tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39556912012-01-22T02:03:23.200-05:00Scouring MonkTony Laplume writes a lot. This is just the central nexus of a series of blogs (Comics Reader, Fan Companion, Hub City, Sigild V) he maintains on a variety of subjects. Here he attempts to unify them all and also write more gibberish.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.comBlogger3371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-20243348520315036722012-01-22T02:01:00.000-05:002012-01-22T02:01:26.351-05:00#337.
Since I went back to work a few weeks ago, my blogging activity has slowed and will continue to be slowed down from what it was like the last few months of 2011. I'm making an effort to maintain my posting at Comics Reader, plus reading updates at Hub City (which does feature that streamlined Austen Paradise store at the bottom!). The Fan Companion seems to have lost all the momentum it Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-45593976747323197422012-01-22T01:49:00.000-05:002012-01-22T02:03:23.295-05:00#336.
Last year was an interesting one for professional wrestling, almost like a starting point across the board, in terms of North American promotions. WWE's biggest move was announcing this year's main event at WrestleMania, upon Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's first real appearances with the company since 2004, but it was blessed with the unexpected ascendance of CM Punk as well, even though Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-53412437319432296802012-01-03T17:55:00.000-05:002012-01-03T17:55:18.257-05:00#335.
I've revamped my Amazon store, Austen Paradise (which can be found on its own or at the bottom of Hub City), just a bit of housekeeping to make it easier to use.
There's also DC50, covering DC in the 1950s, at Sigild. Hopefully more goodies coming this week!
***
I hope I'm alone in kind of wishing it hadn't been Chris Jericho marking the big return last night. Unless a really kickass Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-16614985556064852362011-12-30T04:14:00.000-05:002011-12-30T04:14:56.899-05:00#334.
Got a ton of stuff done in the last few days, including "DC40" at Sigild V, a Best Of for my dormant Examiner movie page, and the annual QB50 report at Comics Reader, for which I went to the not-inconsiderable trouble of tracking down links for the five previous editions. I suffer for my art!
Oh! And I've also got thoughts on the thirty-fourth book completed from my Reading List this Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-14045780662668657412011-12-27T15:18:00.000-05:002011-12-27T15:18:14.027-05:00#333.
The second installment of the Comparative (f)Analysis is up, and features one of my favorite TV shows, Survivor, ranking each of its twenty-two winners, including "South Pacific"'s Sophie Clarke. I surprisingly haven't talked a whole lot about Survivor in my blogs, but I've been a fan since 2000, and have sometimes been amused about the reactions others have, their opinions about the bestTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-15412017960922662542011-12-26T23:52:00.000-05:002011-12-26T23:52:17.122-05:00#332.
From my Facebook page, the Christmas Cat poem:
Gather around, those who've sat,And I shall tell you about the Christmas Cat!On Christmas Day,For this holiday,A creature stirs
Who also purrs.
She wakes from her sleep,
From the warm fuzzy deep,
On a long winter's night
When she has slept tight
To ensure that all have done well
And that she can still spell
All the letters that entail
What Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-70213246876386143742011-12-20T14:20:00.000-05:002011-12-20T14:20:25.898-05:00#331.
Ought to note that a long personal nightmare has ended: I have finally found a new job!
Perhaps owing to that little bit of good news, I have also made the first official outline for a story I've been working on since 1997. Perhaps soon, then, the world will hear the tale of Seven Thunders...Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-43386718622871224412011-12-16T15:54:00.000-05:002011-12-16T15:54:32.598-05:00#330.
Finally have new material up at Fan Companion! It's the start of the "Comparative (f)Analysis," a series that will look at a number of different interests. The inaugural edition features the annual TV Guide Fall Preview, years 1997-2003. Hopefully proves interesting...Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-34947094836312360332011-12-16T00:24:00.004-05:002011-12-29T17:26:12.911-05:00#329.
Best of 2011...
Music:
Stone Rollin', Raphael Saadig
So Beautiful or So What, Paul Simon
Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay
Wounded Rhymes, Lykke Li
Books:
Before I Go to Sleep, S.J. Watson
The Bridge to Never Land, Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
TV:
How I Met Your Mother
Fringe
Community
The Big Bang Theory
Survivor: Redemption Island
Survivor: South Pacific
The Cape
The Event
The Walking Dead
Cougar Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-2535614149069158212011-12-15T14:14:00.000-05:002011-12-15T14:14:00.375-05:00#328.
Superheroes will be dominating Sigild V for the foreseeable future. On the heels of the Trial project, I've now begun the DC Decades Project, which seeks to adapt from DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle each decade of actual comics developments as a cohesive story.
I've also got a new Quarter Bin column up at Comics Reader.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-72903718967356611822011-12-12T15:49:00.000-05:002011-12-12T15:49:37.975-05:00#327.
Just for the record, the sprucing continues:
I just spent a considerable amount of time labeling key archival posts here at Scouring Monk, but I would have to change the blog's template in order to show a list of them...so that's an idea for the future. I have, however, completed overhauls at Comics Reader and Sigild V to make navigation easier. Yay!Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-67980401490419883682011-12-12T14:03:00.000-05:002011-12-12T14:03:24.666-05:00#326.
