Free Comic Book Day

I just read that May 5 is Free Comic Book Day. I'm not much of a comic book guy but I remember well those family road trips from my youth when my brother, sister and I would read from our stacks of Archie comics and Superman comics that our dad supplied us with to keep us occupied and quiet in the station wagon as it made its way down the interstate.

I may go to one of the participating comic book stores tomorrow and see what they're offering. I wonder if there is anything that my three year old might like. He's not quite a reader yet, but maybe he'd enjoy looking at the pictures while I read a continuing storyline from Mickey Mouse or Spider-Man to him.

Rick's Comic City isn't too far from us. Maybe we'll stop in tomorrow.

Iggy, Henry, Tom, Conan

Tonight on TV:

Iggy Pop on The Henry Rollins Show at 10:00 PM IFC

Tom Waits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien at 11:37 PM NBC

What's The Blue Book On That?

John Schneider's General Lee sells for $9.9M.

Wanna buy a 1991 Honda Accord station wagon from a guy with a blog? Bidding starts at $1M. OBO.

Tamara the Trapeze Lady

photographer: ChrisB in SEA

Virtual Suzanne Vega Sings "Tom's Diner" in Second Life

Seemingly So Wrong, And Yet So Perfect

Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat") is set to play Freddie Mercury in a new Queen biopic. What I didn't know, and what seems obvious now, is that Cohen based his Borat look on Mercury.

... more>>

Sanjaya!

I'd be no good at typical water cooler conversations. I work nights and never watch TV when most of America does. I have no TiVo or any other kind of DVR. What I know about pop culture is what I read about in blogs ("Yesterday's news, tomorrow!!")

For a year or so, people at work have gone on about a show called "Lost" and I have had no interest in it at all. That is, until last week, when a co-worker said something about a new arrival to the island and a certain thing she said to the stranded characters. Now I'm intrigued. But it's probably too late for me to try to start watching it and follow it properly.

This is the first season that I have not watched "The Sopranos" and I am feeling like I am missing some of the best television out there. For the first few seasons, I had HBO and watched it weekly. For another season, I dated a girl with HBO for the exact length of its run. Perfect. Then, for a couple of seasons, I didn't have HBO or a girlfriend but I was a bit of a gym rat (no evidence of that anymore) and I timed my late night workouts to watch it while on the treadmill. Last season, a friend taped it for me. But now, I have no resource for it at all and I feel a void. (Help? Somebody?)

I've been home with the kids for the last three days and while I can't engage in conversation on topics ranging from "Survivor" to "American Idol," I can tell you exactly what's going on among the characters of "Maggie and the Ferocious Beast" and "Go Diego Go."

Oh, and "American Idol" fans will be pleased to learn from me that a guy named Sanjaya is coming to Nashville Arena on July 11. I guess I do know something worthy of water cooler talk after all.

The Page Turner

Stephen Hunter, Pulitzer Prize winner and movie critic for The Washington Post, says:

What "The Page Turner" lacks in scale and ambition, it makes up for in precision. It's a small French delicacy, tart, acerbic, cynical, that focuses on three or four characters and yet manages to bring them and their dilemmas to vivid life.

The milieu is classical music at the professional level, the backdrop refined, the subject revenge, the methodology meticulous. When it's over, some lives have been destroyed, somebody has enjoyed the taste of vengeance served with a decade's worth of chill, and barely 85 minutes have passed. Who knew the French were so efficient?... more>>

The Room

by Stephen Dunn

The room has no choice.

Everything that’s spoken in it

it absorbs. And it must put up with

the bad flirt, the overly perfumed,

the many murderers of mood—

with whoever chooses to walk in.

If there’s a crowd, one person

is certain to be concealing a sadness,

another will have abandoned a dream,

at least one will be a special agent

for his own cause. And always

there’s a functionary,

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Dylan Goes To Kindergarten

From RollingStone.com:

But now we’re realizing the best time to be born would have been about five years ago in Calabasas, California. That way we could be in Jakob Dylan’s kid’s Kindergarten class where Dylan doing “Wheels On the Bus” covers... more>>

If he performs anything like he did when my dad and I saw him at Memorial Gym, those kids won't come anywhere close to recognizing his renditions of popular kids' songs.

Judge sues cleaner for $65M over pants

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Chungs, immigrants from South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation's capital. For the past two years, however, they've been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants.

Jin Nam Chung, Ki Chung and their son, Soo Chung, are so disheartened that they're considering moving back to Seoul, said their attorney, Chris Manning, who spoke on their behalf.

"They're out a lot of money, but more importantly, incredibly disenchanted with the system," Manning said. "This has destroyed their lives."

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My Seventeen Year Old Son Wants To Join...

...and so I read every word that this friend and Army mother writes.

I'm proud of her son and I think about him often.

Ducks! Ducks! Dog!

Sign Of The Times

If you can't read the sign, it says:

KEEP TO THE RIGHT

$5.00 FINE

FOR DRIVING FASTER THAN A WALK

Borderline late for work today, I found myself driving behind someone in compliance with the above sign.

My Man Sasha Frere-Jones on Tori's Latest

Shutting off is not often a problem for Amos. “American Doll Posse” is aggressive and, occasionally, overstated; Amos fans who have complained that they haven’t heard from “the real Tori” in a while will be relieved. In the past three years... more>>

ToriAmos.com