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The Rant Shack
(Wherein We Rant)
Mike Says:
(10/31/04)
BOO-yah!!!!.
Happy Halloween, ya'll! Welcome to the special all-spooky first ever Nice Guy Halloween update. And it's one day earlier than the usual 1st and 15th deal you're used to. Spooky, isn't it?
Trying to get this one up before I take off for my weekend trip to San Diego, so it's SCARY how much I'm rushing! I FEAR I might not get it done in time! Can you just taste the terror? MWAH ha ha ha!!!
From our Halloween party back in '96. The scary roommates are A.T. (dressed as "space"), Rich (Phantom of the Opera), Tim (hooray for the Bellboy), Aaron (Spaaace Ghoooost), and Mike (as myself in 1988).
Hope you enjoy the Halloween strip (the first of our holiday ones this season...stay tuned for more), Tim's Halloweeny home page art (which you kind of have to read the strip to understand fully) and the all-new Nice Guy wallpaper using that same Halloweeny art (I just like saying Halloweeny. Reminds me of a silly dirty joke from grade school). Hope everyone's surviving all the trick or treaters (quit hiding and hogging the candy). Anybody come up with a costume you're really proud of? We'd love to hear about it. Me, I won't really have one per se, since my Halloween plans involve a birthday party, not a Halloween party, but I will be dressing up as a pirate (arr!) along with the rest of my unit at work in our sad attempt to win the department contest (we have our whole unit made up like a pirate ship). Tim is going to be going to the party I'll be missing when I'm out of town, and rumor has it he's going as a pimp. Got to see if I can get some pics of that to post up. 'Cause Tim's SO happy with me for posting pics of him up at the Shack. Yeah, he was REALLY amused at his birthday "tribute" a couple of weeks back here. Okay, so I had a little too much fun at his expense. All right, fair's fair. This is for you, then, Tim:
Good God. Now THAT's scary. Wish I could say it was a costume.
THE NICE GUYS AT A-1 COMICS GRAND OPENING, ALONG WITH ACTUAL CELEBRITIES!
Our man Brian Peets, owner of (count 'em!) two A-1 Comics locations, hooked us up once again this past weekend. As you might have read in our last update, we were invited for another Nice Guy live appearance/autograph session. Last time was at A-1's Roseville, CA store. Well since then, Brian has built himself a whole new store and moved the location there, and 10/23/04 was the official grand opening. Brian calls, the Nice Guys answer!
We got hit with some heavy rain that Saturday (in Sacramento? Noooo....), so it was a soggy drive to Sunrise Avenue (yes, Avenue, you Sac people about to correct me. As we found out that day, Sunrise Blvd turns into Sunrise Ave at some point. Who knew?) in Tim's car. We hadn't been to the new location, so we were keeping our eyes out, watching the street numbers, wondering when we'd come upon the strip mall that Brian had set up in. Suddenly, we were there, only to find that A-1 Comics WAS the strip mall. Brian didn't just rent space this time around. He bought a plot and built his own store. And it's HUGE! We were quite shocked.
And Brian had done his advertising for the event right, because the place was PACKED, Jack. We lugged our stuff in and looked for someone to tell us where we were supposed to set up, but everyone, initially, was behind the counter trying to deal with the huge line that stretched across the store. We waited patiently. As did a certain Kurt Busiek, famed writer of such stuff as Astro City and Avengers. He got there early, too, and was wandering around checking out the merchandise.
Brian soon showed up, though, and took control of the mayhem and hooked us up. They have this riser up near the front of the store, just big enough to fit a long table. That's where Kurt was to be sitting and doing his signings, and it looked like we were, too, but there were a couple of issues. The first being that it's a pain in the ass to get my wheelchair up and down from a riser. Second, there were more guests coming. So Brian and his crew pulled out another table to set it up next to the riser, by the door. That was to be our table. One we would, it turns out, be sharing with a pretty cool neighbor.