Hub City is the latest blog in my little family to receive a little tweaking. I've just added a new label identifying critical analysis on the book I've just completed from the Reading List. There are now three labels, actually, "Thoughts on..." (the one I've just introduced), "Reading List" (otherwise known as a running catalog of the books I'm reading, and something I previously did Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-48846019225513168292011-12-09T18:26:00.000-05:002011-12-09T18:26:12.849-05:00#325.
Just posted Star Trek: Voyager - "Caretaker, Part 2," a monologue from Captain Janeway that helps explain her decisions in the series finale "Endgame" from a perspective that points back to the series premiere ("Caretaker," naturally). I was always a bigger fan of the series than Star Trek fans in general tended to be, and so have always sought some way to express the kind of quality I Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-61300480224177061842011-12-08T18:40:00.000-05:002011-12-08T18:40:40.935-05:00#324.
Finally cleaned up the Fan Companion blog, making it easier to navigate, especially between focuses (Star Trek, films, and wrestling, to date). All in anticipation of the forthcoming Comparative (f)Analysis!Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-24202957808731865362011-12-08T16:49:00.000-05:002011-12-08T16:49:52.399-05:00#323.
Today I completed the Trial of the Flash project, including the six-part adaptation written for Sigild V, which in part follows the classic 1980s comics story that ran for two years and was recently reprinted in a twenty-four issue Showcase reprint volume, but also represents an alternate version from a modern perspective, including using Wally West as narrator and acknowledging the CrisisTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-77596544246663769502011-12-07T14:49:00.000-05:002011-12-07T14:49:43.617-05:00#322.
My Trial of the Flash project continues (neatly compiled here), providing Sigild V with storytelling material while I prepare the next project, an ambitious attempt to consolidate DC history by each decade into cohesive narratives.
Comics Reader also continues to feature new material, including more individual issue comments (with RASL, Comic Book Comics, and Justice League joining the Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-71286674586232727912011-11-30T12:31:00.000-05:002011-11-30T12:31:41.059-05:00#321.
Buncha new stuff to read at Comics Reader to round out November, including individual thoughts on some new comics I've read, plus a feature on some freebies I've gotten lately.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-7506394192975400792011-11-28T14:39:00.001-05:002011-11-28T14:41:14.685-05:00#320.
One of my current blog projects actually ties two of the branches together, a reimagining of the 1980s Trial of the Flash I'm writing at Sigild V that I wrote about at Comics Reader thanks to a recent Showcase reprint volume. (This update confirms what I wrote last time, for the record. Everything proceeded to plan.)
I'm officially quitting the Jabroni Companion at Fan Companion in Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-50489225416441961772011-11-17T16:22:00.000-05:002011-11-17T16:22:01.614-05:00#319.
The big news is that I did finish the first draft of Yoshimi this week and have now sent it off to the fine editors at HBE.
Earlier today I posted a new Quarter Bin column at Comics Reader, and hope to have another feature up tomorrow on the classic "Trial of the Flash" storyline from the '80s, which I'm also planning to adapt for Sigild V. Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-39671311792197755992011-11-13T00:56:00.000-05:002011-11-13T00:56:09.924-05:00#318.
Just want to note actor Cornell Womack, who appeared in this week's Criminal Minds episode "No Place Like Home" as the medical examiner Cranston. It was a relatively small role and he was mostly out of focus in the background, but clearly this guy has presence (he's been in The Happening and State of Play, has appeared in several versions of Law & Order and has a recurring role in Rescue Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-28264838971403173612011-11-12T15:10:00.000-05:002011-11-12T15:10:03.525-05:00#317.
I've slowed a little, recently, working around my Mouldwarp family of blogs, but I'm always the scouring kind. I've been working at the conclusion of Yoshimi (hopefully to be first-draft-finished by the end of next week), so I'll use that as my excuse.
Sigild V did recently see my "Occupy Wall Street" story completed in five acts, and there has been a little bit of interest from readers,Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-77380541538693579592011-11-07T13:44:00.000-05:002011-11-07T13:44:58.567-05:00#316.
I've concluded my "Occupy Wall Street" story at Sigild V, rounding out a look at four representative figures of the movement from a literary standpoint, plus an investigator's impressions following the central assassination event.
I myself have not attended any OWS-type rallies or gatherings, but being unemployed since the end of Borders and enjoying unemployment so thoroughly, I can Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-7430152057117835262011-11-01T13:54:00.000-05:002011-11-01T13:54:23.154-05:00#315.
Flawless Kitty LogicWhen considering possible solutions to a problem,probable outcomes are not a necessary factor. So,stealing a toy blaster to battle invading antsdoes not require any thought to said blaster'seffectiveness, nor the ultimate fate of blaster.It's the thought that counts!Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-6770447408372718072011-10-31T17:22:00.000-05:002011-10-31T17:22:25.814-05:00#314.
