Order Silver Surfer: Requiem from Amazon for $13.39

Other Products of Interest
Incredible Hulk: The End (Marvel Premiere Classic)

New Avengers: Illuminati

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War, Vol. 1

Annihilation, Book 3 (Marvel Comics)

Annihilation: Conquest, Book 1

The Jon has been gone for a week and you have seen the true beauty of this site. The Oz has stepped up, Newspaperman wrote some stuff and FreeSanJose made an appearance. A day late mind you, but he still showed. PoiDog on the other hand hasn't. After reading some intelligent writing, there is always room for mindless, rah-rah banter.

But we can forgive the guy, can't we? PoiDog has been salivating over the Iron Man movie since it was announced two years ago and has been indisposed. Sorry, all Silver Web Surfers aside, The Jon only knows of only one Ironman and he is down below.

And, uhhhh .... you have to click on the read more under the video to get to the rest of this riveting reading.

But enough of all of that Jibber Jabber. Now onto baseball, shall we?

Somewhere, Newspaperman is crying

Yovani Gallardo, he's toast. And behind all that blubbering and snot-filled Newspaperman slobber is the sound of unreached potential. Just like Francisco Liriano and his exploding arm and the struggles that come along with it, Gallardo will now have the huge question mark coming into next season.

His No. 1 fan, Newspaperman, even dropped him outright, a sign that even the biggest skirt-wearing fan can lose faith.

The good news is Gallardo's injury deals with an ACL and not the arm. So the whole wait two years thing is probably not in the stars.

Now Newspaperman's problems involve the arm/wrist region to the leg region. Usually when thinking of David Wright.

Sinner.

Fernando Vina is back!

The impeccable goatee and mustard double breasted suit wearing moron has come back to ESPN to show up on Baseball Tonight to spew such insight as ...

"Wow, look at that catch, that team is sure happy to have him"

"Whoo, whatta swing"

"Grunt, grunt. Me baseball. Baseball player. Ball. Hit. Me. Likey. Mitchell bad man. Make Fernando maaad. Where money?"

Hey Vlad, thanks for the hit

Vladimir Guerrero went 1 for 18 this week in The Jon's matchup against TheOz.

But The Jon did get 10 hits or more each from Adrian Gonzalez, Ichiro Suzuki, Rafael Furcal, Placido Polanco, Chipper Jones with a combined 9 homeruns, to destroy TheOz 12-2.

Thanks fools.

Now as part of the fantasy baseball writing manual, The Jon has to say ... "Don't drop Vlad the Impler, hahaha. He is a great hitter and will wet your beds for seasons to come. Stick with him. Hannah Montana ... Thank You!

And the Johnny Cueto Award goes to ...

Congrats to Max Scherzer with his 4.1 innings pitched and 7.1 innings in his debut. He will now be compared to the all-time greats just as Cueto was in his first two starts. That's great, Max can go 4.1 innings. Forgive me if The Jon is not impressed ... ummm Edinson (Edison?) Volquez is better than both of them.

The fantasy baseball Britney Spears meltdown award goes to ...

Justin Verlander. Is this guy even worth a start anymore? OK, so he threw a no-hitter ... a season ago. Let it go.

He throws 98 mph. So what.

He doesn't know how to pitch and has the mental makeup of ... well, Newspaperman. Please Newspaperman, enlighten us on one of your heartthrobs.

Roy Halladay, you suck

C'mon Halladay, you get a win this Sunday after 7 Ks while giving up a run and only lasting 7.1 innings? Hey. Where is the complete game? You know the four that included you going into Boston and holding the Red Sox to one run?

The Jon's man crush prevents The Jon from being unbiased when it comes to Halladay. Umm, he's a stud. Please FreeSanJose, share some light or hate on Halladay so far this season.

The Jon thinks he wants his money back

Yeah, so The Jon has been accused by TheOz of being a Youtuber, but so what. There is an art form in planting video. Take the one above for example.

That is what Johan Santana or Volquez must say every time they take the mound ...

"And just about the time you are coming out of your strikeout, hopefully the next batter is coming up to the plate. And guess what. I'll throw another changeup again ... Because I am stupid. I don't give a eff about an giving up a hit. That's my business. That's what I do."