Brian is old friends with Whitey Gleason, who Sac folks know as the morning man on Sports 1140 KHTK (him and "The Rise Guys"). He'd been invited to the event as well, to do some giveaways and meet some fans. Whitey showed up soon, and we ended up sharing our table with him and Scott (I never got to nail down exactly what Scott did, but I'm pretty sure he's their producer). Which, of course, was very cool, because we got to sit there and talk about the Kings all afternoon with a couple of guys with a lot more insider info than we have. Very cool guys, Whitey and Scott. We had a great time hanging with them. And I was also happy to hear that Whitey already knew who we were. He told us what a big advocate of The Nice Guy Brian is, and Brian had not only told Whitey about us but had dropped a couple of copies of our print comic at the station. Awesome! We got a pretty amusing education in radio technology when Whitey had to call the station to do a live spot over his cell. Did a whole big promo thing. Only to find out that all they heard on the other end was a dial tone. Life in the business, I guess.
A-1 owner Brian Peets, 1140 morning man Whitey Gleason, Scott from 1140, Tim Watts, Michael O'Connell
The other guests who showed were Chris Wisnia and his wife. Chris is the creator of Tabloia, and he's another Sacramento comic creator. He was also at the last A-1 signing with us, and he's another local talent that Brian's backing. When you look behind the counter at the A-1 Sacramento store, you see both our book and Chris's on the wall rack with a sign between them that says "the locals". Mr. and Mrs. Chris were up on the riser table with Kurt Busiek. Kurt Busiek, if you're not into the comic scene, is one of the more popular modern comic writers, and he was the marquee talent listed on all the promo material for the event. Kurt first made a splash in the business as the writer of "Marvels", and later made his mark with his series "Astro City", a critically acclaimed fan favorite. He also made big waves by writing "Avengers" for Marvel comics during Marvel's relaunch of all their major titles, and also wrote the popular "Thunderbolts" for them. Word has it he'll soon be writing "JLA" for D.C. comics, too, their flagship series. Kurt seemed to be having a great time meeting and talking with fans, and autographing copies of his new series "Superstar". Tim and I each got a chance to say hi to him at different times, and both got copies of "Superstar". More importantly, Tim made sure Kurt got a copy of "The Nice Guy: Pilot".
Chris Wisnia and wife, and autographin' machine Kurt Busiek
It was another fun and enjoyable appearance for us. We got to talk to some Nice Guy fans that had met us before (and all were anxious to find out when the second NG issue is coming out), and met some folks who had bought the book in Brian's store but hadn't met us yet. We made one guy particularly happy, one of the ones who couldn't wait for the second issue. Apparently he hadn't read the inside front cover that had our web address on it, because he had no idea there were loads of free comics available on our site. He went home happy. We also got to see Ruthie again, an A-1 employee that got hip to TNG when she got our book at the first A-1 appearance (and even got a second copy for us to autograph for a friend of hers who'd read it and loved it), and who also dropped in to see us at out table at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the summer. We had a couple of friend drop-ins. Our pal A.T. came in to hang out with us and check out the new store (and became our official Nice Guy photographer for the shots that Tim and I are both in). I had a surprise appearance from one of my co-workers, Mike, who'd heard about the event and decided to check us out, and also buy his own copy of our book. And, as we hoped, we had another visit from #1 Nice Guy pimp Sarah Haslett and her groom-to-be Will. It's not a Sac appearance without seeing them. We got a chance to catch up a little and discuss some Nice Guy ideas. Sarah's still kicking it with her comic reviews and columns, but has had to scale back a little due to the heavy load in the "day job" (gee, I wonder what THAT's like?).
All in all, another great meet-and-greet, one that hopefully gained us a few new loyal fans. Once again Brian hooked us up, and once again we're grateful to have him behind us. If you want to check out all the photos of the event that I took, be sure to check them out over at the Photos page.
A "Bit" Lost
Just had to point out that if you haven't gotten around to watching "Lost" on ABC yet this season, you're INSANE!! Based on the ratings, chances are good you have, but if you haven't, you NEED to be watching this. And, most importantly, you need to NOT let other people who HAVE seen it tell you anything about it or give anything away.
