Category: Uncategorized

Last year, I was quite fascinated to read about Julbock the Christmas Goat, a giant goat that’s built every year in the town of Gavle, Sweden. And almost every single year, the goat is burned down or otherwise destroyed. I can’t entirely explain why, but I just think it’s awesome.
Julbock is back this year, for his fortieth anniversary, and officials claim he’s totally fireproof now. We shall see; it’s probably only a matter of time before someone mounts an all-out attack with a flame thrower. But this year, at least, you can follow the action as it happens on the Julbock Cam.

Somewhat balancing out my disappointment in last night’s municipal elections, we have the entertainingly bitter reactions from the right-wing Toronto Sun to the city voting in a left-wing mayor and heavily left-wing city council:

• Christina Blizzard: “And welcome back to the People’s Republic of Toronto. Yep, here we are, along with that bastion of enlightenment — Cuba — the last outpost of socialism in an otherwise relatively enlightened Western world.”
• Joe Warmington: “The Marxist leanings of so many councillors is a huge concern.”
• Sue-Ann Levy: “[T]he same fawning Birkenstock-attired crowd who flocked to his victory party last night”, “slick socialist with the gift of the gab”, and “16 like-minded minions (including environentalist-lite Gord Perks in Ward 14) to City Hall to prop up the NDP agenda.”
• And, in the main editorial: “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Losers. Nyah nyah.

Fear not. A return to non-political content and mature discourse is imminent.

This probably isn’t of interest to anyone outside Toronto, or even outside Ward 29, but Case Ootes appears to have won his city council seat yet again in today’s municipal election.

I am quite unhappy about this. To give you a very good indication of why I dislike the man, consider these comments he made on the subject of bicycle lanes in Toronto:

I’m concerned about the overarching strategy of these activists in promoting bicycle lanes. They want to make it as difficult as possible for people to drive. I don’t think it will catch on.
…
Motorists are suffering more and more frustration. There’s no way you can encourage motorists to get out of their cars to use a bicycle to commute to work. It’s just not going to happen.

Yes, Case Ootes is a firm believer in “can’t win, don’t try.” It’s worth noting, for those of you not in the know, that Ward 29 is a very green and pedestrian-friendly riding, and still fairly close to downtown. I rode my bike pretty regularly when I worked downtown, and it usually took me less than half an hour. Ootes’ philosophy might make sense out in the suburbs, but not on the Danforth. The area is also serviced nicely by the subway and several buses that are usually full to capacity during rush hour. The Danforth is an area of the city that should be ideal of public transit, cycling, and pedestrians. It should be leading the way when it comes to clean environment and healthy citizens.

It’s fairly obvious that many residents of Ward 29 agree, as more people voted against Ootes than for him. Unfortunately, they split the vote: Andrew James, who I genuinely like, received 518 votes – not enough to win, but enough to cost Diane Alexopoulos the victory. I hate the idea of strategic voting, and honestly believe that more people should vote based on who they want, not who they don’t, but this makes it tough. If James hadn’t run, or if fifty people had voted for Alexopoulos instead, we’d have a new city councilor tonight.

On the up side, David Miller was re-elected mayor, and most of council remains fairly left-wing and green-friendly. Environmental activist Gord Perks even won a seat. Ootes will likely end up shouting about the poor, frustrated car owners to fairly deaf ears. And since he only won by 20 votes, there will probably be a recount, allowing for the possibility that he didn’t win.

But for now, I’m pretty pissed. We deserve so much better.

Newsarama has a nifty preview of Warren Ellis & Salvador Larocca’s newuniversal.

It does kind of look like stereotypical Ellis, but at least the good stereotypical Ellis who enjoys what he’s doing, as opposed to the one who takes Ultimate gigs so he can afford to do the stuff he really wants to write.

And while I admit to finding Larocca’s work pretty bland on X-Men (he and Peter Milligan were about the worst combination of talents I’ve seen in recent years), he’s really stepped it up here. If his name wasn’t on the book, I’m not sure I’d recognize it at all.

Interesting looking book, and the preview hints at both some far-out sci-fi fantasy and some dark ‘n’ gritty super-vigilantism. Very promising, and near the top of my “books I can’t wait for” list. (note: I do not have an actual list)

No, really, what the fuck?

