RELAUNCH

I've changed my mind completely. Not only am I going to continue blogging, I am relaunching the blog as Shooflypie Season 3. Please join me over there and see if I can actually produce.

GONE AGAIN

I am hanging up the blogging hat again and I won't be picking it up for the next 6 months minimum. It is part of a number of changes I am making to try and open myself up to creative ventures - I haven't written a new song this year and only 1 in the last year total. I've still never given myself a chance to write and I want to do it. I'm shutting down my file at the comics shop as well; I'm not giving up comics, just sticking to trades and not pre-ordering (hard to budget that way). I'm thinking about ditching Twitter for a while as well and cutting down on my feeds on my Google Reader. I need to change the way I go about things for a while and see what happens. Doesn't mean I'll never do these things again; it's what I need to do to try and activate dreams that go back to my childhood.

See you in 2010...or not.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #140

I spent most of the day at a picnic as part of a celebration of my 20th high school reunion. It was a blast but it's late, so here comes the music...

1. Major Label Debut (Fast)/Broken Social Scene (2)
2. All I Need Is Y0u/Portastatic (7)
3. The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)/The Decemberists (5)
4. Black Eyed Suzy/Justin Townes Earle (4)
5. Cocoon/The Decemberists (5)
6. Better Dead Than Lead/Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (2)
7. Andiamo/The Twilight Singers (12)
8. Priest's Knees/Destroyer (12)
9. Singer Castle Bells/Great Lake Swimmers (5)
10. Disappear/Crooked Fingers (3)

DOUBLE FEATURE

I've mentioned on more than one occasion that I've gone back and forth on the issue of whether I should buy comics in single format at all. There have been periods where I've bought only trades and periods where I've bought a few monthlies as well. Those latter times usually last 6 to 8 months before I give it all up and go back to trades. Well, I'm determined to try to find a way for me to buy and read both, even buying some things in singles format that I may want to buy in collected form later. Yes, it's all very complicated or at least I make it that way. Getting to the point, I bought a couple comics two Wednesdays ago that remind me why I do like to read things is serialized format.

I bought the new series of Booster Gold when it started up in 2007. I'd always liked the character and I found the book to be highly entertaining but ended up losing touch in the last swing back to trades. The series is now in the hands of Dan Jurgens, who originally created Booster and made the first series such a favorite of mine that I talked about it in a speech my freshman year of high school (in 1986).

I picked up #21 of the current series for 2 reasons. First, the cover promised Booster tangling with Batman (whose cape is now being filled by Dick Grayson, the first Robin, due to Bruce Wayne's death). Second, the series is now carrying a second feature - Blue Beetle. DC is adding 10 page co-features to a number of its comics as a way of justifying higher prices ($3.99 per issue on selected titles). It's pricey but in this instance, the comic was worth it.

The lead feature is the first of the four-part "Day of Death" storyline. Booster is big-time hero but he has to pretend he is an ineffectual glory hound in order to keep secret his status as a time-traveler. He is working with Rip Hunter, who seems to be up to something as the issue opens. Sure, it looks like he is looking for a chink in the Black Beetle's armor but Booster isn't sure he can be fully trusted. Rip sends Booster to the Batcave, because there are some pictures there that reveal the truth about Booster (Batman was the only one aware of Booster's mission but Batman isn't exactly Batman anymore). Booster decides to trust Dick with the secret (that he tried to save Barbara Gordon from being shot; Dick is very close to Barbara) when the Black Beetle shows up and decides to change the timeline. At the end, it appears he has succeeding in killing Dick in the past. I'm interested to see where the story goes from here.

I read the first issue or three of the Blue Beetle series when it first came out but quickly lost track. I've found the character to be a lot of fun on the Batman: Brave and the Bold TV show and welcomed the chance to check in the character in the comics realm. Plus, writer Matt Sturges is someone I like (I read his novel Midwinter a few months back and have enjoyed his work on Jack of Fables, though I'm woefully behind on that series) and artist Mike Norton always turns out quality work. Well, there was plenty to like. Most especially, a giant yellow robot named Thinko! that Beetle had to battle. A fun comic.

Two good stories in one comic book? That's the way it should be. I will definitely be back for the next issue.

On the other end of the spectrum is the latest series from Vertigo, The Unwritten. This is a creator-owned series from Mike Carey and Peter Gross (such an underrated artist) and the first issue was over-sized and priced at $1. How can you resist that? I didn't and while I liked the issue well enough, the series really takes off with #2. The book is the story of Tom Taylor, the inspiration for a series of Harry Potter-like novels by his father. But it turns out he might not be Wilson Taylor's son after all. The series is steeped in fiction; Tom knows geography by way of fiction, though he hasn't read the books. There are forces skulking about, including a man who creates a cell phone through letters and then let's it dissolve back into the same. And what is the deal with Lizzie Hexam? Is she more than the protagonist of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend? I can't wait to see where this series goes and I'm not going to wait for trades either. How's that for an endorsement?

