I knew that wasn't the cool thing to do.

Awkwardness

Sat, 12 May 2012 19:31:28 GMT

There are times when I read something that just makes me nod a lot and think, “Yes, that is so perfect I wish I’d written it myself.” Case in point, Lucy Knisley’s latest webcomic, “Being Awkward vs. Awkward Situations.”

There’s lots, lots more—those are just the first three panels—so check it out. (And then while you’re at it, if you love travel stories or descriptions of food—or if you’re like me, both—buy a copy of her graphic novel French Milk. It is awesome.)

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

Five Things That Make Me Happy (part 14)

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:29:48 GMT

A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori
I utterly missed out on Japanese comics creator’s last series to be translated into English, Emma (the story of a Victorian era maid) but it’s nice to not be too far behind the times with her new series A Bride’s Story. It’s set in the 19th century and details a woman in the Silk Road area (near the Caspian Sea) who is the new bride to a young man in a neighboring tribe. It’s half relationship drama (and in a good, non-melodramatic way) and half anthropological study of that time and place. I just finished the first volume and was completely and utterly sucked into it. Also, it’s gorgeously drawn, an immense amount of detail packed into each page and on even what might otherwise feel like small, trivial details. I’m dying to pick up the next two that’ve been published in English to see what happens next. Absolutely charming.

Fra’ Mani Salametto
I picked up this dry salame for when guests were coming over, at Arrowine in Arlington, and I am so glad that I’ve had some leftover because it is divine. Soft, delicious flavor that just explodes in my mouth with each bite. Right now I’m slowly rationing out what I have left, but it’s good enough that I will definitely buy more. One of those slightly expensive foods that’s worth every penny you pay for it.

Home Improvements
In the past month or so, we’ve bought new blinds for the bedrooms (that better block light, a job the old ones did not quite handle properly), ordered new carpet for the stairs, and today a magnetic knife rack arrived. They’re all little changes, but it’s a real pleasure to get these things taken care of and have our home feel that much more… well… homey.

Back to Exercise
After a month off of exercising post-marathon (thanks to the delightful stress fracture in my right tibia), last week I finally got back to the gym… for five days in a row, no less. The things I’m limited to are a little boring, but I have caught up a great deal on my podcasts. And I keep vowing I’ll make it to the pool (for both lap swimming and pool running!) soon, honest, no really. It has felt good to do so. This week might be a little less energetic but there will be more exercise on the horizon, too. Time to use the non-busted parts and have them earn their keep. And speaking of stress fractures…

Being Halfway Done With My Air Cast
As of today it’s been three full weeks in the air cast! I find that hard to believe myself. I’d mentioned it already on Facebook and the like, but in short I developed a stress fracture in my right leg sometime in February, didn’t realize I had one, ran a marathon on it, then realized that the pain I was having was not a pulled muscle and went to a specialist to figure out the problem. I’ve been told that I’ll be in “das boot” (as I’ve named it) for six weeks. So, halfway done! Once I’m out of it I’ll get to go to PT to slowly ramp up returning to running, but that’ll be a slow process (in more ways than one) for a while. But it’s nice to be about to tip into the realm of over 50% complete with the truly annoying part of this little adventure.

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

Awful Songs We Love

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:08:02 GMT

Everyone has at least one song that they both love, and yet know is truly awful. While half the internet is posting April Fool’s Jokes that aren’t that funny, I’m going to instead take this opportunity to admit to mine. Yeah. It’s bad. But I admit it. Anyone else brave enough to admit to the song they love that they know is just bad?

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

Five Things That Make Me Happy (part 13)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:35:35 GMT

Here’s the Thing
If you’d told me even a year or two ago that Alec Baldwin would decide to start his own bi-weekly podcast in which he interviews other people, I’d have laughed in your face. But courtesy WNYC, that’s exactly what we get with Here’s the Thing, a 20-30 minute dose of him talking from people ranging from Chris Rock to Erica Jong. I’ve listened to three episodes now, and I’m in love with the show. Part of it has been the comfort level that both Baldwin and his subjects have had with one another, but I think it also helps that because Baldwin has been on the other side of the table, he’s got a slightly different perspective on the matter. There are only a handful of episodes right now, but I’m hoping this continues for a long, long time.

Spring
I know, it doesn’t start for another two weeks. But in the DC area at least, I think (fingers crossed) that I’ve had my last below-freezing run on Tuesday, when it was 29 degrees according to my car. Sure, the temperature is going to jump up and down for the rest of March, and into April as well, and that wind can be a killer. But I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt and shorts for today’s run, and it was so nice to be able to ditch the running pants.

Chad Sell’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Portraits
Last season, Chad Sell began posting portraits of the RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants on his website, as well as commentary on the episodes. And while I like Sell’s commentaries, it’s the portraits that floor me week after week. He’s an amazingly talented artist, and he’s got a sly sense of humor to boot. Every time he updates with new drawings, it makes me excited for the show all over again. (Speaking of which, RuPaul’s Drag Race is turning out another top-notch season this year. You should all be watching it, too.)

