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Cha-cha-cha-changes!

Holy Toledo!

Just got off the phone with my folks and they got a contract for the house! So looks like I need to move out by April 27. So I gotta figure out where. On the one hand I'd love to be closer to work but that just means farther away from everything else...hmmm. I'm excited though. Their house was too much house for just me and my brother. Although it throws a great LAN party. I'd love a little rent house with some roommate(s) but I'm sure I'll just end up in an apartment. One thing's for sure I am gonna need broadband internet wherever I end up.

You'd think that this would be a perfect time to contemplate a move to Austin to be with my girlfriend except that I don't have one right now. March was by far the topsy-turviest month for me. First I learn that someone had used my J Crew account to charge over $300 worth of big & tall clothes. Next, I'm on a break from the relationship I've had for the past 3 years, 8 months. And now I'll be moving in less than a month.

I've been expecting and preparing and hoping and praying for the moving thing so that's cool. The other things...not so much. On the upsides though, the credit card people are working with me to get it taken care of and Rachel and I are still really good friends and left things on good terms so there are possibilities and hope on that front. The worst part is just having to tell people about it. Like my mom tonight. That was rough. I've thought about posting some breakup FAQs but nobody reads this thing so I'd still have to go through all the conversations. Maybe I'll have some t-shirts printed up.

Anyway, so that's the recent excitement. Feel free to "yay!" and "boo!" along with me. After all, my motto has always been: "When life throws you curveballs, make curveballade!"*

*Apparently curveballade tastes a lot like Jameson. Or vodka. Or Chimay. It depends on which batch of it I was whipping up. Mmmmm...curveballs...

They move so fast! Unless they are in the middle "pit" area. If you look in the background just right of center you can see the penalty wheel. 

Da boys at the Derby. Check out the handstamp on Christopher. Ooh-la-la. Photo by Rachel. 

Rachel and Coy. Photo by Shad. 

And all the people said, "Ooooooo..." If you look in the background left of center you can see the play by play announcers: my future calling. And yes those are film crews. They are doing a documentary. 

Skate Wars Episode III: Revenge of Spank Alley

Long ago, in a Lonestar far, far, away...

As a child of the eighties, I have memories of watching saturday morning cartoons that would lead into some wrastlin' programs such as the WWF or , being from Texas, the good ole' World Class Wrestling where the Von Erich Family introduced me to tragedy on the Shakespearian level only sadly not scripted. Then, the last program to complete my Saturday morning television routine: Rollerderby. Much like wrestling on 80 wheels (ten pairs of rollerskates on the track during a 'jam') I loved to watch the amazing feats of speed and agility especially when that feat would end in the skater being dramatically clothes-lined or thrown over the track railing.

Rollerderby has been around since the 30s I believe. It's popularity peaked in the 70s although you could still find it on television well into the 80s. The proverbial nail in the coffing should have been 'Rollerball' with its sci-fi rollerderby meets blood sport of the future. If that wasn't enough, in 1998 TNT (now Spike TV and whose only ratings came in from World Championship Wrestling now gobbled up by the WWE) tried to revive the sport with 'Roller Jam' which used professional speed skaters and somewhat less professional meathead actors. It was more about scripted drama than the game itself. Oh, and then they remade 'Rollerball'.

So even though someone out there was really trying hard to destroy the glorious sport, I was amazed to find out that in several cities across the country it is back. Big time. No scripted theatrics. No sci-fi movies. Just good old Rollerderby like I watched on saturday morning tv. But for a new, empowered generation of females.

All of my previous rollerderby experience was mixed gender. What I saw live in person was all girl action. And just being there with the crowd (also predominantly female) and the live music I realized this was not just some knock off or updated version of the sport. This was the real deal and therefore a real experience.

