Sexes in the City

I've got a new story up at this month's Reflection's Edge

The Fantastic Five

Over at the comics site Newsarama, there's a thread about what your top 5 current comics periodicals are:

I must admit that I almost have to fight the urge to constantly compile lists here. I love doing lists. So, what the hell, here's my "Fantastic Five", in no order -- they're all too good to nitpick the exact order:

Captain America, by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, et al.

Gut-wrenching superspy suspense thriller.

Fell, by Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith

Dark and weird crime fiction with a wry twist.

The Immortal Iron Fist, by Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, David Aja, et al.

Multigenerational genrebusting pulp kung fu action and adventure.

Nexus, by Mike Baron & Steve Rude

Jaw-droppingly gorgeous, ultra-cool science fiction bursting with exciting ideas

All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

The ultimate archetypal series of the ultimate archetypal superhero.

80th Oscars

Commentary on some of the awards for the 80th Oscars...


Performance by an actor in a leading role

• George Clooney in Michael Clayton
• Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
• Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah
• Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises

winner: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
should have won (among the nominees): Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
should have won (but wasn't nominated): Samuel Jackson in Black Snake Moan

Johnny Depp, who is one of my favourite actors, gave one of his worst performances ever as Sweeney Todd; I don't understand the fascination for Daniel Day-Lewis. I think he always overacts.


Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Casey Affleck in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
• Philip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilson's War
• Hal Holbrook in Into the Wild
• Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton

winner: Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
should have won (among the nominees): Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
should have won (but wasn't nominated): Micheal Cera in Superbad

What exactly makes Bardem's role a "supporting" role? Seems like he was the lead character to me. A great performance, though, in a seriously flawed movie.


Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Julie Christie in Away from Her
• Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose
• Laura Linney in The Savages
• Ellen Page in Juno

winner: Marion Cotillard in La Vie en Rose
should have won: Ellen Page in Juno

Why does this award almost always go to a woman playing a real-life historical character. What the fuck is up with that?


Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There
• Ruby Dee in American Gangster
• Saoirse Ronan in Atonement
• Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone
• Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

winner: Tilda Swinton in Michael Claytonn
should have won: Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone

Achievement in directing

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel
• Juno, Jason Reitman
• Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy
• No Country for Old Men, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
• There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson

winner: No Country for Old Men, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
should have won (among the nominees): Juno, Jason Reitman
should have won (but wasn't nominated): Zodiac, David Fincher


Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• "Falling Slowly" from Once; Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
• "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted: Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
• "Raise It Up" from August Rush; Music and Lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas
• "So Close" from Enchanted; Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
• "That's How You Know" from Enchanted; Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

winner: "Falling Slowly" from Once; Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
should have won: "Falling Slowly" from Once; Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

This was a delightful surprise. I really liked that movie, and that song has real heart, unlike the usual pap that gets nominated and wins in this category. Their performance of the song during the show was very moving, also. My favourite moment of the ceremony was this win.

Best motion picture of the year

• Atonement
• Juno
• Michael Clayton
• No Country for Old Men
• There Will Be Blood

winner: No Country for Old Men
should have won (among the nominees): Juno
should have won (but wasn't nominated): Grindhouse

There was good stuff in No Country for Old Men, but lots of bad stuff as well. The Coen films I like get ignored, and the ones I find weak always reap accolades.

Adapted screenplay

• Atonement, by Christopher Hampton
• Away from Her, by Sarah Polley
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Ronald Harwood
• No Country for Old Men, by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• There Will Be Blood, by Paul Thomas Anderson

winner: No Country for Old Men, by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
should have won (among the nominees): no award!
should have won (but wasn't nominated): Zodiac, by James Vanderbilt

Original screenplay

• Juno, by Diablo Cody
• Lars and the Real Girl, by Nancy Oliver
• Michael Clayton, by Tony Gilroy
• Ratatouille, Screenplay by Brad Bird; Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
• The Savages, by Tamara Jenkins

winner: Juno, by Diablo Cody
should have won: Juno, by Diablo Cody

My second-favourite moment of the evening. Well deserved indeed. I'm only sorry this fabulous film didn't win more awards.

Best films of 2007

So it's the Oscars tonight, and as usual most of the year's best films are ignored.

