As feared, reviews of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen are harsh. Such disappointment. I will still venture out to see it when it hits the rep theatres (which shouldn’t be too long as it’ll likely disappear from the first-runs in short order), but I can’t justify paying regular theatre prices to see something that’s so universally panned. Well, there’s always Pirates Of The Carribean.

Everyone and I mean everyone is all up ons over Frank Black’s comment to the NME that “I do dream about the Pixies reunion I do have to say”, and that the four members still get together and jam in private. As well they should, a reunited Pixies would be majestic. Or at least not awful. I hope.

Fox is bringing Banzai back to North American television (CityTV ran the show back in the late summer of 2001), complete with the online interactive betting component. They’ve got the same cast and characters from the original show, but are they running the same episodes? Those of us who’ve seen it already know which old lady wins the Old Lady Wheelchair Chicken contest, and how many balloons it takes to lift the squirrel into the sky. A bit of an unfair advantage… But the show is riotous. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s on on Sunday at 8:30PM EST.

I am surprised how much I am enjoying the new Portastatic record. Absolutely stands up with the recent Superchunk stuff (and I really like the recent Superchunk stuff). They will be following up The Summer Of The Shark with a new EP in October, Autumn Was A Lark, featuring one new track, three covers, a full-band version of “In The Lines” and eight bonus tracks of radio sessions. A 13-track EP. Gotta say this about Mac – he knows how to provide good value.

np – Calexico / Feast Of Wire

A curious little article on how your record collection reflects your personality. An interesting analysis, though their examples don’t offer me much to relate to. Which maybe says something about my personality… From TMFTML.

“Spiders” may well be one of the best songs Wilco – or anyone – has ever written. Find a live recording somewhere and then tingle in anticipation of Decibels Per Minute, or whatever the hell the new album is called whenever it’s released.

Billy Bragg talks about the Woody Guthrie travelling roadshow he’s bringing to the ElMo tomorrow night. Lotsa Woody is fine, Bill, but you better play “Levi Stubbs Tears” or there’s gonna be some ugliness.

Trying to learn Python is making my head spin juuuuust a little bit. It’s fun to be reminded that I’ve never taken a proper computer programming class. Objects? Classes? What?

np – Portastatic / The Summer Of The Shark

Picked up the final issue of Hunter: The Age Of Magic yesterday. Since the title’s cancellation was announced a few months ago, you could tell Dylan Horrocks was staring down the clock to try and wrap up all his plot threads – stories that took months to set up were resolved in a single issue, greatly compromising their comprehensibility and impact. Still, I’m happy that DC gave him the opportunity to wrap things up rather than pull the plug immediately. I began reading The Books Of Magic way back with issue #1, maybe 10 years ago, and while the book went through some rough patches over the course of it’s 100 issue run (105 if you count the two regular titles and miniseries), it maintained a pretty high level of quality throughout. With the end of Hunter, I think Hellblazer remains the only Vertigo title set in the DC universe. I’ve replaced Hunter with Y: The Last Man in my monthly title roster, but am a little wistful about the title’s passing.

Because you demanded it! Hitler Vs Stalin! When titans clash!

Mogwai have made the video for the first single from Happy Songs For Happy People, “Hunted By A Freak”, available for watch on their website.

The fact that I haven’t heard boo back from the apartment I was hoping to get after three days does not fill me with great joy. That is compounded with the fact that there is nothing interesting in the classifieds today to buoy my spirits. I’m going to look at a place up on Bathurst tonight, but my mindset isn’t the most optimistic right now that I’ve been introduced to the fact that even when I find a place I do like, there is still no guarantee that it’ll like me back. Why everything in life has to end up like dating, I have no idea. Harrumph.

np – The Posies / Amazing Disgrace

Why does no one care that Dubya lies? Interesting article from Salon – use the one-day guest pass if you don’t subscribe.

What could have been – a concept artist talks about his work on Superman Lives! and some of the concept art is on display. The artist is a total chump.

Comic Book Resources talks to Don Murphy, producer of League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I seem to be the only one I know who hasn’t already written this film off as a bomb. I mean, I don’t know one way or another, but I hope it’s at least decent. Such a waste if it’s not.

An interesting nugget coming out of that interview… there will be a Death: The High Cost Of Living film both written AND directed by Neil Gaiman. That’s great news… Um, when did Neil learn to direct?

np – Luna / Romantica

First off, I should say that I never liked The Hulk. As a lifelong comic book geek and long time Marvel zombie, I read pretty much everything and yet I never liked the Hulk. I could never understand how such a ridiculous character lasted more than a handful of issues or avoided being relegated to the scrap heap behind Stan and Jack’s House Of Ideas. But someone out there must have liked him, cause he’s endured for well over three decades now. So if anyone besides Ang Lee had been in charge of the film version of this dreadfully dull comic book, I wouldn’t have even given it a second thought and just kept walking. But it was Ang Lee, and thus my curiousity was piqued.

And… I really enjoyed it. Yes it was long, yes it was slow in parts, but necessarily so. Would it have been better if Banner got turned into the Hulk in the first fifteen minutes, with no reason beyond “oh, freak accident! Shit happens” and then proceeded to tear shit up for the next ninety minutes? Nonsense. You want stupid mindless pyrotechnics, Bad Boys II opens in a few weeks. Instead, we got a story with remarkable depth, especially considering the source material, and when shit got blown up, it was ferocious and necessary. On the technical side, the CGI was far more convincing than I’d expected, particularly the Hulk’s facial expressions. At almost no point did I think, “man – look at those effects!” – I just accepted it. This is of equal credit to the effects wizards and the director for making a film that was strong enough to not rely on the CGI to make or break it. And the editing and wipes really were as cool as everyone has said.

And I missed the Lou Ferrigno cameo, but caught the Stan Lee one. Which is odd, since they were the same cameo.