You can have all the sliders, splitters and two-seam fastball pitchers you want. The Jon will take a good changeup pitcher every time. Changeups don't blow out arms the way sliders do or mess up rib cages the way the splitter does. All it does is confuse the hell out of hitters.

Get a good changeup pitcher with mid-90 heat and you have a fantasy ace.

And finally ...

For this part of the program, The Jon is dead. The Jon doesn't take on his alter ego when discussing his grandfather.

Let's just say, I had to go to Hawaii this week for an unfortunate set of circumstances, but I got to talk baseball with my grandfather.

He is 93 years old, had throat cancer take his voice away and has a hard time writing things down to communicate in the only way that is now left to him.

But we sat there. I watched him struggle to ask about my favorite baseball players, my all-time position-by-position baseball team and the Yankees.

My Grandfather is a shell of his former self. He could sweet-talk the women, have the occasional drink and wipe anyone off the dancefloor.

He was the original The Jon.

In the 45-minute conversation, he gave me a lifetime of memories.

And baseball keeps those memories alive.

Baseball allows him to be the guy in his 20s watching Joe DiMaggio.

Baseball allows him to connect with his grandson by talking of Ty Cobb and the deadball era.

How Chrsity Mathewson was the No. 1 pitcher of all time.

How Phil Rizzuto deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

How as I probably saw my Grandfather for the last time alive, I remembered.

I remembered how I hung on every lip-read word he spoke before he lost all of his teeth.

I remembered how he used to make the motion of swinging a bat when he saw me because he couldn't say my name.

I remembered how he moved from Puerto Rico to work in a sugar plantation to give his family a better life.

I remembered how he used to talk of Joe DiMaggio.

Most of all, I remembered him.

And still do.

: : : : : : : : : : :

I'm not big on comic books by any means. By expertise barely extends beyond animated series'(Iron Man, Batman, Silver Surfer, X-Men) and poor movie adaptations(Steel, Howard the Duck, The Punisher). I have a lot of respect for anyone who takes the time to create something faithful to it's source material, and that is what Buyog2099 does.

Mugen Site: The Lair.

Biggaveli talks about his recent activities and what not.

I got married recently to a man I met on the internet in 1999.

We got engaged years ago but we kept putting the wedding off because we couldn’t work out how to cope with our odd collection of family and friends. It was only the deaths of some of them that made us realise if we left it any longer they might all have gone the same way.  

  If you meet a man on the internet – and I strongly urge you to do so – you leap over a lot of the stumbling blocks traditionally dividing couples; race, class, politics and so forth. In our case it left us with an interesting group of putative wedding guests.

  No. I’d better tell the truth; they are an unruly and ill-matched bunch. Just like the bride and groom. Some of them are mad, bad and dangerous. Others are curmudgeonly and abrasive, quick to take offence and to dish it out. They come from all classes and temperaments, some of them embracing their fellow man like long-lost social workers, others with more than a touch of the Genghis Khans, so I struggled with how to introduce them to each other.

  I’ve been to a lot of weddings before and they fall into one of two categories. There are ones where you get told where to sit. This means you have to last a four hour lunch with people you’d run across a motorway blindfold to get away from. And there are ones involving the informal meal you can eat with ‘whoever you like’.  I don’t know about you. Maybe you’re very cool about approaching total strangers but I always end up eating with the one other person in the room I know already because I came with them. I can’t possibly approach tight-knit groups of people I don’t know with my wilting ham roll and chicken drumstick.

  So in keeping with the internet age, I’m proposing a third way to arrange your guests for maximum social interaction. We opted for a speed-dating arrangement. Five mini-courses, with the guests being rearranged between each course according to your whims – age, height, month of birth ...

  Families were deliberately torn apart. Husbands and wives, girlfriends and boyfriends separated and set down next to people they had never met, and probably never would again.  There was no music, no disco, only odd speeches scattered through the very long lunch. It was a teenager’s nightmare. I couldn’t recommend it to you more highly. Shorn of their family armour and liberated from the disapproving eyes of friends who knew them too well, the guests, even some of the teenagers, blossomed like a thousand flowers, or at least like a hundred really nice, interesting and friendly people. We barely recognised them.

