Professor

Went and watched this today. And it was not very good. Maybe that is a bit harsh, as I did enjoy parts, but I felt overall a bit bored.

The Rundown - Watched this on TV while house sitting. Below average action movie that is largely forgotten. Looking back, I sometimes forget just how huge the Rock is these days. He looks downright human sized in this movie. Well, as human sized as Rock can be.

Are we just talking reselling at much, much higher prices, or am I missing something?

Is there a big issue with scalpers/resellers? I have only purchased sports tickets secondhand and no one really cares. (Well, unless you wear the wrong shirt in certain seats. But that was stupid nonsense.)

Cry-Baby, Rocky Horror Picture Show & Purple Rain - Just going to lump these together because my thoughts are pretty much the same for all of them. Are they great? No. They are probably all bad movies. But damn, they are fun. Purple Rain is my best of the bunch (with the best soundtrack and Morris Day), but I love them all.

Avengers West Coast #102 - Why? Because the line at the drive-thru was that long and this was in my car. While I have read very little Avengers (and less West Coast), this was not completely lost on me. Granted, I knew that West Coast lead into Force Works, so maybe that helped. That said, every Coast of Avengers come of as complete assholes. It is an all talk final issue that does not entice me to pick up the next series at all. When New Mutants #100 ended, it was a 'oh shit' moment that made me need to get X-Force #1. This had Wonder Man look sad. Sign me up.

Countdown - The LAW guys are reviewing it this week and I was in the mood for stupid, so I gave it a chance. So, blah blah blah, cop, yadda yadda, own rules, blah blah, badge & gun, blah blah, saves the day. Cliched to all hell, but watchable, in a background noise on TNT kinda way. Side note: The trailers made it seem like this was set entirely backstage at a WWE show (which they showed some clips of, and since they cannot help themselves, edited in a way that is comically false) . That was about 7 minutes within the first 20. Oh, and I think WWE is missing the boat on these things. I want a Sin Cara vs. the Vampire Space Mummies from Mars. Okay, I just want El Santo movies. Love those things.

Day 3 of 50 straight days of working 10+ hours days. I have yet to adjust to this new schedule. The joys of lame duck employment, a vastly stupid sense of loyalty and theoretical extra bag of money. That said, why the fuck did I think this was a good idea?

The Dark Knight Rises - Dusted off some long unplayed podcast these past few weeks. Cannot say that my opinion has changed any. I just don't see what others do in this movie. Love and Other Drugs - DKR kicked off a bit of a Hathaway binge. I really enjoy this movie, but Gyllenhaal always kills the big final scene for me. Odd disconnect. The Intern - And the binge ended here. The story is simple and sweet. The acting is fine and De Niro is quite charming as the loveable grandfather that teaches these young whippersnappers a thing or two. Enjoyable, but maybe not my type of film. Machete - This. This is my type of film. I love this thing so much.

It is such a small thing, and it really means nothing, but having the live band on Lucha Underground make everything better.

I feel it is the struggle to define what NXT is what is keeping certain people down there a bit longer than it should be. I don't think NXT was ever intended to become this popular, to the point they are doing international tours by themselves. So, while NXT is still a 'developmental promotion', it has to sustain a certain level. Otherwise, you get The Drifter and Mojo headlining. I think of when the big NXT names left, it was always after someone new of the same level came in. Neville left one Takeover after the Owens debut. Sasha Banks left for good one Takeover after Asuka showed up. Owens left one Takeover after Joe came in. And more of less, Zayn got the call up when Nakamura was set to debut. Heck, even Enzo & Cass stayed until the top face tag team spot was will with American Alpha.

Some of these NXT call-ups are random and bizarre. It seems like for whatever reason, they really do not want to promote the NXT headliners.