Here are my top 5 films of 2007, in ascending order:

5. Black Snake Moan
written & directed by Craig Brewer


4. Superbad
directed by Greg Mottola; written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg


3. Juno
directed by Jason Reitman; written by Diablo Cody


2. Zodiac
directed by David Fincher; written by James Vanderbilt (based on the book by Robert Graysmith)


1. Grindhouse
written & directed by Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino et al.

The Best of 2007

Locus Online has just posted 2007 retrospectives by Jeff VanderMeer and moi.

As I admit in the piece, my 2007 reading was spotty, which is unusual, but many factors, both internal and external, played into that.

It's interesting to note that Jeff covers a huge number of novels (too many to count!), compared to my six, but we don't have any overlap. Not a single novel in common. His list includes several books that I didn't think much of and many that, alas, I simply didn't see. Many of those look very good indeed.

We didn't cover exactly the same categories: I didn't do anthologies or reprints (which he does), while he didn't do nonfiction and collections, two of the categories I cover.

Where we do overlap a bit is comics, with two titles we both chose.

Peanut Soup Variations #3

2 tomatoes, chopped
8 cherry tomatoes, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
7 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 fistful cashews, chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
black pepper, to taste
crushed chilies, to taste
thyme, to taste
cayenne pepper, to taste
paprika, to taste
ground ginger, to taste
225g peanut butter
(green onion)

makes 5-6 portions

• Heat tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in a large pot over medium heat.
• Throw in onions, cauliflower, and garlic — waiting 5 minutes after each ingredient, keeping pot covered.
• Heat until cauliflower is soft (5-12 minutes)
  
• Remove from heat and, using a hand blender, blend until slightly chunky mashed-potatoes-like consistency.
• Resume heating at medium heat, adding peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, cashews, and spices.
  
• Stir in vegetable stock.
• Bring heat to high (but not to maximum) until near boiling, then reduce heat to minimum.
• Stir in peanut butter until well blended, and simmer for 30 minutes at low heat.
• Before serving, heat at medium heat for five minutes, being careful to not let boil.
• Serve garnished with freshly chopped green onion.
  

Lost Pages 2007 Comics "Awards"

Since every website seems to have a "best of 2007" list of some sort, here are my Lost Pages 2007 Comics "Awards" (later in January, look for my annual best SF, fantasy, and horror feature at Locus Online.)

Each category has my top 5 "winners", in ascending order, with the #1 spot in bold.

Best Writer

5. Mark Waid
For the steadfastly entertaining The Brave and the Bold from DC.
4. Matt Fraction
Despite his unfortunate habit of always using "that" instead of "who" even in narration, Fraction's wild imagination makes Casanova a relentlessly crazy read (and I mean that in a good way) -- not to mention the energy he brings to The Immortal Iron Fist.
3. Grant Morrison
His All-Star Superman is the best Superman series ever, and thus one of the best superhero stories ever told. His run on Batman, alas, has been mostly uninspired, although the three-parter with guest cartoonist J.H. Williams III was a delightful surprise in every way.
2. Warren Ellis
The most intelligent writer in comics, who has the annoying habit of leaving series dangling, incomplete, while starting a dozen more. The price readers pay for following such a restless imagination.
1. Ed Brubaker
Brubaker is spearheading what I see as a neopulp renaissance in comics, with no less than four top-notch ongoing series: Captain America (pulp superspy), Daredevil (pulp hero noir), The Immortal Iron Fist (pulp kung fu), and Criminal (pulp noir).

Best Writer/Cartoonist

5. Ben Templesmith
Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse is nasty, nasty, nasty, and so grotesquely charming.
4. Mark Tatulli
The exuberant weirdness of his comic strip Lio is a welcome addition to pop culture.
3. Darwin Cooke
For his kinetic work on The Spirit. Few cartoonists have the chops to follow Will Eisner without resorting to imitation or pastiche -- Cooke is among that elite.
2. Eric Shanower
Age of Bronze continues to be an obvious labour of love, delicately paced and meticulously rendered.
1. Patrick McDonnell
Mutts is my favourite comic strip ever, executed with total mastery of storytelling and filled with clever visual references to art from many media and eras.