First off, the punkish stylings of Hellapeno got us jazzed for the upcoming 'bout'.* Girls were working the crowd selling raffle tickets. If your ticket was drawn you were chosen for 'Spank Alley'. Think of it as front row V.I.P. seating with lots of interaction in the game. You see, if a girl gets called for a penalty they spin the penalty wheel. One of the possible outcomes** is 'spanking'. Said girl must skate by the V.I.P's armed with swatters who each get a turn as she goes by. Another possible outcome spin: Reverse-spanking. That's right. Said V.I.P.s hop up and sit on the track so that their backsides are presented for the naughty rollergirl to skate by and spank. Thus the cry of the raffle ticket peddlers, "Spank a rollergirl! Sometimes they spank back! $1.00!" A middle-aged woman behind me with a crew cut and cowboy swagger leapt down the bleachers and was the first and most excited to buy a ticket. She got picked too.

The rollergirls themselves, just like all girls, came in all kinds. They were all tough. But there were definite bruisers out there. There were gracefull, amazing skaters, whose long strides and quick turns made it look easy though I never thought it was. There were true showwomen who had taken their chosen persona's and ran with it. 'Miss Conduct' comes to mind with her fiery red hair and middle fingers blazing, whether she had performed well or poorly. Though they were serious competitors, they didn't take everything so seriously, nor were they just parodies of the sport.***

Example: The teams we saw in action were the Hellcats, a 50s styled girl gang, (think Grease's Pink Ladies if they were all Rizzo and loved tatoos and switchblades) and the 2004 Cavello Cup Champs, the Holy Rollers (one of the maroon blazered play by play guys called them the "Bad boys of catholic school girls."). They each had made up names and some even had funny jersey numbers too. "Helena Handbasket" wore the number "3:16". The "too young" 'Jailbait' wore the ingenious "10-20". With the announcers, and the themed teams, the movie "Dodgeball" came to mind. That's a good thing. Both are very entertaining.

We had a blast, especially us three guys. Rachel enjoyed it but had a sort of deer in the headlights look. That was expected. She's a girls-girl. She couldn't understand why the rollergirls didn't cry when they got knocked down. She also had never been somewhere where the "facilities" consisted of a long row of porta-potties. The bathroom being her most sacred place you can see the quandry she was in. I found all these things very cute and endearing.

We met some rollergirls in the bleachers with us who were from a league in Chicago, "Windy City Rollers". They gave us some cool stickers. I proudly display mine next to the Irish flag on my car. "Val Capone" was very nice and she would look back and give me an appreciative laugh when she would overhear my own comedic play by play of the bout I would sometimes do with Shad. Maybe I have a future in the sport. It certainly wouldn't be on the rink as those girls would simply chew me up and spit me out.

We also found out about a start up league up here in DFW. I plan on checking it out when it gets rolling in May. I encourage anyone open minded and old enough (I don't remember so many fish-nets when I was a kid watching on tv) to check out the sport. Definitely one of the greatest experiences of my years. Thanks to Janx for taking us and Rachel for going and staying and especially the girls for putting on one helluva exhibition. Rachel saw one of the rollergirls out on the town a few nights later. "They are just as hardcore out in the real world." I had a feeling they represent. Please check out these links if you are interested in this high octane world.

http://www.txrd.com
http://www.windycityrollers.com/
http://www.dallasderbydevils.com/

Also, Shad and Janx have their rollerthoughts up on their blogs too. Read together we make up an epic rollertrilogy. Their blogs are linked on the right side of my page. I'll be posting pictures later.

*Crank County Daredevils provided the halftime music and rocked us with their dirty, rock-metal, stylings. They deserve mentioning as well.
** Other outcomes for the penalty wheel were arm wrestling and pillow fight (both between the two rollergirls who had infractured each other) and some more I can't remember. I did learn that pillow fights soon give way to pillowless brawls and rolling around on the track catfights. Huh. Didn't know that.
***There were a few bench clearing brawls that were for show rather than an actual fight breaking out. But still it was in the spirit of fun and entertainment and not trying to be part of a scripted dramatic subplot.

Newsworthy and Nerdworthy

Wow. Hot on the heals of the Whedon/Wonder Woman announcement, comes Fox's answer to who will direct X-Men 3. Drumroll, please.....Matthew Vaughn!

Don't ask me! I've never heard of him either. He has one indie cred under his belt, 'Layer Cake', which was well received at Sundance earlier this year. Or so I'm told from my source. The internet. I really wanna check out 'Layer Cake' now to see if I can glean what to expect. I'm cool with the whole inexperienced indie guy helming, *cough* Bryan Singer *cough*. Excuse me. Like I said though, want to check out 'Layer Cake'. I was a Singer fan from The Usual Suspects which is why I anticipated the X-Men movies so much in the first place.

More cool news: release date of May 26th, 2006 (Memorial Day Weekend). Yeah!

More cooler news: Hugh Jackman is officially signed on for the third movie AND the 'Wolverine' movie scheduled for 2007! Other cast we know of: Patrick Stewart (Prof. X), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman), Daniel Ludmore (Colossus!!!), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Rebecca Romijn-Stamos...Romijn (Mystique), and Famke Janssen (Jean Grey...more like Phoenix!!!). In talks still: James Marsden (Cyclops. Very likely he will return), Sir Ian McKellen (Magneto. Like he's not.), and Halle Berry(!!!!) (Storm. I think a lot of us had written her off after the general ego-iness and 'Catwoman' debacle. Apparently though this is also very likely. Fox must have deeeeeeep pockets). But it's exciting to see that pretty much everybody is onboard. Plus there's a possibility of seeing more Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, Siryn, and Pyro since they were all featured before. Heck even Sabretooth and Toad (did not have on-screen deaths!) could show up, especially with no real villains signed on (Mystique and Magneto don't count). Though I have a feeling either CGI Sentinels and/or Dark Phoenix will be the baddies du-jour. Okay so that's all the returning character stuff. Pretty cool. But what's morer cooler?

Morer cooler news: Three new X-Men have been confirmed as appearing in some capacity (whatever that means). First off, "Oh my stars and garters!" It's the Beast! Secondly, high-flying adventurer and trust fund kid Warren Worthington III aka Angel. And lastly...Gambit. Let's hope with that last one it's less gumbo mouth and more explosions. No word on who will plays these heroes yet. I've got one pick so far. Although I wouldn't wish this role on anybody (fanboys love or hate him) I've always thought Harry Connick Jr. would be a great Gambit. He's not drenched in Creole but it's there just right (like I'd want Gambit to be not like the mush mouth he was on the cartoon) and naturally I might add. And he's got the charm too that's a big part of the character. Probably a long shot but I believe Mr. Connick Jr. has worked with Fox in the past (Independence Day...blockbustery). We'll see. That's my pick though. Plus he could record a song for the soundtrack like Hollywood likes to do. Ok maybe not.

So awesome developments on this film. 2006 looks great. Let's hope public interest in supermovies stays high since we may have Wonder Woman, Superman, Ghost Rider and X-Men all in that year. Also, the live action Transformers movie too.

One last nerdworthy note: Sony has just cast recent Academy Award nominee Thomas Haden Church (or as I know him: the guy from Wings and Ned & Stacey) as the villain in Spider-Man 3 (2007). The big rumor seems to be he'll be Eddie Brock aka Venom. Second biggest and much smaller rumor is he'll be Scorpion. I'd put money on Venom. Sooo popular. Sounds fine to me. My big question is, "What about Harry Osborn?" Remember he found the goblin suit? They kind of built that Goblin Legacy thing up a little. James Franco isn't signed on yet either so I'm sure it's just a matter of time til those pieces fall into place. Black Cat rumors have also been spotted. She was supposed to be in 2 so maybe.

OOOOOH...this fanboy ate too much hype at the internet smorgasbord this week! My tummy!

I'll have some recommendations and a touching story about Austin Rollerderby later on.

Flipside catching since '79!

Wanna Know What I'm Doing Sunday Night?

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Como se what!?!

Stay tuned as I'm sure to blog about this and much more in "Austin Trip Part Deaux"!