Russian Olive to Red King - I judged this book by its cover. Well, actually the title. I saw this on the shelf and it screamed 'spy thriller'. Those are so spy code names. I could not have been more wrong. Fair enough. But now I am absolutely confused. What the hell was that? Parallel stories (I think) where one is written in complete gibberish. Oh, and the last third of the book is maybe four sentences per page, leaving 80% blank white. In something that I never do, I googled for reviews. And I don't think I read the same book as any of the reviewers. Just horrible. Comics: 14 (5)Graphic Novels: 6Trade Paperbacks: 7 (36)

NXT Takeover Dallas was my most anticipated show of the Mania weekend. And it started off hot with the tag title match. Cooled off a little with the Aries debut. Then, Nakamura & Zayn had a strong style battle that exceeded my expectations. But then it went straight to the Bayley/Asuka match, which really suffered from no buffer match. Everyone needed a minute, myself included. Crews/That Drifter Guy I Cannot Remember The Name Of is going to be bad and short whenever they have a match. That could have been a nice five minute buffer match. Then the main event. Beyond the 'miss' I give Balor for his entrance and Demon paint, it never had a chance. Joe got cut hardway within the first minute and the next ten were constant interruptions by the ref/docs to stop the bleeding. They never really recovered. I get that this is a PG, safety first thing. But it is just a shame. I don't think I will see anything better than Nakamura/Zayn over the next three days. But I do look forward to seeing people try.

Kitty Pryde: Shadow & Flame - Seems like a follow up to a story that I've never read. Felt drawn out a bit. Nothing special. Insomnia Cafe - A fun graphic novel until the rushed SWERVE~! ending that left me unsatisfied. Comics: 14 (5)Graphic Novels: 5Trade Paperbacks: 7 (36)

Comic Book Tattoo - An anthology based around the songs of Tori Amos. I have no knowledge of her music, not that I think it would help. Wiki tells me there are 51 stories in this thing, and I got thru maybe twenty. I think I liked maybe two, possibly three. I can't really remember much and I just shut the book. I flipped thru the rest, and some of the art is great. But the stories themselves are not. And this thing is close to 500 pages and massively oversized. I was struggling to just find a comfortable way to read this. Comics: 14 (5)Graphic Novels: 4Trade Paperbacks: 6 (31)

Last Day In Vietnam - A collection of shorts by Will Eisner. Only one really stuck with me since I read this yesterday. Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story - A story about being in a relationship with someone with HIV. Really solid until the last chapter turned into a dream sequence and I have no idea what was going on. Comics: 14 (5)Graphic Novels: 3Trade Paperbacks: 6 (31)

Hearing everything for the past few days, I went in with low expectations. I didn't have this hatred that I've seen from some. I was mostly bored. I think Chris was correct when he said "This movie requires not just prior knowledge to fill in gaps, but comic literate knowledge."

Wonder Woman: Odyssey (Vol. 1) - I read this ages ago. Like two months ago. I remember really liking it, so I stick with that. Wonder Woman: Odyssey (Vol. 2) - Finally just sat down to read this thing. I wasn't a fan. About half way thru I just lost all interest. Maybe if I had known going in that these were just story-arcs in the main series rather than a maxi-series. The last, say 4 issues, of getting back to the correct 'reality' or other just sucked the air out of it. Last thing: I really like this Wonder Woman costume. Wolverine: Soultaker - Wolverine is in Japan. Right off the bat, I have no idea if I am supposed to know who these people are. And then there is some magic. Then zombies. And the a blood sword. Not a fan of this stuff. The art doesn't help, as Logan just looks weird. Wolverine (all five pages of him) looks fine. Logan looks horrible. Like Giants - Mark Waid's story about basically the Bottle City of Kandor. Super short, but I really enjoyed this. Comics: 14 (5)Graphic Novels: 1Trade Paperbacks: 6 (31)

Catching up on some of last year's big shows. Just finished the 2015 King of Trios. And it just wasn't as fun as I wanted it to be. I think X-Pac on commentary on Night 1 set a tone of 'meh' that I never recovered from until Night 3. Team AAA carried my interest and the gauntlet was fun enough. Also caught PWG's 2015 BOLA. Now these were 3 shows of pretty much nonstop fun. These were the indy-est of indy shows. Every match wanted to be *****. I am glad that I broke everything up into hour-ish chunks spread out over a few weeks. The UK & AAA talent were the standouts. The Drago/Pentagon Jr vs. Fenix/Aerostar match from Night 2 is so very awesome and a complete cartoon. Add in a hot crowd and I want to see more of the PWG.

Has been stuck in my head all week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyd1wN-qew

Not technically unemployed just yet. Silver linings.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have X-Force spin-off out of Deadpool 2, which introduces everyone to Cable? I also completely forgot about a Gambit movie being made.