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Tony’s Column |
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Tony’s Column |
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Mar 29, 2008
Chairman of the Bored
Hi Everyone, I’m bored. Bored with Music, Comics, TV, Movies. Bored, Bored, Bored. There is nothing new out there that I would consider exciting. Most of what coming out right now is just rehashing of what’s been done. Not even in a good or innovative way but just redone. We have American Idol churning out wanna be Christina or Justin’s, We have Movies that are only based on books instead of trying to come up with a new idea, Comics that feel that change but don’t give you any payoff for the change. There have been a few things over the last few months that have tried to be innovative, different but get bogged down by bad scripts and acting, reality TV shows that now seemed as scripted as regular TV shows, Music that feels like it came from an assembly line, and Comic companies instead of going forward, wanting to go back to the last vestige of the publisher’s adolescence. I know this will pass and something exciting will come over the horizon. At least I hope so. Till Next time, Tony.
Mar 22, 2008
Watchmen.
Hi Everyone, I just saw some stills for the Watchmen Movie and it looks fantastic. I hope that they can stay true to the comic when they do the movie. I wonder if they are going to try and do the whole thing in one long movie or are they going to try and drag it out for 3 movies. This is a very tricky thing to do. Watchmen, unlike most of the superhero movies that are out there is not a proven quantity (despite always being in Time Magazines top 100 books.) and if it bombs then they wouldn’t finish it which would be too bad. However, If they do the movie and have to leave out key points of the movie that wouldn’t be good either. My feeling is that they do like they did for Kill Bill. Film it as one long movie then cut it into 2 parts. Show them about 7 months apart and make sure you have all the key points and elements in the movie. Though unlike Kill Bill release it in one DVD package. All of us would thank you for this. Till Next week. Tony
Mar 15, 2008
Caught with your spitzer down.
Hi Everyone, oh no, it looks like it been done again. We are in the bedroom of another politician. Eliot Spitzer got caught with his pants down and now the democratic governor will probably have to resign doing what many Democrats have done before. Get caught in a sex scandal. I know this won’t make me popular but he only did what most democrats do anyways. Democrats are always sleeping around and Republicans are always doing something with money. It‘s happened before it will happen again. Now every American news agency has go into how can this happen mode. Maybe power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Maybe the biology of a few million years has come into play. Women are attracted to Men of Power (or Women of power nowadays) Men are attracted to beauty. Sometimes that beauty comes in the form of $4000 a night Escort. I am not excusing the Governor’s actions but are we really surprised at this nowadays. It seems every couple of months, some politician is getting caught in some scandal. This one might be different because Gov. Spitzer took a stance on cleaning up New York’s prostitutions problem and then went to DC to “Get Some”. That is were I think people have the problem and that what the problem has been with some of these guys that have been caught lately. They have been caught doing the thing they are campaigning against. Make me think though, If I guy is lobbying hard against gun control, would he be the first to vote for the gun registry bill. That’s someone I would vote for. Till next Time. Tony
Mar 8, 2008
Who will stop the Spurs.
Hi Everyone I would like to switch gears and talk about the NBA. Lately the talk around the league has been how hot the Houston Rockets are with 17 straight wins, or what a great start the Boston Celtics got off to with all there new acquisitions. Can the Pistons challenge the Celtics, did the trade for Shaq hurt the Phoenix Suns, and will the New Orleans Hornets be able to keep up their stellar play. The only team people aren’t talking about is the San Antonio Spurs. Last year, it was Dallas and Phoenix that the league was talking about, when out of nowhere and quietly just like this season, the Spurs went into the playoffs and went on to win the Championship. At one point they were 5th in the conference behind Phoenix, Dallas, Utah, and New Orleans. They are the 2nd hottest team in the league right now with 11 straight wins. They didn’t start off as flashy as Boston did, but have been the most consistent team in the last 6 weeks. They made no blockbuster deals like the Lakers, Phoenix and Dallas but they have quietly moved to the top of the standings. If the rest of the league doesn’t watch out we could have our 1st repeat champions since the Lakers earlier this decade. You would think that people would remember that until someone beats them, they are the defending champions. Till Next time. Tony
Mar 1, 2008
The Fine Art of Conversation and Writing.
Hey Everyone, is the fine art of conversation and writing finally a thing of the past. You might be saying, “I talk to people everyday” or “I still send emails, what are you going on about“. Well when I say writing I mean and actual written letter, pen to paper, spelling words without the aid of a spell checker, using the right spelling and context of a word. When was the last time you had received or written a letter. For me both occurred back in the fall. If you think the art of hand writing isn’t going out of style, then you don’t look at many applications. I always get people to do a hand written application to go along with there type written resume. Why you may ask. 1) It shows patience to details, if you are will to take the time to do a hand written application you are willing to take the time to do your job properly. 2) It let’s me see if you can spell and what your hand writing looks like. It is amazing at how many mistakes there are on an written one. This lead me to also think about the art of conversation. I see more people text messenging each other than actually conversing. A prime example of this is a commerical that is on TV for Rogers cellular. There are 5 people in the car all with there phones out texting each other and surfing the web, while the driver is driving and singing. She takes his picture, adds a comment, posts it on the web, send it to her friends (who are just in the back seat). In the old days, you could take a picture with a Polaroid, show the instant picture and you could actually use words to convey how funny it is. I see people at a restaurant texting each other instead of talking with each other. Maybe I’m getting old but if this Is the way the world is becoming then I think I want to stay a dinosaur. Till Next Time. Tony
Feb 23, 2008
Even the Kids Know the Score.
