to 0. Next week we'll play again, with Radtke as a third, and we will truly have ourselves a war. Alex is hard at work on a custom battlefield. My suggestion is to re-create a scale grid of New York and stage the Battle for Manahattan. The next step is to take it beyond the grid paper and into 3-D cardboard buildings...

This week has been rough in terms of drawing comics. I think it might be because I just wrapped on G4, so I don't have anything else to do but do all the pre-press work so's I can send the book out sometime next week. And now I am supposed to work on things like invitations and stuff for the wedding. I should also start working on any little comics that I wanna make as a favor for the guests.

Also, the past two nights have turned up the most wondrous distractions. Monday's was pathetic: I got sucked into this stupid Three's Company movie that came on after Fear Factor (which always sucks me in). I don't wanna harp on about the Three's Company movie too much (it's embarrassing enough that I watched it), but I couldn't help but notice that Janet was the only cast memeber who had anything to do with it, and in the movie Janet was the only character who didn't screw anybody over, but was instead screwed in one way or another by Chrissy or Jack. Oh Janet, why are you blaming the others for your lack of post-Three's company success? They're talented people. Maybe if you'd showed some solidarity with Chrissy you all woulda' got raises, she wouldn't have been kicked off the show, and it wouldn't have sunk in the ratings. Look at the cast of Friends now, see how they do it. If you're the number one show in the country, there's nothing wrong with asking that you get paid something that reflects that. (Although, I will admit, according to the Three's Company movie I saw, Chrissy got a little out of hand with her demands). Anyway, I guess my main point is: Isn't there something wrong with a movie that asks us to treat the Network executives as the heroes and think of the evil greedy actors as the villains. Those poor execs, they were only trying to make an honest buck, why'd that money-grubbing cast member have to destroy such a good thing? Oh Chrissy, didn't you realize that the producers were only making the show out of the goodness of their hearts, and you had to ruin it by bringing money into the equation?

Ok, I have to stop. I've already harped on more than I wanted. Like I said, it's embarrassing that I got so caught up in this movie. I am going to be sure to not watch the Martha Stewart movie they have coming out in a few weeks, as I think my thoughts on whatever that is will not make exciting journal reading...

Instead, lemme tell you about last night's distraction: Heroclix! Yes, some friends came over and introduced me to this new nerdy pastime, where you get to be the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe, and the objective of the game is to simply "get the other player". It was good fun. I dreamt about battle strategies all night (except for the part of the dream where I was being attacked by Freddy Kreuger and Jason Vorhees) and I think I may have come up with an idea of how I can combine Heroclix and Lord of the Rings RISK, and make the Ultimate Dork Game of All Time!

Anyway, these are all bad things, because I should be drawing, not acting like a man-child with my little superhero figurines or watching garbage on TV and yelling about it afterwards...

Also: The lineup of the 2003 SPX anthology was announced, and Dirty Banana made the cut. Pretty sweet news. There is a link to the story somewhere in one of these posts, so if you want to go to the trouble of searching for it amongst my babble, then you can save yourself the eight bucks it'd cost you to buy the book.

SPX books are notoriously hit and miss. I do feel though that mine and Chris's story kicks ass, and this year we will be the toast of Bethesda...

Friday night: Went to see "Spellbound", the documentary about 8 or 9 kids competing in the 1999 National Spelling Bee. It was like the definition of "bittersweet". I found it to be very touching, funny, and melancholy all at the same time. I got weepy when the brother of one of the contestants talked about how proud her family was of her, and how they'd come to this country so their children could succeed, and now they had and they were very proud. I'm not embarrassed, I think it's okay to let the emotions out once in a while.

I participated in a message board thread about the importance of spelling over here, which I thought was pretty funny, but also relevant. I like especially how a couple of the people who are notoriously bad spellers get all bent out of shape and indignant, arguing not that they are bad spellers, but that the people who point it out are judgmental and anal retentive.

Maybe I only see it from my point of view, because I am a reasonably good speller, and I try and correct my typos when I can. I'm not perfect though, just reasonable.

Yesterday Aliza and I plunged back into bridal registration hell. This time: Bloomingdales. We are having real issues with our plates. Can't agree on a pattern to suit both our fancy. This is because Aliza's tastes run more "modern", and mine more "country homes and gardens". So I'd like the plates with the flower patterns, and she'd like the ones with the facist-like-suprematist-art-for-art's-sake-minimalist-speckle pattern on it. We have yet to find our middle ground.