Hosive

brian is a kid in our church who has always had a hulk vibe from his moppy haircut to intense violent energy. so we got him these hulk hands for halloween….last year. he was not interested. so we tried again this year…..we got him to put on the hands but not the purple pants.

i call him hulk and he calls me poopy. ironically, shortly after these pictures, he took a messy doody in his pants. another example of messing with a pastor coming to fruition.

his brother, ethan, makes a decent hulk too……..

but obviously he’s too friendly to be hulk!

happy halloween! ….and stay away from the dark side…always good advice.

more blind box fun! check last week’s post if you are totally lost…..but press on if you want to see what we got this week!

we got three figures this week, two for us and one for fellow simpson lover, lisa……both lisa and i got the same exact figure: hippie homer! yippie homer!

theresa snagged lisa with her sax! 4 down! 20 to go in the collection! stop by in a week to see what we get next!

just like there’s indie music and indie movies, there are indie comics…not(always)for the masses…but unique stories told by people with singular vision.  back in the day, there were two major indie comics conventions….one on the west coast in sf and one on the east coast in bethesda, md. for 11 years, i happened to live nearby the one in md and went nearly every year. these days, there are a few more shows across the country trying to develop their own following but the small press expo in maryland will always be special to us. we’ve been going the last few years after a short hiatus after our move to nyc.

the show features some more established artists….here is steve lieber who will become more mainstream once the movie whiteout comes out. i’ve also met frank miller, art spiegelman, jeff smith, and paul pope at this con….

it also features up and coming artists such as dash shaw who wrote and drew bottomless belly button declared by new york magazine as the graphic novel of the year….it also got great press from lots of national publications……its cool to meet and greet these guys before they become more famous….at least in the comic universe…..

we also get to hang with old friends like local artist mark burrier who we’ve connected with and gotten sketches from for years. we are his small time patrons buying comics, prints and shirts to support his art. theresa really loves his t’s and sports them regularly.

this time, the big ticket artist featured was one of my favorites….jason lutes. i’ve followed him for over ten year first with his moving jar of fools graphic novels about a down and out magician. and now on his epic decade long(and longer)production of berlin.

in honor of the small press expo, no superheroes this time for my reviews(most indie comics deal with topics non-superhero)but here are reviews of books available at the small press expo. i start with jason lutes’ berlin.

berlin is about…..(i’ll let the blurb on the back of the book tell it): a captivating trilogy set in the twilight years of germany’s weimar republic. the first book covers eight months in berlin from september 1928 to may day 1929…documenting the hopes and struggles of its inhabitants as their future is darkened by a growing shadow. the second book creates a seamless, street level portrait of their city as tension builds between communist and national socialist, jew and gentile, and the dawn of the second world war draws closer.

pretty heady stuff! accompanied by crisp, clean beautiful art.

i love comics(and movies)about cities or how a city is a character in a story. to the un-initiated, think about a movie where the city plays a major role….sometimes when i visit a city, i watch a few movies set in that city. think of your favorite nyc movies, sf movies, los angeles movies…this is your pre world war two berlin story.

this is a textured journey through the tangled lives of a large cast of characters living in berlin during that time. they capture the wide range of life in the city from the devout to the depraved….finding beauty in the zeniths and nadirs of humanity. an extraordinary achievement.

people might complain….that nothing happens! well that’s life….and its not that nothing happens….it just happens really slowly…and a whole lot of nothing in between. but that’s life too. it captures one slice of time in a city. and there’s nothing else like it in comics…and that’s good news, bad news to people. it depends on who you are. but its 100% art. and i love art…..stuff people produce because they just have to….leaving you wondering where these ideas come from(as a theology dude, i suspect that inspiration originates from a spark of/from god).

the series started in 2001 and its been almost eight years….it will be finished in another 8 years. truly an epic effort. the power of the medium of comics is showcased in telling this kind of story. comics are not just the funny pages for below average readers with bad social skills…..it can be literary, sophisticated and cosmopolitan.