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #139

Happy Father's Day to those of you who may be reading. I'm going to spend the day doing a lot of chores, watching baseball, and reading (Infinite Summer starts today). But first, we're going to see what pops up on iTunes...

1. Market Girl/Headlights (7)
2. Alphabet Pony/The Kills (4)
3. It's Me/Dinosaur Jr. (14)
4. Puncture Repair/Elbow (19)
5. Learo, You're a Hole/Archers of Loaf (10)
6. Keep A Friend/Dr. Dog (6)
7. What Do You Look Forward To?/Superchunk (14)
8. Wine, Women, and Song/Harvey Danger (35)
9. Un Dernier Verre (Pour La Route)/Beirut (3)
10. Another Radio Song/Okkervil River (7)

A JUNE TRADITION

I've been reading Asimov's for many years now. I believe I started around 1993 or 1994 and at some point not too long after I dropped my subscription for a year or so before picking back up and reading it continuously ever since. The magazine has introduced me to a bunch of writers I love, including James Patrick Kelly. The June 2009 issue has a bit of a tribute to Kelly, as it marks the 25th anniversary of his first June issue story. That's right, he has had a story in the June issue every year since 1994, for a total of 26 stories. It's quite a feat.

Taking a look at the bibliography on Kelly's website, the first of the June stories that I remember reading for sure is "Breakaway, Backdown" from 1996 (guess I've been reading consistently at least that long and I don't recall reading "Think Like a Dinsosaur" from the June 1995 issue, though I've since read it). I also remember wanting to talk to people about it at the time but none of my friends (internet or otherwise) were reading Asimov's. Unfortunately, I don't recall what the story was about, only my enthusiasm for it.

Over the years, I've come to anticpate Kelly's June appearances. I know I'm going to get a story I like and I know the stories aren't necessarily going to be similar. He doesn't have a partiuclar style other than clear writing, a willingness to experiment with ideas big or small, and characters you can care about. From recent years, "Men Are Trouble" (2004) and "The Leila Torn Show" (2006) are particular standouts.

Kelly has three story collections that have been published by Golden Gryphon - Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories, Strange But Not a Stranger, and The Wreck of the Godpseed (which came out late last year). I'm a big fan of Golden Gryphon and have always meant to pick up the collections...but have never gotten around to it. Well, there is a 2-for-1 sale going on right now and with Father's Day coming up this weekend, I think I'm going to make a request for a present. That means I'll probably be talking about his work more on the blog as the months roll by.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this year's story, "Going Deep." It's the story of Mariska, a 13 year-old clone of a spacer, who has an adopted father, an upcoming arranged marriage, and ambivalent thoughts about her predetermined life. She reaches a decision that she knows isn't the best but it ends up working out in the end. While it's not my favorite Kelly story, it's definitely worth reading.

DICKENSIAN

I feel like the universe is telling me to read Charles Dickens and not just one book either. No, his total output. I'm not sure why this is happening either. The notion popped into my head a week or so ago and since then I've seen references to Dickens here and there in my life. It's not a project I'm going to undertake right now, especially with my reading of Infinite Jest scheduled to start in a week. Once that project is over, I'll already have been in an English class for a few weeks and will have a bunch of reading to do there, I'm sure. It remains to be seen if the idea keeps afloat in the back of my brain - if that's the case, I'll probably have to do something about it.

I did just finish my 16th book of the year, Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick. Originally published in 1987, it was just reissued last year by Pyr along with a sequel, Stalking the Vampire (which I also have out from the library). John Justin Mallory is a detective in Manhattan who is drunk on New Year's Eve. He is hired by an elf to recover a unicorn, which takes him to another Manhattan where such creatures life, along with leprechauns, demons, Gnomes of the Subway, goblins, trolls, and magic doesn't exist (what you think is magic is just science you don't know). Over the course of the novel, Mallory learns about the world and makes a few big decisions about his own. It's a fun book. I've been trying to decide if I should plow straight into the next book or read something in between, just because. We'll see.

This week I also read the April/May issue of F&SF. It is the first of the new bigger-sized bi-monthly issues but the only real changes are just those two things. F&SF is always dependable and if this issue didn't have any particular standouts, it also didn't have any stories that weren't worth reading. I call that a win.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #138

It looks like we might get two nice days out of the last three today; it would be nice if summer finally showed up. It would also be nice if I could stop going around and around in my head about the blog...we'll see if I put up some posts this week. Anyway, how about some music?

