Indy collection

I'm off to Baltimore to visit Dad. He's doing much better. They took the tube out yesterday so I'll get to hear what he has to say. Until I get back you can look at these.

My dad's one of the reasons I love Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade wasn't just a father and son story. It was the story of a son dealing with a bald, opinionated, intellectual father. It didn't hurt that the son was the coolest character ever.

So when the merchandise came around for the new movie, I bought everything. The 3 3/4" line was fun (if short lived) but I was really waiting for the 12" line. The character is made for this style of figure, with his rumpled clothing and small relics. They've finally started to ship within the last month (two months after Crystal Skull hit DVD) and they seemed to arrive at my door every day. Even after waiting 25 years for these, I customized just about all of them.

You've already seen this one. Henry Jones Sr. and Indiana Jones are from Medicom. The tie and 21st Century Toys motorcycle are from ebay and Henry Jones has a grail diary in pocket hand made and customized by a guy I found on a message board.



Here's Sideshow's 12 inch Raiders of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones. They developed a new body for this figure but I used the Japanese Hot Toys body instead. He has the headpiece to the staff of Ra in his pocket and the idol in his bag.



The new Sideshow body went to this guy. Indy comes with an extra hatless head so I made this Professor Jones custom. The suit is Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the glasses are Skinner from The X Files. The enevelope is part of that grail diary custom.



I bought a second Indy so I could make this. He's on a Hot Toys muscular body and the shirt is my 1982 Kenner doll. The machete is a G.I. Joe and the scars are Sharpie. He has all three Sankara Stones in his bag. It's my least favorite movie and my favorite figure.



These last two weren't customs but hard to get. The Indy in German outfit almost wasn't released as Hasbro cancelled the line on top of him. I had to pay through the nose to get one but there he is. The Ark was a mail away that took me six months and a couple of figures I didn't want before I could own it.



Sideshow is continuing the line even though no one else is. I have Belloq (with an idol pedestal) and Toht on order and a River Phoenix Indiana Jones from Medicom. Selling those cds paid for it all. Even though my dad doesn't love these films as much as I do, having these characters around help me think of him.

Guitar Mod

I haven't done a guitar gear post in a long time. Then again, I haven't had a reason.

I've had my pewter 2006 American Standard for a year now. I've never had a guitar that fit as comfortably or played as easily as this one:



But it had one problem. It didn't sound so good with distortion. Add some gain and the guitar immediately got too loud and harsh. It was gorgeous clean so for the last year the strat was my clean guitar and I went to the Les Paul for heavy. Fine for the home studio.

But it always bugged me. So on Black Friday I went to GC with a gift card and a few coupons and picked up a JB Jr. It's a humbucker that fits in the space of a single coil. So I didn't need a whole new pickguard. I rarely pull out the soldering iron but I installed it in the bridge position pretty easily.



It sounded perfect but I still missed the cutting sound of that bridge single coil. So this weekend I got a push/pull 500K pot from ebay. Putting it in the volume slot was a DISASTER (I burned myself twice and ended up with no volume control) but an hour later it was in the tone position it worked perfectly.



I lost some "quack" (out of phase nasal tone) but I got both strong single coil and humbucker sounds in the bridge. Heavy it sounds like Van Halen but I can still get a piercing punk sound from it. While I was at it I gave it the locking tuners (which added sustain) and the tremsetter from my 91 Tele Plus. That guitar was my first real electric but weighs 14 pounds so it doesn't get as much action as it used to.

I can't believe I successfully rewired anything in my life. I used to take apart machines to see how they worked and ended up with broken machines. This guitar is actually better because I messed with it. Now I finally have a guitar versatile enough for any jam session. I just need to go find a jam session.

Iraqi Journalist Throws Shoes at Bush

This happened over the weekend but I can still watch it all day. It may be the only time Bush has ever has to face what he's done to the world.

X Files review

I'm very happy to be at Pop Culture Zoo. Especially when they disagree with my views ahd post my review anyway.

Read my thoughts on the new X Files movie.

BTW, Dad's doing much better. I went to visit him yesterday and even though he can't talk, he's in great spirits. He even asked for a book!

Dad's very touched by all the well wishers so thanks for letting me know. Rick Overton, you can stay at the house whenever you want.

Monica Update

My sister just posted this on her blog:

Dad's had no positive changes in the past 24 hours. He's going in this morning for an invasive procedure (Swan Ganz catheter) that will directly measure the pressure on his heart. He's getting so much fluid that they need to be better able to monitor his heart.

They're hoping for some positive change by this afternoon. As of now, things are very serious, and I believe he's in critical condition. All thoughts and prayers you can spare are much needed!