This is hands-down one of the most satisfying TV shows I've jumped into in years. I knew I was going to have to check it out when I first heard about it, because its creator was none other than J. J. Abrams, the creator of my latest TV obsession, "Alias". I also heard there were going to be scripts by writers like David Fury (he of Buffy/Angel fame), so I was intrigued. But I wondered about the concept. A show about a group of people whose plane crashes on a deserted and mysterious island. Ok, good start...but where do you go from there, I wondered, without turning it into a post-modern Gilligan's island?
Well, J.J. showed me.
The writing on this show is both brilliant and addictive. Yes, there's a plane crash, and yes, people have to survive, and yes, there's something hinky going on on this island. All fine and good. But what keeps you coming back--hell, what keeps you desperate for the next episode--are the characters. You have this group of survivors, and just like they know nothing about each other when this all starts, we know nothing about them either. It's the discovery that's so fascinating, and so well-written. We get to know these characters as they interact with each other and deal with situations on the island, but it's through the flashbacks we get--both to them in the plane and during the crash, and in their lives back in the world--that layers get pealed away and we find that everything we thought we knew about them isn't what it appeared to be. I love how they do this because it's so much like real life. You work with someone every day, for example, but you only know their "work" self. Then you go out for drinks with them, and suddenly get to know more, things you never would have suspected. This is the great fun of getting to know people, and what drives the show. These characters that you start of building impressions of, and that you think you've got all figured out, surprise the hell out of you as you learn more. These are deep, complicated, and really fascinating characters, and sticking them all together in an isolated, life-and-death situation really lets the writers explore them. But we don't get everything up front. That's the best part. We see one side of these characters, and then, as each episode goes along, we get a little more information--stuff that tends to blow our minds. What's really great is the consistency. There's nothing quite so gratifying as learning something in episode 5 of a show that makes you say, "Oh my God! Now that thing he did in the first episode totally makes sense!". The plotting it tight, which is what I look for in a show, and you really need to watch all the episodes in order to properly follow and enjoy it.
Which may be the reason you haven't watched it yet. I call this the "24 factor". I got hooked on the first season of "24", and kept checking with other friends of mine to see if they were watching it, too, but most of them had the same reason why they weren't--it was too late now, because they missed the first couple, and now they'd be lost if they tried to jump in in the middle. I completely understand this. I'm that way with just about every show--I want to see them all in order, and I generally won't skip an episode and then go back--but most especially tightly episodic shows like your "24s" and your "Losts" (and, back in the 80s, your "Twin Peaks"). This is less of a problem with shows on cable. "Dead Like Me", for example, is a Showtime series that I love. I know that if I miss an ep (or, more likely, something screwed up with my TiVo), Showtime will be showing that same ep again several times that week on their various Showtime channels. There's always a second chance. With a lot of network shows, there's not.
So what are you supposed to do if you really want to find out what everyone's talking about and try "Lost", but you've already missed the first six episodes? Wait around until they come out on DVD and hope you don't learn any of the show's secrets between now and then? That's a possibility. But may I offer you an alternative? One that I end up using a lot, and that most people aren't hip to yet? Let me turn you on to Bit Torrent.
Bit Torrent is a new peer-to-peer file sharing system. You're familiar by now with all the Napster and Grokster stuff, probably, as they've made the news with this whole music download controversy. Make you own choices about whether or not you want to download MP3s. What I'm talking about here is downloading video. Specifically, TV shows. You used to be able to do this with Grokster or E-Donkey, and I did plenty of it, at the cost of lots of spyware taking over my computer. I found a new way, though, one that works much better, faster, and without annoying popups and unwanted spam.
