Progfreaks.com - Are you a progfreak?
some stuff on progressive rock -- some things that are a bit more obscure than my interest, but they've got a neat Marillion section.

Couple weekend notes -- MISFITS Movie Night is doing a special presentation of Superman. But it's going to be playing all week, and not just the late night showings, so there are lots of chances to check it out.

Also there is a Minnesota Doctor Who Viewing Society extravaganza on Saturday to look forward to.

Similar solar system reflects Earth's universe
very interesting -- and "only" 45 light years away.

marillion.com -=- anoraknophobia single
will only available on the website. But you can get two. It's got the two radio-friendliest tracks on it. And the Crash Course CD that you can get with it for a buck is good too.

PvP - Player Versus Player - The Daily Online Comic Strip
This one is funny and oh-so-true.

Today is comics day.

I got: Dork Tower #14, Ultimate X-Men #8, New X-Men Annual 2001, and Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine! #9

The FF mag is what is described in the Doctor Who fan community as "fanwank" -- it's self indulgent, greatest-hits stuff. I mean, next issue promised Doctor Doom vs. Galactus. It's over the top, nostalgic, and very silly. But I recently read some of the oriignal Stan Lee and Jack Kirby FF that this is imitating, and it's only slightly more exaggerated than this, really.

New X-Men Annual 2001 is slightly disorienting, because it's done on it's side in a sort of "wide-screen" type format. It's also been released out of order from the main run, so it's a little confusing as it takes place after some stories we haven't seen yet.

I think I liked the first arc of Ultimate X-Men more than this one -- i'm losing track of the plot a little bit, and they're throwing in too many of the old characters too quickly -- a fatal flaw in revamps, I think, especially when the revamped characters are similar -- but not identical -- to their original versions.

Dork Tower rules. If you're a fan, of any of those geeky types, you should check this book out. Especially if you're a gamer, but I haven't been for a long time, and I still think it's great. For a sample, two characters have this discussion in this issue:

"Can Fanboys find love, Ken?" - Carson

"Hmmm... You know, they might possibly be the best people to be in love. Think about it...we're devoted to games that go out of print as soon as we learn the rules! We adore science fiction series that television stations will cancel as soon as they gain any kind of following! We Feverishly await movies that Invariably bite, and we follow comic book characters even if the companies treat us like dirt and trash their own creations!" - Ken

"In other words, we know we'll be dumped eventually" - Carson

"It's a more useful outlook than you might think..." - Ken

ha! Seriously, check it out. I had this recommended to me a couple of months ago, and I've got both trade paperbacks and you can pretty much get everything still. Lots of the strips are available online.

(My life can probably be understood by combining Dork Tower with The Norm, with a very light touch of Dilbert.)

Montykins: VH-1 Is Stupid
I've said several times before that I could tell I was getting old when I was VH-1 and not MTV. But Monty has a good point -- and I think what it says is that the people choosing the list are people that fixed a lot of their musical taste in 1970 or so; probably a lot of people that are 45 or so. (Or people who worked so much with older journalists that their tastes were dominated by those older than they are.)

I'm actually not much of a fan of "greatest" lists -- that's far more objective than I could be about something like music (or anything else really). The reasons we like or dislike something tend to not just be something about the work itself, but how it interacts with the person you are at the time you encounter it.

I know that my default musical selections tend to come from my junior high, high school, and college age -- you probably get exposed to the most music then.

More "Buffy" Fansites Slayed
argh.....

I would have liked to have talked about this sort of stuff at the CONvergence fan websites panel, but we found out more about Harry's website and other activities instead, which is a different beast entirely from this stuff. Some other day, perhaps...

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival is coming up. I haven't decided when I'm going yet; I'm sure I'll go sometime, it depends on when people I know go as well, I suppose. (I mean, there are people I know that work there, of course, but....)

BBC Online - Cult - Doctor Who - Telepress
The e-mail newsletter about Doctor Who books has moved to the BBC website. It contains interviews & cover previews & other good things.