Speaking of Superman...

This is one of the greatest graphic novels I have ever read. It deals with issues that most superhero tracts fail to do. How does a superhero deal with his powers when he discovers them as a boy? How does he live his life in a normal way?

It's really a book about life and the way we choose to live it. The emotion and feeling comes from the main character's constant meditation on life and the choices he makes. The great triumph is his growing old and having to deal with being an aged superhero. If this doesn't lend credence to the idea that graphic novels are literature, I don't know what will.

The Return...

There's something fantastic about being the first one on your block to see a new movie. If it's good, you get to share your enthusiasm and tell all your friends about it. If it's bad, you are the one who averted disaster and made sure to let everyone kno just how bad it was. Either way, you get to see the movie with fresh eyes, which is always cool.

Last night I had a great desire to see a movie. I initially was thinking Click when I loaded up the showtimes. But then I saw the movie I had been waiting for. Superman Returns-10:00. I gleefully went off to see if it would be what the trailers made it seem.

I knew I made the right choice the second John Williams score came blasting through the sound system. The original credits, with the cool green flying text, came at me and I was in heaven. I sincerely doubt that Williams has written a better score than the Superman theme. It is all encompassing and gets your heart pumping.

It's not perfect. In fact there are some minor hiccups. The fact that both Superman and Clark Kent return after five years away and nobody seems to put the pieces together is an issue. Nobody even thought "Hey Clark's back, oh so is Superman. Weird huh?"

Brandon Routh is Superman. I had my issues with him looking so close to Christopher Reeves, but he really does encompass the role. I was so pleased that as Clark Kent he was not a bumbling klutz, but a genuine down to earth guy. I loved Christopher Reeves Superman, but his bumbling Clark Kent always struck me as over the top.

Superman Returns is worth a viewing on the big screen if only for the immense visuals. But check it out as a good, story driven movie as well. I think you'll be pleased.

Now I have to wait another year for this.

We Love the Cristal

Dear Jay-Z,
I hereby extend an offer to tutor you over the summer in reading comprehension. I have some extra time, and I realize you might have some comprehension issues. Why not come by and together we can work on your skills- reading comprehension skills.

For it seems to me that your boycott of Cristal has nothing to do with racism. In actuality it has to do with your poor reading skills. I would rather not have that sort of misunderstanding happen again, so I'm here to help you.

You see Jay-Z, what you missed in the article is that the director of the company that makes Cristal, Frederic Rouzaud, never actually says anything negative about the hip hop community. In fact, he views Cristal's association with rap with "curiosity and serenity." Please note how neither of those words were bad.

Indeed, the one racist comment that you chose to pick out of the article was written by the author. Part of what I can teach you is that just because words appear near a person's name, that does not mean they said them. Yes, the words "unwelcome attention" appeared near Frederic Rouzaud's quotation, but they were written by the author. Your boycott should really be against The Economist and not so much with Cristal.

Furthermore, I can help you construct a heartfelt and sincere apology letter to Cristal.

Another thing, at no point does the article mention race. All it talks about is the hip-hop community. You are undermining your own community and acting racist yourself by suggesting that the hip-hop community can be boiled down to race. Dude, stop it.

Please consider my generous offer and drop by for some lessons. I promise, you wont regret the lifetime skills you will gain from it.

Best Wishes,
Brett Evans

Ideological Differences

I used to cheer for Joe Lieberman. I remember one particular morning where my mother called me with news that Lieberman had been picked as Gore's vp candidate. I was sleeping and lept out of bed, confident that Joe could go far.

It's been six years, and everything Joe has done in the interim has been a severe dissapointment to me. He has not done his job and reflected the sentiments of the people of Connecticut. Instead, he's sneakily attempted to endear himself to the administration by sticking by their policies. You can't have it both ways.