Witchblade: Shades of Gray is the February-debuting first four-issue series under this deal and will pit Top Cow’s flagship franchise against a character inspired by literally creation Dorian Gray, he of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
…
In the first issue, we follow Detective Sara Pezzini and her new rookie partner as they race to stop a murdering madman. Waiting and watching in the shadows is the enigmatic Gray who may or may not be the murderer they seek! With the action spanning the globe as well as exploring Gray’s coloured past, this is an event not to be missed!
…
’Gray’ has the potential to be a great tragic character, one we’ve been looking to introduce for some time now.

Top Cow… Dynamite… Oscar Wilde? My brain fails me. A fable about youth, morality and vanity crossed with a T&A superhero book? Dorian Gray as a “tragic character?” Dorian Gray is an amoral, self-obsessed asshole. He’s not even evil or misunderstood; he’s just a bastard.

Also, he died at the end of his book, though that’s pretty low on the list of things that are wrong with this. There are some interesting things one could do with Dorian, but Top Cow promises to do very little (read: none) of them.

I’m also not sure how it constitutes a “crossover” between Dynamite and Top Cow: Dynamite doesn’t own Dorian Gray, nor do they even have licensing rights – the character is public domain, as far as I know. So what is Dynamite bringing to the table? 15 variant covers? At least the character lends itself to that sort of thing…

Egads. Just… what the fuck, man?

Because discussing Seven Soldiers #1 would require about 6 hours, 10,000 words, and possibly a healthy portion of peyote, I instead bring you the official Instant Gratification Moment Of the Week, courtesy of Nextwave #9:

Nextwave: You just don’t have to think about it that much. Yeah.

I think everyone can agree that the Year One concept has been beaten into the ground. Frank Miller’s Batman origin is obviously a classic, but Year Two, Year Three, and Everyone Else’s Year One overdid it. DC even did a whole Summer Annual event based around it. Now, they’re going back to the well for more Year One stories.

Normally, I’d greet the news with a big “Who Cares” – I really do think we’ve had enough re-tellings of everyone and their sister’s origins. But this time, they’re at least doing something right: The creative team on Green Arrow is going to be Andy Diggle and Jock, the team supreme of The Losers, the best action comic published this century.

Green Arrow is one of those characters that’s pretty cool in concept (or stupid, if you want to question the wisdom of fighting crime with a bow and arrow), but most of the actual books I’ve read have been pretty lame. But Diggle & Jock? I’m there.

From Marvel’s January solicits:

NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E. #12
Written by WARREN ELLIS
Pencils and Cover by
STUART IMMONEN
To all those who HAVEN’T been buying NEXTWAVE– Thanks a lot, jerks! This is the last issue! To all those who HAVE been buying NEXTWAVE– YOU RULE!! Do not miss this pulse-pounding conclusion to the greatest work of western literature EVER! Hamlet? Horrible. War and Peace? What-a-joke! The Great Gatsby? The Great Lame-by, maybe. Those works are going to be moved to the Bad Section of your local bookstores after this issue comes out. Don’t miss this or you won’t know what your children’s children are reading in school.

It’s probably true that this is a book best enjoyed in a small dose, and that there’s probably only so much stupid craziness Ellis & Immonen can do before it gets repetitive.

But still. Dammit.

So if you google “Greg Land”, my blog is the 14th result.

I did not expect that when I started this blog.

The downer to a fairly nice Thanksgiving weekend visiting my family was that when I got back home, I found that one of my rats had died.

It’s kind of a sad and inevitable thing. C.J. was getting old – nearly two and a half, which is near old age for a rat – and she’d had a tumour on her leg for a while that was bothering her. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably for the best, and she got to pass away at home, in her cage.

C.J. was an old-ish rat when I got her, which is why I got her, to a large extent – at six months and nearly full-grown, she was probably less likely to be adopted than the younger, cuter babies. I got a nice, good-tempered, fairly well-behaved rat, and a bit more than I bargained for – about two weeks after I brought her home, C.J. gave birth to a litter of 13 babies. The pet store later explained that they’d been trying to breed her, but didn’t think it had taken. They took back the babies (minus Darla, who I kept, and Dru, the runt of the litter who died a few weeks later), but I kept C.J.

I’m not sure that people who don’t like rats really understand it, but they do have distinct personalities. C.J. was friendly and generally polite – never afraid of people, less likely than her furry compatriots to shred my couch or plot escape attempts. She was a sweet girl, and a good rat.