Great Neighbors
No, seriously, I think my neighbors are great. At the old apartment I had one amazingly awesome neighbor, but I also already knew Karon before I’d moved there. (In fact, she’s in part why I’d moved there.) And yeah, I had a couple of friends in walking distance. But it’s nice to have multiple people up and down the hall that I think are great. Feels a little odd to know and like lots of people in the building, but I’m not complaining.

Sinead O’Connor’s How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?
All right, I’ll admit that I’m only two tracks into Sinead O’Connor’s new album How About I Be Me (And You Be You)? but so far I’m happy. Her last three studio albums consisted of traditional Irish songs (Sean-Nós Nua), classic reggae songs (Throw Down Your Arms), and a religious album (Theology) so O’Connor creating an album of original, non-themed music is a big deal for me. (The last album of hers that falls into that category was 2000′s Faith and Courage, so it’s been quite a while.) Right now I’m enjoying just letting the new songs wash over me and listening to her beautiful voice. And with a new Amy Ray solo album also out, and a new Regina Spektor album on the way, 2012′s already looking like a good year for music that I like…

(Lucky 13!)

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

HBO in April

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:24:34 GMT

There was a time when I was watching a lot of shows on HBO (Oz, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under), but since then it’s felt like there’s always one or two shows I’ve been interested in (most notably The Wire, but also ones like Carnivale, In Treatment, and Flight of the Conchords), but never much more than that. This April, though? I’m thinking it might finally be the return of there being three shows on HBO that I’m watching simultaneously. Phew!

The obvious one is, of course, Game of Thrones Season 2. I’ve been a fan of the book series since the very beginning (no, you may not have my original hardcover of the first volume), and it’s been a rare pitch-perfect adaptation in the shift from book to screen.

Game of Thrones Season 2 Trailer

There are two other shows that debut a little later in April, though. Veep is starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Vice President of the United States who’s quickly learning her job is not all it’s cracked up to be. I adore Louis-Dreyfus; ever since the positively weak show Day by Day (where she was the bitchy next door neighbor) I’ve realized that she’s someone who is funny even when the show gives her little to work with, and in a show where she’s given good scripts she’s dynamite.

Veep Season 1 Trailer

The other is Girls, from the creator/star of the indy film Tiny Furniture. I’ll admit I have not seen Tiny Furniture, and I only heard of Girls because of Michael Penn providing the score for the show. But you know what? I like this trailer. I like the voice it’s using. I think it’s got potential. I’m in.

Girls Season 1 Trailer

I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up, but after 2011 being a rather uninspired year for films, I’m down with the idea that 2012 can deliver some good quality television. Don’t prove me wrong, HBO.

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

Welcome Back, Locus

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:53:55 GMT

It is not a secret that I am a huge science-fiction/fantasy geek, or that I love books. So for those who are into that particular niche as well, they might not be surprised to know that I also used to read and love the magazine Locus.

If you’ve never heard of Locus, it’s probably because you are not a science-fiction or fantasy geek. It’s a publication that mixed a lot of book reviews with interviews, event coverage, and a quarterly listing of upcoming books. I used to be enraptured by that last feature; back before Amazon and such, it was the best way to find out what books by your favorite author were scheduled. I liked the other parts of Locus, too; I learned about a lot of new books and authors through Locus, and after years of reading about events and seeing the photos, it was a minor “whoa!” moment to have my own picture appear in a gallery from the 1999 Nebula Awards.

I’d started reading Locus in the early ’90s, but after about a decade I let my subscription lapse. It was an expensive subscription for me at the time, I had a lot less free time, and I’d set aside “for the time being” writing fiction. (Something which has slowly started to inch forward again, but that’s a story for another day, since there’s not much to show for it right now.) And I will freely admit that as someone who as A Lot Of Stuff, I’ve been a big fan of having less clutter come in if it’s something that I’m not going to read promptly.

Imagine my pleasant surprise today to discover that Weightless Books is now offering electronic editions of Locus now, along with subscriptions. I just went and bought the first issue, and had it instantly sent to the Kindle app on my iPad. And so far? It feels like finding an old friend and discovering that aside from some slightly grayer (or perhaps less) hair, they’re exactly the same. We’ll see once I’ve read some more of the issue if the rest of it still holds up, but for now, I’m delighted. (Although I fear that this is just going to get me to buy more books that I will not get around to reading. At least now they just take up disk space instead of bookshelves.)

Technology, sometimes, is pretty darn fantastic. Welcome back, Locus.

Originally published at gregmce.com. Please leave any comments there.

Consolidation

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:40:19 GMT

Just a quick note that in an effort to consolidate comments and such, future crossposted entries will need to be commented on at the original page, rather than on LJ. It's just one extra click (and it's not like there are a lot of comments here these days anyway), and I'll continue to crosspost stuff over here when it happens. But figured that it's perhaps worth noting. That's all!

