Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus

Just finished listening to it on audiobook. A fairly interesting and surreal experience, reading science fiction (or anti-science-fiction, depending on definitions) that has become so thoroughly obsolete that it starts to resemble alternative history...

The West Wing, Seasons Five and Six

Finished those both in sequence fairly recently. I think I like the 5th season more than the consensus does, but I think that the show peaked in the 2nd year, and every season without a 'big hunk of cheese' episode was a wasted season.

Now, the 6th; that was some good television, although the 'next generation' cast proved more interesting than the regulars, which, if it does carry through to the 7th, will make one wish that the show had managed to go into the 'Law and Order' mode of continuous cast turnaround. Much like 'The Paper Chase', actually, of which the fact that it is still unavailible on DVD continues to be one of the great ongoing crimes against television history. (It's not even as though it had lots of license-requiring music, even.)

The Top Fifty Thing

How I would have voted, had I made the list on time for the deadline:

1. Superman (Clark Kent)

2. Batman (Bruce Wayne)

3. Amanda Waller

4. Braniac 5 (Querl Dox)

5. The Flash (Wally West)

6. Lex Luthor

7. Wildfire

8. Two-Face (Harvey Dent)

9. Deadshot

10. Captain Boomerang ('Digger' Harkness)

11. Green Lantern (Guy Gardner)

12. John Constantine

13. Ambush Bug

14. Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein)

15. Terra

16. Changeling (Garfield Logan)

17. The Ultra-Humanite

18. General Zod (pre-Crisis)

19. Emerald Empress

20. Oracle

21. Ice

22. Per Degaton

23. Blackfire

24. Starro the Conqueror

25. Vartox

26. Lucy Lane

27. Hugo Strange

28. Polar Boy

29. Mogo

30. Zatanna

31. T. O. Morrow

32. Vandal Savage

33. Vril Dox

34. Steel (Henry Irons)

35. Blue Devil

36. Kobra

37. The Infinite Man

38. Rond Vidar

39. G'nort

40. Mordru

41. Starman (Jack Knight)

42. The Ray (Ray Terill)

43. Robin (Tim Drake)

44. Nightwing (Dick Grayson)

45. Andromeda

46. Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo)

47. The Composite Superman

48. Gorilla Grodd

49. R. J. Brande

50. The Green Man

52's Clues: Week Three

Here we go again...

Page 1: Dead Luthor, considerably more intact than Alex ought to be.

Page 2-3: Everyone knows about other earths these days, looks like.

Page 4: Terra-man can claim society membership.

Page 5: 5,079,432, eh? That's a big number. Wonder where the majority fall in...

Page 6: Future Tech Colloquium next week. You know, the people of the DCU are pretty blaise about megadeaths, aren't they.

Page 7: Steel's working with STAR on something called an NX-520. With a 52 inside it, of course.

Page 8: How many times does Superman/Clark have to shut down Intergang,anyhow? Also, they have a historical Darkseid connection...

Page 9: ...as well, apparently, as a Thanagar one.

Page 10: Bags the girl is actually a willing employee of Intergang.

Page 11: Fusion Cuisine cart-vendors. What a town, Metropolis.

Page 12: Skeet's information on criminal activity still okay here...

Page 13: ..as is his sports scores...

Page 14: ...But his financial page is broken.
...Continued.

24: You didn't think we'd forget, did you?

No, but I was worried that they would.

How to adjust my season 6 idea for this season 5 ending: easy. Basically, you start off with Jack, working for CTU on an interim basis, and have a few quick comments about how he was rescued and the parties responsible were all brought to justice. (Essentially, you pretend that you're going to repeat season 3's weasel-out-of-the-cliffhanger move.) Then proceed with the too-extreme Jack, and close on the real Jack in the Chinese prison as planned...

Gnomic Utterance

A language with the word 'queue-jumper' has no need for any other term for scum.

Link with Heavy Reading:

Dan Simmons' May-June Message. Basically a long cogitation on his rather controvertial April Message. But, sadly, doesn't reveal what the three words were or even discuss whether they are 'guessable'...

52's Clues: Week Two

Okay, now, as I said, we have a few mysteries to put these clues to. So let's begin.

Page 1: The title; more implications that something's odd in the timestream.

Page 2: "oprk"?

Page 3: The groundskeeper says "writes" instead of "draws".

Page 4: Skeets is apparently not damaged.

Page 5: Skeets, from the future, is still favoring Magnus over Morrow...

Page 6: The Red Tornado is dead again.

Page 7: There was a Red Inferno, also.

Page 8: Someone is kidnapping the Mad Scientists of Earth.

Page 9: Renee moves fast. The Question finds a full set of underwear on the floor...

Page 10: ...yet both people in bed are still wearing their own underwear. Clue, or censorship? U-decide.

Page 11: Address begining with '52'. Is this just being cute, or is there some kind of 'bad wolf' thing going on?

Page 12: Skeets' records are oddly scrambled at this point.