1. Ashes of American Flags (engineer demo)/Wilco (2)
2. I Feel Better/Frightened Rabbit (14)
3. Song for Myla Goldberg/The Decemberists (11)
4. No Dreams/Oakley Hall (8)
5. It's Not the End of the World/Sloan (17)
6. Almost Over/Elliott Smith (8)
7. The Lines You Amend/Sloan (13)
8. Guyamas Sonora/Beirut (5)
9. Ada/The National (17)
10. Down in the Valley/The Broken West (21)

FINITELY INFINITE

I have committed to a summer project - along with a couple thousand other people, I am going to be reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. The reading group is called Infinite Summer and the goal is to read the book over the course of the summer, June 21 to Sept. 22. The book is over 1000 pages long with a ridiculous amount of endnotes, so you need to average about 75 pages a week. That's doable.

When I was younger, it was a badge of honor to read books that were 500 pages or more; I would even reject books that were under 300 pages as not being worth my time. Obviously, I don't feel that way anymore but I still do like the challenge of a big book. Plus, I've been interested in reading Infinite Jest for years and this is a good way to finally do it.

I'm not a reader who usually reads multiple books at the same time, so this will be an interesting experiment in that regard as well. I plan on posting about what I read each week and will try to keep up with the discussion over at the website. I finally start taking an English class this fall, so this will be a good kickstart for that as well.

If anyone else is going to do it, let me know!

POWERING UP

I've decided to resume semi-regular posting to the blog with this, my 600th post. Now that summer's here I have some more to to devote to it and I've found I do miss it. I am not coming back with promises as to frequency of posts or as to what the subject matter will be, though I do have some ideas as to features. I do want to get away from my posts just being a series of lists, to bring some actual content. A quick perusal of my 2009 posts shows I haven't talked about any music or books or anything of substance, so there is quite a bit I could talk about. So please stop by occasionally or add me to your feed reader; I hope to entertain.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #137

It's not been a good week - my back seized up on me Tuesday morning and I spent a good portion of time on the floor unable to move without excruciating pain. It's gotten better as the week has gone along but I missed the last few days of school and couldn't even play cornhole at a birthday party yesterday. At least we had a great time in Baltimore and Washington D.C. for my cousin's wedding last weekend. So, I'm using the Sunday Shuffle as some comfort food this morning and I'm okay with that.

1. She's A Rejecter/Of Montreal (7)
2. Take A Rake/Centro-Matic (9)
3. Quito/The Mountain Goats (17)
4. Sex On Fire/Kings of Leon (8)
5. An Apology/Canasta (12)
6. The Next Messiah/Jenny Lewis (12)
7. Jezebel/Two Hours Traffic (15)
8. Dark Leaves Form a Thread/Destroyer (7)
9. Oh, Take Me Back/M. Ward (6)
10. And Your Bird Can Sing/Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (2)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #136

Woke up this morning and felt like doing a Sunday Shuffle. It's not indicative of anything necessarily, though I have been giving thought to coming back to blogging on a more regular basis. For now, ten random songs from my iTunes is enough...

1. My Goodbyes/South San Gabriel (6)
2. This Ain't a Scene/The Henry Clay People (9)
3. Snakes of Hawaii/Army Navy (9)
4. Furr/Blitzen Trapper (7)
5. A Side Wins/Sloan (18)
6. Stuck Between Stations/The Hold Steady (27)
7. Great Expectations/Elbow (14)
8. Silence Kid/Pavement (12)
9. Lady On The Water/Blitzen Trapper (6)
10. Look, Honey, Peaches/Portastatic (5)

POWERING DOWN

I am setting the blog aside for an indeterminate amount of time. The reality is that I spend time on Twitter and Facebook and that probably won't be changing anytime soon. I do like the idea of the blog but there is a big disconnect between coming up with ideas for posts and writing the actual posts themselves. I also still have dreams to be published as a creative writer and I want to take some time to work towards that goal (though it will have to wait another 6 weeks until college is over for me). Today is my 38th birthday and I'm feeling some of that "Year of 35" spirit; I am soon going to record an EP and I feel it is time to keep pushing myself forward.

I'm not sure how long I will be away from this blog...it could be a couple months and I could never come back to it. I have no plan and that's just fine with me. Close to a quarter of my almost 600 posts over the past 3+ years here have been Sunday Shuffles and while I will miss that ritual every Sunday morning, I'll probably still do it for myself.

Thanks to all of you who have come by over the years. Please check me out on Twitter and you can look me up on Facebook if you so desire. Take care.

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #135

Today's shuffle is going to be a double issue for two reasons - today is my 38th birthday and this will be the last Sunday Shuffle for an indeterminate amount of time (more on that later). So, let's celebrate with a bunch of music...