Five Things That Make Me Happy (part 12)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:01:21 GMT

Cleaning and Reorganizing My Office
I know, this sounds distinctly non-fun. But I’ve had a lot of clutter in my office over the past six months, and last week I stayed for an hour or so after officially checking out for the day, and got rid of a lot of the stuff that needed to be pitched. I also finally hung two pieces of art; Stan Sakai’s painting for the A Fall of Stardust portfolio (which used to belong to my friend Jeff), and a Charles Vess painting from Rose. I’m still not done with the office—it’ll take one or two more sessions to get everything done—but it’s a big enough change already that I find myself surprised by how much nicer everything already feels.

Bar Scrawl: A Cartoon Guide to New York’s Drinking Establishments
I don’t live in New York. And I don’t drink very often. But I adore these comics of Bill Roundy’s, in which he reviews New York bars for The Brooklyn Paper, then posts them online a week later. Seriously, these are tremendously fun. He’s got a strong sense of how in just a few panels to make a bar come to life. I want to go to all of these bars, and considering the first two points in this paragraph, that’s impressive.

Less Than Six Weeks From Race Day
My running group somehow talked me into signing up for the Rock ‘N Roll USA Marathon (replacing the National Marathon here in DC), which is on March 17th. We just had our 20-mile training run on Saturday, and while the run itself did not make me terribly happy in parts (it was a rough final five miles), I am happy to know that the race is almost here. Then I can focus on some triathlons I’m signed up for, and get my poor neglected bike out of storage. The race being done will equal a big road marker for switching gears in terms of exercise, and that makes me excited.

Whammy!
I still remember when my older sister introduced me and my other sister to Whammy!, the fourth album by the B-52′s. Songs like “Butterbean” and “Song for a Future Generation” were particular favorites (especially since we never got the “Butterbean” lyrics quite right, singing, “Pick em, scratch em, put on the steam…” In retrospect, no, you do not scratch butterbeans in order to eat them…), but we loved the whole album. Years later I bought it on CD, but due to a legal dispute with Yoko Ono, one of the tracks (“Don’t Worry”) wasn’t included. Now that Charlie has a record player, I ended up taking a little trip to eBay for my own copy of Whammy!. And holding that big ol’ record sleeve, it makes me feel ten years old all over again.

60 Degree Days in February
All right, this is probably a harbinger of the planet’s inevitable fiery heat death. And they appear to be gone for now. But when it’s 60 degrees in February in Washington DC? Well, it was awfully nice to actually wear running shorts when outside and running in the middle of the winter.

(Yikes, it’s been almost two years since the last one of these posts. I promise I’ve been happy since then.)

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Snow Snow Snow

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:47:48 GMT

Every time it snows now, I get a little wistful at the idea of a snow day. Laptops have, sadly, destroyed that once fun idea.

(Also, to be fair, the snow isn’t sticking here. So it’s really serving to just be pretty and perhaps slow down my commute home.)

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Helping a Little Old Lady Across the Street

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:50:26 GMT

On most Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I have a fairly set routine. Drive down to the National Mall and start running around 5:50am. A mile in, I meet two or three other friends and we run four additional miles. We all head our separate ways there, and I usually run another mile and a quarter before heading off to the gym.

For some reason today, I changed the route of my last, solo mile, and ended up passing by the National Museum of the American Indian right as I hit the 6-mile point. In other words, I was almost done. And as I was heading by, I saw an older woman waving a cane at me. It took a couple of seconds for it to fully register, but then I slowed down to see what was going on. (My immediate thought was that she was lost and needed directions.)

“Excuse me,” she said, “but this cane isn’t enough today. Can you help me across the street?”

I blinked for a second or so and then, “Sure, of course.” How often do little old ladies actually ask you to help them across the street, right?

So, she took my arm and we started heading slowly across the slate sidewalk in front of the museum, and then crossing Jefferson Avenue. “My son normally drives me to work,” she said, “but he had to go in early this morning.”

“Oh, ok,” I said. “And this can be a little slick with the cold weather.”

“My legs aren’t very good,” she confided to me. “I have sickle cell and it makes it hard to walk. My doctor told me I should retire because I’m turning 70 this year but if I just sit around the house then my legs will get stiffer and then I won’t be able to walk at all.” (Later, I realized that she might have said something different than “sickle cell” but it’s what I heard then.) A minute later she said, “I’m so sorry if I ruined your run, but I’m glad you stopped. Several people just walked right past me.”

By this point we’d crossed the street and were still going strong. In the back of my head it hit me that she had wanted help for a little further than just across the street. And so we kept going, up 4th Street and all the way to Constitution Ave. She paused and said, “I’m almost there,” as if to let me go, but at that point I was in it for the long haul. I said that Constitution wasn’t an easy street to cross under the best of circumstances, and she agreed and we went a little further until she insisted that she was good and had no more streets to cross and was on her block. By this point we were just around the corner from the DC Courthouse, a third of a mile from where we’d started.

