Well, Blogger finally forced me switch to the new version. If anything goes wrong, I blame them.

I've been home sick for most of the week. I was sick enough that I didn't feel like updating, even though I had the time.

Books

54. Coyote, vol. 4 by Steve Englehart, Chaz Truog, et al. This volume included Todd McFarlane's first published comics work. That is not why I bought it.
    
55. Defenders: Indefensible by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, & Kevin Maguire. Slightly silly Defenders story from the people who made the Justice League fun.
    
56. Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 1 by Grant Morrison, et al.
    
57. Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 2 by Grant Morrison, et al.
    
58. Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 3 by Grant Morrison, et al.
    
59. Seven Soldiers of Victory, vol. 4 by Grant Morrison, et al. This has to be the best superhero cross-over I've read (even if the superheroes don't meet each other). I'm sure that's due to the fact that it's not trying to create huge changes in the "universe." It's just an attempt to revitalize some characters/character concepts. I'm glad the entire thing is now available in book form (although it would probably be better if it were one book rather than four).
    
60. Four Bastards by Robin D. Laws. This is an adventure for the Feng Shui role-playing game.
    
61. Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis & Adi Granov. Good, but not Ellis's best.
    
62. The Order of the Stick, vol. 2: No Cure for the Paladin Blues by Rich Burlew. For an online comic strip that started out as a means to make fun of the rules peculiarities found in Dungeons & Dragons, this has become quite the humor/adventure strip. Highly recommended. Check it out for free via the link in my sidebar.
    
63. The Drifting Classroom, vol. 3 by Kazuo Umezu. Things continue to get stranger & stranger. (Checked out of the library.)
    
64. Rex Mundi, book 1: The Guardian of the Temple by Arvid Nelson & Eric Johnson. Film Noir-ish story set in an alternate world where magic works & the Reformation never happened. I enjoyed it, but the story wasn't nearly complete. This was much more about setting up the world than anything else. (Library.)
    
65. Penny Arcade, vol. 1: Attack of the Bacon Robots by Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik. I've never followed the online comic strip. I've just never been deep enough into video games to really be able to follow it. But they can be very funny. However, even with the annotations that come with this book, I was still left not knowing what the hell they were talking about. (Library.)
    
66. The Legend of GrimJack, vol. 6 by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake. Excellent writing here. The art's a little rough, but my disappointment may stem from knowing how good Mandrake will get. The comics reprinted here are closing in on 20 years old, and Mandrake has improved tremendously in the meantime. I'm looking forward to the next volume.
    
67. Doom Patrol, vol. 5: Magic Bus by Grant Morrison, Richard Case, & Ken Steacy. More adventures of the strangest superhero group ever.

Movies

• Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries. When I first heard that the SciFi Channel was remaking BG, I was disdainful. Once it came out, I kept hearing good things about it, but still I resisted. When Teena told me it was good, I finally relented & watched. I was wrong. This show is fantastic. Possibly the best thing currently on TV.
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Entertaining but overblown. I prefer the first one.
  
• Frenzy.
  
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Sinister Urge.
  
• Rear Window. This is such an amazing movie. Hitchcock crafted it perfectly.
  
• The Great Yokai War. This was entertaining, but I think we would have enjoyed it more if we knew more about Japanese folklore. There are some mighty weird creatures in this movie.
  
• Snakes on a Plane. This was everything I expected it to be. We saw it after it had been out for a week or two, so the theater wasn't very crowded, but the other people there were in the right mood for this cheesy movie, cheering at the appropriate times.
  
• School of Rock. As a schoolteacher, Teena has difficulty watching movies involving schools. The myriad ways they get things wrong just bother too much. However, she was able to suspend disbelief enough to enjoy this.
  
• MST3K: The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.
  
• Cars. Not Pixar's best effort, but better than it looked from the first trailer.
  
• North by Northwest.
  
• Freaks. I had never seen this before. Creepy.
  
• Pleasantville.
  
• A Scanner Darkly. The rotoscoping technique used in this movie is perfect for depicting hallucinations. I haven't read the original book, but the movie feels very Dickian.
  
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Raiders did well at the Hollywood Theatre, since they got this. However apparently this didn't do so well, since there has been no sign of them getting Last Crusade.