Thursday, November 17, 2011

More Fire!!!...More Fire!!!!

Ohhh my friends how I've missed you!!!.... So I've been off getting married and cruising around the world and stuff as of late (more on that in future blogs) So I greatly apologize that my blog has become the digital equivalent of tumbleweed blowing on an old west landscape.... I have much to spew about but I wanted to start off showing some love to the thing now makes me smile every morning....no, not the new Mrs. Rambler you fools....what I speak of is the 24 hours of bliss I have experienced with my nice shiny new Kindle Fire......

....I know there's a lot of curiosity around the device especially with the holidays upon us so I figured I'd help answer some simple things about it.... also I took a few minutes and just made a video of the Fire in action....enjoy and feel free to hit me up with any questions you have..



Friday, October 14, 2011

Dr. Pepper prescribes sexism?

So here's the thing.....I'm a pretty stubborn guy....I can be ignorant, old fashioned and downright sexist at times (but enough about my good points)....What I've come out of suspended animation for (I realize how long its been since Ive posted anything my lovely people and you have my sincerest apologies...Frankly, I'm a lazy, lazy man and that inherent laziness coupled with child rearing and an upcoming wedding that is consuming my free time is just no good for the business of collecting my thoughts here) is some commentary on this commercial:


        I actually only saw this commercial a few days ago but my immediate reaction was "Wow Dr. Pepper....that may have been the worst attempt at humor ever". Its pretty weird because I firmly believe that in the realm of comedy anything goes. You cant get hurt feelings because that's just the nature of the beast. I normally have no problem laughing at most things that normal good hearted people find offensive (I mean, I personally want to start a campaign to protect bullies because of all this, no more bullying, Gestapo-like, nonsense that is currently going on in America's schools). So why, ohh why, do I find myself offended for women when I see this? Am I going soft? Has old age and raising two daughters turned me into some bleeding heart pansy? Possibly, but I think my real dislike of this whole product campaign is that it comes down to its reasoning in general. In today's highly PC culture I refuse to believe that a major corporation put this ad out with no idea it would drum up controversy. This whole ad is made to bring attention to a brand that is trying to step up and compete with the bigger boys (Coke & Pepsi). It's like Sprint taking a huge monetary gamble and getting the IPhone but instead of risking your bet on one of the world's most beloved tech devices they are instead betting the house on controversy and good old fashioned disrespect. Some people might consider it a smart move because it does make people talk about the product and as its always said "any publicity is good publicity" but the way they chose to go about this is just pure ignorance to me. The commercial probably wouldn't have made me care either way were it not for the tag line "not for women". Why? Why throw those words in there.... It just doesn't make sense to me...does the controversy of those 3 words drum up enough business to justify turning off an entire section of buyers?  Just putting the idea that any product your selling is "not for someone" is basically saying "please don't buy our product, we don't want your kind's money". Honestly if Dr Pepper would have just left out this tag line it would have been an idea (a still somewhat crappy produced and yet another carbon copy of the old spice guy format version of an idea...but an idea nonetheless) about turning a diet drink into something "manly" and no one would have been able to complain (well they would have, but I wouldn't have considered their complaints valid therefore clearly they would not have mattered.....see I told you I can be ignorant when I try).... I don't know, I just think this was a dumb move on Dr. Pepper's part and if the creators are actually as sexist as they claim then I have one question for them: "If your sexism assumes this drink isn't for women then I'd also assume in your ideology you assume most women still do the grocery shopping (which in many cases is a fact) and in that case who exactly do you think will be buying this product?".... I know I won't and I'm not even a woman (despite my dad who does the grocery shopping ways)...Just some food for thought...

......see ya when I see ya folks

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Self for Sale....Get your Selfs while theyre hot

How goes it my lovely friends? I was thinking recently about the many way in which we as a society have become quite good at selling ourselves.....Now I know what your thinking...."how could you lower yourself to selling your body for money Rambler?".... Well to answer that Ill first say I appreciate your care but clearly you don't know me very well for its pretty common knowledge that for the right price Id do just about anyth.......(.I clearly need to stop writing  now).....Secondly and much more relevant I am not talking about physically selling oneself, though the truth isn't that far off....