Happy Halloween! I am seriously writing this in a Starfleet (circa TNG) costume I originally wore in grade school. It still (mostly) fits. But it's not the most comfortable thing in the world. I hope the chitlens appreciate it later.
(For the record, I did grow considerably since grade school. I suspect it may have been fairly large originally. Or it stretches a lot.)Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-12222830264586431302011-10-30T23:51:00.002-05:002011-10-30T23:51:29.045-05:00#313.
So, a week of some setbacks did produce one glowing victory:
I tied my first tie.
In the words of the late Harvey Pekar, "Today I am a man!"Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-84385625652701107442011-10-28T22:54:00.002-05:002011-10-28T22:54:53.427-05:00#312.
The Flawless Kitty says, thank you very much. Congratulations, Cardinals!Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-39421820831246696192011-10-26T14:23:00.000-05:002011-10-26T14:23:59.138-05:00#311.
Just some quick updates about current activity around my family of blogs...
Hub City continues to host the Reading List, recently featuring Dave Barry, Roberto Bolano, and Javier Marias's Your Face Tomorrow.
Sigild has begun a special Occupy Wall Street series, a literary look at some of the influences that have brought that group/movement together.
Fan Companion continues to talk Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-50087630500948335262011-10-23T22:18:00.000-05:002011-10-23T22:18:45.786-05:00#310.
This has been a pretty interesting year for the creators of Lost. Damon Lindelof was involved in Cowboys & Aliens, which in some ways might be considered his own interpretation of what that series might have been. J.J. Abrams delivered Super 8, which again shared similar themes.
Now we have ABC's Once Upon a Time from Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and it happens to feature a girl who Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-3856021481211444592011-10-23T00:52:00.002-05:002011-10-23T00:57:42.566-05:00#309.
Flawless Kitty Logic:
With a convincing performance in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series, Albert Pujols guarantees victory for the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he'll be happy to resign. And Mark McGwire will no longer be a black sheep in baseball. Also, something about rally squirrels distracting pesky dogs permanently.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-80333362400951772222011-10-20T22:21:00.000-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.522-05:00#308.
Just wanted to comment on the new TNA champion.
Since Sunday I've heard bitching and moaning over the fact that Bobby Roode didn't beat Kurt Angle at Bound for Glory. It was absurd, because 1) there was really no reason for it and 2) Roode probably wasn't the guy to win that match.
So tonight on Impact Wrestling the right man won, and that would be James Storm.
Let me just acknowledge,Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-2941989827828805952011-10-12T18:11:00.000-05:002011-10-12T18:11:48.063-05:00#307.
Just some quick notes:
Completing my Sigild Spider-Man saga, Just Imagine Tony Creating...The Amazing Spider-Man is what I might have done with a fourth Raimi-verse film (and has no judgment intended concerning the upcoming reboot).
At Comics Reader, I reviewed Dear Creature, at the prompting of creator Jonathan Case. I haven't done one of these prompted write-ups since the the Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-25592317726228544082011-10-08T14:31:00.000-05:002011-10-08T14:31:02.818-05:00#306.
Hub City is humming along nicely (new addition to the Reading List up today, for those keeping score). Maybe it's insane to try and maintain a billion separate blogs, but so far it seems to be working. Probably doesn't hurt that I'm also looking for a job at the moment.
I'm also spending some of that time working on Yoshimi, including three days of 10,000 words each, which is pretty Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-35828906979776320742011-10-03T15:27:00.002-05:002011-10-03T15:35:38.220-05:00#305. Okay, so I've begun another spin-off blog, Hub City, all about my love of books, which will now house my Reading List, which has been a feature of Scouring Monk for the past few years. Like Comics Reader, it also features a strong link to Amazon.com, including my new Austen Paradise bookstore, which is located at the bottom of the page. The origin of Austen Paradise is a long and Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-31979749738701840762011-10-03T10:42:00.002-05:002011-10-03T10:55:26.618-05:00#304.Last Friday I revamped the functionality of my three spin-off blogs, Comics Reader, Fan Companion, and Sigild V. I made it slightly easier to navigate each of them, including lists of the most-read posts (which was especially relevant to Fan Companion. Comics Reader, additionally, now sports some direct Amazon.com links, showcasing some of my favorite graphic novels, ones I've talked Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-4570232109264390442011-09-27T14:10:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:26:01.225-05:00#303.Some of the recent activity from around my blogs and somesuch:Just Imagine Tony Creating...Spider-Man 3 from the Sigild V short story blog. This one's the conclusion of three entries that feature a version of what I would've done with the three Sam Raimi movies, given the same general premises but with an increasingly divergent result. The first is basically an origin story that only Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-32950900606052580832011-09-27T13:38:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:23:44.024-05:00#302.Finished Bright Shiny Morning pretty quickly. James Frey is a great writer. Not sure I would actually want to hang out with him, though. Who knows?Next on the Reading List:Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones. I obsessed over this book for years, scouring used book shops and having absolutely no luck, having passed on its original publishing in 1997. Regular bookstores don't Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-38504128605020598742011-09-23T12:56:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:20:33.990-05:00#301.Just submitted a story to a Glimmer Train contest. One slight problem here is that I submitted the same story to Hall Bros. Hopefully everything'll sort itself out...Next on the Reading List:Bright Shiny Morning from James Frey, a writer who was publically hosed by Oprah a few years back. This book was his comeback, and notably did not receive near as much attention as the inciting Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-77521947899221945742011-09-17T08:55:00.004-05:002011-12-12T15:25:47.899-05:00#300.Good news! I've been blogging here at Scouring Monk for a decade, and have just reached three hundred posts!In slightly less pathetic news, I've got a new book in the Reading List:Star Trek novelization by Alan Dean Foster. Back in 2005, I would have been devastated to learn that the next Star Trek movie would be a reboot. I did and still do love the Star Trek franchise with about as much Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-69063620368987552942011-09-13T15:46:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.901-05:00#299.The Reading List continues:Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, a stroll through philosophical ideas about life, the universe, and everything. Loved the jokes!The Dark Knight novelization by Dennis O'Neil. The movie was instantly one of my all-time favorite movies. I don't expect O'Neil's book to quite reach a comparable level, but Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-56143144230408762912011-09-01T17:24:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.518-05:00#298.