Page 13: Skeets can control technology like landing gear controls.

Page 14: Wrong flight number, also. 24+28=52.

Page 15: Renee calls the question 'no-face'; comparing with two-face?

Page 16: "Sauato" and "Gilvia" boxes.

Page 17: Not so abandoned, according to the Question.

Page 18: First Church of Commander Adama/Conner Kent. The last worshipper is probably in Kahndaq.

Page 19: Lead by Wonder Girl

Page 20: The inverted S-shield. Drawn on Sue's gravestone. Only someone who understands Kryptonian would say 'written'...

I'll leave the History of the DC Universe for later.

52's Clues: Week 1 continued

Okay, now that Week 2's out and I've got a better idea of what the actual mysteries are going to be, let's tackle the rest of the issue, looking for a potential clue on every page...

Page 3: The gun comes from the "Anselmo Case" in 1995

Page 4: Bar is named "52 pickup"

Page 5: Fire Department precinct/whatever #52

Page 6: Skeets' information is good enough to predict Mammoth at this point.

Page 7: Booster 'knows' they're all coming back.

Page 8: ?

Page 9: The title of the episode, discussed in depth here.

Page 10: Skeets' information includes a very different ending to the week.

Page 11: A message

Page 12: Natasha has been invited to join the Titans?

Page 13: Natasha's shield is closest to Electric Blue Superman's

Page 14: Was Khandaq recognized by the US before?

Page 15: Black Adam has a mystery enemy.

Page 16: So does Sivana. The composite Grodd-Killer Croc?

Page 17: Ray Terell survived.

Page 18-19: Big group scene.

Page 20: Skeets' binary numbers: 1010001=81, 00111000=56, 00110=6, 000110=6, 110=6, 0000=0

Page 21: Clark Kent, ordinary human.

Page 22: The Question: going meta?

Page 23: Montoya and Ralph contrast interestingly. She won't seriously contemplate suicide, but will dive right into her bottle. If Ralph's bottle is full of gingold, he's the other way 'round.

Page 24: The Question is interested in Montoya.

24: Okay...

Does Logan want to be caught, still, or something? Because he's just getting stupider as we go, with the whole 'oh, nevermind, let Bauer go' business as the capper.

Anyhow, in non-24-related business, here's Infinite Crisis in 30 seconds. (Sadly, without bunnies. But beggars can't be choosers.)

Blogging will be limited to the meta-

...in celebration of Miracle Monday.

Blogroll: Alan Sepinwall

Just got pointed at Alan Sepinwall (formerly of NYPD Blue Summary/Review fame)'s blog. Onto the 'roll it goes.

52's Clues: Week 1

Brief attempt at annotating the 'continuity shards' coming together in pages 1-2 of the first issue of 52:

(most interesting ones bolded): Hal Jordan's Origin. The Martian Manhunter. Captain Comet. Superman. ?Steel?. Animal Man. Robin kissing ?aquagirl? A rocket. Sue Dibny's body being found by Ralph. A Joker. Max Lord's death. Seven Soldiers' Frankenstein. Wonder Woman deflecting bullets. Booster Gold. Flash's origin. A batarang. A bald person in a black suit and headband kneeling in front of a statue of Superman with it's S-logo inverted. Conner and Cassie. The barrel of a gun. Superman changing identities. Captain Comet shooting an alien worm. An energy beam. A yelling person. A green lantern ring. Aquababy. Martha Wayne dying. Black Adam and another guy. The joker in a gloved hand. The JLA's origin.

Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 4

Strongly recommended, covering three late-silver age crossovers between the Justice League and the Justice Society. Earths covered: Earth-1 and Earth-2, of course. Also Earth-Prime, Earth-S, and Earth-247. Sort of.

If this is the length that the volumes in this series is going to shoot for, approximately, then Volume 5 would end up covering Earth-898 (with the western heroes crossover), as well as the murder of Mr. Terrific and the New Gods team up.

Volume 6 would then get the Secret Society of Super Villians rematch and the big 5-issue crossover with All Star Squadron.

Leaving not much for and increasingly hypothetical Volume 7: 'Family Crisis', scribed by a young Kurt Busiek, and a largely incomprehensible crossover with Infinity Inc. during the height of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Getting to V. 6 soon would be nice. But going on to V. 7...not so much a priority, I don't think. Especially with lots of excellent stories to go into the companion "Team-Ups" collection series. (Like the DC Comics Presents Annuals, for one.)

UPDATE: On the other hand, the two issues in the Legion crossover in V4 were both giants, unlike any of the ones in the future. So you might be able to squeeze the SSSV story's 3 issues into a Volume 5, leaving all of the remaining issues for Volume 6...

24: Miles. Slime. Limes. Smile. Whatever.

Y'know, while this season's actual Terrorists were third-raters, the ancillary villians are proving above-par at least.