Best Cartoonist (illustrator)

5. Steve Epting
Bringing to life Brubaker's thrilling Captain America
4. J.H. Williams III
For his three-issue collaboration with Grant Morrison on Batman
3. Michael Lark
For his atmospheric noir work on Brubaker's Daredevil
2. Guy Davis
For his creepy and dense work on B.P.R.D., and for his masterful hand at storytelling and page layout
1. Steve Rude
Because he's finally back on Nexus, and even though there was only one issue, it demonstrated why Rude is one of the finest storytellers and illustrators ever to work in comics.

Best Series

5. Daredevil
Up there with the other great runs on Daredevil (of which there have been several), continuing Bendis's pulp-hero approach, but faster-paced and with more action. (Neither better nor worse, but its own thing, while consistent with what's come before.)
4. The Immortal Iron Fist
The Immortal Iron Fist just keeps getting better and better with every issue. The Annual and the "Times Past" stories are especially captivating. This series reminds me a lot of James Robinson's Starman in style, scope, and structure -- but not in tone. This is much pulpier, more filled with high-adrenaline action.
3. The Spirit
Darwin Cooke goodness in every issue.
2. Captain America
The definitive run on Captain America -- this one's going to be hard to top once Brubaker leaves (hopefully, not for a long, long time). 30+ issues in, Brubaker constantly surprises, while still upping the stakes, the thrills, and the suspense.
1. All-Star Superman
Dense with over-the-top SF ideas, this is Superman as he would be had he never been rebooted in the mid-1980s but had been allowed to continue to evolve organically, as he had for his first five decades. Evocative, mythic, fun, and totally Superman, like nothing's been Superman since Alan Moore finished off the original run in the 1980s.

Most Wasted Talent

5. John Cassaday on Astonishing X-Men
Sure, I'm a big Joss Whedon fan, but the X-Men franchise has long ago jumped the shark, jumped a whole ocean of sharks actually, and even the superstar team of Whedon/Cassaday can only make this continuity-mired franchise mildly entertaining. What a waste of a top cartoonist. (Meanwhile, we are denied the conclusion to Planetary.)
4. Brian Michael Bendis on Avengers
I'm a big (classic) Avengers fan. I love Bendis's take on lone, noirish superheroes (Daredevil and Alias, especially), but he is hopelessly gimmicky and completely unable to rein in his most annoying weaknesses (such as bad pacing and confusing storytelling) when working on big-scope team books. I understand his various Avengers series are selling well, but they will age badly. They're virtually unreadable, hopelessly hermetic, badly structured, and relying on shock rather than story. This is not the kind of series on which Bendis shines. His Avengers are this decade's version of 1990s X-Men, when the franchise collapsed under constant gimmicks, bad writing, and convoluted continuity.
3. Geoff Johns / Alex Ross on Justice Society of America
Such a superstar writing team, on comics's premier superteam, deserves a top art talent (perhaps more than one, in rotation) well-suited to this kind of story (say, George Pérez, John Cassaday, Jim Cheung, Cliff Chiang, Tony Harris, Paul Smith, Peter Snjebjerg, J.H. Williams III, J.G. Jones, Gary Frank, Jerry Ordway, Carlos Pacheco, to name several), not Dale Eaglesham, who can be competent but is not sufficiently accomplished to match up with such a potentially series-defining writing duo. Plus, Eaglesham's work on this series is far from his best. This could have been a classic run.
2. Warren Ellis at Avatar
While too many of his series for DC and Image are left dangling, Ellis starts a seemingly unlimited number of new series at Avatar, usually with sub-par artwork not at all up to the standard of his skill, intelligence, and imagination.
1. Cliff Chiang working with Judd Winick and Brian Azzarello
Cliff Chiang is one of the most accomplished cartoonists working in adventure comics, but his last few assignments -- Doctor Thirteen, written by Brian Azzarello, and Green Arrow / Black Canary, written by the much-maligned Judd Winick -- have been terrible. Beautiful to look at, but with writing so mediocre that even the superb artwork cannot redeem it.