I realize I have a whole blog dedicated to fan musings, currently set directly at pro wrestling, but I figure I can still indulge a thought or two here at the main blog...
Picked up the Money in the Bank PPV last weekend, this year's stellar CM Punk renaissance event, but was actually more impressed at how much Randy Orton has been flourishing at reinventing himself on Smackdown. I'm oneTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-88389129670368298592011-08-25T17:04:00.002-05:002011-08-25T17:14:50.583-05:00#297.
Chip Kidd's The Learners turned out to be surprisingly good, even if it did read like a movie that might've been released at the time the book was set. I made a lot of enemies in college writing classes identitying the source of their writing styles, which invariably had more to do with screen material than the printed page...
Anyway, next on the Reading List: John Adams: Party of One Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-68424467634794443122011-08-18T17:34:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.902-05:00#296.
The Reading List continues:
The Learners by Chip Kidd. Honestly, I don't know about this one. The acclaimed graphic designer is obviously not as well known as a writer, but this is his second book. At the time I bought it, I almost picked up his first book, Cheese Monkeys. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't, because what I've read so far is fairly amateurish, at least in style. I have Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-28078920024225470162011-08-01T11:45:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:22:36.837-05:00#295.Next on the Reading List: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, the first of a series of literary mash-ups that might be one of the cleverest ways modern publishing has found to trick readers into rediscovering the classics. Where teachers and reading guides and websites can certainly tell you what these books originally accomplished, representing them in newTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-43854919210892706332011-07-27T15:38:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:17:33.878-05:00#294.The Closing of Borders, or Retroactive Rules for Staying OpenSo, apart from plain lousy business decisions and a poor economy, here's a few lessons that may be learned from Borders, which I'm still working for, going bankrupt and into liquidation:1. If you have better customer service, make sure that message is broadcast loud and clear. Borders went out of its way to help customers. It had Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-31806873980145176612011-07-21T15:42:00.005-05:002011-12-12T15:21:58.081-05:00#293.Next up on my Reading List:Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, an overlooked 19th century gem that covers, as the rest of the title suggests, from 2000 to 1887. Bellamy was a social activist whose particular utopia was nationalist/socialist, who otherwise believed the Gilded Age was a far cry from perfection, and so he went about imagining what a better future would look like. The central Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-69495976814303176832011-07-15T13:55:00.002-05:002011-07-15T13:59:22.205-05:00#292.Still reading Crime and Punishment. Believe it or not, but I'm thinking of writing some actual analysis or commentary, which is something I rarely do here. Could be interesting.I may or may not quit writing movie reviews for Examiner. They do a good job of obscuring the fact that you probably aren't going to actually earn much of anything, unless you're doing stories that aren't exactly Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-6429766091907655702011-06-30T16:20:00.000-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.868-05:00#291.A couple weeks back, I sent Finnegan off to another publisher. Today, I sent Ecce Homo to its first potential home. I say, wouldn't it be nice if potential writers had a tad more secure network on which to support themselves...?Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-28729991060403957452011-06-17T15:01:00.003-05:002011-06-18T15:35:51.496-05:00#290.I don't usually do this, but I want to mention the other book I'm reading, an advanced reader of Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. I'm always reading something while on break at work, and my selections from the advanced reader pool often seem to be psychological narratives. The Illumination and The Unnamed were other books in this vein, but neither really compare to this one. Ridley Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-22330626182163516052011-06-09T16:17:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.903-05:00#289.I love the idea of "summer reading." Is that meant to imply that you should be reading something different during these months, or that you should be reading, as if this is the only time you should bother doing so? This next item on the Reading List came up by sheer coincidence, but still serves as a sharp contrast to the expected... Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, whom I last read (Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-10162170021554652752011-05-27T15:52:00.002-05:002011-05-27T15:55:25.451-05:00#288.I've been writing movies reviews for Examiner for the past month, which has been interesting. Just thought I'd make a note of that here. It's also been adding to my links list on the right.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-50280550293293834982011-05-26T15:21:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.904-05:00#287.Currently on the Reading List: Fan-Tan by Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell. Okay, seriously?!? Yes, a book by Marlon Brando. A work of fiction. Released only a few years ago, Fan-Tan is the product of a long-simmering collaboration between Brando and filmmaker Cammell (both are now deceased), originally intended to be the kind of movie Brando hoped to make, which is plainly evident in Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-68183620659877509182011-05-26T15:11:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.847-05:00#286. That's the cover for Villainy, the new anthology from Hall Bros. Entertainment. It's being released on June 9th. This is relevant because I've got a short story included, "Last Ride Out of Liberation," a sort of hard-boiled noir, which should be fun to read. And when I say "short" story, I really do mean "short." But still, should be fun.The other bit of relevance is that HBE and I haveTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-45884464780607137052011-05-13T17:50:00.002-05:002011-05-13T17:52:04.425-05:00#285.If Blogger hadn't gone done with the maintenance bug yesterday, I would've had some juicy things for you all to read. But I will now make you wait until next Thursday. But rest assured, I won't disappoint.Unless you don't like cheese.