Last night, someone (allegedly) fired shots on my block and then proceeded to speed away in a black sedan. I heard the gunshots ... maybe 5-6 of them but didn't see anything out of the ordinary by the time I got to a window. When the three cop cars and two motorcyle cops showed up, I followed my ambulance-chasing father and sister to the corner to huddle with the other neighbors that are far too nosey for their own good. Nothing much was known about the events surrounding the gunfire but the cops, as reported last night in a speculative whisper-down-the-alley session and then again in this morning's paper, found several shell casings.
Two days ago, I finally made up my mind to buy a Canon 20d with the 17-85mm lens kit. I arrived at my local photo shop only to get to the counter and find that it has been "on order" since March 7th. I wait to buy very few things I want ... THIS IS WHY.
I bought and read two comic books this past weekend. First, Superman / Batman - Supergirl written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Michael Turner and inked by Peter Steigerwald. First off, it was as beautiful as everything else Turner and Steigerwald turn out. Secondly, and more surprisingly for me, it was a good little story. It was everything a casual reader might expect and, more importantly, might want from Batman and Superman. I thought the dialogue was spot-on and the banter between the two heroes was hilarious at times.
The second book was Art Spiegelman's Maus. For those of you that don't know, it's about a son (comic book creator) who asks his father to tell him all about his experiences as a Jew living in Europe during the early to middle 1900's. It's been a while since I've read anything historical in any sense and it was a good reminder of how unfathomable something like the Holocaust is to myself and probably most people born in the 80's.
After a long, Holiday weekend, it was excrutiatingly painful to go to work today. To further provoke my unwillingness to go to work, it was beautiful outside and my cousin's talk of "the shore" at a family picnic yesterday had my mind already checking into an imaginary beachfront property.
I just finished watching the complete first and second seasons of Dawson's Creek. It's only the second tv-show-based-DVD-box-set that I've ever purchased. My first purchase was Joss Whedon's Angel and I've already got the first two seasons of that under my belt. Season three of Dawson's Creek is on it's way from Amazon and once that's finished, I'll be all set to watch the two shows as I did a couple years ago, meaning - I'll be watching the episodes of both shows that aired the same weeks in the same seasons while they were still on TV and producing new episodes.
While it required elaborate arranging on some Wednesday nights, I saw Dawson's Creek and Angel back-to-back until both shows ended. It was funny going back and watching the first two seasons of both shows mostly because I didn't start watching them religiously until the third or fourth season of Dawson's Creek and the corresponding second or third season of Angel. I might never have watched the shows with such interest if I had seen the first few episodes ... or maybe that's just perspective, I don't know.
NEway, they're two of my guilty pleasures for vastly different reasons and I can't tell you how anxious I am to relive my Wednesday nights by watching them again. It's funny because, otherwise, the only thing I see on TV is an occassional SportsCenter / Baseball Tonight and actual sporting events.
Posted by languorous at May 31, 2005 07:56 PMOh, I forgot to mention, Maus won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 so if anyone is thinking about reading it but afraid of the whole comic-book-stigma, feel free to pick up a Pulitzer Prize winner :-)
Posted by: languorous at May 31, 2005 07:59 PMWow, very surprised to hear about the shots fired outside your place, though probably I shouldn't be. Damn hooligans. That being said, I get shots fired fairly often. Had a girl stabbed at 4am in the sleazy 24hr food joint across the street a little while back.
Maus is excellent. I got the first book years ago, though much after the craze had passed, and it became one of my first steps into the world of comic books. I never picked up with the rest of the series, and had almost forgotten about it. Now that you bring it up, I think I'm going to have to get back on it.
And man, now that you mention the beach, I can't wait to get out of the city and start hitting some.
I just realized that I wrote three paragraphs of response, in each of them immediately switching the topic to apply to me. I must be a hell of a magnetic guy.
Posted by: Jason at June 1, 2005 12:48 AMHahaha, don't forget the fourth paragraph that is entirely about you :-)
Posted by: languorous at June 1, 2005 07:34 AM