Captain America - Volume 4

Boy the 70s version of Captain America was sure steeped in the cultural doings of the time.  The language, the background are all painful to read at times.  It will be interesting to see as we move closer to the 80s how the character continues to change to maybe a more Reagan centric view of America?  Stay tuned...

Comic Splat - Week 39

The Amazing Spider-Man #694
Spidey had enough?
Alpha's arrogance too much?
Showdown was lacking...

Winter Soldier #11
Hide and Seek, Bucky
Find me or Natasha's dead
Or maybe a trap?

Comic Splat - Week 38

Avengers #30
A Marvel Team-Up
With Hawkeye and Spider Woman
In love and battle

93.3 KTCL Big Gig - Red Rocks

Took my son to his first time concert at Red Rocks (gotta do it right).  Actually a pretty decent day of bands as well as a fairly diverse group of music.  The day's set began with the Wombats.  Band I knew nothing about and after the day probably the one band that I left with the biggest desire to hear more.  Unfortunately they only have one album so not much more to hear.  They reminded me a lot of the Cure.  The second band was The Hives.  Again a band I knew but couldn't place any of their songs until after their set and then figured out who they were.  Of all the bands the energy they displayed was incredible especially at a Mile High.  A great rock band.  Loved their enthusiam.  The next band was then local favorite 3OH!3.  A Boulder band similar to Linkin Park although I am not a huge fan of alternative rap the crowd made the set pretty fantastic.  The final act was Silversun Pickups which to me made the "gig" although I don't think they are big enough to be a anchor band yet.  Great band as always but I think they are a tweener band right now.  Not quite ready for the big stage but too ready for that big stage.  In the end I was bummed because Nikki, their bassist, was on maternity leave :(  Great day of music at the world's greatest concert venue!

Michael Chabon - Telegraph Avenue

That's Michael in the center standing up!  Always entertaining hearing an author read and discuss his books.  Being one of my top 5 alive authors (Gaiman, Murakami, Chabon, Gibson, and Coupland).

 

I wore my Pittsburgh Pirates hat and sat in the far back, just because.  Not for sure what I think about this new book of his.  Based on what was said at the book signing it seems pretty similar to Fortress of Solitude.  

Comic Splat - Week 37

Winter Soldier #10
An all out hunt starts
Black Widow has now gone rogue
Double Agent fun

Captain America #17
Crowd control lacking
Nemo manipulating
Things look grim again

A vs X #11
Scott disses Emma
Scott frustrates, kills his mentor
Dark Phoenix is back

Ann Aguirre - Grimspace

OK so I got totally hoodwinked on this one.  Was browsing the sci-fi section at Powells in Portland (world's best sci-fi section!) and noticed this author and that she had quite a few series.  Always interested in a new series so bought book one.

 

The book started out fairly well.  Neat premise but then about half way I'm hit with this over the top love scene...what the heck?  Didn't see that one coming.  So I immediately go on line and discover that there exists a romantic sci-fi arm and that the writer is fairly involved in populating the art form.  I did finish the book out.  While it was enjoyable and a good read I don't think this sub genre is for me...

Haruki Murakami - 1Q84

Whew that was a read!  Started way back in November 2011, I had to read this book in spurts which is probably OK because it was published in three separate books in Japan.  Overall a pretty typical Murakami book.  Great characters thrown into a world much like ours and much not like ours.  This one actually did have the characters playing in an alternative Earth, one with two moons.  You can always count on the bizarre coming across as quite normal to Murakami. I wonder if that is a Japanese thing or if the translation brings this out as well.  Overall while I enjoyed the book I thought it could have been told without all the extra fluff.  I mean it was basically a love story which took close to 1,000 pages for the young lovers to finally connect.  In between was a whole lot bizarrenesss but perhaps that was what Murakami was trying for.  That love is hard especially in a world with two moons...

 

Page 441 "What people need is beautiful, comforting stores that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning.  Which is where religion comes from."

Comic Splat - Week 36

Invincible Iron Man #524
If can't trust our tech...
Tony works magic builds suits
Fight with Mandarin?

Amazing Spider-Man #693
Alpha out of hand?
Reminds Peter of someone?
Parker fix problem

Clive Cussler - Crescent Dawn

Dirk and company still getting it done.  Book 21 in the series and Clive and Dirk do their typical magic to make Dirk's adventures still be exciting after all of these years.