Everyone have a fun and safe weekend!

I Needed To Put This On Here For My Profile. Sorry.

I have fun blue anime hair in this picture. I call him Jin-Ron.

Mixed Emotions

I blame the 14 hours of work I pulled yesterday for almost missing the big news today. Just barely found out before it was yesterday's news.

Joss Whedon is writing and directing the Wonder Woman movie! Yay for Joss!

I'm happy for him. It's a big gig. But I gotta admit I really thought he was the man for the X-Men 3 job. His work on Astonishing X-Men had really got me jonesing for him to do the next X movie. It would be an automatic great movie. Now I don't see how he could do it. So we'll just have to wait to see who they get for it. First no Singer. Now no Joss. If they get McG, I swear to Logan I can't be held responsible for what I might do.

My take on the Wonder Woman movie...it's a huge risk. If anyone is qualified to finally do a superheroine movie right it's him. He's got a rabid fanbase who will see it no matter what (me included) but will the rest of the movie going audience forgive past movies like Catwoman? (Movie comparison has nothing to do with forgiving Joss, as he had nothing to do with it, but forgiving the genre of superheroine movies put out by warner bros.) I'm excited but very nervous and a little bummed for the X-Men franchise.

To be honest, unless the Wonder Woman trailer kicked butt I probably wouldn't have seen it if anybody else made it. I know she is THE icon for women in comics but I never really got into her other than Justice League team setting stuff. Now why they don't make a JL movie I have no idea...still, I think Joss'll do it right. I'll be there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Or as most people call it, "Thursday."

I like my comics recommendations just as much as the next guy. But I never want my only post of the week to be that so...this is filler. There's not much going on. Basically, I wanted to say that next week I will have a super-post about my upcoming trip to Austin this weekend. So that will make up for this week. Until then, knock yourself out with this site:

http://www.gizoogle.com

It's a search engine that will translate web pages into what I call "izzle-speak". I ran this site through it's translator and it was amusing. Some of the things it translated I wish I had said that way.

Anyway, when the novelty of that wears off then come on back here and read about my Austin trip. Just to make sure though you should probably make sure the novelty lasts at least a week... I'm just saying.

One last thing. I know my readership sometimes reaches to the 2s and even...3s. So leave me some comments. Even if it's stuff that's obvious and goes without saying like "you suck!" I just hate those zeroes. And I'm a needy person. All I'm asking is that you call me when you go out with the guys and I stay home with the kids. Tell me you love me...

Meanwhile, in another part of the city...PostHaste Recommends!

POW! BIFF! VORT!

That's right, kids. It's weekly comics recommendation time. And it's a doosy. Well, not really. Mostly I feel like I'm just carrying the torch for titles that have already appeared here before. Namely:

Ex-Machina # 9. Still Brian K Vaughan. Still good political drama meets sci-fi action. And the mystery really gets cranked up a notch this week. What a cliff-hanger!

Ultimates 2 # 4. Meet the European Ultimates! Thor was right about European super soldiers but not right in leading violent protest demonstrations. Plus more evidence surfaces that points to Thor being just a crazy guy with stolen powers (or is he???). Well, I guess theirs nothing left for his former teammates to do but paraphrase Franz Ferdinand and "Take Him Out!" (Actually I just paraphrased them not the fine writer Mark Millar). Speaking of...

Wolverine # 26. Yup, Millar has got this "super hero as soldier" thing down as the "Agent of S.H.E.I.L.D." arc starts up. Bonus: Origin of Gorgon! Also answers the question of how can Northstar be in X-Men: The End's future storyline if Wolverine just skewered him last month. Really should have seen that coming. Also, bask in the irony of how little we see Wolverine in this issue. Could it be that he's too busy in all the other titles to show up for his own comic. Or the more probable explanation that comas aren't that interesting... Props to Wein Machine for drawing the conclusion that now that Wolverine is agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. he may FINALLY appear in New Avengers and quite naturally so.