The whole time we walked there, we talked about the weather, she told me about her son’s job, and even pointed out a building he’d helped construct. She mentioned that sometimes she took the bus all the way in from Anacostia but it was too cold to wait for the line that would have taken her all the way and she’d thought she could walk the rest. And all I could think about was if it was my mother or grandmother (she reminded me so much of Grammy that it brought some tears to my eyes) and everyone had walked past either of them, how horrible I would have felt.

It made me think, how often do all of us (myself included) just hurry past someone who needs help, assuming that someone else will step in? And if she’d said, “Could you walk me to the DC Courthouse” would I have done so or would I have been more worried about the last quarter-mile of my run, or the fact that at 7am the parking meters would click on and I’d be skirting the edge of getting a ticket? I can pretend that I would have not worried about all of that. But you never know. There’s a good chance I might have kept going.

(I also like to think that if I’d initially realized how far it was, I would’ve had the good sense to just say, “Let me get my car” and run over to it and picked her up. By the time we were at Constitution I was kicking myself for not driving her over so that she wasn’t on her feet the whole way. Hindsight is 20/20.)

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I think there’s something particularly arbitrary about them and they’re just not for me. But I might make an almost-exception here. I am going to try and remember this down the line, and be more observant for those in need that I can assist. A couple minutes out of my morning is ultimately not that big a deal for me, but it can be huge for someone else.

I might not know this woman’s name, but I am going to remember her for a very long time. I’m sharing this story because hopefully, I won’t be the only one to do so.

(Oh, and in case you were wondering: I got back to my car at 7:10am, and there was not a parking ticket on the windshield. Thank you, universe.)

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Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Books and Movies: 2011

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:35:42 GMT

Once again, I went and tracked how many movies, books, and graphic novels I saw/read over the course of the year. Last year’s tally had me at at 31 movies, 21 books, 1 fiction magazine, and 124 graphic novels. This year? 31 movies, 24 books, 13 fiction magazines, and 110 graphic novels. Two increases, one decrease, and one exactly the same. Not bad overall… And now, let the counting start all over again!

Movies:

True Grit
Rabbit Hole
Another Year
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2011: Live Action
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2011: Animated
The Illusionist
All About Eve
Cedar Rapids
Source Code
Scream 4
POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
Bridesmaids
Potiche
Meek’s Cutoff
Midnight in Paris
Super 8
X-Men: First Class
The Future
The Prestige
The Help
Griff the Invisible
The Debt
Weekend
The Skin I Live In
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Le Gamin au Velo
The Deep Blue Sea
The Descendants
Shame
Hugo
Young Adult

Books:

Voodoo Heart by Scott Snyder
The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
Last Summer by Michael Thomas Ford
Galileo’s Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
Shopgirl by Steve Martin
The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa
This Is NPR: The First Forty Years by NPR
The Diary of a Dr Who Addict by Paul Magrs
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia by Samuel R. Delany
The Gaslight Dogs by Karin Lowachee
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni
D.C. Noir edited by George Pelecanos
Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys & More by Ashley English
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee
The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow
Bob the Book by David Pratt

Fiction Magazines, Chapbooks, and Zines:

Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #23
Lightspeed Magazine, January 2011
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #24
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #26
Lightspeed Magazine, February 2011
Fantasy Magazine, March 2011
Fantasy Magazine, April 2011
Lightspeed Magazine, March 2011
Lightspeed Magazine, April 2011
Fantasy Magazine, May 2011
Lightspeed Magazine, May 2011
Fantasy Magazine, June 2011
Lightspeed Magazine, June 2011

Graphic Novels:

Tintin in America by Hergé
Kurozakuro Vol. 1 by Yoshinori Natsume
Twin Spica Vol. 5 by Kou Yaginuma
Cigars of the Pharaoh by Hergé
The Blue Lotus by Hergé
The Broken Ear by Hergé
Hikaru no Go Vol. 20 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
Hikaru no Go Vol. 21 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
Toys in the Basement by Stéphane Blanquet
Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
Batman – The Annuals Vol. 1 by Various
The Complete Ouija Interviews by Sarah Becan
Justice League International Vol. 5 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Bart Sears
Bakuman Vol. 2 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Bakuman Vol. 3 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga by Paul Levitz, Keith Giffen, Pat Broderick, and Larry Mahlstedt
Cross Game Vol. 1 by Mitsuru Adachi
Cross Game Vol. 2 by Mitsuru Adachi
Ivy by Sarah Oleksyk
Gaylord Phoenix by Edie Fake
A Friendly Game by Lindsay Hornsby
Shadoweyes Vol. 1 by Ross Campbell
Aria Vol. 6 by Kozue Amano
Yotsuba&! Vol. 9 by Kiyohiko Azuma
Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940 by Harold Foster
Lewis and Clark by Nick Bertozzi
Tsubasa Vol. 23 by CLAMP
Tsubasa Vol. 24 by CLAMP
Tsubasa Vol. 25 by CLAMP
Tsubasa Vol. 26 by CLAMP
Tsubasa Vol. 27 by CLAMP
Tsubasa Vol. 28 by CLAMP
Twin Spica Vol. 6 by Kou Yaginuma
Scenes from an Impending Marriage by Adrian Tomine
Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil
Hikaru no Go Vol. 22 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
Batman: The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder, Jock, and Francesco Francavilla
Suicide Squad: Trial by Fire by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell
7 Billion Needles Vol. 3 by Nobuaki Tadano
How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less by Sarah Glidden
Brody’s Ghost Vol. 1 by Mark Crilley
Brody’s Ghost Vol. 2 by Mark Crilley
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service Vol. 11 by Eiji Otsuka and Housui Yamazaki
Salt Water Taffy, vol. 4: Caldera’s Revenge! Part 1 by Matthew Loux
Love and Rockets: New Stories Vol. 3 by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez
Earl & Mooch: A Mutts Treasury by Patrick McDonnell
The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964 by Charles M. Schulz
It Was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi
Bunny Drop Vol. 1 by Yumi Unita
Bunny Drop Vol. 2 by Yumi Unita
An Elegy for Amelia Johnson by Andrew Rostan, Dave Valeza, and Kate Kasenow
Tonoharu Part Two by Lars Martinson
I Will Bite You! and Other Stories by Joseph Lambert
Bunny Drop Vol. 3 by Yumi Unita
Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
Astro City: Shining Stars by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson
Hikaru no Go Vol. 23 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata
Paying for It by Chester Brown
Torpedo Vol. 3 Enrique Sanchez Abuli and Jordi Bernet
Cross Game Vol. 3 by Mitsuru Adachi
Empire State: A Love Story by Jason Shiga
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: Race to Death Valley by Floyd Gottfredson
Real Vol. 9 by Takehiko Inoue
Justice League International Vol. 6 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Adam Hughes, Bart Sears
La Quinta Camera: The Fifth Room by Natsume Ono
Cross Game Vol. 4 by Mitsuru Adachi
Twin Spica Vol. 7 by Kou Yaginuma
The Summit of the Gods Vol. 2 by Baku Yumemakura and Jiro Taniguchi
Bakuman Vol. 4 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata
Wandering Son Vol. 1 by Shimura Takako
Wimbledon Green: The Greatest Comic Book Collector in the World by Seth
Americus by M.K. Reed and Jonathan Hill
Congress of the Animals by Jim Woodring
Cul de Sac Golden Treasury: A Keepsake Garland of Classics by Richard Thompson
Bake Sale by Sara Varon
Troop 142 by Mike Dawson
Stargazing Dog by Takashi Murakami
A Zoo In Winter by Jiro Taniguchi
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Vol. 1 by Naoko Takeuchi
Holy Terror by Frank Miller
X 3-In-1 Vol. 1 by CLAMP
Any Empire by Nate Powell
Loserville Vol. 1: And Then You Might Explode by Alex Cox
Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick
Who is Jake Ellis? Vol. 1 by Nathan Edmondson and Tonci Zonjic
Twin Spica Vol. 8 by Kou Yaginuma
The Walking Dead Book One by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charles Adlard
iZombie Vol. 2: uVampire by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred
Celluloid by Dave McKean
Twin Spica Vol. 9 by Kou Yaginuma
Prince Valiant Vol. 3: 1941-1942 by Hal Foster
Bubbles & Gondola by Renaud Dillies
Kobato Vol. 4 by CLAMP
Freddy Stories by Melissa Mendes
Tesoro by Natsume Ono
Twin Spica Vol. 10 by Kou Yaginuma
Picket Line by Breena Wiederhoeft
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: Trapped on Treasure Island by Floyd Gottfredson
Yotsuba&! Vol. 10 by Kiyohiko Azuma
The Hidden by Richard Sala
Nina in “That Makes Me Mad!” by Hilary Knight
A Waste of Time by Rick Worley
Rust Vol. 1: Visitor in the Field by Royden Lepp
Criminal Vol. 6: Last of the Innocent by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks
The Punisher Vol. 1 by Greg Rucka and Marco Checchetto
American Vampire Vol. 3 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Sean Murphy, and Danijel Zezelj
Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
Wandering Son Book Two by Shimura Takako
Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths Vol. 1 by Brian Holguin, Barbara Randall Kesel, Alex Sheikman, and Lizzy John

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 7)

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:06:25 GMT

The best for last. I know I’d said earlier that “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is my favorite Christmas song, and in terms of songs actually about Christmas, that’s true. But there’s a song out there which trumps it, even though I’m sure for some people it wouldn’t count.

It was awfully hard to pick just one song from the Vince Guaraldi’s famous soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. I almost went with “O Tannenbaum” (another favorite) but in the end, I had to pick the iconic “Linus and Lucy.” When you think about it, the song itself has nothing really to do with Christmas. But this song to me—and millions of other people—just screams Christmas. It’s pretty-near perfect.

In fact, I’m going to listen to the entire album all over again once I’m done writing this. So wonderful.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 6)

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:21:58 GMT

Ah, “The Christmas Song,” which I think most people know as “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” due to the opening song. Mel Torme and Bob Wells’s song is a classic, and I don’t just say that because more people than I can count have covered it. (No, seriously. Check out the page on Wikipedia, the list just goes on and on and on.)

Probably the most famous version is by Nat King Cole (he actually did four versions!). His smooth voice coupled with the simple instrumentation? Marvelous. This is one of those few songs where if someone doesn’t like it, I seriously wonder what went wrong. (If you don’t like it, my apologies. But you’re slightly wrong in the head.)

Take it away, Nat.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 5)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:12:36 GMT

Ever had one of those songs that you hate, until you hear a version that makes you love it? That’s how I feel about Loreena McKennitt’s “Good King Wenceslas.” I don’t know what about most versions that turns it into an instant turn off, save that it’s normally enough to get me diving for the off button.

Loreena McKennitt’s rendition, though… it just feels festive, and happy, and there’s something about this one that strikes the right nerve that none of the others have. She recorded this on her A Winter Garden EP back in the day, although when looking up a YouTube link for the song, imagine my surprise to see that she’s since gone back and recorded eight additional tracks, paired them with the five from the EP, and released it as the full-length’s album A Midwinter Night’s Dream.

I guess I know what I’ll be getting soon…

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 4)

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:58:01 GMT

Totally ridiculous. But how can you not love a song where the lead-in to the first chorus is “Bing Crosby! Bing Crosby!” (It’s also a surprisingly sentimental, anti-commercial song.) Take it on home, Pet Shop Boys.

(I am pretty sure this choice will horrify a lot of people. That’s ok.)

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 3)

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:43:35 GMT

Tori Amos’s “A Silent Night With You” is another original song, but there’s a personal story behind this one and how it ended up on my favorite list. I was a big, big, big Tori Amos fan back in the early-to-mid-’90s. Bought all her albums and singles, absolutely devoted to her output. And then, as time went on… her later albums did nothing for me. Maybe it was her, maybe it was me, maybe it was a combination of the two. But I’d burnt out on Tori Amos, and in mid-2009 when her new album came out, I listened to it streaming online and decided not to buy it.

Then, a few months later, she released Midwinter Graces, and it did for me what her last couple couldn’t; drew me in and grabbed my attention. It was a lovely reminder of what I’d liked from some of her earlier albums, and was nice to know that she could still create something that felt like it was especially for me. (Interestingly enough, I also think it’s not like anything else she’s done, so that made it all the more impressive.) Anyway, this is a simple but lovely song from the album that just makes me feel like I’m in front of a fireplace with snow coming down outside. Good stuff.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 2)

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:38:25 GMT

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is my all-time favorite Christmas song; it says a lot that there are multiple renditions of this song I could pick from, and most of them are quite excellent. But of course, it’s only appropriate in this case to go straight to the source with the original. Namely, Judy Garland singing it in Meet Me in St. Louis.

Keen observers might note that the lyrics are slightly different than a lot of the later versions; when Frank Sinatra covered it he changed the lyrics to be a little more happy/cheerful. Personally I like the original better, but to each their own…

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Seven Christmas Songs I Love (part 1)

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:34:26 GMT

Like so many people this time of year, I’ve gone and dredged up a playlist on my iPhone that normally gathers dust for 11 months out of the year: my Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe playlist.

No no, just kidding, it’s my Christmas playlist.

Anyway, it’s a great time of year for music, so I thought it might be fun to share some of my favorites… so, seven days of Christmas songs! Let’s see if I can really pull this off.

First up, Aimee Mann’s “Calling on Mary.” It’s an original song from her One More Drifter in the Snow album, and I just love her deep, soulful voice on this song. So many original Christmas songs stink (let’s be honest, they really do) but this is one of the few exceptions to the rule. It’s hard to keep from humming this song after you listen to it.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

It’s Time

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:26:33 GMT

I know I am hardly the first or last person to post this — I think I’ve been watching it over and over again every time someone puts a link to it online over the past week — but I’m sticking a copy here so I can watch it whenever I am feeling sappy. Which is often. Really nicely done commercial from Down Under.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Awesome Autumn

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:35:05 GMT

So, so glad that autum is really here now. (I’m not quite as zen as Earl in this strip. I’ll admit to having a favorite season.) I had to skip my plans for making more butternut squash chutney on Saturday, but that just means I’ll tackle it this upcoming weekend instead. Cannot wait.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Can-Can

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:14:59 GMT

I’ve been wanting to start canning for several years, but this August was when I finally took the plunge. My recent interest in canning began in 2009, when my friend Julie and I bought a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) share at a local farm. Suddenly I was getting all sorts of exciting, fresh fruits and vegetables, and sometimes at a rate faster than I could use them. It was a different experience than shopping at the Arlington Courthouse farmer’s market, where it was easier to make sure to only buy what I would absolutely be using over the next few years.

I was familiar with the idea of canning well before then, mind you. My mother has made and then canned her homemade preserves every year for as long as I can remember, and it’s always a joy to open up a jar and dive into those delicious tastes of summer no matter what it’s like outside. My grandfather on her side of the family was also into canning, using the jars to hold his applesauce, tomato sauce, and green beans.

When Charlie and I moved to Takoma, some sort of switch finally flipped in the back of my head, and I took the plunge: I bought a pressure cooker that could be used for canning, as well as some supplies, and checked books out of the library on how to can.

Since then I’ve made quite a few batches of tomato sauce (each batch tasting slightly different than the one before), hot pickles, pickled okra, and most recently—my favorite—butternut squash chutney, which with its cinnamon and cardamom and cumin flavors just screams autumn to me.

I can see why people do it. Not just because of being able to preserve an excess of produce, but because of getting the pride and joy in grabbing a taste and smell of a specific seasonal food and getting to halt it until later, and inevitably share it with someone else. There’s a great article on NPR right now about a woman who decided to make and can blackberry jam for everyone at her upcoming wedding. Reading the article, not only did I understand her happiness in doing so, but it brought back my own memories of picking blackberries for my mom in exchange for both blackberry preserves and pie.

I’m already plotting out my next canning ideas, as well as planning on making some more butternut squash chutney (it’s amazing as a condiment on sandwiches!) quite soon. And if I run out of room in the pantry? Well, half the fun is giving the finished jars to other people. I don’t think that’ll be a problem either.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Thirty Years of Music

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:35:01 GMT

There’s something pretty cool about (most of) the response to R.E.M. breaking up. I’m not referring to the people who are saying, “Who’s that?” or “About time,” of course, but rather the number of responses talking about why the band meant so much to them, and their favorite songs. (My friend Chris Butcher has a nice write-up of why he loved R.E.M., for example.)

But here’s the thing that I find the coolest, at least for me. Every time someone has said, “And here’s my favorite song,” I’ve started nodding along… and then realized that once again, no one among my friends appears to be picking a duplicate. I guess when you’ve got 15 full length albums (plus EPs, soundtrack contributions, and bonus tracks for compilations) it’s easy to hit that.

I won’t pretend I’ve got anything deep to write about the band—I first started paying attention to them in the mid-80s thanks to a co-worker at Giant Food, plus my friend Kira in high school—but I too have loved a lot of their music and thought I’d pick three favorite songs; one from the ’80s, one from the ’90s, and one from the ’00s. (I’ll be nice and include 2011′s Collapse into Now into that final grouping.) I tried to pick non-singles as well, if only because they’re great songs that you may not have heard.

Exhuming McCarthy

From the clicking of the typewriter keys to the bouncing tune and the sharp lyrics, I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, before it was even complete. Never fails to put me into a good mood, simply by its presence.

Sweetness Follows

Choosing just one song from the ’90s is almost impossible, thanks to five amazingly strong albums (Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and Up), save for the fact that this song is always fighting for the top slot regardless of year constraints. There’s something just so dark and beautiful from the very first moment, with that rasp of the bow over the cello’s string… if I could write something half as beautiful as this song I’d be an extremely happy man.

Living Well is the Best Revenge

After a tepid response to Around the Sun (which is definitely their weakest album but “Leaving New York” and “The Boy in the Well” mean it’s still got a couple of good tracks), R.E.M. blazed back with Accelerate, the perfect title for their high-energy response. This is the first track from the album, and it lays down the law for what’s to come. There are a lot of quiet songs from their last few albums I could’ve chosen, but best to remember one of their powerful, fast-moving ones to wrap this up. And after all, R.E.M. has been living pretty well these past 30 years. Thanks for all the great music, guys.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Operation: Read ‘Em All

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:42:39 GMT

A couple of years ago, I seriously cut back on my book buying; I started using the Arlington Library much more often, shifting what I bought to books I felt I’d actually re-read, or ones that just were not available at the library. (A lot of limited edition comics and art books, for instance.)

And then, of course, two years ago I got an e-reader and the number of physical books entering my home shrunk again. But all of this did nothing to change the number of unread books that I have owned, waiting for that day where they got tackled. So once we moved, I created one or two bookshelves with nothing but unread books, and now I’m going to try and make my way through them. The majority of them are ones that once read I’ll be giving away, so there’s added incentive to get moving through them.

(More importantly, having them all in one location makes it easier for me to hear their siren call, “Read me, Greg, read me.”)

So far I’ve finished off one book (Twinkle Twinkle by Kaori Ekuni) and am almost halfway through a second one (DC Noir edited by George Pelecanos). Loved the first one, and am enjoying the second one. Now, I don’t see myself blasting through the multiple “to-read” shelves anytime soon, but it is gratifying to finally start tackling them. But heck, I’ve had that copy of Twinkle Twinkle for eight years now. It was time to finally cross it off the list. Between that and finally watching my copy of The Prestige from Netflix (which sat on my coffee table for several years, waiting)… well, I might make it 2010′s books by the end of the decade. Such progress!

My one consolation, of course, is that I bet at least half of the people reading this have similarly groaning to-read shelves… possibly more. Admit it.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

Dark City

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:43:33 GMT

As most people who were following this particular news story over the weekend will know, Hurricane Irene did thankfully little damage to the Washington DC area. Our cable/internet/phone service went out for about 24 hours, and a lot of Takoma and Takoma Park was without power as well. But aside from a walk up to the farmer’s market on Sunday morning, I hadn’t gone out until late in the afternoon when I hopped the Metro to downtown and caught The Help. My metro station had no power, so all the gates were open and we were told to get the station conductor at our destination to get our cards scanned there. (Happily the person running the exit gate at Gallery Place just let me out without having to pay. Free ride!)

But it was after the movie, when we were driving home (Charlie had driven down earlier in the day to get some work done) that we discovered that a lot of DC still didn’t have any power. It was around 9:30 at night, and as we drove up North Capitol Street/Blair Road, the one mile stretch between Madison St and Whittier St was almost completely dark.

It’s initially an eerie sensation to drive through a completely dark city street. Never mind the lack of street or traffic lights, there are no porch lights, or glimmers from people’s windows… nothing. And there were remarkably few cars out on the road, either, which plunged our ride home into even further darkness.

It was rather beautiful. It makes you feel like you’re the only people out there (even though it’s of course patently not true), gliding quietly through the darkness. Occasionally a car going southbound would pass by, but otherwise we were all alone in the night, the city to ourselves, our surroundings shifting back and forth from a purplish-black to complete darkness.

When we got to Aspen Rd (and power), it was almost a bit of a disappointment. Sure, I was glad that we still had power at home, and felt bad for my friends and neighbors that were going without. But it was a pleasant, brief experience that is rarely duplicated.

So in all sincerity… thanks, Irene. You really were good for something, after all.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.

How To Lose A Month In One Easy Step

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 02:47:42 GMT

(Oops. Just realized this didn't crosspost from Wordpress. Should be fixed now!)

When we first had our moving date, I had an incredibly ambitious plan. I was going to document the moving process, write up how the progress was coming along, take pictures each ste of the way, that sort of thing. And then, suddenly, it was over a month later and I’d done absolutely none of that. Why? Well, it’s pretty simple. It’s because we had actually, well, moved.

It’s a little staggering to me how much time and energy it takes. Maybe it’s because with each move I’ve been five or six years older and have that much more in the way of possessions to take care of? (Or alternately, it’s because I’m that much more old and decrepit. Please do not answer which of the two it probably is, unless you are certain it is the former.) But even with us hovering somewhere around the 90% done mark (I’ve got a handful of boxes to sort through and figure out what’s going away, the final step of hanging things on the walls, and the later task of putting some more books up for sale and/or donating them), it’s taken forever. And it’s been more mentally exhausting than physically.

Which is, of course, a great time for the edge of a hurricane to swoop by this weekend, right? I’m pretty convinced Hurricane Irene is doing its driveby merely because it heard about our 5.8 earthquake on Tuesday (which was disconcerting and exciting at the same time) and it wants to get in on the action. Honestly, I’m expecting it to be not as bad as Hurricane Isabel and its direct strike back in 2003, and I’m not even worried about it… if it wasn’t for its disruptive presence. Because even just strong winds and monsoon rains means no walking to the farmer’s market on Sunday (I suspect it will not even be set up), no trip to IKEA to get that nightstand we’re going to use to hold the printer, that sort of thing.

Right now so many things are at the “90%” done stage in my life that I just want them all to get wrapped up, feel closure, and move forward. I have a bunch of new projects I’d like to start. I have one writing assignment that’s been sitting untouched for two months (eek) that needs to get a jumpstart. I’d like to restart my “State Streets in DC” photo project from scratch and with a lot more focus. (Although for that I suppose I should first figure out where the heck my charger and spare battery for my camera have quietly relocated themselves. I’d settle for just the charger, honest.) And once I can strike all these other things off to “to do” list, then I can move forward.

In short, I’m putting this all out into the open to try and spur myself toward getting there. See if it’ll be the final gentle nudge to get to a conclusion, right?

Well, probably not. But eventually it’ll happen. It’ll be nice to add swimming, biking, photos, that sort of thing back into my life. Perhaps I can even start documenting some of the great new places I’ve found in Takoma, like I’d hoped. Tune in this time next month for another excuse why not. Or maybe, finally, some real progress.

Originally published at gregmce.com. You can comment here or there.