1. Too Much to Hide/Joseph Arthur (12)
2. Weary Arms/Crooked Fingers (3)
3. Capturing Moods/Rilo Kiley (3)
4. Long As I Can See the Light/Creedence Clearwater Revival (5)
5. Slow Down Chicago/Canasta (9)
6. Jaipur/The Mountain Goats (14)
7. Time Left For Love/Shout Out Louds (8)
8. Sleep Sunshine/The Whigs (15)
9. Whatever (Folk Song In C)/Elliott Smith (12)
10. Flying High Again/Sloan (17)
11. Old Time Lovin'/Al Green (3)
12. Blood Bank/Bon Iver (5)
13. Nevermind The Phonecalls/Earlimart (12)
14. Forget Myself/Elbow (11)
15. Jigsaw/Mates Of State (6)
16. Idylls Of The King/The Mountain Goats (19)
17. Claws Tracking/Spoon (4)
18. Angela/Oakley Hall (4)
19. [Untitled Track]/The Black Keys (11)
20. Souls Like the Wheels/The Avett Brothers (5)
21. Act Of The Apostle/Belle and Sebastian (12)
22. A Sunday Smile/Beirut (4)
23. Pick Me Up/Dinosaur Jr. (10)
24. Flume/Bon Iver (9)
25. Manitoba/Tapes 'n Tapes (9)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #134

I'm on my second spring break of the year, so this week will either bring a handful of blog posts or I'll just accept the fact that I'm just a Sunday shuffler...

1. Where's That Hit?/Hoodoo Gurus (3)
2. Before I Do/Sloan (12)
3. These Days Nothing But Sunshine/The Clientele (8)
4. Challengers/The New Pornographers (22)
5. Working Girls (Sunlight Shines)/Pernice Brothers (15)
6. How To Fight Loneliness/Wilco (1)
7. Little Round Mirrors/Harvey Danger (46)
8. Green River/Creedence Clearwater Revival (9)
9. Open Eyes/Apples In Stereo (13)
10. Where I'm Anymore/Grandaddy (13)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #133

The Sunday Shuffle is determined by turning the shuffle mode on and then taking the first 10 songs that I have loaded onto iTunes. I share the computer with my wife and son, so there is plenty of music I don't care for and don't claim. Here's my music...

1. Andalucia/Crooked Fingers (3)
2. Black Out/Pavement (7)
3. Souverian/Andrew Bird (5)
4. Shaped Like a Gun/Verbena (3)
5. Jet Stream/Brendan Benson (19)
6. Town Where You Belong/Earlimart (9)
7. Campershell Dreams/Grandaddy (13)
8. Giving It Up/Josh Rouse (11)
9. Charly/Higgins (5)
10. It's Natural To Be Afraid/Explosions In The Sky (12)

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #132

I'm on my college spring break this week, so maybe I'll get to other posts. Maybe. This past week was one where I was in more of a reading mode than a watching mode...I really don't have time to be in both at once. I'm always in a listening mode, though, so let's get to the songs...

1. Red Dust/Iron And Wine/Calexico (11)
2. Apple/Saturday Looks Good To Me (9)
3. Jornada Del Muerto #20/South San Gabriel (5)
4. A Cunning Latch/Portastatic (4)
5. No Backbone/The Lemonheads (14)
6. Fisher of Men/M. Ward (6)
7. Marie Provost/Nick Lowe (5)
8. Elijah/The Mountain Goats (9)
9. Jimmy the Exploder/The White Stripes (10)
10. If It Works/Tokyo Police Club (12)

FEBRUARY 2009 ROUNDUP

I started doing one tonight but I ended up boring myself and erased it. I may just discontinue this feature. What I'd rather do is write more meaningful posts about what I've consumed rather than the laundry lists, so this is either the first step in that direction or just more waffling. Time will tell...

SUNDAY SHUFFLE #131 (MONDAY EDITION)

We've been having some internet issues over the past few days and I wasn't able to get the suffle done yesterday. It's after 9:30 on Monday night but my week just doesn't feel right unless it starts off with the shuffle, so here we go...

1. Tractor Rape Chain/Guided By Voices (6)

2. 1995/Luna (6)

3. Pink Clouds/Superchunk (9)

4. pleasure is mine/Matthew Sweet (7)

5. The Death Of Big Ed Delahanty/The Baseball Project (3)

6. Pinball Song/Slobberbone (16)

7. Grounded/Pavement (5)

8. What Do You Go Home To?/Explosions In The Sky (9)

9. Imitosis/Andrew Bird (8)

10. Summerteeth (live)/Jeff Tweedy (9)

eMUSIC ROUND THIRTY-SEVEN

This month marks the start of my fourth year with eMusic and I continue to be very happy with the service. My biggest problem is trying to get my downloads to work out every month but I've managed to do it 36 times, so I guess it's not that big of a problem. Anyway, here's what I downloaded in February...

Ben Kweller/Changing Horses
The Henry Clay People/For Cheap Or For Free
M. Ward/Hold Time
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit/Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit
Le Switch/And Now...Le Switch
J. Tillman/Minor Works