Okay. Now if you keep track at home you know I like to bring out the big surprise at the end. Well, this ones a biggie. Not one of this week's releases but a title I am just finding the joys of...

Mary Jane. Yup. I'm a girl. I can hear your mocking now. "I bet you liked Dawson's Creek too, you big...girl." Well, yes I did, actually. The first season at least and then less and less as it refused to go off the air. But that's why I am drawn to the MJ comic. It's like a great teen high-school soap but with a little bit of costumed action thrown in. It's great. Very popular girl who could go to Homecoming with any of the guys from school, so why can't she get over her infatuation with the guy in red and blue tights. I'm a sucker for genre-crossing if it's good. This is like"Love Fights" jr in the marvel u. It's fun. What? You still think I'm a girl, huh? Well, I endured unending ridicule for Dawson's Creek so I guess I'll just have to for Spidey's Creek too.

(rolls 2d10 with girly comic modifier and... fails masculinity check!)

which was pretty much a given even mentioning comics or dice roll checks in the first place.

Tune in next time where I'll be making more recommendations on books like Tiger Beat and YM!

This Week's (and last's) "PostHaste Recommends"

While I was busy with my "Drama On Four Wheels", I wasn't able to do comics recommendations for last week so I have seamlessly tacked them on to this week's. Trust me, unless someone tells you I've done it, you will never be able to tell.

Adam Strange #6 - Great art. Great space serial type adventure. Only two issues left in this mini but on the horizon...carrying over from events in Adam Strange..."The Rann/Thangar War" miniseries with Adam Strange, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern!

Scurvy Dogs: Rags to Riches TP - I don't have this trade but I have the five issues that comprise it. This is an actual funny book which is rare these days in the...funny books. It's about pirates trying to make it in the modern world and proudly declares that "Pirates are the new monkeys!"

The Walking Dead # 16 - Although I believe pop culture is suffering more from full on zombie fever than it's brief stint with pirate...whooping cough...anyhoo, TWD remains an always surprising horror/survival comic with a large yet constantly whittled-down cast.

Wolverine: Soul Taker #1 - Speaking of zombies, pirates, and monkeys...let's not forget ninjas. This Wolvie title has ninjas AND zombies. So I'd naturally pick this one up right? No, I didn't. Because it has Wolverine who I feel is the most overexposed fictional character of all time. Although, as I have read a few reviews (and I did flip through it with it's good art...), I think I may have made a mistake and may try to pick it up this weekend.

Fables: The Mean Season TP & Fables # 35 - I just got these and haven't read them yet but I can say with confidence from my previous experience with this title that it is the bomb. I've finally caught up with the trades of this title and am now proud to say like The Runaways and The Walking Dead I am now monthly (now if I could only catch up on Y: The Last Man). Anyway, Fables is about the characters from fairy tales existing secretly in modern New York City. Fantasy meets Noir meets brilliant writing.

Lex Luthor #1 - I saved my biggest surprise discovery for last. Lex Luthor: Man of Steel is a new mini from DC, natch, and gets inside the head of Superman's nemesis. In this book we see Superman as the threat and Lex as the philanthropist that has good intentions who just sometimes uses shady methods to get it done. No real bad guy thinks he is the bad guy and this book delivers on that making it natural to see why a self made man who believes that any human can achieve anything if they work hard would be threatened by an alien who just shows up with all the power and achievements without any of the work. Lex is always reminding himself and others that Superman is not human. Really interesting read and my surprise pick off the shelf this week.

That's it for now. Check back next week for updates. Same PostHaste time. Same PostHaste channel.

Drama On All Four Wheels or "Why the dark before the dawn?"

After what feels like a VERY long week without the Rodeo, I finally got my car out the shop today. It took a while and it was not cheap but I have to say it drives quite noticeable better. Thanks to everyone who drove around Miss Daisy (me) or gave me a loaner so that I could be social and get to work, respectively.

