Every once and a while a sweet fighting movie comes along: “Enter the Dragon”, “Blood Sport”, and “Fight Club”. Lately, I have been hungering for a movie to give me sweet hand to hand combat and action sequences that make me wanna kill a man. Well, thanks to Channing Tatum’s “Fighting” I finally want to kill a man again. Unfortunately, that man is me.

Before I get into the main reason I hate this film let me first label this movie correctly: The Crappy LionHeart. Lionheart starred JVCD and was a classic tale of man beating ass for money, managers trying to make money off of emotionally fueled fists, and overcoming Goliaths as a soft-spoken David.

Tatum tried following Van Dam’s foot steps by giving an oscar worthy acting performance, but he lacked in the pointless splits performance. If you don’t do the splits at some point in the movie the audience can’t take you serious as a fighter.

Fighter Split List

• Van Dam – Splits (every film ever)
• Sylvester Stallone – Splits (somewhere in Rocky III I’m sure)
• Hulk Hogan – Splits (Suburban Commando & Mr. Nanny)

Peaked too Early

The meat of the reason this movie is horrible comes from one line in the trailer. Tatum says, “I’ve been nothing my whole life. I’m not going back to that.”

Really? You are like mid 20’s. Nothing your whole life, huh? Well, you are still young. Take some classes. Learn a skill useful in society. Not until after high school can you really even start to make something of yourself. Plus, what a horrible standpoint? If people do not know who you are then you are worthless?

The message of the film appears to be fighting is ok, but only if you are doing it for the right reasons… Like not being a nobody.

To be fair to Tatum, this role is just a leapfrog role that gets him to his next film “GI Joe: Rise of Cobra”. He plays Duke, and if he wants to be a bad-ass action start/fighter…he better do the splits.

My first memory of Late Night with Conan O’Brien was in the summer of 1994. It was the summer in between my 5th and 6th grade year. I was sleeping over at a new friend’s house learning the then new Magic the Gathering card game and staying up to watch the then new Late Night with Conan O’Brien. (I also watched an old British show called Red Dwarf). I, of course, being 11 years old did not understand much of the humor, but Conan and Andy had goofy memorable faces. At the time, that was good enough.

Once I was in middle school I began to stay up later. This lead to my first late television watching: scrambled porn. Couldn’t quite get a picture on my room’s TV. Plus, it was just scrambled HBO anyway; but late at night, it’s porn to a 11 year old. After about 5 minutes…I would switch to The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.

Letterman was my first late television show love. I used to love when he sent Rupert Jee., of the Hello Deli, out to say what Dave told him to say through a hidden headset. Dave had great and memorable interviews with Madonna, Julia Roberts, and Regis Philbin (not to forget Dave’s mindful comments after 9/11). It is ironic that the show I came to appreciate even more, is the same show that Letterman started back in the year of my birth (1982): Late Night. Check out Conan’s first appearance on Late Night here.

Late Nights with Late Night

I started staying up just a little later as I got older. Watching Conan became a standard ritual which also lead to me being tired every day of the week except Saturdays and Sundays. Late Night shaped my humor and to this day I still enjoy the plainly stupid: The laugh for the sake of how dumb something is.

In college I used to order off the Wendy’s dollar menu, when the double stack was made correctly, and watch Late Night every night with my Andy Ricter: Fish. I failed classes by not going due to being so damn tired. And you know what? I’d fail so many more classes to be in that Cone-zone every week night from 12:30 to 1:30.

Some Late Night Favorites

• The Fedex Pope – I was him for one Halloween
• Conan’s trips to other places – Finland and Ireland to name a few
• Triumph the Insult Comic Dog – Star Wars episode II is the best
• The K-9 with a gun
• The final Hunter S. Thompson interview

Final Goodbye

The show was unquestionably funny, so when the last episode aired I did not have to see jokes to remind me of what the show is. I came to respect Conan and his Late Night team to the point that I would rather just see him remember good times with me, the viewer. I watched till the end and heard his thank yous and goodbyes. I even started getting a bit emotional when he started to do so.

Will Conan’s show be the same? Will it be better? What Conan’s future holds is uncertain, but what Conan’s past gave me will be remembered always. Thanks Conan. I will miss Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

He was very friendly – offering to draw a sketch in his The After Life book for me and signing all of the pieces I bought. He also told me about his experience with Stan Lee (I asked) and about his next water color book he is working on.