Hi Everyone, Yesterday I had an interesting talk with one of my 13 year old customers. He wanted to know what has happened to Venom. I explained to him that Mac Gragan (AKA the Scorpion) was the new Venom. The he said no, What happened to Eddie Brock. He then proceed to tell me that if they reset the Spiderman Universe, does this not mean that because Eddie Brock and Venom came about after Peter was married, and the reason for Venom was Brock’s getting revenge on Parker by kidnapping Mary-Jane. Then he proceed to say “What about New Avengers, how can Spidey be in that book and how about moving into Avengers tower with Aunt May and Mary Jane. I kid you not, I didn’t even have to put this kid up to it. At 13 he was able to pick up that to him (or most people) that this doesn’t make any sense. I wish I had a microphone, I would have recorded the conversation and sent it to Joey and the gang at Marvel. He is also not buying the whole it’s Magic thing. I was very impressed that the fact was is that I keep hearing that it’s the old time fans that won’t get it. Well Marvel the new generation doesn’t get it either. So the Question is: is it US or is it YOU! Till Next Time. Tony
Feb 16, 2008
Steve Gerber R.I.P.
Hey Everyone, I am dedicating this column to Steve Gerber, who passed away last weekend. Steve created Howard the Duck while he was writing Man-Thing stories in Adventure into Fear in the 1970. At the same time Steve was writing my favorite storyline for the Defenders, The Headmen. Steve had a quirky way of telling a story that really struck a chord with me. I wish Steve could have seen a decent movie version of his Howard the Duck character instead of that really bad version that was done in the 1980’s. After years of fighting with Marvel, Steve returned to his creation Howard the Duck and gave us as bizarre a story, a story of Howard how the Duck should really be. Steve you will be missed and thanks for your Quirky Stories. Till Next Time. Tony
Feb 9, 2008
Perfectville Population 1!!
Hi everyone, Well the Super bowl has come and gone and it was an exciting game to watch. Wasn’t as high scoring as people thought but it reminded me of when New England won there first Super bowl. They were going up against the Greatest show on Turf (The St. Louis Rams), you knew that the Rams could score at will but the Patriots held them to 17 points. The Pats were also 14 point underdogs in that game. This time they were 12 points favourite’s on their way to Immortality being 18-0. They had the most potent offence in NFL history and they broke a few records doing it. This really should have been a cake walk for them. Hey, that’s why they play the games because on any given Sunday anyone can beat anyone. The Giants played their best football of the season once Jeremy Shockey went down to injury. They played a really good game on Sunday. If this was the Sept/Oct Patriots I think the game would have been a blowout, but the Giants found a way to contain them. The Colts showed teams it could be done, the Eagles took it one step further, followed by the Ravens who should have won their game. The Giants with 2 weeks to prepare did what needed to be done. They made the plays that had to be made and now they are Super bowl Champions. Did you know that this was the 2nd season in a row that a Manning lead team came from behind to beat New England. Big Brother Peyton did it last year in the conference finals on his way to his first Super bowl, now little Brother Eli has done it to. New England did struggle down the stretch and only dominated one team on there way to 18-0 (that was the 1-15 Dolphins). Make you wonder with the way the 72 Dolphins struggled through their last 3 games, had they had to play 2 more games would they have gone 19-0. Well we will never know but as of right now they do have the distinction of going 17-0 and winning the Super bowl, something New England, for all their records can’t say. So Perfectville still stays a population of 1, for now. Till Next Time. Tony
Feb 2, 2008
OMD Hey Everyone, the fallout from One More Day continues and I think this is what Joey the Q wants. It has gotten everyone talking, it has got people angry, it has made people curious. Joey has played everyone like a fine tuned violin. Joey’s job at Marvel is to get people to buy the comics. Guess what that’s exactly what he’s done. We may not like it but sales on the event driven books have been really well. In the last few years, an amazing thing has happened in this store, my Marvel sales haven’t gone down because of all his stunts but they haven’t gone up either. They have stayed Level. For every 5 people that have dropped Amazing Spider-man, 5 others have picked it up. Joey got people talking about Spider-man again, he got him back to what he remembered him, the lovable loser. I guess he forgot that 7 years ago he and Bill Jemas (remember him) had created THEIR version of the lovable teenage loser in Ultimate Spiderman. I guess that wasn’t enough for Joey, he believed everyone wanted his vision of Spider-man. Too Bad he didn’t ask the rest of us. Till Next Time. Tony |
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