  By the end of the night we had to throw them out of the venue, and the next day once-cool teenagers sat on my sofa and asked when we could do it all over again. So I urge you, if you’re getting married soon and your guests are causing you anxiety, stop sweating over the table plans, just herd them about like cattle between each course and force them to say hello to a stranger.  It was so much fun I’m going to do it again next time.    

"Poison Ivy"

Catwoman.
She hasn't worn a cape in years! And really that was only Earth-2 Catwoman who did so. Come on Vogue do a little research first.

Aurora.
What the shit. I think my interpretation was way more faithful. No, but seriously-- what the shit is this.

Dawnstar.

The Silver Surfer.

Thanos is one of the coolest-looking comic book characters of all-time in my opinion. The Marvel Masterpiece card from the set that I purchased doesn't do him any justice, though. It almost looks like he just ripped a big one. For me, I fell in love with Thanos after seeing this amazing cover as a 13-year old comic collector. Unfortunately, at more than $20 in Wizard price guide, it was well above my means and it took me over 20 years to finally pick one up for under $5. It proudly hung on my wall up until a few years ago when I met Tatiana, fell in love and then it mysteriously vanished, along with my back issues of Blender magazine. Hmm.....now that I think about it, no couldn't be.

Well, it's a great thing I never bothered to read the comic with the amazing cover otherwise I might have been tempted to buy issue #2. Had I seen that cover as a kid, I might never have respected Thanos again. Thankfully, I just saw it for the first time ever so Thanos is the second Mutant to be featured at Wax Heaven, a blog about sports cards.

Go figure...

I mean, come on! That's beautiful! But what I didn't know until I read an interview with Abnett and Lanning about the arc on Newsarama (find it here) is that these issues will also serve as a Secret Invasion tie-in. Sure, it's another event tie in for Nova, and there sure have been a lot of them in the past, but this one makes perfect sense. It seems that the Secret Invasion book itself is going to be predominantly taking place on Earth, as the heroes deal with the Skrull threat on their own soil. But we all know that they can't only be focusing on Earth, right? And what does the Super Skrull and the Kree have to say about all this once Conquest wraps up? It's nice to see that Marvel is not ignoring the cosmic aspects of the Secret Invasion event, and who better to be involved than the Skrull's worst enemy and greatest fear, Galactus? It's perfect. The Newsarama article also has a few interior pen and ink splash pages that look GORGEOUS.

This book has gone straight to the top of my stack for at least the next three months of this arc. It's a fantastic book, and everyone should be reading it.

That is all.

While 4: The Rise Of The Silver Surfer made $48 million less than the original's $330 million haul, it was still a massive step up in terms of quality. Whether or not that had anything to do with the arrival of the Silver Surfer is still up for debate, but considering the size of the Fantastic Four's universe, the franchise should be in no problem of coming up with stories for the threequel. However:

Chris Evans (The Human Torch): "I'm pretty sure we won't do [another] one…I'm assuming that one is a closed book. After the first one was released we got wind of potential titles and plots [almost immediately], and I've heard nothing from anyone at Fox [yet]…We had all planned on doing [another] one but if there were going to be a third I think a week after the second one was released we would have heard."

Jessica Alba (The Invisible Woman): "I have no idea. I know the writers strike and the impending actors strike has kind of put a wrench in everything production wise. That film takes a lot of prep, a good six months of prep and about six months to shoot. With the strike, I think, maybe it's put on hold."

Michael Chiklis (The Thing): "I'm not gonna call the guys like, 'Hey, what are we doing?' I'm kinda moving on and doing other stuff, which is great."

On top of this, director of the first two Tim Story is busy up as far as at least 2010 with Hurricane Katrina-based drama Patriots and kids comedy Ralph in the pipeline.

Compare and contrast this to Silver Surfer, which has its director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, The Crow) and writter J. Michael Straczynksi (Babylon 5, The Twilight Zone) already in the bag and working on pre-production towards there Summer 2009 release date, with Laurence Fishburne voiced/Doug Jones bodied Silver Surfer racing back home planet Zenn-La to stop Galactus destroying it out of revenge for betraying him (even though SPOILER ALERT he was destroyed at the end of the last movie).

So, there you have it. Does anyone care? Probably not. We just thought you should know.

