Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Vol. 6

Promo copy:

Here comes the highly-anticipated sixth volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, the studio’s largest Looney Tunes compilation of animated shorts to date. Fans won’t want to miss this golden opportunity to own over 60 classic, fully re-mastered and restored cartoons, presented in their original un-edited format. Most of the shorts in the collection have never been available on DVD before.

Contents:

Disc One: Looney Tunes All Stars
1. Hare Trigger
2. To Duck or Not to Duck
3. Birth of a Notion
4. My Little Duckaroo
5. Crowing Pains
6. Raw! Raw! Rooster!
7. Heaven Scent
8. My Favorite Duck
9. Jumpin’ Jupiter
10. Satan’s Waitin’
11. Hook Line and Stinker
12. Bear Feat
13. Dog Gone South
14. A Ham in a Role
15. Often an Orphan

Disc Two: Patriotic Pals
1. Herr Meets Hare
2. Russian Rhapsody
3. Daffy the Commando
4. Bosko the Doughboy
5. Rookie Revue
6. The Draft Horse
7. Wacky Blackout
8. The Ducktators
9. The Wekaly Reporter
10. Fifth Column Mouse
11. Meet John Doughboy
12. Hollywood Canine Canteen
13. By Word of Mouse
14. Heir Conditioned
15. Yankee Dood it

Disc Three: Bosko Buddie and Merrie Melodies
1. Congo Jazz
2. Smile Dam Ya, Smile!
3. The Booze Hangs High
4. One More Time
5. Bosko’s Picture Show
6. You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’!
7. We’re in the Money!
8. Ride ‘em Bosko
9. Shuffle Off to Buffalo
10. Bosko in Person
11. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon
12. Buddie’s Day Out
13. Buddie’s Beer Garden
14. Buddie’s Circus
15. A Cartoonist’s Nightmare

Disc Four: Most Requested Assorted Nuts
1. Horton Hatches the Egg
2. Lights Fantastic
3. Fresh Airedale
4. Chow Hound
5. The Oily American
6. It’s Hummer Time
7. Rocket Bye Baby
8. Goo Goo Goliath
9. Wild Wife
10. Much Ado About Nutting
11. The Hole idea
12. Now Hear This
13. Martian Through Georgia
14. Page Miss Glory
15. Norman Normal

Plus fifteen other shorts.

I Live Here by Mia Kirshner, J.B. Mackinnon, Paul Shoebridge, and Michael Simons

Promo copy:
I Live Here is a paper documentary–an intimate journey to humanitarian crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.

~THE BOOK~

I Live Here is a visually stunning narrative — told through journals, stories, images, and graphic novellas — in which the lives of refugees and displaced people become at once personal and global. Bearing witness to stories that are too often overlooked, it is a raw and intimate journey to crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.

The voices we encounter are those of displaced women and children, in their own words or in stories told in text and images by noted writers and artists. The stories unfold in an avalanche: An orphan goes to jail for stealing leftovers. A teenage girl falls in love in a city of disappeared women. A child soldier escapes his army only to be saved by the people he was taught to kill.

Mia Kirshner’s journals guide us through a unique paper documentary brought vividly to life in collaboration with J.B. MacKinnon, Paul Shoebridge, and Michael Simons, with featured works by Joe Sacco, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Phoebe Gloeckner, Chris Abani, Karen Connelly, Kamel Khelif, and many others.

~THE JOURNEYS ~

Ingushetia
The border of the Russian republic of Ingushetia is not even fifty miles from Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya. Today, some 15,000 Chechen refugees live in Ingushetia. Mia Kirshner and Joe Sacco traveled here together, returning with first-person accounts, video, photographs, and other materials gathered in Nazran and Moscow. The chapter includes journals by Mia Kirshner, the story of a young refugee as told by J.B. MacKinnon, the story of a young piano virtuoso as told by Ann-Marie Macdonald, and a graphic novella of Chechen refugees by Joe Sacco.