Wednesday I was able to get tickets to U2 when they come to Dallas in October. They go on sale to the general public on Saturday at 10:00am. I have special membership privileges that let me get mine earlier. I believe there is a Latin expression for such an occurrence. Oh yes. "NaNaNahBooBoo." Which roughly translated means, "I sit in an elevated throne of power and possessions than thou."

You may now be feeling the need to be cheered up. Probably not. But I thought I would share what cheered me up from my automobile tribulations. Obviously getting my U2 tickets, but also hearing a couple of fun song mash ups .

First there was this Nickelback vs. Nickelback mash up where someone put their 2001 song "How You Remind Me" in the left channel and 2003's "Someday" in the right. Now you might wonder why this cheered me up it being after all, Nickelback. Well, it validated every instinct I had that this band sucks. Validation feels good. This is one of those things that has to be heard to be believed so not clicking on the above link is not an option.

Now on to just a really good, fun mash up I heard on the radio yesterday. Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" vs Oasis vs Travis vs Aerosmith vs Eminem. It turns out sounding really cool. I was already hearing Oasis and Aerosmith in my head when I would hear this song but this mix does it for me so I can free up my head for other tasks. You can hear this mash up and a whole bunch more here.

RvB Turns 50...Kinda

This week marked the 50th episode of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. It was a cool episode and reminded me how far the web cartoon had come. It clocked in at over 16 minutes (big for a RvB episode) and featured Ed from BNL!!!

When the show first started out, they were using the gaming engine from Halo. Now in season three, they have made the jump to the Halo 2 engine. It has looked so stunning since this. This 50th episode was a time traveling type episode, so kinda flashbacky except that one character was trying (unsuccessfully) to change the things that had happened. Basically this episode revisited (and tried to change) some of the memorable and key moments of that first season so long ago. So they pulled an old George Lucas but this time in the name of entertainment and not in the name cash.

But they went above and beyond this by actually having extra scenes that didn't happen before because of this time traveling character. It was also cleverly written so that this character's meddling was the actual reason that the things he was trying to stop actually happened in the first place.

But by far the best part was a flashback that predated the events of the first episode in which we get to meet the Blue Army's first commander on Blood Gulch: Captain Butch Flowers voiced by Ed Robertson! Ed was fantastic and it was definitely more than him just repaying the guys for doing the intermission shorts for the last BNL tour. He did great with the character and even better with the "Hrrk...Bleh".

So check it out at www.redvsblue.com. It's free and about a 60mb dl. It probably makes more sense if you've seen the first season but it is worth it just for Ed's performance which needs no backstory at all.

Too Much Halo For One XBOX

w00t!!

Duck Mo wanted to do a Halo LAN party, but he didn't have a place to hold it. I offered up my temporary digs. I'm staying at my parents "ranch" home for them until it sells. They have already moved to New Mexico. It's just me and my brother and not much furniture out there so lots of room. If people didn't mind trekking out to the sticks I didn't mind hosting it. Again lots of room. Duck Mo said great and went to work organizing.

I figured their could be a lot of people and that I wouldn't know most of them.

Well I knew most of them even if it was just recently met them a week ago. Maybe four or five I didn't know. But there were fourteen total players there. It was awesome. Eight XBOXs and TVs, network cables stretching from the dining room to the kitchen to the den. It was fantastic. I've been to my share of LAN parties but this was the biggest turnout of one that I had attended. It was also the most fun. The bickering (as gamers tend to do as the night wears on) was at a minimum and for the most part all the games were gg's.

The guys were pros at setting up LAN parties. They brought long folding tables, plenty of chairs and of course the essential networking equipment. We got started a little before 10:00p and went into the wee hours. Had a bit of a power nap, then tore down the setup around 10:15A. The realtors were showing the house at 11:00 that morning but everyone was gone and the place back to normal by ten 'til.

It rocked and I've never picked up so many Bawls in my life as I picked up that morning after.

Thanks to Duck Mo aka Sparda lHyPl and Anubis lHyPl for the organization. You guys pwn.

Thanks to my brother and nephew for not minding...I hope.

gg everybody! gg!