up next is exit wounds by rutu modan. another book set in a city(or too)not too familiar to westerners. here’s the blurb from the back….in modern tel aviv, a young man receives an urgent phone call from a female soldier named numi; learning that his estranged father may have been a victim of a suicide bombing in hadera. as they unravel the mystery, the young man finds himself not only piecing together those last few months of his father’s life but his entire identity.

the jewish daily forward says this about it: exit wounds makes wry comments about classism and sexism in israeli society, the matter of factness of living with terrrorism, and how personal and political inevitably interwine.

its a mystery! its a love story! its a exploration of how our parents influenced us! its a snapshot of living in modern day israel under the threat of terrorism….perhaps a preview of life for us in the states?

its executed very well and feels very human. it affirms the deep things in life. more art!! yay!

finally, too cool to be forgotten is a time warp trip as middle aged andy wicks finally tries hypnosis to help him to quit smoking. but instead, he gets transported back to 1985…back to his high school days! and he gets to live his life over again. faced with the same choices with a head full of wisdom, what will he choose? what will he do with a second choice? this is both a meditation on our teenage years and our middle aged years.

alex robinson has been a favorite of ours during our small press expo days with box office poison and tricked!….real life with real nuance; slice of everyman everyday is his specialty. executed with charm and magic.

maybe for next time….more superheroes!

Posted under comics, forbidden planet chronicles

duh!journal scours the earth for dumb behavior….some low brow…some high minded…all duh!

i must admit that it gives me great pleasure in posting this story. isiah thomas, a former nba great with detroit, came to my city and destroyed the ny knicks franchise. this past week, a 911 call was made from his house in westchester…an accidental overdose by a 47 year old black unnamed male. btw, isiah is 47.

later, isiah denied any overdose and said the person who was taken to the hospital was his daughter….not him. the police are calling him a liar! as you read on, keep in mind that the thomas household is still denying the police’s version of the story.

from espn.com:

NEW YORK — A suburban police chief likened the conflicting accounts of an accidental overdose at Isiah Thomas’ home to a “cover-up” and rebuked the former New York Knicks coach Saturday for saying it was his teenage daughter who required treatment.

“It wasn’t his daughter,” Harrison Police Chief David Hall told The Associated Press. “And why they’re throwing her under the bus is beyond my ability to understand.”

Authorities were called early Friday to Thomas’ Westchester County home, where police said a 47-year-old man was taken to the hospital and treated for an overdose of sleeping pills. Several media outlets reported that police confirmed it was Thomas who went to the hospital.

But reached on his cell phone Friday, the 47-year-old NBA great told the New York Post he had not been treated for a sleeping pill overdose, and that it was 17-year-old daughter Lauren who had a medical issue.

It “wasn’t an overdose,” he told the newspaper. “My daughter is very down right now. None of us are OK.”

Hall forcefully refuted Thomas’ statement.

“My cops … know the difference between a 47-year-old black male and a young black female,” Hall said.

“These people should learn something from Richard Nixon — it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up,” he added.

**********

from the nydailynews.com:

Hall said no suicide note was found, and police were classifying the case “as an accidental drug overdose.”

Early reports said emergency crews were called to treat a 47-year-old man, the same age as Thomas. Police sources later confirmed it was the NBA star.

Authorities also revealed Thomas had downed 10 Lunesta pills and lost consciousness by the time emergency workers arrived at his $4 million Westchester County home in the early hours of Friday morning.

But Thomas himself denied it was an overdose, adding that his daughter is “very down right now.”

Thomas’ son Joshua, 20, told the Daily News on Friday that the reports of sleeping pills were false and also said it was his sister, not his father, who needed medical attention.

Joshua lashed out at Hall for accusing his father of a coverup.

“Saying that someone is being thrown under the bus when you are talking about health issues is disrespectful,” the Indiana University student wrote in a text to The News.