... what I mean by this is that we have become increasingly obsessed with the culture of self....I mean its been going on for years with "reality" TV for example. Anyone who has even watched TV in the past 10-20 years has been able to observe a drastic shift from (successful) scripted television to cheap, quick, loosely scripted shows starring casts ranging from normal everyday Joes to wanna be actors doing their best pretending to be everyday Joes. We have created a celebrity culture for ourselves and by ourselves (Please don't be so ignorant as to blame TV programmers as it is we who dictate what is successful....trust me if all of a sudden people watched in masses a show about helping the poor and bought helping the poor shirts and helping the poor videos from itunes than helping the poor shows and copycat shows would be up and down or local programming guide....okay I'm getting off my soapbox now). Long gone are the days of looking up to our movie stars and sports heroes (whether that was ever healthy is a whole nother story). What we do now, to put it simply, is look up to those of us who without much talent or training find a way to make it in today's culture....Now personally I think its a horrible sign of how out of control and lost our current society is but one cant deny that people like the derelicts of the Jersey Shore and the ever business savvy yet mostly talentless Kardashian family are the hot melty center of our pop culture Stromboli (I have to stop blogging around lunch time)....

...Where am I going with all this passionate rhetoric about how we've become a society of people looking for ways to sell themselves and become the next talentless fool who cashes in?.....Nowhere particularly to be honest...I just thought it'd be fun to talk about how horrible each and every one of us are as human beings despite how good we think we are as a precursor to me trying to sell myself (Now isn't that ironic).... and with that said I shall join in on the quest for talentless success by providing you with the following ;-)

get at me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Writing_Rambler @Writing_Rambler

follow me here Duh!: http://thewritingrambler.blogspot.com/

ans last but not least patron my pockets by buying from me on Ebay: http://myworld.ebay.com/itslvg3

read my weekly comic book reviews on http://www.aintitcool.com

..... Ill see ya when I see ya folks.....

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Thank you Nike for making my dreams a reality

So when I was a kid my favorite movie was without question Back to the Future 2....I lived it...I breathed it and Im pretty sure I can still recite every word to it........

....so when I get online and read a story tonight ( check it out here http://www.nicekicks.com/2011/09/is-nike-taking-us-back-to-the-future/ ) about Nike having a Patent for actual power lacing shoes and a lot of secret tweets being sent out...well I assumed it was just too good to be true....

Then I saw this video...


...All I can say is MIND BLOWN.....

Thursday, September 1, 2011

THE NEW 52 & THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Hey there fine people...its been a little while hasn't it? what can I say, the summer just seems to fly by and with having to juggle fatherhood, writing reviews, watching movies, working now and then from home, camp counseling, battling hurricanes, inspiring the youth, playing horseshoes, creating nanobots, locating Frankensteins brain, visiting the Amish and general tomfoolery it's been hard to keep up with my writing here....But don't fret, I still love you all nonetheless...

So today is 8/31 (technically 9/1 by the time I post this) and for most it is a day that harshly reminds one that the joys of summer have come crashing to a halt and Fall will be soon upon us ....we all know what that means don't we? Sweater weather...kids back in school...the leaves changing to a glorious Autumn hue and my natural enemy, the soulless crossing guard, will once again be slithering from there dank caves to torture us all before we know it....ohhh how I despise those creatures of the day....................................

....................(okay I vented...I'm better now)..........

..........but for Comic fans, today was also a day of change in our world....Today saw DC comics release FLASHPOINT #5 & JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 ( I wont officially review these here....though I will say they are both very satisfying and should be picked up....especially JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 for old and new readers alike)......the only 2 new releases from the company today signified a major changing point in the DC comics universe, as years of storylines and history have been suddenly reset and all titles (52 over the next month) have been renumbered as #1's and are set to welcome a new generation of readers into the DC world.....



...Many people have written this "REBOOT" off as a marketing ploy and I cant blame them, as the comic book industry as a whole has often used gimmicks and shocking storylines to make headlines and sell some extra copies of a particular book. One Thing that is unique about this moment though, is that it is seemingly a company wide change. While a big gamble for DC comics, as they risk polarizing their core audience, they also are bravely attempting to broaden their status in popular culture.Currently DC comics takes 2nd place to Marvel comics in overall sales and name recognition (Not my personal opinion, just facts....personally I prefer DC's brand of storytelling much better) so a move like this makes sense as they want to claim the top spot in the comics world......

...Where this story gets really interesting is one of the ways that DC is attempting to "push" their comics to the top, which is day and date availability of their books digitally as well as in traditional comic shops. For some this looks like the nail in the coffin for the retail comic stores that are becoming very outdated with every new technological update. For others its a revolution that will forever better the industry as a whole. .............