Monica

She just updated with something a little more positive:

Dad's on an upswing, but he's been on a rollercoaster so there could be more drama to follow. He's more alert and he actually.....wait for it...... DANCED (wiggled his head arms and feet) when asked how he was feeling! Yep! He's trying to communicate but has the ventilator in so he's getting frustrated. Where's the speech pathology dept when you need them?! :)

His heart rate is high but his blood pressure is improving. Once he's stable, they can give him medicine to reduce more swelling. He will probably be on the ventilator for another day or so. He's running a fever, which is to be expected with the sepsis. He's sleeping a lot but is quite alert when he IS awake. These are all good signs! He's definitely not out of the woods yet, but it's looking better.

We'll be heading down tomorrow afternoon. Siobhan is singing with her theater group at a breakfast with Santa that ends around 1:00. We'll check in to the hotel and I'll go see Dad for a quick visit. He's really not up for visitors at all but he gets that his kids NEED to see him so he'll tolerate my presence for a short while, i'm sure. Then we'll try to take mom out for a little R&R and maybe even a pint of something yummy.

I'm bringing the laptop and i do have my new iphone :p so I'll update the blog while we're in MD. Hopefully i'll have more positive news to post!

Dad Update

There's an infection in his wound(where he was stitched together). So he's back in surgery. My plan to visit today has been postponed.

Congratulations Jeannie and Aaron!

Every now and then you meet a couple that's so genuinely great you want them to have a better life than you do. I first met Jeannie five years ago when she interned at Wunderman. She was so sweet, funny and talented that I was sure her husband would be an ass. Fortunately, Aaron is just as cool as she is. Now that they have twins, that's two more people in the most awesome family ever.






Welcome Graham and Lachan!

Darth Maul review at figures.com!

Robert Yee called me up and asked if I'd like to come down to the studio and preview Diamond's new Ultimate Quarter Scale figure line. Then two companies got involved and it wasn't like the old days at all.

Here's the review.

Update

Dad has an infection so he's still in the ICU.

Dad Update

We've been in Texas for Jack's christening but Dad had his surgery Friday.

Turns out the stricture was not caused by the radiation but by diverticulitis, which he's had in the past. The operation ended up more complicated than predicted. He was under the knife for six hours and recovered in the ICU.

But he's doing very well. Johnny says his labs look great and he'll be in Johns Hopkins for another week. I'll try to drive to Baltimore this week.

New NewsGroper article!

"Chinese Democracy" took longer than any album ever recorded. Arnold Schwarzennegar blames himself.

Read!

Axl Update

Dad had his exploratory yesterday. they drained some fluid so he's feeling better. Looks like the big operation will be Friday. But so far, he's ok.

Axl Rose however, is not okay. He's mad at Dr. Pepper.



Wonder if Tim Warner is also mad at Dr. Pepper?

Update Update

Dad is scheduled for surgery at 4:00 today. Everything looks fine.

Dad Update

My Dad's in the hospital again.

You may recall he had a quintuple bypass last spring. It has nothing to do with this. You may also remember that he beat prostate cancer last year. The cancer's gone but the complications remain.

Dad had radioactive seeds planted in his prostate to destroy the cancer. he was told it would be the least invasive way to go. For four years he got worse and worse then completely better.

Well, it turns out having radioactive objects in your body doesn't do it much good. (sorry, Spider-Man). The seeds created a buildup of scar tissue in his colon and now nothing's coming through it. He's been on a liquid diet for a month btu this past weekend even that didn't help. He spent 12 hours in the ER and the last four days on an IV.

But the hospital can't do anything for him. They can't perform the surgery that will help him. That can only be done in Long Island. And they can't transfer him there. He has an appointment next Wednesday with the surgeon. Which is ten days from the time he went into the hospital.

So I called my cousin Johnny who not only is my best friend in the family and Ben godfather but a doctor in Johns Hopkins. He got my dad admitted in Baltimore before he even left New York. My mom drove him down today and now we're waiting. At least something is happening.

I'll keep you updated here.

Ben Thanksgiving

Renee and Ben decided a the last minute to go to the parade. Because when you live in New York, you can do that.

Chinese Democracy on Pop Culture Zoo!

When I met the figures.com staff at Toy Fair, one of the best guys there was Dan Clark. He left soon after to create Pop Culture Zoo, which covers not only figures but movies, tv, comics and music. I loved what he was doing over there and I wanted to do it too. So I'll be writing a few pieces for him.

And here's the first; the long awaited Guns n' Roses "Chinese Democracy" album. I was planning to make fun of this. Then it blew me away.

Read my review.

Writer's Room Tonight!