“I love both my sister and dad and am glad that both are doing well. Thanks for all the support, but as a family we are fine and stronger than ever.”

The former Knicks coach remained out of the spotlight Saturday and did not return calls seeking an explanation for what really happened.

A Knicks spokesman refused to address Hall’s allegations, saying the club would stand by its original statement that claimed Thomas was dealing with a “family matter.”

Thomas has seen his reputation shattered in recent years for several losing seasons and a blockbuster sexual harassment suit against him and Madison Square Garden.

His handling of the reports of an overdose added further fuel to fans’ calls for him to step down.

“I wish him well healthwise but I wish he’d get out of New York,” said Skip Funt, 65, from Manhattan.

“I think he’s a disgrace to the Knicks because he can’t coach and he can’t manage. He’ll blame anybody just to make himself look good because that’s the kind of guy he is.”

“He was a good player in Detroit and I hated him as a general manager and a coach,” said transit worker Joe Boyce, 57, from Queens. “He’s got a lot of ghosts in his closet.”

**************

its another strange episode in the duh! life of isiah thomas!

when people come into the city, we are always surprised by where they want to visit or go eat. they are equally surprised that we do not frequent those places or want to go eat there. no. i do not want to eat at ruby tuesdays , bennigans or tgifridays in times square. then they ask where we go……so here are the places we like…not the best or the cheapest or whatever category….just where we go and go on a regular basis:

here’s some more street food but this time….not from a cart! no “restaurant” either. no seating. no entrance(for customers, only workers). just a few signs over a storefront that opens into the kitchen where you can order….the result?

a constant line of folks awaiting some of the best fried chicken in the city…at $1 a piece. a dollar. yes! a hundred pennies! the trick is finding a place to eat it before it gets cold. we found people eating standing up…sitting on steps…sitting on benches…sitting wherever…..

here’s that storefront……there’s a table up front where you place your order, pay then wait for your food. that’s it. the whole joint is that table and the kitchen where you can get southern treats…mostly fried chicken, ribs, corn bread. most of the items are $1-$3. you can build your own happy meal.

i got a 2 pieces of chicken for $1 a piece: $2

a rib-it. a little rib….no joke. its a called a ribit. another $1

a dollop of mac and cheese…if forget how much……but 1 or 2 bucks….

total….let’s say $5. in nyc….this is highway robbery! and i’m the robber!

theresa got chicken and waffle with a side of potato salad. i think this was also $5

angie got the chicken and waffle with a side of bread pudding.

we wound up sitting on some steps at some brownstones near by. of course, loitering is illegal and fines can be levied. but the people in the building we sat at were cool. but cops may not be. my next meal, i took it to a starbucks while i used my 2 hours of free internet thanks to the starbucks card promotion.

that time i went back to try their jerk pork platter….delicious! a big old rib with rice and cabbage. i’m looking forward to their jerk chicken!

i loved these ads! to promote monday night football this season, the nfl put these up all over the city. what’s the big deal? look closer…..

the ads are artificial turf spray painted with white lettering……just like a real(fake)football field!

here are some close ups of the blades of turf…….

and yes….they were promptly stolen from various locations in the city…ironically in the richer areas: soho, along broadway and other richie rich locales. but ironically, up where i am…..manhattan valley and morningside heights….they were still up! the people either respected the ads or liked having the ads up in the community or just didn’t bother. but i thought that was an interesting parable of right and wrong, rich and poor with multiple meanings and lessons.

the stolen turfs are probably lining some guy’s room in the city.

in their place, the nfl put up these traditional paper ads depicting a crime scene! the notice warns about bad karma and urges the theives to return the turf. i was slow to capture these on camera and had to ask my good buddy thom for this copy…..by the time i got to thinking about this post, both the turf ads and the crime scene ads were all gone! there maybe a few strays in the city. let me know if you find one.

we went to see this primarily because of the michael cera appeal factor(juno, arrested development)with the promise of indie movie sensibilities and an indie music soundtrack. and good reviews on rotten tomatoes…it was the only of the recent releases with a 70% rating or higher.