The art is a mix of cartoony and dark, even twisted at times. The best term to describe it is “fun”. It is truly fun art.

March of the Sugar Squash Goblin

This is my favorite print that Ruben was selling and signing on the 13th. I wish I would have bought more copies so I could give them as gifts. Next time…

SUGAR SQUASH GOBLIN by ~RM73 on deviantART

Bots

This piece was not with him, but I would love to get a print of it. “Bots” is a great example of his work. Cartoonesk robots of all sorts. Very Clamptastic!

BOTS by ~RM73 on deviantART

Ruben is turning into one of my favorite artists and I just recently was introduced to his art. You can view a whole gallery of Ruben Martinez’s work at his online gallery.

The Comic Bug

I would like to note that thanks to Mike Wellman and Jun Goeku of The Comic Bug, I and many others are able to meet great up and coming artists and books which I would not know about otherwise. If you are in the area check out their shop. They have a TV, sofas, mainstream and indie comics, and many more rare items that will make you smile. Thank you Mike, Jun, and Adam (other main staffer) for the great shop and service. See the shop for yourself here!

1. The Stranger – Billy Joel

When I was in middle school my friend’s mother gave me a record player. It was cool, but I hadn’t any records. My mother came to my rescue giving me a few awesome records which included The Best of the Doobies Volume 1 (The Doobie Brothers), Every Picture Tells a Story (Rod Stewart), and The Stranger. I listened to all of the records, but mainly just The Stranger.

The truth is, I took more of an interest in The Stranger because a girl I liked at school told me she loved Billy Joel. I picked a song on the record (Vienna) and listened to it over and over so I could know the song by heart. I could bring it up in conversation, “Oh that song Vienna…um, I think the song goes exactly like this…” As if that conversation would ever come up… Not to mention I picked practically the one song on that album that isn’t a single.

An unexpected thing happened when I listened to The Stranger over and over. I stopped hearing the music and started listening to it. I wrote the lyrics down and read them. When you are younger you just tend to hear whatever your parents may play in the car or what comes along with your cartoons. Yet when we grow up, we understand that songs are expressing a feeling. We can truly get to the point of the song and understand why we like it. In the case of The Stranger and “Vienna”: the song tells us that if we want something we have to do something about it and just go get it, before it is too late. I wanted to get the girl at the time and did something about it (expressed an interest in things she liked). I mirrored the song and in turn got laid. Ok ok, I was like 13. I got a kiss.

2. Something to Write Home About – The Get Up Kids

The Get Up Kids are my favorite band. I first heard the song “10 Minutes” while searching Napster for new music. I liked it enough so I started finding more Get Up Kids music. They had just released their first wide release album Something to Write Home About through Vagrant Records when I heard them. This album became so popular it gave Vagrant credibility as a indie label which could find quality bands (Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Alkaline Trio, etc.) and produce albums for the bands to break into main stream.

The Get Up Kids music became the launching pad for the term “emo”. Matt Pryor’s lyrics mixed with keyboards and driving beats make boys cry and girls melt. TGUK’s are able to produce upbeat fun songs as well as songs that make you want to lay in your bed and think about lost loves and beautiful dreams. This album doesn’t have my favorite song “Anne Arbour” on it, but it still represents everything I love about The Get Up Kids.

Without a doubt, my favorite concert ever was a Get Up Kids/Weezer concert in San Fransico with my buddy Joe. When TGUK came on stage: I sang the songs, I had my eyes fixed on that stage, and I prayed to God that they would never stop playing.

3. The Blue Album – Weezer

Not officially labeled with an album name, Weezer’s first album is known as The Blue Album because that is the color of the cover (later albums include other self titles known as The Green Album and The Red Album). I first received The Blue Album from my friend Jay Nelson on a cassette tape. He had the cd and recorded it for me when I was in the 6th grade. This album represents many albums and bands to me. It is my quintessential fun album. Rhyming any lyrics just to keep the song upbeat and lively, this sing-along cheers me up every time I hear it’s whimsical lyrics and keeps me tapping my toes and hands the whole way through. Who doesn’t recognize “The Sweater Song” when they here the casual guitar plucking and goofy banter? “Ah man, ah bro this is the best…” The Blue Album is an album that can usually be found “Only in Dreams”.

“Buddy Holly” Live…in Japan!