Burma
Ethnic cleansing by the Burmese military has displaced an estimated 500,000 to 1 million people; over 100,000 live in refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border. Burma is also believed to be home to more child soldiers than any other country in the world. Mia Kirshner and Michael Simons took separate trips to the region; this chapter is based on their interviews, photos, and video, as well as writing by sex workers and Karen refugees. It includes journals by Mia Kirshner, as well as work by Chris Abani, Karen Connelly, J.B. Mackinnon, and a graphic novella by Kamel Khélif.

Juárez
Ciudad Juárez is a large industrial border city in Mexico across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Since 1993, young women, many of them employees of Juárez’s more than three hundred maquiladoras, or global trade zone factories, have been disappearing from the streets. Mia Kirshner and Phoebe Gloeckner made independent journeys to this region; this book is informed by the stories and images they brought home. It includes journals, a story of one of the victims by Lauren Kirshner, and a graphic novella by Phoebe Gloeckner.

Malawi
Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, and has an AIDS rate close to twenty percent. The disease touches every aspect of daily life in the African nation, introducing immense chaos, particularly in the case of orphan children. Mia Kirshner and J.B. MacKinnon made the trip to Malawi and returned with interviews, photographs, writing, and artworks. This book includes journals, a children’s story by J.B. MacKinnon with art by Julie Morstad, and the stories and artwork of boys in a local prison.

Check out the amazing interiors at the official site. There has never been anything quite like this impressive production.

Stuff received 10/9/08 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Fed Up WIth Life ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son – Situation Normal ]
On Saturday a woman in Ottawa tried to get on a bus with a stroller. The bus driver denied her access. The two argued and then the driver shut the door and drove off. One problem (of many), the woman’s two year old had climbed on the bus before her mommy, as she has been trained to do so for safety’s sake.

This has exploded in the media. The driver has been assigned to retraining and the driver’s union is blaming the mother.

The problem with OC Transpo and strollers starts right at the top. Witness Alain Mercier’s (OC Transpo’s chief) backhanded insult to mothers with his “SUV of strollers” comments in July. With this kind of attitude eminating from their leader, and a lack of a clear policy, it is no wonder that a classist and sexist culture has developed among the rank and file.

Let’s be blunt, the women with strollers who are using OC Transpo are doing so because they have no other option. Why else would they be waiting for a bus on a busy street like Innes Road on a Saturday night in October? Given that these women are generally working class or recent immigrants, they are less likely to speak up for themselves in these types of situations. This makes them easy targets for the ignorant comments of those who have probably never had to use public transit to take small children to appointments.

Another issue that this raises is safety. Abandoning a woman with small children at the side of a busy road on a cold October night seems to fly in the face of OC Transpo’s Transsecure program. Aren’t bus drivers supposed to be keeping an eye out for citizens who are in distress and not be the cause of distress? I am certain that Ms. Pacey is not the first woman to be denied access to the bus due to a stroller. She is the first, however, to speak out and is to be commended for that. Given that there are many others who have gone through this experience, we are lucky that none of them, or their children, have become a tragic statistic.

Since senior leadership at OC Transpo has proven to be less than enlightened on this isse, it is now time for the city’s transportation committee to step in and make a decision. This policy should extend to anything that might block an aisle, be it strollers, walkers, shopping carts, suitcases or wheelchairs. Some of those are larger than they really need to be, but they have not drawn the ire of the bus company the way the stroller has. What else is a scooter, but an “SUV of wheelchairs”, but Alain Mercier would never dare say that, would he?

While researching an article, I downloaded Amazing Mystery Funnies Volume 2, Number 7 [Whole # 11] (July, 1939) from the extraordinary Golden Age Comics site. Noteworthy for the first appearance of the Fantom of the Fair, one of the earliest masked comic book heroes, the tale featured the dynamic art of creator Paul Gustavson.

His work offered clean lines and sensational action. It’s obvious how this character influenced the countless masked heroes to come and helped to spawn an entire industry.

Gustavson’s work alone would be enough to makes this into an impressive issue, but there is also a sensational two-tone crime story from the legendary Bill Everett (creator of the Sub-Mariner and co-creator of Daredevil).

Interestingly, Will Eisner’s Spirit premiered roughly one year later in 1940!

The remainder of the comic contains a smattering of mostly quality western, humor, science fiction and even prose tales. This was back in the era of the 52 page cross-genre comic book anthology!