its a postmodern teenage romantic comedy set in new york city…..but don’t walk away yet! this is not a gross out, t &a, sexploitation film.  the indie roots eliminate most of the cliches and capture the reality of teenage awkwardness, innocence and charm.

there are two interweaving plots: michael cera is caught between two love interests during one night in the city…and all the cool kids are trying to look for clues to find the location of a super secret concert given by a super cool indie band.

it works best as a nyc movie. i love movies where the city is a character or pervasive backdrop integral to the story. it helps that the movie is actually filmed in nyc as opposed to studio lots or worse….filmed in another city but trying to pass off as ny(see jackie chan’s laughable rumble in the bronx with mountains in the skyline).

we recognized neighborhoods, sites and restaurants….and those scenes are magical. i(always)joke to theresa during a nyc movie that i wish i lived there! its an enjoyable romp through my city with an audio tour of what the kids are listening to today.

however, i did not buy the romantic triangle as the tension point of the story….michael cera has a choice between a rich, intelligent, real, heart of gold girl who totally digs him and a spoiled, superficial, fake evil hearted two face who uses him. duh! i just didn’t see why there was any tension! i also didn’t buy that the asian guy was gay.

but i would watch this again….and i might buy the soundtrack. i might even buy this to have a movie that really captures a nice snapshop of the city in the early 21st century.

look….i don’t mind telling you that my niece is cooler than your niece. blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, yeah….your niece scores better on this and s.a.t. that…but this is america and its all about emotional quotient in the real world. people skills. life. spark. magic. either you’ve got it or you don’t.

your niece may have an advantage during those early years of school where everything is measured from the size of your head and toes to how quick you can calculate when two trains will collide …but once my niece gets freed from the education matrix, the advantage will be all hers while you niece will be regulated to the nondescript masses of society.

my niece is self aware, verbal, intelligent, knows how to work a camera, knows how to make you laugh, charming, social, affectionate, curious, observant……

my niece is going to have good old fashioned texas family values and nyc sophistication while your niece inherits mall rat culture and waits for old navy, a&f and a/x to tell her what to wear.

my niece will be in the front row with us at u2, arcade fire, the killers, the swell season and lost and found while your niece will be into some boy band carbon copy or some bad girl(yawn)”singer”and listen to “music” only one generation knows the words to.

my niece will know real bbq and nyc cuisine from pizza all the way to foodie delights. her grandma will teach her secret chinese recipes. her aunt theresa will teach her how to cook stuff she learned from the french culinary institute. your niece will eat on tuesdays and fridays at tuesdays and fridays, think panda express is real chinese food and get their pizza made by someone who has never even met an italian.

if you aren’t smart enough to figure it out…..this really isn’t about your niece…but my love for jacqueline.

so rest easy. your niece is probably decent.

go love her the way i love jaq and we’ll all be cool.

or maybe your niece is already getting the love that she deserves.

****the views of this post belong solely to the writer and anyone who has met jacqueline and no one else.

(remember last week’s playmate simpsons entry with foreshadowing? the kid robot bag in the background?)

uh-oh….kid robot, a leader in the vinyl toy movement have teamed up with matt groening to create the first wave of simpsons toys. they are blind batch…meaning you cannot tell what you get until you open it. the upside is the magic of not knowing what you get until the delicious moment of discovery. the downside, the ugly side is getting a triple or quadruple of a figure you don’t like.

the figures have different ratios in production and distribution. the side of the boxes show your chances. here are some of the harder figures to get including itchy and scratchy at 1/48 and bumblebee man and funzo(?) at the mindboggling 1/96. both have been fetching close to $100 online. many of the figures have a 1/24 ratio.

a few common characters like homer, marge, bart and lisa have a 2/24 ratio. then there are the chase figures….with a ratio of ??/??…….