.................My Opinion (and really that's what your here for)is that its a mixed bag of both but for the most part will be a positive move for DC and the Comic industry as a whole. The ability to be able to read your favorite stories the day they are released no matter where you are is an awesome advance in technology and can definitely help bring in revenue. It also becomes somewhat appealing to those people who may not be comfortable strolling into the troll dungeons that many local comic shops can often resemble but still would like to read some books (I say this out of love as I myself can be quite the comic book troll at times). It's just a fact, your average person either doesn't know where a local comic shop is (and their numbers get lower every day) or wouldn't be caught dead walking into one, for fear of not looking cool (something I gave up on quite some time ago).The main negative response I can see (and it mostly comes from comic book nerds, after they are done complaining about changes to Superman's costume......seriously guys, get over it) is something that isn't really a negative, and that is pushing the comics to go more mainstream is destroying part of the culture that we nerds so often lovingly (you could also probably use the words violently or creepily here as well) cling to with a passion. While I get your fears my fellow nerds, you have to learn to live with these changes......were a digital world and we've got to accept that world includes comics now (side note: there's a terrific App called COMIXOLOGY that you can get for your Apple or Android devices that pretty much works like the Itunes store but for comics, this is also where DC and Marvel both provide their comics digitally each week....though Marvel has not embraced day and date release....at least not yet..........you folks should check it out if interested....a great way to keep up with stories without having to go to the store to buy the books)............sure in the long run some old school comic book stores are going to disappear and it sucks but the comic book culture will thrive on.........comics have embedded their way into our culture and are responsible for some of the biggest entertainment franchises ever.... simply put...they're not going anywhere!

....all in all everyone needs to calm down....at the end of the day your favorite stories are still going to be there whether your crazy about the new ones or not.....I get how it sucks when your into something and then all of a sudden it gets popular and now everyone is seemingly an "expert" on it....these things are just going to happen and the only choice you really have to make is wheter you are going to embrace the change and enjoy the future of the comic industry or join the ranks of the miserable cynics who wouldn't be happy if the next issue they bought came with a million dollar check.....for me, I'm gonna embrace the change and keep enjoying what new stories I get each and every Wednesday, hopefully you will too........

.......If I have personally come away with anything from this whole experience it's that never have I wanted a digital tablet more in my life than I do now. So Kudos to you DC Comics, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee and all those involved as no matter what happens with the outcome of this venture you will be responsible for me owning a tablet of some sort in the near future (of course that will be after I'm done paying for my wedding because that is much more important.........Just in case the future Mrs. Rambler is reading this).

...Till next time...Ill see ya when I see ya folks





Wednesday, August 31, 2011

COMIC REVIEWS FOR 8/26


BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: THE SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING #3

Writer: Jonathan Vankin

Art: Marco Castiello

Publisher: DC

Reviewer: The Writing Rambler




                So I’ve had the pleasure of being able to read/review all 3 of the BRIGHTEST DAY AFTERMATH: SEARCH FOR SWAMP THING issues for AICN and boy does this final issue end with a glorious bang. Yup, those are the exact words I would use to start a review if I lived on the Bizzaro planet of Htrae, where everything is opposite. Unfortunately I don’t and for the 3rd time DC readers are given a jumbled, messy story that has no real meaning or explanation towards the reintroduction of John Constantine and Swamp Thing to the mainstream DCU.

                This 3rd and final issue of the limited series was supposed to be the conclusion of Constantine’s journey searching for Swamp Thing and the newly resurrected Alec Holland, but instead were given more of the same confusing runaround with no real furthering of the story. Random appearances from Madame Xanadu, Batman, Superman and Deadman (who I assume was thrown in to remind us this is supposed to connect to BRIGHTEST DAY still) add to the “chaos” of this series. To put it simply there is no point to this book other than being a 3 part reminder that Constantine and Swamp Thing are part of the DCU again. From Constantine’s odd change of heart at the end of the book to Batman’s horribly cheesy comment about EPA regulations, this final issue seems like a culmination of bad ideas put to paper.

                There’s not much new or unique about the book’s artwork other than it is consistent with the first two issues. Marco Castiello returns to take the reins back from Renato Arlem who handled the 2nd issue and while he does a good job depicting the mess of a story that were given, I did find it funny that his version of Batman here just made me think some drifter stole Batman’s costume and is pretending to be him. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me but something is off about this story’s caped crusader.

I do have something positive to say about this book and that is I’ve finally come to peace with the cover art. If you’ve read my past reviews on this series you’ll know I’ve been pretty annoyed how the covers so far have both misrepresented the content and then mostly copy and pasted the previous issue’s artwork. Well with this issue we finally get a cover that has something to do with the content within, so I guess that’s a good thing, right?

Overall, this entire series has been a huge disappointment to readers who were anticipating learning more about John and Swamp Thing’s place in the current DCU. When you couple this with the fact that this series is also supposed to be the wrap up to a huge event like BRIGHTEST DAY you realize how much of a failure this really is. All I can hope is that with the relaunch of the DCU upon us we will be given much better stories for all of the characters involved.

GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS # 13
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Ron Frenz
Publisher: DC
Reviewer: The Writing Rambler
                EMERALD WARRIORS 13 is the final issue of the series as well as the last GREEEN LANTERN title we get in the pre “reboot” DCU. While there is no big, epic story that some may have hoped or even a bridge to what will happen in the “new” DCU I actually really enjoyed what we’re give here. It’s yet another one shot focused on Guy Gardner (much like the past two EMERALD WARRIOR issues), who this time is teamed up with Batman in what feels much more like an issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD than any GREEN LANTERN title.
                I really love what Tomasi has done with these final issues as he is great at delivering stories that use Guy Gardner’s personality to the fullest. He just seems to really enjoy writing Guy stories and it shows. Throw in getting to see him include Batman and the unique “chemistry” that he and Guy share and you have a really enjoyable story overall. The issue is a quick whodunit that takes place on an international space station but truthfully none of the background matters as it’s the fun of watching Batman and Guy act as a successful team that keeps you turning the pages.
                The art by Ron Frenz blends with the story and keeps everything moving well. The art in any book is there to enhance what should be a well written story and it’s exactly what we get here. Nothing we’ve never seen before, but enjoyable because it flows with everything and never becomes a distraction to the reader like I’ve experienced in some of the WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERN: AFTERMATH books as of late.

                This book probably isn’t for everyone as many people don’t like throwing down their hard earned $3 to buy a one shot that has no real significance in the larger GREEN LANTERN storylines, but these are often the stories that are made for the die-hard fans. As a fan of GREEN LANTERN I definitely recognize that many of the major events in the DCU for the past few years have somewhat had a Lantern influence and if anything we’ve been spoiled with large arcs that have taken the title to new heights. Because of this, we often dismiss smaller issues that don’t have some type of larger theme/event going on and it’s a shame. An issue like this should mean just as much to a fan because without books that create and build up these character’s personalities for us to love/hate, their actions in larger stories would be pointless. In a way I think this issue is a fitting end to this series as it reminds me that despite not having several lanterns featured or any universe spanning story it’s still a completely enjoyable read and that it’s the personality of characters like Guy Gardner that keep me coming back for more.


COMIC REVIEW FOR 8/22


GREEN LANTERN CORPS #63

Writer: Scott Kolins

Art: Scott Kolins, Daniel HDR, Freddie Williams II and Joe Prado

Publisher: DC

Reviewer: The Writing Rambler


               

                They always say all good things must come to an end and after 63 issues as the main cover reminds us it’s time to say “goodbye” to the GREEN LANTERN CORPS. This “goodbye” will be short lived of course, as most readers are fully aware GREEN LANTERN CORPS will continue in the new GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1 (currently scheduled for a September 21st release).  Nonetheless, I enjoyed this issue as it continued to show how disheveled the Corps have become in the aftermath of the WAR OF THE GREEN LANTERNS and took time to remind us that despite the hard times there is still honor amongst the Corps.

                Scott Kolins presents the reader with four different chapters showing some of the different ways the GREEN LANTERNS CORPS are suffering in the wake of this past war. I actually enjoyed how this was handled for the most part. The way the stories are presented sets up some ideas for where the series may be headed in the relaunch and it does so without focusing on main characters like Hal or Sinestro. The fact that some of the “lesser” characters are given focus here is the high point of the issue and a good reminder that though most larger stories revolve around the 4 earth lanterns, there is a much bigger GREEN LANTERN CORPS who are being affected by these events. Probably the best of the 4 stories actually revolves around the idea that many of the GREEN LANTERNS have reached a boiling point towards their disdain of the earth lanterns and are tired of them seemingly always being the center of the Corps’ problems. I’m hoping this idea is explored in depth once the relaunch happens as it could provide some great stories of conflict within the Corps.


                The art in the issue is much like the story as it is divided into four unique chapters. Normally I’m not a fan of multiple artists handling one issue (as it can become a distraction) but it works here as were presented with each individual tale. All four artists hold their own in the book and I especially liked the combination of Freddie Williams II’s art matched with Kolins’ story about the anger towards the earth lanterns (which Kyle Rayner is forced to be the recipient of).  I also loved the variant cover featuring Kyle  looking like the toughest version of a blue lantern I’ve ever seen, though I must point out, at no point in this issue (or any of the relaunch cover previews for that matter) does Kyle become a blue lantern. In all honesty it makes no sense as a variant to this issue but its artistic quality should still be commended.

                As the issue ends, the reader is presented with the idea that despite all of these obstacles, true members of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS know their duty comes above all other things. Some may find the wrap up of the issue somewhat cheesy and forced (which I can understand to an extent) but I think the overall reminder that members of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS hold a high honor and take it very seriously despite their disagreements is a great way to end the 63 issue run. While I wouldn’t say this was the best possible way the series could have “ended” I do think its handled well enough to give proper closure to a solid book and bridge the gap for what’s to come.