Fantastic Four: The Millar/Hitch team isn’t quite as insanely awesome as I thought it would be, but it is still good so far, and early in the run, so I still have very high hopes for this team. I also think that despite their legit appearance, the Earth Trust is a sinister group.

Silver Surfer: The last we saw of him was in the Silver Surfer: In Thy Name mini, and he is apparently going to play a big role in an upcoming arc of Nova, so I will likely pick that up (just for that arc). However, I still really think he deserves his own ongoing! So, next time you write another One More Day protest letter to Marvel, be sure to include as a side note that you want an ongoing Silver Surfer! (I know I will! ;) )

Amazing Spider-Man: …..still hasn’t gone back. :( (It is going to take awhile of course for them to undo their mistake, and I realize this, I’ve just never been patient. ;) ) I won’t lie though, I’ve read through a few of the recent issues, and some of them aren’t bad, but even if they were insanely awesome, the marriage was one of my favorite parts of the series, and it will never feel the same without it. They can keep this retconned “Brand New World” if they want, just bring back the marriage. They don’t even have to restore the previous marriage, just have them get married again! (Okay, getting off my soapbox now.)

Mighty Avengers: Looking at some other people’s reactions, it seemed that most people enjoyed the last issue more than I (though I still thought it was a good issue, just not the best), and more people it seems are going to give this series a second chance and/or jump on the boat. Good! I’m loving this series right now, and I think it has enormous potential. So until the Sentry goes crazy and causes Mighty Avengers Disassembled, Make Mine Mighty! ;)

Captain America: Brubaker is a genius. ‘Nuff said.

New Avengers: As mentioned earlier, I still don’t have the new issue. The last few issues have been good as single issues, but overall the story is a little slow, obviously once we hit Secret Invasion the story will pick up, but if I didn’t know that, this title might have been in danger of being dropped. I’ll wait and see. (Besides, as mentioned above, Mighty is better.) Edit: I just found out that right before NA39 was supposed to be released, its publication date was pushed back two weeks, so it will now come out this Wednesday. I should have a review for it sometime this week.

Avengers: The Initiative: I’m still catching up, and am currently on issue 9, and so far this series is awesome! It could easily be the best ongoing that Marvel is putting out! (That’s right: Thor and Captain America have a rival!) As soon as I finished 9, I was sad that I didn’t pick up 10 while at my LCS last time, now I have to wait another week and a half! Garg! I’m glad that I didn’t pick up this series sooner, because I couldn’t imagine having to wait a month for issue 10! (And now I feel like an old school Marvel mag for ending every sentence with an exclamation point! Next thing you know, I’ll be advertising for the M.M.M.S.!)

Uncanny X-Men: Brubaker’s genius isn’t quite apparent here, but the storyline is still interesting, and I’m going to continue it. Besides, issue 500 is surely going to do something insanely awesome, so I can’t wait to see what happens!

Daredevil: See description for Captain America.

Thor: I still haven’t got issue 7, but so far this series has been great, and is definitely one of Marvel’s top titles. J. Michael Straczynski is a godsend for Thor (pun totally intended), and I hope he continues to write this for a very long time, as Thor has become one of my favorite characters.

The Twelve: While not as good as Thor, this series is certainly intriguing; JMS really knows how to spin a good yarn. I still think Electro is going to play a huge part in the future, and he may in fact be the Blue Blade’s killer. As always we’ll wait and see…..

Well, as soon as I get and read New Avengers 39 and Thor 7, I’ll be sure to post a review, so check back here often! And please leave comments!

-LOTRKing

When this series came out a couple of years ago, I picked up the first two issues and was so completely lost that I never bothered to pick up the rest of the series. The problem was that there were "prologue" books that came before, opening up the storylines and the characters of the series. Well, I missed out on those books. and after hearing many raves regarding this crossover from friends, I decided to give it another shot. Thankfully, Marvel was kind enough to put the series in chronological order when it compiled this series into three trade paperbacks. It all makes sense to me now, and boy did I miss out on one heck of a story.

Before I get into what this story's about, let it be known that you don't need to know much or even anything of Marvel's cosmic continuity to enjoy it. Trust me, because I pretty much have never kept up with this stuff either. I always thought Nova (at least from the New Warriors) was a little boring, Silver Surfer was a cool concept that never really grabbed my attention, and the Skrulls and Kree were just kind of silly. Then you have Thanos, who, thanks to Jim Starlin's ego and vanity, was always a completely bloated and lame character. But with Annihilation, all your preconceptions of these characters go out the window. Sure, at times, they are portrayed as a bit too silly with their monologues and one-liners ("This ends now!" is said like six times throughout the series), but those moments are few. Instead, these characters are humanized, triumphant, and set on a destiny of greatness (and tradgedy).

The prologue issues go into great depth, explaining who the main cast of characters are and their motives. By the time we get to the actual Annihilation storyline, we've got all the information we need to dig in and enjoy it for what it is. What also helps are a series of "biography files" inserted at the end of each issue, explaining the main characters, their backgrounds, and powers. We get a good understanding of what's at stake in the whole scheme of things. The Annihilation Wave is unlike any force seen in the Marvel Universe. It destroys planets, reaps the dead, and frees ancient evil from captivity.

Knowing that this wave cannot be stopped alone, an uneasy alliance is formed and a huge cosmic war commences. How the heroes on Earth can be so oblivious of the bigger picture and not lend a hand to this galatic conflict is beyond me. Annihilation is, in my opinion, the best crossover event that Marvel has ever done. Released during a time when Civil War was king and DC's 52 was queen, Annihilation imposed a strong storyline on many galaxies set within the Marvel Universe. It literally changed the cosmic make up of the universe.

What Annihilus does is castastrophic. The epic events his invasion puts into motion make Civil War seem like squashing an ant hill. Imagine Thanos finally meeting his maker or Galactus being captured and used as a universal weapon of mass destruction. This is the kind of large scale stuff I'm talking about here, folks! More people peope die in this series than if you combined all the issues of Marvel's back catalog. I mean, you have the Skrull Empire which loses more than half of its population to this war. And yet, these goons want to invade Earth after the fact? This, I don't get.
It's such a shame that this storyline never got the attention it really deserved. If you're still on the fence, I urge you to pick up the trades. If you're tired of big crossover events not delivering or being retconned within months after their release, Annihilation will reinvigorate your excitment in these events. (Grade: A)

- J. Montes

read more | digg story

Uno de los puntos que más malestar provocó a los fans al ver la película L4F y Silver Surfer (FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer) fue que el devorador de mundo conocido como Galactus, fuera una especie de nube tormentosa y no al gigante vestido de morado que crearon Lee y Kirby en su momento y al que todos conocemos.

Pues bien, según palabras del guionista de Spiderman, J. Michael Straczynski en la pasada Wondercon, en la futurible película que se hará de Estela Plateada, se pretende respetar el origen de Galactus, y, sobre todo, su apariencia física.

De momento no hay nada confirmado sobre esta película, sólo rumores. Aun así seguiremos informando de todo lo que se comente de la misma.

FUENTE

Antes que nada, quiero disculparme por no postear tantas noticias últimamente (ya que parece que Ankiseth esta con toda la energía para postear, :D), pero es que he estado muy ocupado. De todas formas, espero que esta noticia les guste, para compensar estos dos días sin noticiones.

Bueno verdaderos creyentes, creo que todos los que esperábamos ver a Galactus en la película "Fantasic Four; Rise of the Silver Surfer" fuimos timados al ver que el devorador de planetas, el ser mas antiguo del universo, no era mas que una gran nube tormentosa.

Pero eso quizás se acabe, ya que en la WonderCon (convención de ñoñerias varias) J.Michael Straczynski hablo de que estaba en proyecto una precuela de la película centrada en la historia de Norrin Radd (Silver Surfer).

Esperemos que este proyecto tome forma y pronto veamos a Galactus como se merece en la pantalla grande.

Muchos se han preguntado de donde viene la estatuilla del Oscar, pero la verdad se debe a que un androidel del futro vaijó a Holliwood en un par de ocaciones, la primera hace 80 años, pero en aquella ocación falló en su misión y sus jefes le quitaron el color dorado y por eso apareció  en 1994 de color plateado y despues en el siglo XXI a bordo de una tabla de surf. Se llama Oscar y es un androide estraterrestre de otra dimención que critiva peliculas en los cines del mundo.

He aquí la evidencia:

 

Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

A great ending to a great mini-series, Silver Surfer: In Thy Name 4 has an opening that echoes the opening from number 1. Norrin observes the complexities of even simple, nonessential life forms, and compares their actions to the actions of sentient life forms when confronted with the same emotion: terror. He hopes that by using Galactus (or rather, an astral squid beast pretending to be Galacuts), he can frighten the Ama and the Brekk into a peaceful coexistence. Of course, all does not go well. While the two warring parties seem to have reached a conclusion, this is but a ruse in attempt to trick Norrin. It is pretty disheartening to see Norrin’s own attempt at deceit for the betterment for two races met with more deceit, which leads to war. Of course, by the time Norrin discovers this it is too late.

This is perhaps what made this mini-series so great: it covered all of the view points. On one side, we have the religious Brekk, completely and unquestioningly devoted to their religion. Through them, we see get to see some atrocities that are committed in the name of their god (the Apex). On the other hand, we have the atheistic, socialistic, utopian Ama. Perhaps their philosophy is best stated by Koil himself: “Life’s about making everyone else live just like you… or not to live at all.” Through the Ama, we see equal atrocities committed in the name of Utopia, in the belief that their way is the most superior, and that all others should live their way of life, because it brings the most happiness. And of course, on the outside, we have Norrin Radd. He sees both sides, and he does not understand how they, while very different, cannot see the ironic similarities between their actions. Why can they not realize their differences, and agree to disagree, while coexisting? Does one or the other have to be right?

And of course we end with the reuniting of the mother and child astral squid beast, the one good thing that Norrin was able to accomplish. As Norrin himself says, this may only be a small thing when compared to the horrors of interplanetary warfare, but it matters. Even if he was not able to restore the happiness of two species, he was at least able to restore the happiness of two individuals, however insignificant they may seem. As Norrin leaves his large failure and small success behind him, he turns back once more to gaze upon that which he has done, before returning to the void.

Overall, this was a great issue and miniseries, some may have thought it boring due to its philosophical nature, but isn’t that really the core of Silver Surfer? To gaze upon the chaos that is the universe, and to question why? This is why the Silver Surfer appeals to me so much as a character, he wanders the cosmos, looking not for giant answers on the cosmic scheme of things (which is what I would probably do), but for the small answers on the microscopic scheme of things, and doing whatever he can to help better the universe, even if it is a small task, and even if he fails. And through all of this horror and wonder, he never loses his nobility. This series was a great look into his character, and I’m hoping that sales for this series, as well as Requiem, were high enough that he may finally get an ongoing series again, or at least fairly regular miniseries.

Please leave comments!

-LOTRKing

If you could choose any occupation for yourself, regardless of whether or not it would pay the bills....or if you even have a talent for it....what would it be? Maybe you're a nurse who has secretly always wanted to be a stand-up comic. Or a garbage man who has persistent fantasies of owning a car dealership. Or vice versa.

I am currently an art director/illustrator, so my "fantasy job" isn't that far removed from my real job. I would be a comic book illustrator.

My only fear is that I would probably offend the devotees of whatever comic book character I got to work on. You see, I have a hard time taking seriously anybody-male or female, real or fictional-who wears tights or ludicrously skimpy clothing. You know the old bit of advice they give people with stage fright? The one about imagining your audience naked so you won't feel intimidated? Well, not me pal. For me, it's tights. Tights and capes. And maybe a few ill-advised thongs thrown into the mix, just to really amp up the ridiculous factor.

But anyway, I digress...back to my original question: What would you be? I'd love to hear from you. Tell me what you currently do for a living, and what you wish you could do for a living.

And the next time someone intimidates you, don't forget to break out the imaginary capes and thongs.