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-8094813374951964992011-05-05T16:42:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.905-05:00#284.Next on the Navy SEAL-approved Reading List: The Book of Samson, another book by David Maine, which is really awesome, considering how much I ended up liking Monster, 1959. I had the opportunity to read most of that one on Monday, and so finished another book on the list pretty quickly. Maine has affirmed himself as one of today's most relevant voices, writing in a contemporary, distinctive Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-9051098272314361592011-04-28T16:40:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.906-05:00#283.The historic Reading List continues: Monster, 1959 by David Maine is an ode to 50s monster movies, from another of my favorite undiscovered writers. This is actually the first time I've read him, but his are the kid of books I knew would interest me, from the first time I heard about him. This is convenient, that I really do like him, because I've got another of his books lined up on theTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-18507818602160679132011-04-21T16:36:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:15:41.266-05:00#282.Next on the internationally acclaimed Reading List: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, which I, along with no doubt thousands other, purchased because of its rumored significance to Lost (well, maybe the last season, a little, as it turns out). Awesome enough so far that I've since bought a copy of The Dalkey Archive, which eventually became the basis for an entire publishing company (Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-41030771452488238142011-04-07T15:00:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.581-05:00#281.Is it Thursday and I haven't mentioned WrestleMania 27 yet? Well, as is traditional, I won't officially have seen it until the DVD release, but from what I've read, sounds like it was a pretty interesting evening. I'll be starting the Jabroni Companion in a few weeks, and I've got all the topics lined up, including a rundown of all 27 WrestleMania main eventts and my top 25 favorite Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-7375387624983253142011-03-17T16:31:00.002-05:002011-03-17T16:50:44.066-05:00#280.The Film Fan is, technically, complete, which is pretty amazing, because I've been working on that particular version of my favorite films list for about a year. The document even with a number of really miniscule write-ups for some of the films comes in at almost ninety pages. I wonder how absurd it would be to write a whole book on my ideas about film. The Fan Companion blog itself was Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-37349852393522655252011-03-03T18:17:00.002-05:002011-03-03T18:31:02.135-05:00#279.Figured I should also mention a little of what I've been doing in my family of blogs. Every Thursday I update the Fan Companion (where I've been counting down my 500 hundred film favorites since last fall) and Comics Reader (where I've gotten [forty-five] creator Andi Ewington to sign up as my first official Blogger follower thanks to my hearty recommendation of his graphic novel in the Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-16531694595388791952011-03-03T17:40:00.004-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.907-05:00#278. Next on my Reading List: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Stern, a wacky little book written some time ago, perhaps made a little more famous for modern readers with the Steve Coogan movie. I'm excited about this one, but the introduction in my version (which wasn't listed on the Borders website, something of a recent anomaly) is just brutal, enough to make Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-2961348829660749942011-03-03T17:13:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.908-05:00#277.Before I get to the latest Reading List book, I thought I'd take some time talking about a couple of books I recently finished, including the last selection, Jerome Charyn's Raised by Wolves.Now, as I noted when I wrote up the listing last week, I fell into this weird confluence of Charyn and Quentin Tarantino before I became a big fan of Charyn's writing, from Johnny One-Eye, one of his Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-85322354049115027802011-02-24T16:46:00.004-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.909-05:00#276.Next up on the Reading List: Raised by Wolves by Jerome Charyn, one of those awesome pieces of synergy I was absolutely not going for at the time. I became a huge Charyn fan some time after picking this book up either in late 2006 or early 2007, so this book was bought based on my interest in Quentin Tarantino, which itself has only increased (see: Inglourious Basterds). So to finally get Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-59840314848010094612011-02-17T16:33:00.003-05:002011-02-17T16:42:04.023-05:00#275.Gotta mention the Borders news from this week. While the store I work at is perfectly safe at the moment, the one I opened in Burlington, MA back in 2006 has closed, so that is what I am sad about. Also, there's one in Erie, PA that closed, too, and I went to college in that town. Other big news from the week: The Rock! Finally...The Rock has come back...! This is such huge news in Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-13987104197807229442011-02-10T17:29:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.910-05:00#274.The latest book on my Reading List: Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd. The Clerkenwell Tales, by the way, was as awesome as I could have wanted. Because I found myself with enough time, I read the last hundred pages in a day, and I don't often read, even with all the time possible, that much like that, only when really motivated usually (though strangely