Anyhow, onward to hours 5-8 of my hypothetical Day 6 outline, begun here:

Hour 5: CTU has finally decided that Jack has, somehow, gone rogue, and deploys resources to try and capture (faux-)Jack. A US submarine approaches the Chinese flotilla, and Jack tries to send a signal to its sonarmen. The ex-general checks in with Faux-Jack. Faux-Jack then calls up his real employer, and tells him that the general is moving according to plan.

Hour 6: Faux-Jack is hunting another genius biochemist while CTU's hunting him. The real Jack manages to get a message to the sub, where it is relayed back to the mainland, but Faux-Jack's earlier interference at the naval base prevents it from going any further. Then the general's fleet learns that they've been detected and sinks the US submarine.

Hour 7: The general finds out that faux-Jack is killing the biochemists, not capturing them as he wanted. Jack overhears, learning that Kim is not in the general's control, really. As the sub is nearing a covert docking facility, Jack seizes control of a weapons room and launches himself to shore in a torpedo tube (the sub will take at least another hour to properly dock.) Faux-Jack escapes CTU in a deadly shootout.

Hour 8: Jack tries to make contact with CTU, who, thinking he's gone rogue, capture him, torture him, and generally don't listen to his warnings. Eventually he convinces Chloe to check out the logs back at the Naval base, but her bosses keep her from managing to check it out for now. Faux-Jack's employer tells him that CTU has the real Jack, and so he should lay low (Implying a mole, of course...)

Veronica Monk: Two more explorations of the Drama of Mystery

So, just finished up the first season of Veronica Mars, and am halfway through the first season of Monk, two shows which make an interesting contrast.

In both shows, at the pilot/setup, we have main characters who are portrayed as professional detectives obsessed with solving one very personal case, and having little trouble solving whatever other ancillary cases should happen to appear in their paths.

Of course, of the two, Veronica Mars is a Drama of Mystery and Monk is...not.

Overall impressions of VM: good dialog and characterization, decent plotting. Like Desparate Housewives, overcompensated for the Twin Peaks factor by burning through the uber-mystery entirely in the first season without setting up a new one immediately. Problem is, I won't come for the mystery and stay for the soap; I came for mystery and want more of it, dammit.

Which brings us to Monk. Now, while it doesn't do any damage to Veronica's nature to have there exist things that she can't figure out, Monk is Sherlock Holmes, the uber-detective, and so the idea that there exists, anywhere, a case that he can't crack within 43 minutes, let along three years, is incongruous.

Which, along with the memory losses, lead one to odd speculations if one thinks too seriously about it. The only way this guy could possibly not be able to solve his wife's murder is if he doesn't want to solve it. Which sends the suspect list to a place way, way darker than the tone of the series.


So far, at least, they're giving too many details and references if they want it to be a perpetual baseline never-to-be-solved mystery (like Remmington Steele's past) but too few to convince this viewer that they even have a solution in mind. We'll see...

So does that make Colin Powell Kal-L...?

How could I not link to this: Reason Magazine's Brian Doherty's Infinite Crisis/George W. Bush piece.

Random Lines: The Final Chapter (DC Challenge 12)

Let's go with five lines this time:

"Darkseid shares wtih no one!"

"The blue baldies? They're off in a think tank somewhere-- --exercising their big brains over the mess they've made!"

"Maybe something's finally right! My belt-radio's going wild!"

"It's like a child's nightmare come true! I just can't believe I'm--"

"Hooray, Hooray. Maybe now we can fit everything back into place."

Penultimate Random Lines: DC Challenge #11

"I teleported your true head far, far away, Superman! Your one chance to regain it is to kill the alien!"

"Right behind you, Supergirl! But I can't help feeling that all our efforts will prove to be in vain."

"Yes, Bork, I know! Your ressurection formula will become a natural law--involate----irrevocable----eternal!"

24: Hi, Jack!

Y'know, nobody ever says 'hello' in the 24-verse. A version of "Hi, Bob" for that show would be one of the world's first Sobriety Games.

Anyhow, at this late date I think that the closest thing to a season Motif we're going to get is 'disintegrating relationships'. Whether you're waking up next to a virtual stranger from work you'll probably never talk to again, or the guy renting your apartment turns out to not be a particularly good substitute for the former man of the house, or you left your one-armed boyfriend to hook up with a creepy psycholgist, or your husband would rather let the crazy guy shoot you in the leg than answer a few questions, or your fellow occupant of the West Wing turns out to be either manic-depressive or um, evil, when Jack's in town and the Clock is Ticking, it's probably time to Get out. Now. At least on Day 5.

The Home Strectch: Lines, DC Challenge #10! With Vibe!

"What'm I supposed to do, Gypsy? My Vibrating Power's good for knocking things down, not holding 'em together!"

"< style="font-style: italic;">boy, I fought alongside one of your descendants and---Hmmm...that hardly sounds logical, does it?...>"

"The Zeta-Beam has transported the entire Earth to another solar system!"