Bit Torrent (in the simple explanation) is a means for people to share files between each other trading "bits". First, you download the Bit Torrent software. Then you go to a download site (more on that in a minute) and find the thing you want to download, say, an episode of "Lost". You click on it, and you start to download. What's cool and different is that you're not downloading from a single source. You're downloading from everyone else that's online and has that file...or a part of it. See, you download these files in bits. Then the software searches for other people who have bits of the same file, and gets the bits you don't already have. This way you're not downloading from one server, which can get jammed up or won't work for you if it's down or something. You have many sources to get your bits from, which makes for more reliable and quicker downloads, which is important when you're downloading video files, because they're large and take time to get (which means you should probably forget all about this if you're using dialup, unless you're really really patient). This lets you, in a lot less time than it used to, pick up episodes of TV shows that you missed or that you've been wanting to try out. And then you can watch them right on your computer monitor (or, if you're like me, you have it set up where you can watch your video files from your computer right on your TV). Or if you have a DVD burner on your computer, you can burn them and watch them on your DVD player. The important thing is, missing a show no longer means you're not going to be able to see it again. You have this option if, say, you want to try "Lost" from the beginning and catch up with all the other folks that are watching it on Wednesday nights. I did this with Alias. I discovered the show when it was late in the 3rd season. I rented and watched the first 2 seasons from Blockbuster. Since season 3 wasn't available for rent, and I wanted to catch up with other people I knew who were watching it weekly, I simply started downloading the season 3 episodes and watching them in order. I was all caught up and was able to catch the last few episodes as they broadcast, without being lost.
So if you haven't tried "Lost", I'd advise you jump in now before too many more episodes go by. Here's all you do if you want to do this, or want to try some other show or up pick up some eps of something you missed.
First, get the software. It's a very small download, and a safe one. Go to the official site at http://bittorrent.com and do the download. Once you have the software, you can then go to any of the many Bit Torrent downloads sites to get the stuff you're looking for. The best one I've found is http://suprnova.org. Remember that's "Suprnova", no "e" in it, and it's very important that you go to the .org, not the .com or .net. These domains were bought up by scammers that lure people in thinking it's the official site, then they tell you its now a pay sight and get your credit card info and bill you for a "subscription". Don't fall for this. Suprnova is free. Go to the .org. Once you're there, you can search for what you're looking for. Once you find your episode (or song, or movie, or software, or whatever, but I just use it for TV shows), just click on the link. Your computer will ask you want you want to do with it..."open" it using Bit Torrent, or "save" to disc. Choose option one..."open". This kicks in your Bit Torrent software. You select a directory on your computer to download it to, and then the downloading begins. As I said, these are big files. Often time the people who burn them are doing so from HD-TV. Bigger files are good, because that means great video quality and great sound, allowing you to play them full-screen. It's just like watching a DVD. You'll see what I'm talking about. Remember to be patient. Depending on how popular the file is (how many other people out there have the "bits"), the download can go fast or slow, but you can usually plan on it taken a number of hours, often more. You may have to leave your download going for a couple of days, even. But after that couple of days (hopefully less), you'll have that file to watch. And you can download several files at once, too. You can, for example, click on all of the first 6 episodes of "Lost" and they'll be downloading simultaneously. Better for you. Plus, you're hooking up other people while you're downloading. See, it's called file sharing for a reason. You'll also be uploading to other people who are looking for bits of the file you have. Everyone working together. It's a beautiful thing.
So give it a try if you've never done this before. You'll find all kinds of stuff to download and enjoy. Hopefully, one of those things will be "Lost".
DISTURBING INTERNET IMAGE OF THE WEEK
I have seen the face of true evil...
OH, THE HORROR!
Happy Halloween, everybody. Remember to check for needle holes in your fun-sized Snickers, and don't make yourself sick! It's all about moderation. We'll see you mid-month. Until then, pleasant...dreams.... AHHHH ha ha ha ha ha!!
Michael
The
Nice Guy
“Pilot”
Now on Sale!
ITEM!
New strip added in the Comics! section: "Kneeeel Before Zod"
ITEM!
New update in The Rant Shack...with the news on the A-1 Comics Van Fundraiser...and the shocking Tim Watts finger news...
ITEM!
Update to the Photos page with A-1 Comics shots! Sorry, no shots of Tim's finger...
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Always find out the latest NG News in the What's Cookin' Section
ITEM!
Look for new material on the 1st and 15th of every month!
And now available for purchase! "Serenity", the film continuation of Firefly! Order yours now!
Want to see more? How about watching the first 9 minutes of the film for free? Click below!