I never really did that for school)Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-24818497871972114442011-02-03T17:28:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.560-05:00#273.I gotta say, last Sunday's Royal Rumble, and I'm talking the rumble itself, was probably among the best overall rumbles WWE has ever done. I would say it was technically brilliant, not only playing to all of the major storylines and strengths of the current roster, but even pulling a few tricks out of the bag. I mean, even Chris Masters had a spot! And speaking of spots, I know I'm a JohnTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-81820224796422318342011-01-27T17:12:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.911-05:00#272.Next on the internationally acclaimed Reading List: The Clerkenwell Tales by Peter Ackroyd, an author I discovered by chance in college, after discovering the then-recently published Plato Papers, which quickly became one of my all-time favorite books. But I hadn't read another book by Ackroyd since, because, criminally, he's relatively hard to find, even though he is, like the equally Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-5056806543925993952011-01-20T16:33:00.003-05:002011-01-20T16:44:45.891-05:00#271.Because I have a terrible, terrible condition, I just keep buying books, even though I've got far too many already. My most recent acquisition is Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, one of those literary pieces of literature that so many readers are petrified of. I came across it while I was shelving other books. Well, I shouldn't say I came across "it" so much as the three volume edition that's Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-59307354026752509632011-01-14T17:55:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.566-05:00#270.Can't believe I didn't make a note of this back on Monday, but very, very pleased that Mr. Anderson has finally become a world champion. On the whole, at least for the past year, I'd give TNA the edge as far as world champions go. Last year they stood behind AJ Styles, RVD, and Jeff Hardy, all wrestlers who have demonstrated real commitments as in-ring performers. Anderson just happens toTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-44815132295406131772011-01-13T16:30:00.005-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.870-05:00#269.Above are five really crude Leo Five cartoons. You can see for yourself how really, really crude they are. Why the heck am I even posting them? Well, long story short, I've been an amateur cartoonist pretty much my whole life. Recently, I picked up a couple of Penny Arcade collections, and that's pretty much why these are here. This is not to say Leo Five is inspired by or responding toTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-58742550527895080312011-01-06T17:10:00.004-05:002011-01-06T18:52:13.274-05:00#268.I've finally updated the Film Fan, for the first time in about a month, all that slacking owing to computer woes. I believe I've talked computer woes here at Scouring Monk before, so Theoretical Reader will not be surprised.I've also posted the 2010 QB50 at the new Comics Reader, my new so-and-so blog. I will hopefully have new stuff posted there on a weekly basis, both on new comics and Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-75235665666565920832010-12-31T17:02:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.911-05:00#267. The latest on the Reading List is:1812: The War That Forged a Nation by Walter Borneman, which focuses on, of all possible surprises in the universe, the War of 1812, perhaps the most famous but least known conflict in US history. I've got a story based on it that I hope to at least have started by 2012 (and hopefully be published otherwise before then), so this is unofficially a bit of Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-39486593948440751732010-12-09T17:19:00.004-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.912-05:00#266. Next on the Reading List:Israel Potter by Herman Melville, one of his last novels, which is partially based on a eal historical figure, a survivor of Bunker Hill, one of the defining conflicts of the American Revolution, who actually wrote his own story at the time of the monument that commemorates that battle, several decades earlier. The veracity of Potter's own narrative was suspect Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-52433871226469873212010-12-02T16:42:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.913-05:00#265. Currently on the Reading List:The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, a collection of interrelated short stories painting a portrait of life on an Indian reservation. I originally read Alexie in college, a book called Indian Killer, which wasn't very good, and as it turns out, not really all that reflective of his writing. This stuff's far better, and helps Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-4403283720111051072010-11-29T16:44:00.002-05:002010-11-29T16:53:26.846-05:00#264.It's been more than a month since I last posted here! I've completed several books since 10/14, but I'll get back to that later in the week. Today I'm just gonna shoot the breeze a little. I don't know if I mentioned this already, but I got accepted into a Hall Bros. Entertainment anthology, which was pretty awesome. Work on Ecce Homo has been a little spotty of late, partly because of aTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-92050437548907241002010-10-14T16:44:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.526-05:00#263.Given the result of the main event of TNA's Bound for Glory, and who I've been talking about in this blog, you might assume that I'd be a tad upset. But it couldn't have been more brilliant. In fact, the heel turn and championship turn by Jeff Hardy may be exactly what the company needs to reach the next level. This is a purely storyline piece of work that seems to have connected with theTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-91443381400135794402010-10-14T16:41:00.001-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.914-05:00#262. Next up on the Reading List:Typee, Herman Melville's first and most popular book...y'know, in his lifetime. I've read most of his later works (still haven't gotten around to his poetry, which is what he sustained himself on creatively during the last part of his life), and