Jon Clarke (McSweeney's)
DC Pierson (Derrick)
Donald Glover (30 Rock)
Colin Jost (SNL)

And a sketch by Drink At Work

$5.

The PIT154 W 29th St(Between 6th and 7th Aves)

9:30 TONIGHT!

Ben Month 17

FAO has a Muppet workshop. renee took him over the weekend. I should probably take him again. You know, in case he missed something.

Green Lantern review at figures.com!

Some cool characters, lackluster toys and way too many pictures.

All here.

Ebert reviews Indy

Just because I like Roger Ebert and love "Raiders of the Lost Ark", here's why he thinks it's one of the greatest movies ever made.

New Star Trek Trailer!

It's so good Renee almost called Star Trek "cool".

I had my doubts about recasting the original characters. Paramount has always created new characters to further the franchise. But J.J. Abrams seems to have done a "Batman Begins" on this; taking everything taht worked about the original concept and amping it up to 12. I think kids will love it and never want to watch the original series.

I can't embed it yet but I can link it.

Forced Insomnia

I went to bed at 11:30. Ben woke up crying at 12:30. He didn't go back down until 3:30. Then he woke up at 7.

Welcome to useless.

Ben Month 16

It's almost too cold for the playground. Ben doesn't realize that.

The Plastic-Less Office

I just sold my last cd. After twenty years and close to 1000 albums, I now own no music on compact disc.

The idea came to me a couple of years ago. Ed's friend Barton (who used to run an amazing music blog) decided once he had all his music on mp3, he no longer needed the discs. So he sold them in lots on ebay and did fairly well. The idea stuck in my brain until Ben started crawling. Every day, he'd go to the cd bookcase and grab handfuls of records, scattering them all over the floor. The fiftieth time I put my original copy of 3rd Bass' "Derelects of Dialect" back on the shelf, I wondered what the point was.

I'm an archivist. I'm not proud of that side of myself, but it's there. The house is full of stuff that I just HAD to own three years ago. If I'm into an artists' work, I want EVERYTHING by that artist. Season 9 of the X Files. Beatle anthologies. I own Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four run twice in hardcover. I just want to know I have a good copy at my fingertips.

But with music, I always do. I own a 160 GB ipod that's not full. I have 700 GBs of hard drive space for my files. They're backed up on a 500 GB hard drive that resides in Connecticut and a new 1.5 TB drive on the shelf. Why do I need fifth copies of everything on 700 MB cds?

I don't. So off they went. Secondspin.com took almost everything at decent (for this economy) prices. It took three months but now the cd bookcase has actual books in it. Throw in a digitized comic book library (I miss those GIT Marvel DVD ROMs) and my obsession becomes virtual and my space becomes liveable.

Now if I could only figure out a way to digitize action figures.

New NewsGroper article!

I had one more thing to say about George W. Bush. That's because George W. Bush had more to say.

Veteran's Day

If today's a holiday and only the post office gets it off, shouldn't they stop telling us about it?

UPDATE: Apparantly everyone else is off while Renee and I work another 12 hour day. Today just got a lot longer.

Siskel and Ebert and the Worst Movie Ever Made

I'm getting excited for the Blu-Ray release of "The Dark Knight" which will drop in a month (and is already breaking Blu-Ray records). I've watched "Batman Begins" on Blu-Ray and am salivating over some high priced Japanese imported figures.

Thinking about how good this movie is reminds me how bad the George Clooney version was. I will never forgive Schumacher for making such a turd. And it's good to see in 1997 Siskel and Ebert agreed with me.



Nice to see Ebert healthy and Siskel alive, isn't it?

And just for fun, here's their review of the Burton 1989 film. I particularly like where they say it's not for kids and argue if it's better than "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".

New NewsGroper Article!

George W. Bush forgot to vote.

Hopefully that is the last time I will ever write George W. Bush on this blog.

Thank God!

Looks like I'm going to have to stop hating the President.

Election Day!

Vote for Obama. You'll feel better.

Happy Halloween!

We're going to have to tone down the gore this year.

New NewsGroper article!

I couldn't get that William Shatner/George Takei story out of my head.

Neither could Leonard Nimoy.

They Showed Up!

All the way from Japan. Months in the waiting. Too much in the paying. Lots of ebay in the customizing. But I can finally make this:



"Junior!"

Shtick or Treat

If you weren't there, you missed the most fun comedy show this year. 35 comics and everyone did well. Since we were performing as other people, no one's ego got crushed by a joke that fell flat. No one got big headed when they killed with someone else's material. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

I performed as Bob Newhart. This is what I did.

Special Halloween Show Tomorrow!