So this morning I hear an ad campaign for Ned Lamont. I don't really know much about Lamont, and have been on the fence about voting for him. But the ad campaign flipped me over the fence. It was the sincere and honest way in which Ned said he would support Lieberman if he won the primary. In the face of a bratty child who is claiming to run as an independent if he loses, that's pretty cool. Lamont has some amazing integrity.

Plus, given the fact that Lieberman is using this nasty attack ad I can't seem to find anything worthwhile in the man anymore.

Pixar

I've always initially hated the premise of most Pizar movies. My first reaction has always been the "that just doesn't sound like a good idea" followed by my determination to not see the film. Yet, as time goes by, Pixar releases trailers that become progressively more interesting. So I always go off to see them and end up enjoying the films immensely.

So it was with Cars, which felt like a Pixar hiccup to me. After all, how could Pixar possibly make a world inhabited merely by Cars feel realistic? For the true magic of Pixar is how they manage to make a totally fantastical and off the wall world and ground it in reality. I just wasn't sure I would leap for Cars the same way that I have for Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc.

But they pulled it off in a dramatic and believable way. I bought every bit of the world of Cars. If you haven't seen it yet, you should. It truly is great.

On an unrelated note, I am holding a rally for Lewis the Cat outside of Petsmart in Manchester at 3:30 today. The Queen of all Cats will be speaking about the rights of cats. Okay, not really, but wouldn't that be fun?

So Wrong...

Yet so right.

Summer Diggin'

The summer has started for me. I've been preparing for this for several weeks. Unfortunately, one of the concessions I made to prepare for the summer was to go on a brief hiatus from blogging. My creative attentions needed to be focused other places.

Not to worry, I'm back.

In order to prepare myself for the vast amount of free time in front of me, I have done several things. The first was to purchase a wireless router, which will allow me to blog with my laptop. There have already been several mornings where I woke up and dragged my laptop off the floor. Writing has been slow, but productive.

The second was to purchase a significantly better coffee maker. My first one was a bachelor special, the kind that barely makes the equivalent of a grande cup of Starbucks coffee. Instead I purchased a Hamilton Beach Brewstation. This wonderful gift to myself is an absolute wonder of coffee engineering that actually makes the amount of coffee it claims to. The best thing yet about the maker is that it holds the coffee inside the machine and pours it on demand. No more messy coffee urn. I'm planning many luxurious mornings where I wake up and casually sip coffee while writing.

Of course, this new device has allowed me to experiment with several coffee drinks. This morning I shut the machine off, let the coffee inside cool, and poured it into a thermos bottle. I then added Yoohoo and refrigerated the drink for a cool, refreshing summer beverage.

Isn't free time wonderful?

It's Not About the Gay

If I were a special interest group, I'd be pissed right now. The GOP wants me every couple of years to fire up their base during election year and then tucks me away again. Totally dishonest.

But then, I suppose this whole gay marriage issue is ridiculous in its own right. We, as a society, should be attempting to further ourselves intellectually, culturally and socially. We have many issues to face in our country, including energy problems, health care and poverty. Why is congress working to amend our constitution to deny people their basic rights?

In a way, I'm actually glad President Bush is heating up the gay marriage issue. He believes his base will fall in line and follow along. But as he continues playing smoke and mirror politics, those loyal constituents will begin realizing just how ridiculous this issue is. His supporters will realize that gay marriage is a private matter, and has nothing to do with their own lives.

Sorry for the Scarcity

But I've been working on several projects that I've left hanging. The good news is that creatively, I feel rejuvenated. My new projects include:

An experimental piece that comprises fictional student essays of an imagined novel I have written. These essays will span the straightforward five paragraph high school essay to the convoluted and overly analytical graduate paper. I'm still working on the premise of the imagined novel.

A YA novel where the main character is an adolescent boy whose father is a test pilot for Earth's new translight ships. He lives on the space station with his father, where he attends school with the other children of the space fleet. Normal adolescent craziness ensues-mixed with the dangers of spaceflight.

A couple of dangling short stories, most of which aren't developed enough to discuss.

Please forgive me for my lack of blogging.