recently picked up a collected edition with his early works, so at some point, I will finally be able to say, I've Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-83634200813988971672010-10-07T16:20:00.002-05:002010-10-07T16:24:19.985-05:00#261.Would you believe that I started writing another book? Crazy, I know, because I have written two already, and neither have in the technical sense been published. But when the idea of Ecce Homo occurred to me, I couldn't resist. It combines a recurring element of Finnegan with my inability to write typical descriptive fiction. In other words, it's another stream of consciousness kind of Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-61065804165117975282010-10-07T16:17:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.915-05:00#260. Next up on Reading List!Dave Barry Slept Here, and I forget the author, but he's going to show up a bunch more times on the list. I've been reading him for more than a decade now. Never gets old. I'm also constantly coming up with word groupings that Would Make A Great Name For A Rock Band. Kurt Vonnegut and the Slaughterhouse Fives, for instance...Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-83740928980757487692010-09-30T16:11:00.001-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.916-05:00#259. Next up on the Reading List:On Writing by Stephen King, someone I have been inadvertently chasing most of my life. I attended the same high school, the same college, moved to Colorado, ended up reading after years of believing he wasn't for me. I had the teacher who famously told him he couldn't write. Well, this book probably explains, or makes that belief, all the more baffling, Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-52385293516036955132010-09-16T16:17:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.917-05:00#258. Moving right along, the next book in my Reading List is:The City & The City by China Mieville, which just won a Hugo. Given this and Sacred Games a few months back, you might think I read a lot of detective fiction, but I really don't, only when it has literary or historic (The Maltese Falcon, which is another one I read recently-ish) value. Anyway, I work at Borders, and the biggest Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-63237997386257082842010-09-13T16:40:00.003-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.917-05:00#257. Up next on my Reading List is:The Great Snape Debate (Orson Scott Card, Amy Berner, Joyce Millman), a collection of essays probing the character of the famous anti-hero from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. (Strangely, Borders printed it exclusively, but only has it available at its Marketplace, while Amazon has it available, and I could have used that page, which I typically do in Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-1722641361023963402010-09-13T16:24:00.003-05:002010-09-13T17:03:41.372-05:00#256.Fixed Fan Companion's format a little. For some reason, the archive links had looked terrible previously, but now they're at the bottom of the page and look better there. It may prove pretty interesting once I begin the Film Fan in a few weeks. I plan to detail 50 movies a week, broken into 25-block intervals, with a total of 500, plus (as I'm currently planning) a few spotlight posts forTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-19582702206652559252010-09-06T13:34:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.571-05:00#255.Really pleased that Mr. Anderson emerged as the only winner of the semi-finals at No Surrender last night, which means he is technically the headliner of Bound for Glory next month. If he faces Kurt Angle or Jeff Hardy, there are already built-in possibilities for both, so that's all the more awesome. This is by far the closest he's ever gotten to a company building itself around him.I was Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-46537846332825196982010-09-02T17:27:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:21:14.500-05:00#254.The latest in my Reading List:Johnny One-Eye, by Jerome Charon, who appears to be another of the wildly unappreciated literary greats working today. The book itself is an irreverent look at the Revolutionary War from the perspective of George Washington's bastard son, who happens to call a brothel in Manhattan known as Holy Ground home. It's such fresh writing, whatever you may find Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-29887670185218111922010-09-02T17:19:00.002-05:002010-09-02T17:27:17.275-05:00#253.I recently completed the "official" tally for Modern Woe, at a hundred poems, but I recently learned that a "lost" poem was posted at the Fan Companion in error, so that makes it 101, and then I'll be writing one more, "Being 30," to complete the "Pulling 30" sequence, after I reach, well, 30 years old, next Wednesday to be precise. So that's pretty awesome. My adventures trying to Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-7675310064821674182010-08-05T18:00:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:24:47.889-05:00#252.I did get a lot of wrestling DVDs recently, including the Ricky Steamboat set (the guy was like the opposite of Chris Benoit; and sorry, Jericho, but the Backlash match was pretty good, too), and some TNA collections, including the "Cross the Line Volume 3" set (worth it for Styles/Daniels/Joe II and, if you're a Mr. Anderson fan, Against All Odds), and the set collecting the company's firstTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-11519669115200563332010-07-22T14:47:00.004-05:002011-12-12T15:23:56.306-05:00#251.Posted the big QB Midyear Report over at Lower Decks, a ranked listing of my 75 favorite series, stories, and general comics from the first half of 2010, which has been pretty eventful, from the news that the top two books, G. Willow Wilson's Air and The Great Ten have been prematurely cancelled, to waiting since February to finally getting my hands on Andi Ewington's [forty-five]. Anyway, Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-40171668948287001832010-07-21T14:40:00.005-05:002011-12-12T15:24:09.009-05:00#250. The next book on my Reading List: The Little Book, by Selden Edwards, one of those truly fascinating books with a fascinating story behind it, too. Edwards is a first-time novelist, and he's been working on this one for decades, a time-travel adventure with true literary ambition.Gods Behaving Badly, meanwhile, was absolutely awesome.