I've been performing only when it's fun. Tomorrow night should be hilarious. Mark Normand invited me to his Halloween show at the Creek. 30 comedians do 3 minutes each, but as their favorite comic. Their material, their style. Guess who I'm doing?

Shtick or Treat
The Creek
10-93 Jackson Ave
Long Island City, NY
10/25 8 p.m.

William Shatner and George Takei Still Hate Each Other

You guys are in your 70's. You haven't worked together in about 20 years. Just leave each other alone.

Temple of Doom review at figures.com!

The Indiana Jones action figure line is dead. In four months it went from being the next Star Wars to the last Narnia. The boards are alive with blame. Wal-Mart ordered too much. Hasbro used bad factories. Lucas wanted too much Mutt. Kids hate old guys.

I don't know what went wrong and as sad as I am I can't continue to get Indy characters for years to come, I'm grateful for what I got. And I'm really grateful I managed to snag the line from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Not only does it complete all four films in the franchise, it's also has the best figures ever done for it.

Take a look!

Rambo

The new Rambo is the most violent film I've ever seen without a zombie in it. Still not as stupid as 2 or 3.



Want to see people explode into pieces? Rent this mother.

Zakk Wylde

Zakk Wylde is a phenomenal guitarist. Ozzy hired him when he was only 20 and he's managed to improve from there. You are not going to see any of that skill here. Zakk plays deliberately badly in this Guitar World lesson that's more charming than hilarious.

Ben Month 15.1

Last week we went to Virginia for my cousin Emily's wedding. Ben wore a bow tie.

Neal Hefti

Walker let me know that Neal Hefti passed away this week. Hefti was a great jazz composer who wrote tons of hits for Count Basie. He also wrote the music for "The Odd Couple" and the theme to "Batman". Yes, that theme. Music so memorable and simple that Ben sings it today. He will be missed.

New NewsGroper article!

Ringo Starr hates you.

This is why.

South Park Rapes Indiana Jones

They really hated Crystal Skull.

Here's the full episode.

Toy Wishes 2008

Here's the report of the show I attended last week. Most of the pictures got messed up (resizing miscommunication) but the full report is here.

Or here.

Ben Month 16

Ben and Renee went to Florida last week. Ben was as happy there as he is everywhere else.

Lord Destructo Joins Dr. Horrible

This is why I didn't post yesterday.

At SDCC Joss Whedon let fans know he was taking supervillian video applications for the Evil League of Evil. The winners will appear on the extras of the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD. Since Whedon is one of my heroes, I wanted to give him my best. Instead of wearing makeup and a funny hat for a webcam, I wrote and directed this sketch. If Trafton Crandall and Billy the Kid hadn't helped me, it wouldn't be up now.



Is it DVD worthy?

Busy

I'm off to cover the Toy Wishes 2008 show and shoot something very, very fast. I'll post all about those later.

The Late Show at Comix

Friday night I finally got to see one of my favorite comedians and writers, Dana Gould, at Comix. It was a learning experience.

Joe DeVito hosted. I hadn't seen Joe in a bit and have never seen him host. He was definitely putting the work in. The crowd was small for the venuie (about 35 people) and sluggish. One guy was at the table in front. He was about 6"2 so he stood out in the audience. With his 65 year old scowling tourist face and four martinis, he was going to bring this room down.

Matt McCarthy opened. Matt is amazing and I've been playing calender tag with him for months trying to get him on Writer's Room. The 65 year old guy hated him and alternated between mumbled heckles and head shaking. Matt had to abandon his set to shut this guy down. he stopped complaining but never stopped talking.

Then Dana Gould headlined. Dana is precisely the comic I want to be. Smart, dark, cartoony, personal and full of characters. He's written for "The Simpsons" for God's sake. And even he had a hard time with the 65 year old tourist. It was a thrill to watch him and a revelation to see him struggle. It truly never ends.

I talked to Matt after the show. He told me Dana Gould said to him, "This is why Steve Martin quit comedy. The Friday night second show." These were three guys I respect and revere. They all personify the goal for me. And they all struggled like hell. It makes me wonder, once again, is this a road I really want to follow?

The Definition of "Maverick"

" A lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates. "

That means, Sarah Palin, they can't be a TEAM!

But they can be James Garner.

New NewsGroper Article!

It's about Sarah Palin. And it's entirely adolescent.

And it's here.

Have a great debate everybody!

Iron Man Blu-Ray is Why I Have a Blu-Ray

And there's a two hour documentary on the disc that rules just as mightily. There is one moment in that documentary that hits me where I live: Jon Favreau looking at the Minimates and calling them awesome.

I just made Robert Yee's day with that piece of info.