I re-read Grant Morrison’s complete 26-issue run on Animal Man this afternoon. Hard to believe these were originally published almost 15 years ago. This was my first venture beyond the realm of conventional superhero comics – while the characters and many situations depicted in the book were decidedly of the spandex persuasion, the stories and themes were not. Initially, a lot of the main focus was on animal rights, but by the end, it was a full-blown existential experience, with a terrific Deus Ex Machina in the final issue where Animal Man comes face to face with Morrison and the circumstances of his existance as a comic book character are laid down bare in front of him. I will confess that I wasn’t old enough to fully appreciate the depth of this book when I first started reading it – hell, I was 14 at the time – but I would say that I ‘get it’ now. Which is ironic, because now that Morrison has taken the scripting reins of my first four-colour love, X-Men, I don’t think I understand what he’s writing about again. It is my fate to be constantly 12 years behind the man, I guess.

np – Sleater-Kinney / One Beat

So salvo one of the Boxing Week sales turned out to be pretty understated. As expected, came up empty through the Annex and did all my shopping at Rotate This, who kept in the festive spirit by offering a grand 25% off everything in the store. My acquisitions consisted of The Magnetic Fields’ Holiday, Sleater-Kinney’s One Beat and Doug Martsch’s Now You Know. Also grabbed some stuff for Kevin since he’s too lazy to come downtown and do his shopping himself. And I grabbed a used copy of Echo & The Bunnymen’s eponymous 1987 album at Penguin.

Tomorrow I’ll be getting more goodies as Soundscapes opens up with their Boxing Week sale, and I’ll also be hitting Silver Snail to load up on graphic novels. There will be more spending and bolstering of the local economy in the days to come, just not sure exactly what yet.

My typing is all dodgy as I adjust to this natural keyboard. I guess my typing habits were pretty poor before.

np – The Magnetic Fields / Holiday

Greetings and salutations from the currently whited-out burg of Oakville. Back with the parentals for Christmas, and I was not expecting to wake up to a goodly heaping of snow. The sentimentalist in me says, “yay, white Christmas!”, the pragmatist in me say, “shit, gotta shovel!”.

Christmas isn’t really a big deal around the household, there’s a cursory gift exchange (I got some cash, a Microsoft natural keyboard and a shirt and tie so I stop borrowing my brothers whenever I need to break out the suit) but mostly just hanging out and building up the goodwill bank so as to mitigate the grief I get the rest of the year for not calling or visiting as often as I should.

There’s not an awful lot to do here, though. I’ve already reset all the VCR clocks so they don’t blink “12:00” anymore. I should make some phone calls and if the roads clear up some this afternoon, drop off some gifts. But mostly I’ll probably just be sitting around reading.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Merry Christmas to me – Mr Postman must have been dressed in a red fur-lined suit today. Waiting for me in the mailbox were my Joe Pernice CD, which I’d fear MIA in the mail, and the Yo La Tengo Christmas EP which they’d been giving away at their 13 Nights Of Hannakuh shows earlier this month, courtesy of Ivan in NYC.

Big Tobacco sounds like another Pernice Brothers record (obviously) – I had thought it was a solo acoustic sort of record, but it’s full band and sounds great. Not as orchestrated as the Brothers stuff, but the comparitively stripped-down sound gives it a little more emotional urgency. I can’t believe I went so long without it. The YLT EP is a fun quickie. I can MP3-up the 3 tracks if anyone wants.

Christmas vacation started 1 hour ago. I am having futo maki to celebrate.

np – Joe Pernice / Big Tobacco

Welcome to the Christmas Eve Day entry. Sitting here at the start of a delightful 3-hour work day, then off till the 2nd. There were more people on the subway this morning than I’d expected.

Check out this very impressive Top 20 of 2002 list at Intersection. There’s some serious thought and writing going into this, cheers.

Ross swung by last night on his way up to the parental homestead for Christmas. I hadn’t seen him since Jeff’s wedding in August, so there was some catching up to do, not least of which was him explaining to me exactly why he was getting married to a girl he’d met in June. And no, shotguns aren’t involved. My mind still reels at the idea, but I wish them all the luck in the world.

I’m not sure exactly what demographic Mattel is targeting with this, and I’m not entirely sure I want to know. Just in time for Christmas!

np – Golden Smog / Weird Tales