Impeccabilmente english il commento della notiza di Paul McCartney: "Incredibile! Bella mossa, NASA. Dite agli alieni che gli voglio bene"

I have written 93 posts on this blog.  Almost half of them have been about politics.  I have tried to illuminate at least a tiny corner of the blogosphere regarding topics as timely and varied as the 2008 presidential election, energy policy, Russian and Venezuelan malfeasance, and environmental developments.  Nevertheless, as I examine the search engine terms that lead people to this blog, far and away the most popular are not "Vladimir Putin" or "green energy" or "Barack Obama."  No, they are instead "Silver Surfer" and "Cloud Strife," superheroes from the Marvel universe and Final Fantasy VII, respectively.  Cloud is putting asses in seats because of my post explaining why he could kick Legend of Zelda's Link's ass in a fight.  I haven't even blogged about Silver Surfer, I just put up a picture of him sailing the galaxy on his surfboard to cleverly illustrate the fact that I was at "50 posts and still cruising."  I'd say that the Silver Surfer and Cloud have composed about 2% of this site's total content.  And yet, if it weren't for these two completely imaginary characters, my site traffic would probably be just 3/4 of what it is.  But rather than obstinately doubling-down on the political coverage, I've decided I'm going to go where the hits are in a blatant attempt at riding the Silver Surfer/Cloud Strife train all the way to the page-view jackpot.  You wanted Silver Surfer and Cloud Strife, interweb, then you've got 'em - the rest of this post will be nothing but a bunch of pictures for your clicking pleasure.  But let the record show that I am very disappointed in all of you.

Who didn't play superheroes as a kid?  The truth is, I still constantly fantasize about having super powers.  A few of my favorite superheroes, in no particular order, include:

1. Superman and Supergirl:  I'd love to be able to fly and shoot fiery beams from my eyes.  Then, there's the super strength and x-ray vision.  Superman and Supergirl have the advantage of multiple super powers.
2. The Flash is one of my daughter's favorites.  She runs around the house as fast as she can asking, "Can you see me? Can you still see me?"
3. Isis was the superhero I pretended to be most often as a child.  I would earnestly chant, "Oh mighty winds that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly!"  Harnessing the abilities of the Egyptian goddess Isis, her powers are nearly limitless.
4. Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman) from Fantastic Four:  She can sneak around and spy on people undetected and make others near her invisible too.  The invisi-force field would no doubt come in handy.  Violet from the movie The Incredibles had almost identical powers.
5. Storm of the X-Men from Marvel Comics:  As it's practically a white-out right now, I'd love to be able to control the weather.  Storm also happens to be Queen of Wakanda, and being reigning royalty would no doubt have its perks, even without super powers.
6. Emma Grace Frost, created by Marvel Comics, is a powerful telepath who has served as both a villain (White Queen of the Hellfire Club) and a heroine (mentor of the X-Men junior team, Generation X).
7. Firestar is another example of someone who started out as a villain and then switched sides.  Like the Human Torch from Fantastic Four, Firestar's fire powers are intense.  Liz Sherman from Hellboy has similar powers as well.
8. Peter Petrelli from the NBC show Heroes started out slow, but now that he has honed his ability to absorb and utilize the powers of any other superhero with whom he comes into contact, he has turned out to be one heck of a powerful being.  There are several amazing heroes from this TV show.  Hiro Nakamura is perhaps the one I get the biggest kick out of watching on each episode, but if I had to choose one power from this cast of characters, Peter Petrelli's pretty much trumps all others.
9. Aquaman:  It's not his abilities so much as my love of the ocean that adds him to the list.
10. The Silver Surfer has a multitude of super powers, including immortality, time travel, and cross-dimensional awareness.

...Then there are the equally fascinating super villains, but that would be a whole separate post topic.

T.O.M. is a collaborative effort of filmmakers, actors, musicians, artists, and community leaders who desire to become avenues of cultural change through the medium of film and art. As a result, they host an annual film festival for up and coming filmmakers. In addition, they network with non-profit organizations each year to benefit a special social issue. This year, T.O.M. has chosen to address human trafficking with organizations like JustOne, LA Loves, and Stop the Traffik.

At this year's DVD Release Party, the guest of honor was Doug Jones. You may know him as the Silver Surfer in the movie, Fantastic Four, or from Pan's Labyrinth. He was there encourage and inspire the filmmakers who had gathered for the night.

The following are some photos from the night:

JustOne Corner

Volunteer from New Song North OC helping us out...

My friend Sun Kim sharing with the audience...good guy...:)

Doug Jones...tall, skinny dude...perfect for...

Overall, it was a great evening with some good friends... I look forward to continued partnership with Talent One Media.

[The compilation DVD will be available on their website shortly. I will also have some with me as I travel with JustOne. The DVD contains a couple of great short films on the issue of human trafficking.]