Do yourself a favor, visit Golden Age Comics and download this gem along with thousands of other great titles.

Amazing Mystery Funnies was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Amused ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son – Situation Normal ]
This fourth novel in the Sothern Vampire series finds Sookie single and local vampire leader Eric running naked down a country road. It turns out that a witch cursed Eric causing him to lose his memory.

This leaves Sookie to babysit/protect Eric while trying to discover what happened to Eric and what happened to her brother Jason, who has also disappeared. Sookie has to do all that while dealing with the fall out of her break-up with Bill.

I like that author Charlaine Harris has not fallen into the one true love trap. She is also evolving Sookie into a heroine worthy of the love and attention of so many supernatural men. This makes the series far more interesting and worth sticking with.

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle by Jim Butcher and illustrated by Ardian Syaf

Promo copy:

When Jim Butcher writes stories set in his bestselling Dresden Files universe, in his head he sees the story come together like panels from a comic book. So it’s no surprise that the lifelong comic book fan has made his mind’s work a reality. Illustrated by rising talent Ardian Syaf, The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle is Butcher’s first attempt at writing an original comic book story featuring his own protagonist, professional wizard Harry Dresden.

The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin

Promo copy:

The Unincorporated Man is a provocative social/political/economic novel that takes place in the future, after civilization has fallen into complete economic collapse. This reborn civilization is one in which every individual is incorporated at birth, and spends many years trying to attain control over his or her own life by getting a majority of his or her own shares. Life extension has made life very long indeed.

Now the incredible has happened: a billionaire businessman from our time, frozen in secret in the early twenty-first century, is discovered and resurrected, given health and a vigorous younger body. Justin Cord is the only unincorporated man in the world, a true stranger in this strange land. Justin survived because he is tough and smart. He cannot accept only part ownership of himself, even if that places him in conflict with a civilization that extends outside the solar system to the Oort Cloud. People will be arguing about this novel and this world for decades.

Holy Sh*t!: The World’s Weirdest Comic Books by Paul Gravett and Peter Stanbury

Promo copy:

You won’t believe your eyes…

…when you peek inside Holy Sh*t! at some of the wildest, most depraved stories ever told. These outrageous comics are guaranteed to offend and amuse!

Some of the rare treasures you will encounter are Presidents who become muscle-bound superheroes, cavemen who fight giant tabby cats, and a peasant-girl who fervently worships the swastika. But … are you ready for Russia’s busty bombshell Octobriana? What about getting your groove on with Mod Love? How about scaring your kid sister with the flesh-eating animals in The Barn of Fear? And if you can stomach these, you might want to try Amputee Love, Fatman the Human Flying Saucer, Tales of the Leather Nun, and many, many more.

More in Part Two.

Books received 10/6/08 Part One was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

The all-John Picacio cover edition.

Fast Forward 2 edited by Lou Anders

Promo copy:

When Fast Forward 1 debuted in February 2007, it marked the first major all-original, all-SF anthology series to appear in some time and it was met with a huge outpouring of excitement and approbation from the science fiction community. No less than seven stories from Fast Forward 1 were chosen to be reprinted a total of nine times in the four major Best of the Year retrospective anthologies, a wonderful testament to the quality of contributions in our inaugural book. What’s more, Fast Forward 1 was hailed repeatedly as leading the charge in a return of original, unthemed anthologies series (several more have since appeared in our wake). Now the critically-acclaimed, groundbreaking series continues, featuring all new stories from: Paul Cornell, Kay Kenyon, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead, Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum, Jack McDevitt, Paul McAuley, Mike Resnick and Pat Cadigan, Ian McDonald, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell, Jeff Carlson, Paolo Bacigalupi.

I reviewed Volume 1.

The Well-Built City Trilogy: The Physiognomy, Memoranda and The Beyond by Jeffrey Ford (three books)

Promo copy:

More than just an alternate history or Earth, the world of the Well-Built City is Ford at his finest, with bizarre creatures, trees, foods, drinks, customs—nothing is mundane in the writings of Ford. From the hallucinations of the drug, Beauty, to the destruction of buildings from a headache, the reader will find nothing like he has ever read before.

See Part One here.

