WESTWORLD, Season Four (2022)

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(watched :: 20220629->0814): While cast members have discussed Season Five being WESTWORLD's last and Joy and Nolan have, apparently, yet to hear about a season five renewal (and given the current Warner-Discovery antics, who knows), I'd be fine with season four being the end – no "How's Annie? / "What year is this?" here: we're left with poignant goodbyes alongside tantilizingly open questions and, while one more trip to Sweetwater (this Leone / ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST fanatic will never tire of that particular homage – is WESTWORLD's Sweetwater the town that Brett McBain's dream would have become?) might provide some answers (a very big might – in Joy and Nolan I trust, sometimes), I'm unsure whether those answers are worth knowing given how deftly and beautifully team WESTWORLD traversed that razor's edge between open-ended finality and the promise of one last mystery.

tue/20220816

in

60ºF, cloudy: AC unit (success?)fully installed in K's room, duct tape improvisations seem to be holding... neckdeep in what is always a dodgy period of adjustment/reconciliation at the start of something new, an acclimation to the initial chaos of my process or what passes for it: my natural inclination being towards order and control (much to my chagrin) and thus an effort to if not embrace then at least accept said chaos (see sat/20220813 re: trusting / having faith in process which reminds me I do have more to say about that and the start of a piece on it somewhere) ensues... McFarlane SUPER POWERS remain MINE MINE MINE ALL MINE and the five year old me is ecstatic (note that they remain carded not because I want to cash out on them at some point but rather because I don't want to have to dust them (why waste a perfectly good protecting case?)... back to work then I’ll give a weighted vest a go on the day’s run… the day awaits..

on derbzball

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(updated wed/20220817 with video…)

At least thrice daily, Kirby and I or Kirby and K play his favorite game, Derbzball (Kirby's nickname is, when he goes a bit wild, KirbyDerby, hence Derbzball). As best I can tell through its various iterations over the summer and especially over the last couple weeks, Derbzball is Kirby's hybrid of dodgeball, soccer, and pinball or at least as close as Kirby can approximate (totes aDerbz); he seems, like all small children, to make up the rules as he goes along, bobbing and weaving between airborne Jolly Balls – sometimes using the ball in his mouth as a blocker, other times being thrilled when one of the balls bounces off his head: it's a work in progress, clearly. As they say in TED LASSO: Derbzball is life.

mon/20220815

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60ºF, sun: whenever I think about making a digital version of Press (A) my brain always returns to "fuck that: this is how I want it and this is what it is (its physical iteration being as much a part of it as its innards, a word I vastly prefer to content - even if no one reads it" so I'm going to stick to the way I'm doing it – though with continued upgrades as I make more and give another consideration to a runway/accessible MAKING THE CUT approach, Press (A) being the runway... started Book One of THE SANDMAN (read a few trades of it years ago but I've forgotten most all of it) and loathe that I have the edition that says "A Netflix Series" because now I'm a tool but whatever: if it gets me to read it, it gets me to read it (again – though will be fascinating to see what 41-year-old me thinks of it vs. my impressions at 15 or so)... what an awesome finale for WESTWORLD; additional thoughts probably later today, maybe, though more likely tomorrrow... K's school year begins, work days then full-start Weds: I loathe that I have to worry about my wife going to her job like the spouse of a cop worries about their partner; in-room AC install/fix custodial window improvisation continues... the day awaits.

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN (Morrison/Quitely, 05-08)

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(read: 20220805->13): Though I'd read most of ALL-STAR in single issues when it first came out, (05-08+/-?) I missed the end (the last two or three issues, I think) due to the years of moving about and lack of Newbury Comics (or of any comics shop for that matter).

Not sure what more I can add to the discussion that hasn't been said but this really is the best Superman story of this nascent century, everything I love about the character's potential for the strange and weird – that I've been immersed in Silver Age SUPERMAN and JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA comics these past several months heighted my appreciation for Morrison and Quitely's work here even more – wrapped in a story full of heart and emotion and populated by what is, by far, my favorite version of Superman's cast.

Morrison's work has always been at its best when brought to life under the pencil of Frank Quitely: his knack for delivering Morrison's Kirby-on-LSD-level Silver-Age bombast (can we please let the two of them loose on THE FOURTH WORLD?) through tight restraint and tiny detail that makes the human shine through – his penchant for facial expressions of his interpretation of these classic characters rivals even that of Joe Shuster's and, thanks to Chip Kidd's (whose most recent DESIGN MATTERS interview is a must-listen) introduction, I can't unsee how Superman's spitcurl is the S symbol on his forehead – somehow managing to both ground and elevate Morrison's excesses in and to human and superhuman levels.

Nothing short of a triumph.

P.S: FWIW: my three favorite Superman iterations: Flesicher's 1940s cartoons, ALL-STAR, and, because I am nothing if not a child of back then, the 90's triangle era.

sun/20220814

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62°F, rain: Imposter syndrome ran rampant yesterday, eventually calmed – probably blood sugar, IDK or, as is more likely, that copies of PRESS (A) 01 are out in the world and therefore out of my control (though the nice thing is that, since I'm printing these myself, I can change things if I feel like it - though I am trying to resist that temptation) – but at least the in-lawn is mowed (and Marc Maron's WTF interview with Michael Mann heard – HEAT 2 is on the to-read stack; VERY intrigued - especially since the book is, according to Mann, NOT an “instead of” for a film and that the film is being made)... finally found a use for my antique cigarette case: a storage space for filled Rite in the Rain notebooks (the on-the-go model in my wallet / for the run)... my love affair with POWER WASH SIMULATOR is hitting a snag as the subway level isn't saving correctly and in ever know what parts i'll have to do over again... finished Morrison/Quitely ALL STAR SUPERMAN; quick writeup coming later today or tomorrow... air conditioning install in K's classroom this afternoon... the day awaits.