The Good News, #12
Hello True Believers!
Welcome back to The Good News!
We've got another show coming up! Tickets are here:
https://dice.fm/event/eorqry-zealottwin-archer-28th-mar-skylark-lounge-denver-tickets?pid=3b6c903d
Something fun to get lost in this week:
This silly little proto-video-essay (this shit was LONG back when it was released) is lightly sprinkled with decades-old cringy old-YouTube moments, but for a 15ish year old video, it’s surprisingly light on the YouTube-rage-bait BS. (Not a great opening to me trying to sell you on this lol). Egoraptor (ugh sorry) has a compelling argument for why Megaman X is a great game, and honestly I feel like you can take the rubrics he identifies and apply them to your growing knowledge of film theory and it’ll take you just that much further. And I dunno, I still find him sincere and charming, and it’s great to hear someone chat about something they’re passionate about.
A nice thing to listen to this week:
Cake - Fashion Nugget (1996)
Looking over what I’ve got planned for this week, I feel like a total bro. I’m gonna have to start recommending more obscure stuff soon or y’all are gonna think I’ve only skimmed the top of western culture in my life haha. Annnnnywho, Cake fuckin rules! Their compositions are almost always more complicated than you notice at first, the lyrics are exceptionally odd, bordering on nonsense, and yet you’d be forgiven if you just never noticed that. One could say that Cake walked so The National could run, but, y’all, Cake is running and The National is struggling to stay in their shadow. This was the first record by them I heard, but they’re all amazing (the first one is *fine*), so really just get em all in a playlist, hit play, and be surprised for a few hours.
Terrific thing to watch:
Pacific Rim (2013)
My wife recently suggested we revisit this gem, and yeah, can confirm, certified banger. The outrageous hubris it takes to even pitch a film like this in a pre-Godzilla 2014 world is villainous (hell it maybe helped sell producers on doing another attempt at an American Godzilla). The sheer amount of exposition and lore dumped in the first 10 minutes should be enough to crush the casual viewer, but somehow Del Toro pulls it off (I’m not attributing this beautiful execution to Clash-of-The-Titans-Beacham). But beyond the economy of story telling, this film really sings in the visual story telling dept. Every swing of the fleshy Kaiju fists, every heavily-telegraphed blow pistoned by the Jaegers, the sheer magnitude of these slug fests and their impact on the world, it all feels Real. Every blow is felt by the world around these magnificent warriors. The CGI is a little dated, but if you can get past it, you’ll love either revisiting or seeing-for-the-first-time this glorious gem.
A good read:
Jeff Smith - Bone (1991-2004)
It’s probably no surprise to hear I just love comics, but it may be surprising to hear that I love Newspaper comics A Lot. I grew up reading collected editions, and in doing so got into older, “historic” comics from Bloom County all the way back to Little Nemo (which has its problems, but is a fascinating look into American culture and fantasy 100+ years ago). One of those old comics I fell in love with was Pogo. I’ll talk more about Pogo another day (and it’s Swamp Thing connection), but all of this is to say I was uniquely primed to adore Bone upon first reading it. It starts out a silly little riff on Pogo (no way anyone will convince me that’s not what Jeff Smith was actively trying to do), and I hate to even say “starts off”, because even that feels like a spoiler. Nothing to do about that now I guess: to say it ends up on the other side of the narrative universe is an understatement… and maybe also an overselling. For me, it feels like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, as one big story, in scope and seriousness. But that’s just me. Maybe it’s not THAT epic. But it’s worth your time. Don’t be a purist and treat yourself to the color version. Small volumes too, the collected color version is too big to hold and too expensive haha.
And finally, our weekly pic of the pup, Apollo:
Be nice to each other, and we'll see you next week!
Best,
Luke