Missing-in-Action Award

5. Paul Grist
What the fuck does this guy do? His comics never come out. He keeps soliciting Jack Staff, but where is it? And then there's his ever-more unlikely promise of continuing Kane. And now he's promising a monthly Jack Staff? Not the first time he's made that promise, but who does he think will believe him after his long string of broken promises?
4. Tom Tomorrow collections
Why are there no new collections from this top-notch political cartoonist?
3. James Robinson
Robinson is one of the finest writers of adventure comics; he is sadly missed. Maybe with the film writers' strike he'll come back to the medium most suited to his talents.
2. Collections of Carol Lay comic strips
Carol Lay is one of the most original comic-strip cartoonists working, but it's been TEN YEARS since her current work has been collected. This is unacceptable and outrageous.
1. Fell, by Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith
This is, in fact, the best ongoing comics series. In theory. But it never comes out. Meanwhile, both creators do other work that, while mostly very good, isn't as outstanding and original as Fell.

Top 5 comics covers, December 2005

From the 19 new comics singles I acquired in December 2007, my 5 favourite covers (though not, I feel compelled to point out, necessarily my 5 favourite comics):

5.

Amazing Spider-Man #545, by Joe Quesada

4.

The Brave and the Bold #9, by George Pérez

3.

Hulk vs Fin Fang Foom, by Jim Cheung

2.

Daredevil #103, by Marko Djurdjevic

1.

Incredible Hulk #112, by Art Adams

Ultra-Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies

These almost melt in your mouth with nutty goodness.

150g Earth Balance buttery spread
1 banana
200g peanut butter
1/2 cup soy milk or vanilla soy milk
1 cup golden cane sugar
1 tbsp apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup kamut flour
1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup kamut flakes
1 tsp almond essence
1 tbsp maple syrup

makes 33 cookies

• pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
• either grease baking sheet with Earth Balance or use parchment paper
• in a large mixing bowl mash banana and Earth Balance together
• add in peanut butter, soy milk, sugar, apple sauce, and vanilla
  
• stir until well blended and smooth
• sift and stir in flour, until well blended
  
• stir in oats and flakes, until well blended
• blend in almond essence and maple syrup
• drop on baking sheet by the generous tablespoonful, leaving a couple of cms between cookies
• bake for 10-12 minutes
• let cool on tray for a few minutes

Apple-Cinnamon Multigrain Porridge

A tasty hot breakfast, perfect for cold winter mornings.

1/2 cup kamut flakes
1/2 cup barley flakes
1 cup water
1 cup soy milk
3 tbsps apple sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
(maple syrup)

serves 1

• on medium-high heat, boil kamut flakes in water for two minutes, stirring occasionally
  
• lower heat to medium
  
• stir in soy milk
• stir in barley flakes
• heat for five minutes, stirring regularly
• add spices, vanilla, and apple sauce; stir
• heat for three minutes, stirring regularly
• serve with maple syrup
  

The Peanut Soup Variations #2

This one's extra spicy!

2 tomatoes, chopped
12 cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 head of cauliflower, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
4 mini sweet peppers, chopped
7 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
5 cups vegetable stock
black pepper, to taste
crushed chilies, to taste
thyme, to taste
cayenne pepper, to taste
paprika, to taste
ground ginger, to taste
200g peanut butter

makes 5-6 portions

• Heat tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in a large pot over medium heat.
• Throw in onion, cauliflower, and garlic, and green onions — waiting 5 minutes after each ingredient, keeping pot covered.
• Heat until cauliflower is soft (5-12 minutes)
• Remove from heat and, using a hand blender, blend until almost oatmeal-like consistency, leaving some chunks.
• Resume heating at medium heat, adding spices, sweet peppers, and sun-dried tomatoes.
• Let simmer for 15 minutes.
  
• Stir in vegetable stock.
• Bring heat to high (but not to maximum) until near boiling, then reduce heat to minimum.
• Let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
  
• Stir in peanut butter until well blended, and simmer for 30 minutes at low heat.
• Before serving, heat at medium heat for five minutes, being careful to not let boil.
  

Top 5 comics covers, November 2005

From the 19 new comics singles I acquired in November 2007, my 5 favourite covers:

5.

Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Annual #1, by Jim Cheung


4.

Casanova #11 by Gabriel Bá


3.

Criminal #10, by Sean Phillips

2

The Spirit #11, by Darwyn Cooke

1.

Daredevil #102, by Marko Djurdjevic

Week #28

BFI TV Classics: The Singing Detective, by Glen Creeber
Superman: The Dailies, 1939-1942