SPS - I Needed A Surprise

I'll admit, I've been in something of a rut these last couple weeks; not keeping up with habits and practices that I've worked very hard to develop.  Writing consistently was one of those habits.  There's countless reasons WHY I was in that rut, but frankly that's not really what I talk about on this blog.  All that really matters is that I was thoroughly prepared to not write an SPS for this week.  And then this happened...

Echo Chambers

As a fair warning, this is probably the most old man-esque post I've penned thus far, and that might be saying something: I wrote about The Eagles of Death Metal.  And I'm not particularly a luddite.  In fact, I've got what comedian Eddie Izzard called 'techno-joy'.  I love gadgets, and I absolutely love tinkering with them and figuring out cool new tricks.  But new ideas have a tendency to create new problems, or at least awaken old ones, and the Internet is no exception.

50 years ago, if you had a minority opinion, that was simply it - you were the minority. You had to be persuasive, and sway people to your side, or you had to temper yourself, and frame your beliefs in a more palatable way. Now, there are some obvious downsides to this, and there's some upsides to 'truth' without compromise. But in this new technical age, it seems as though there's no reason to ever change your beliefs. Even the most minority opinion can find its fellows thanks to the world-linking power of the Web.

SPS - I Want To Dream

I'm well aware that my song choice this week is not going to garner a lot of new fans.  Black Metal is, at its absolute best, a divisive genre, and even beyond the massive barrier for entry, we're opening ourselves to the frightening world of subgenre nomenclature in heavy metal.  "Is Deafheaven truly Black Metal," you say?  "Maybe they're post-metal?"  "What does that even mean?"  "No, they're not Metal at all, they're just an indie band pretending to be metal," chimes in the purist.  "Have you actually heard them?  It's metal!"

The point of all this is that there's a good chance you won't make it through the nine-minute runtime of "Dream House," and if you do there's an even greater chance you won't make it through the full album's winding hour.  And while that's fine - it's not for everyone - it's also a shame.  Because Sunbather is a masterpiece, and beneath its craggy and off-putting exterior there lurks something poetic and even, dare I say, beautiful.

Uncanny Exiles: The Smartest Person in the Multiverse

A few weeks back, I tossed out an idea, which I’ve since taken to calling Uncanny Exiles.  Marvel, perhaps in a rush to dilute the products they don’t currently own the movie rights for, has been slapping the adjective Uncanny all over their titles as of late, and if they’re going to give it out for free I’m happy to take it.  I considered Fantastic Exiles, but that didn’t really hit home.  But all that is fundamentally besides the point; I tossed this idea out there a few weeks back. Franklin Richards and Nate Grey. Literal gods on a cross-multiverse road trip, looking for a place to call home.  I think it’s a winner.  And the nice thing about a multiverse is that it’s a pretty expansive sandbox to play around in.  Consider this part two of a semi-regular exploration of that sandbox.  Ladies and gentlemen, tales from the Uncanny Exiles….

SPS - These Clever Kids Are Killing Me

Do you have a favorite band?  A group that stands above the rest, whose discography you know backward and forward, and who you never miss when they're in town?  The absolute ne plus ultra of your musical tastes, top of the list, best there ever is, was or will be?  If you're like me, the answer is probably "No."  And while a dozen music critics just gasped and clutched their pearls, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Don't Play The Hero

A few months back, Marvel released its first Netflix series, Daredevil, which proved to be an absolutely terrifying success.  Not only did it earn an astonishing number of views, but it was an absolute critical darling.  Its fight scenes were universally praised for breaking the mold on the traditional superhero show, but moreover the grim and somber attitude it took to the traditionally colorful world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a breath of fresh air, a shot in the arm of a bloated franchise that, frankly, was beginning to lean under its own colossal weight.  It seems radically simple, but Matt Murdoch gets the absolutely crap beaten out of him early in the season, and he spends the next five episode LOOKING LIKE A GUY WHO GOT THE ABSOLUTE CRAP BEATEN OUT OF HIM.  You couple that with a plot that directly references damage done to the city of New York during Avengers, and the fallout from a massive alien invasion, and you've got something sorely missing from the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, or The Avengers: consequences.

With that in mind, the trailer for Jessica Jones terrifies me, in the absolute best way.  The original comic book, a masterpiece in its own right, is fundamentally about the idea that the past has a way of catching up with you, and that inhuman power can sometimes lead to inhuman acts.  It is a world, in short, of consequences.  And on Netflix, it seems like it will fit in just fine.

The Times They Are A Travelin'

If you're on the internet (and you are) you've by now heard that today, October 21st, 2015 is 'the day'.  The mythic day to which Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel in the classic 'Back to the Future II'.  This has, of course, led to all kinds of festivities, from cross-promotional branding to 'how far we've come' think-pieces to jokes about the Cubs.  It's...honestly kind of nauseating, and I say that as someone who's got real affection for the movies.  Maybe it's just minor inner hipster screaming about liking something that's popular.  Luckily, nothing soothes my inner hipster like recommending some obscure crap, and boy do I have that lined up.

You see, time travel is a fun subject, and while 'Back to the Future' as a series handles it quite well (and with some very welcome humor), it doesn't quite top my list.  That honor goes to Science Fiction visionary and all around prolific author Robert A. Heinlein, and his short story " '-All You Zombies-' ".