ok, some ground rules so that we do not go nuts and blow the hypothetical child’s college fund…..1) its ok not to complete this collection. (so much of this is luck) 2) we only buy figures once a week when i go visit theresa at the office. 3) we share the magic with others.

so here we go….let’s see what we get…each figure is wrapped in foil….welcome to america!

sam, one of theresa’s co-workers got one of the rare ones! the monkey! ratio of ??/??

theresa got maggie! 1/24

i got one of the rare ones! devil flanders! ??/?? ……there’s a certain irony here.

steph got a….lisa! 2/24……the good kid….more irony!

angie got a….bart at 2/24! the bad kid! no comment on the irony though angie made one.

can’t wait to see what we get next week!

i usually don’t share that much about ministry which leads people to wonder if i do any ministry at all as a pastor. it seems like i am doing anything but ministry with all the concerts, shows, restaurants, trips i attend and the interests i pursue. the reality is that i do a lot of ministry…i work as much(or more)as i play. i spend the main part of my life working. and that’s the point….i am blessed to live a rich, rich life.

i minister…..but i have a life apart from ministry which i actively pursue. i’ve grown up in the church i’ve seen the dudes who do nothing but think, eat, drink, sleep and throw up ministry. that’s all they blog about because they’ve got nothing else to blog about. that’s all they can bring out from their souls. i don’t want to be near anything like that because i’ve seen those dudes flame out and wind up selling insurance, electrical wires, heart attacks, something, anything…you name it.

my friend dj chuang says that i am one of the more healthy ministers he has encountered with a good chance of doing this work long term. this is high praise from someone who spends a lot of time hanging and tracking with ministers. i don’t know if i believe my own press(i was trained not to)but i know that there are other things in me i want to pursue in addition to ministry. maybe too many things. and i’ve got a lot of other things i want to talk to people about besides churchy church.

but once in awhile, there is something joyous i would like to share about my church life:

a bunch of couples went to the weekend to remember conference to recharge our marriages. it was a great time to dine, hang out, laugh and be encouraged with other couples. i love the people in my church and i love being with them.

i love wendy and ernie who are so different and yet are on the same page. i love mike who takes over so i can relax and rest my brain. i love the quiet grace that oli ghaw-lee exudes. i love the divergent reactions peggy and leo have when we laugh about sex. i love joking around too much with chris and wayne. i love the generous hearts of their wives, rebecca and pam. i love calvin’s deep spirituality. i love carol’s deep madness(which she hides until she feels more steady). i love them like a parent who’s crazy about their kid when everyone else just sees another baby.

these were vibrant times together.

as for the teaching times, topics included resolving conflict, communication skills, sex, fatherhood and challenges to marriage.

I didn’t learn a lot of new things as the conference as the program was designed to cast a wide net to catch everyone including new marrieds and total space cadet couples. for example, during the sharing time some shared that they learned that “they were supposed to work together” and “i have to love my wife”. being in and around ministry and marriages for 18 years, i could have taught the class or at least parts of it. and i do teach this stuff….in my pre-marital sessions with couples.

but what was helpful were the exercises that got me and theresa to talk. we had a great time interacting and laughing. at some points, we laughed too loud as the couples near us weren’t always having a good time. one husband spent the project time lecturing his wife. another couple looked like they had just survived a bombing. we laughed softer when we became aware of them.

we were even given a date night where we were to go to a restaurant, wine and dine and then let the night run its magical course. we spent our time at a suburban mega-grocery-mart going through the aisles getting stuff we could not get in the city for prices we could never find in the city. there were 4 other shoppers in the whole place, giving us free reign of the store. doesn’t sound romantic but we spent an hour and a half just talking and enjoying each other. time that we don’t have a lot of because….we are both out a lot doing ministry! there’s my alibi right there for all those haters! church work does dominate a lot of our lives so it was great to have that extended time together….even if it was at a supermarket….besides,that’s exactly what theresa wanted to do! her eyes lit up as we drove past the strip malls.

and the rest of the night?