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-43485302967715302862010-07-18T17:51:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.558-05:00#249. So I ended up subscribing to Pro Wrestling Illustrated, a move I was somewhat reluctant to make, but the PWI 500 is coming up and they've apparently put A.J. Styles on top (a good move). Wal-Mart (at least my local one) stopped carrying the magazine, and I think the subscription price was half off, so it seemed not entirely crazy at the time. I guess I'll find out.I also got the Ricky Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-55279111743291744762010-07-08T22:36:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.919-05:00#248.Up next on the Reading List: Gods Behaving Badly, by Marie Phillips, a comic novel looking at your familiar Greek pantheon in modern times, the first book not to be epic length in ages, but still quite entertaining. I didn't really know what to expect from this one, other than a premise I found charming, but the writing really is quite good.Vikram Chandra's Sacred Games, was really quite Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-89764404897843738182010-07-01T16:04:00.002-05:002010-07-01T16:19:33.923-05:00#247.The Fan Companion is certainly charging ahead full steam, in case you were wondering (and not reading!!!), while Modern Woe chugs along to a hundred (67 and counting). Soon I'll be launching another series of poems within that one dedicated to philosophy, following the recent "Coyote, Trickster" set. You can thank Fred Van Lente and his Action Philosophers comic for that.I picked up an Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-43971619189692276282010-06-15T16:39:00.003-05:002010-06-15T16:40:44.716-05:00#246.This is just to say I finally wrote and posted the promised "Advanced Genius" poem at the Modern Woe blog. Also, I'm now several entries into Fan Companion.As always, still working on many things besides...Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-9237498887169584842010-06-11T17:09:00.002-05:002010-06-11T17:13:37.191-05:00#245.I'm about to launch what I hope will be an expansive look back at Star Trek, called the Fan Companion, which succeeds my experiences with Section 31/Lower Decks, where I'll be simultaneously be posting the same material. I've been a part of the Lower Decks community for the past ten years, but I'm ready to branch off, move on as it were, to a more independent venture, but right within the Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-84916782525015245542010-06-03T15:49:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.864-05:00#244.The Modern Woe blog continues, for those interested in existential poetry. After the smashing success of "Living the New Fade," I'm going to be working on another long-form poem, "Advanced Genius," which continues on one hand a sequence that's dominated the last few weeks of the blog, "Book Terrors...!" while also building on the coincidental discovery I made the other week of another Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-63867920917553976662010-05-13T16:58:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.920-05:00#243The Reading List continues with:Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, which follows some of my previous excursions into Indian literature (such as The Satanic Verses and In Hanuman's Hands), and is the final of four epic-length books in a row. It was one of the books that caught my eye when I first started working in a bookstore, which I've found as a good way to catch some of the most interestingTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-65269387775825029142010-05-13T16:46:00.002-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.858-05:00#242It's worth noting that "Living the New Fade" was written and posted over at the Modern Woe poetry blog.Finally got my copy of the WrestleMania XXVI DVD from Amazon the other day. John Morrison and Big Show made some good work in a relatively short opening match. Probably the most dramatically-filmed match of the night, surprisingly. The Money in the Bank was interesting in that Evan BourneTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-7274229512583250582010-05-09T18:19:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:36:27.880-05:00#241.As goes the current poetry cycle, Modern Woe, I'm about to submit another lengthy piece that steps outside the bounds of the normal process (which is to basically write more or less on the spot, at the New Post prompt, which is something I mess around with every now and again, but rather actually deviate from; the last time was with "The Index" during the We'll See cycle). I've got to spendTony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-63503000452004556522010-05-06T15:47:00.003-05:002011-12-12T15:15:07.524-05:00#240Must...comment...on 2010 WWE draft...The moves this time weren't all that huge, but they were pretty significant.RAWChris Jericho - Biggest move, probably, but he's been on both brands rather prominently since his return.Edge - Since this comes so soon after returning, doesn't really count as the big move it might have been. But it's nice for him to be back here, I guess, first time since Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-6445575262671839012010-04-15T17:16:00.002-05:002011-12-12T14:48:30.920-05:00#239Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke,is the latest book in my Reading List. The fourth of four epic-length books in a row, it concerns the fate of magic in a modern world, perhaps a commentary on the phenomenon of Harry Potter and how it became such a huge success, because everything we know now seems so far removed from our everyday lives (or is a cultish sub-set of individuals Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3955691.post-219380363323351522010-04-15T16:58:00.002-05:002010-04-15T17:16:03.194-05:00#238Switched up the template of the blog and updated the links again, this time spotlighting all four poetry cycles, my book, and two websites where I can be regularly found. Didn't I recently have myspace, facebook, and twitter info there, too? Well, I guess that doesn't matter as much. I started this process because Blogger promised me easy access to Amazon, but couldn't find that. Still can't.Tony Laplume, Scouring Monkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0