Books received 10/6/08 Part Two was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Distorted ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son – Situation Normal ]
Full Metal Alchemist is a manga sensation that my students are forever telling me about. So I decided to borrow a volume from the biblio to see what all the fuss is about.

An interestng story of the Elric brothers, who are alchemists. Both dabbled in alchemy as young boys in an attempt to bring back their mother who had passed away several years before. Unfortunately. the is against the rules of alchemy. As punishment, Edward loses his arm, but Alphonse loses his whole body. Edward then sacrfices his leg to save Alphonse’s soul.

Alphonse’s soul comes to rest in a suit of armour. Edward’s arm and leg were replaced by very advanced metal protheses. Togther the boys travel as government alchemists looking for a way to restore themselves to their original bodies.

Interesting bit of work. I enjoyed it and will pick-up more, although reading from right to left takes a bit of training.

Yesterday’s New York Times had a scary article about the very real possibility of being locked out of your Gmail account.

The best strategy to deal with this danger is backing up your Gmail account. Along those lines, the helpful folks over at Lifehacker offered up this method for Gmail backup in Windows using fetchmail.

Problem is that there are at least 15% of all computer users that don’t use Windows. For the rest of us that live in the *nix (unix, linux, BSD, Mac OS X, etc.) world, I discovered George Donnelly’s helpful guide.

It’s important to know that Gmail limits how much can be downloaded at one time, so you might have to do your initial backup a few times to catch all your data.

Hopefully, Gmail will never be a bother, but it’s always good to be prepared.

Gmail backup was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

I broke my supposedly indestructible titanium glasses today!

After laying down relaxing this afternoon, I opened my glasses to put them on and the nose piece snapped. My frames fell into two pieces!

I’m now using my 12 year old, backup pair. Of course, they are uncomfortable and out of prescription.

*sigh*

Broken glasses was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived in the mail here at the Geek Compound.

Getting To Know You by David Marusek

Promo copy:

Not since William Gibson and Bruce Sterling galvanized science fiction in the 1980s has the emergence of a new writer been heralded with such acclaim as that attending David Marusek, whose brilliant first novel, Counting Heads, appeared to rave reviews in 2005.

Now, in this collection of ten stories, Marusek’s fierce imagination and dazzling extrapolative gifts are on full display. Five of the stories, including the Sturgeon Award-winning “The Wedding Album"– a shattering look at the intended human consequences of advanced technology– are set in the same future a Counting Heads. But all ten showcase Marusek’s talent for literate, provocative science fiction of the very highest order.

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Promo copy:

Named by the New York Times as "one of science fiction’s bright young lights” and winner of the Philip K. Dick and Arthur C. Clarke Awards, Richard Morgan has vaulted to the pinnacle of the science fiction world in just a few short years. Now in The Steel Remains, the first in a trilogy, he turns his talents to epic fantasy, crafting a darkly violent adventure sure to thrill old fans and captivate new readers.

After the Downfall by Harry Turtledove

Promo copy:

1945: Russian troops have entered Berlin, and are engaged in a violent orgy of robbery, rape, and revenge…

Wehrmacht officer Hasso Pemsel, a career soldier on the losing end of the greatest war in history, flees from a sniper’s bullet, finding himself hurled into a mysterious, fantastic world of wizards, dragons, and unicorns. There he allies himself with the blond-haired, blue-eyed Lenelli, and Velona, their goddess in human form, offering them his knowledge of warfare and weaponry in their genocidal struggle against a race of diminutive, swarthy barbarians known as Grenye.

But soon, the savagery of the Lenelli begins to eat at Hasso Pemsel’s soul, causing him to question everything he has long believed about race and Reich, right and wrong, Ubermenschen and Untermenschen. Hasso Pemsel will learn the difference between following orders… and following his conscience.

The Surrogates by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele

Promo copy:

The year is 2054, and life is reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the personal surrogate, android substitutes that let users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It’s a perfect world, and it’s up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they’ll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them.

The Surrogates is a story about progress and whether there exists a tipping point at which technological advancement will stop enhancing and start hindering our lives. It is also a commentary on identity, the Western obsession with physical appearance, and the growing trend to use science as a means of providing consumers with beauty on demand.

More in Part Two.

Books received 10/3/08 Part One was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon