If a man goes into business with only the idea of making money, the chances are he won’t

That evil and despicable mega-corp Disney has gone and done it again. The day before yesterday it was announced that Disney is buying Marvel. Let me repeat that. Disney, as in Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, is buying Marvel.

Now, this may not mean a whole lot to most of you. In fact, most of you probably don't care. To me, though, and to othr comic book nerds around my age this is a pretty big deal.

Marvel comics were an integral part of my teens. X-Men, Spider-Man, The Hulk and, above all, Daredevil, were like friends to me. The Marvel universe is the first that I found escape in, and regardless of the ups and downs Marvel and it's titles have gone through over the years, I will always look back at all that stuff I read in the early to mid 90s with a smile on my face.

My favorites are X-Men circa 1991-1995, Frank Miller's Daredevil and some Punisher stuff. Oh, and Marshal Law, but that's not really Marvel Marvel.

So now Disney is swooping in, assuming control of a Marvel Comics once again on the top of their game. This is a company that filed for bankruptcy in 1996, after being the most visible comic book company for a long time. The recovery they've gone through since then is nothing short of remarkable. And much of this is due to the success of the movies based on Marvel characters. This began in 1998 with Blade, and continues to this day with blockbuster hits like Iron Man.

Let's take a moment to ponder all them Marvel films. Being a fan of many of the original comics, I have watched these movies with a mix of fascination and utter dread. There have been disasters and there have been surprising highlights.

The surprise was Iron Man. I was never a die-hard fan of the character itself, but as soon as that first trailer surfaced and I saw Robert Downey Jr's crooked smile, I knew it would be a wild ride. And it was, and still is. I await Iron Man 2 with a not so crooked smile.

The disaster? Daredevil. A train wreck, of epic proportions. I know the word may seem inappropriate here, but it was a downright rape of one of my favorite characters. Horrendous.

Daredevil, which is sort of Marvel's equivalent to Batman, is one of the reasons why I view the acquisition of Marvel by Disney with a great deal of horror. Sure, they had the good sense not to mess with Pixar's recipe for success after they bought them, but that's not really the same thing, to me. Marvel has a darker side that I imagine may be hard to swallow for some Disney execs. This dark side is rarely more evident than in Daredevil. And there has been talk of a reboot of the Daredevil franchise, a la Batman Begins. Darker, edgier, without Ben Affleck and Colin Farrell. Oh the possibilities.

Now though, Scrooge McDuck has opened his vault of infinite dollar bills and let them rain over Marvel's shareholders. An astonishing 4 billion dollars is the price for my childhood nostalgia. Time will tell if anything good comes out of it. I expect disappointment. My gut feeling is that Disney is after the possibilities to sell toys, video games and all that jazz, and will focus on churning out blockbuster movies based on Marvel characters. Not in itself a bad thing, but like I said, I doubt they will embrace the darker side of Marvel.

If there are any comic book fans reading this (and yes, the question is to you too, Steelwheels, oh mighty Marvel geek), please share your Marvel memories and tell me your fave Marvel movie. If anyone says Daredevil, I will disown you.

Every city has secrets. But none as terrible as this

With emphasis on terrible.

When I was fifteen-ish I read a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz. A very small number of those books made enough of an impression that I can still remember them, and most of them were King's. Of Koontz's stuff it's only Twilight Eyes, which was the first of his that I read, and The Bad Place that I really remember.

Recently I discovered that Mr. Koontz had come up with his own twist on the Frankenstein mythos, mad scientists and monsters and all, and I decided to order the first part of the trilogy, Prodigal Son.

The reason I stopped reading Koontz was that I wanted more. Not more plot or more suspense or more monsters, no, I wanted better writing. The reason that Koontz has sold millions and millions of copies of his novels is that he writes page-turners, and not because you have to know what happens on the next page, but because you sit down and read and all of a sudden you've read 130 pages and it feels like you've just been flipping through them without reading them. The text requires only the slightest processing involving higher brain functions, and it moves through the reader like sterile water. Tasteless, transparent, forgettable.

And I also wanted less. Less clichés. Less formulaic plots and characters. After a couple of books it was very easy to pick out who would die when and who would hook up with who.

So my expectations concerning Prodigal Son were very low. I went into this novel suspecting I would be disappointed. And I was, and am.

I'm sorry to say that Prodigal Son is a POS. Piece of shit. While the idea of a modern twist on the Frankenstein myth appeals to me, it's poorly executed both in terms of story and writing, and I find myself annoyed whenever I read it. And cliché upon cliché upon cliché. Tiresome.

I will finish it, because I rarely put down a book. The exceptions being Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close that I had to put down because I started crying, and Gravity's Rainbow because I just couldn't handle it. I've read Extremely since then, and enjoyed it immensely, and while I intend to read Rainbow some time, I need to make my way through some earlier Pynchon before I tackle it again.

After Prodigal Son, I will probably reread The Road or Pattern Recognition to purge my system of this literary travesty. Again, with emphasis on terrible.

ADDED:
I just took a "Which crazy writer are you" quiz, and the result is here!

What are the odds?

MCMXCIV part II - Spotify Strikes Back

As Magnus pointed out, 1994 deserves to be celebrated with a playlist too.

So, for those of you with Spotify, here's a homage to 1994 containing most, if not all, of the releases mentioned in the previous post.

MCMXCIV

There are several years that I can wax nostalgic about when it comes to music (is that correct, Americans? “wax nostalgic”? My good friend the Internet seems to think so). 1992, when I discovered Good Music. 1995, when the Best Album Ever was released. But when it comes to Best Music Year Ever, there's only one contender, really.

1994. Seriously. What the hell happened that year? There are so many outstanding records that came that year. Some I still listen to. Some I listened to a lot back then. Some I discovered on the way from then to now, and then left on the side of the road, others are still on my CD shelf. Whatever the case, it was a spectacular year in music.

How spectacular, you ask? Here's a list of good stuff that came out that year, interspersed with some videos.

Alice In Chains - Jar of Flies
Tori Amos - Under the Pink
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication



Biohazard - State of the World Adress
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Dinosaur Jr - Without a Sound
Drown - Hold on to the Hollow
Failure - Magnified
Front Line Assembly - Millennium
Helmet - Betty
House of Pain - Same As It Ever Was
Korn - S/t



Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Killing Joke - Pandemonium
Live - Throwing Copper
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes



Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family
Mary Beats Jane - S/t
Massive Attack - Protection
Misery Loves Co – S/t
Nailbomb - Point Blank
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral



Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
Peace, Love and Pitbulls - Red Sonic Underwear



Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
Portishead - Dummy



The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Prong - Cleaning
Soundgarden - Superunknown



Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
Therapy? - Troublegum

Then again, 1994 gave us “The Sign” by Ace of Base and Cradle of Filth released their debut album...

What do you think? Any other records released in 94 that should be on this list? Or some other year that tops this? And oh yeah. Thåström should always, always sound like that.

Drift like sleep

Drove through a flat and grey Sweden today, in a rental courtesy of Drunk Carl. Wovenhand on the stereo. Thy will be done, here on this highway.

Rainwash against the windows. Not a single snowflake, as far as the beard could see. When did it all change? White blooms to white and freezes white again.

Now cocooned in the comforts of home. Old home. Eyelids heavy. Right eye bloodshot. The headache is acting up. Sleep sounds like a good idea, but won't happen for a while. Jeff Dunham is on TV.

That state of mind where you realize that you're actually on vacation, that the office actually won't fall apart without you, is right around the corner, held off by the excellent combination of exhaustion and a major sugar rush. Hopefully it really hits me tomorrow.

Nostalgia. And metal.

If my head was screwed on right today, I would go all out and come up with alternative lyrics to “My favorite things”. But it’s not, since I indulged a little too much of some of those last night.

So. Nostalgia and music are on my top list of favorite things. I experienced both yesterday.

At lunch I asked for a “Fanta or another orangey equivalent”. And out came the Loranga. I haven’t had Loranga since…I can’t even remember. Forever. It tasted like childhood. I have this idealized idea of childhood as a magical time when nothing was complicated and an adventure hid behind every rock and tree. Stuff like this brings me back to those days.

Nostalgia in a bottle.

Then it was off to Club Distortion to play some tunes and watch man.machine.industry play their second show ever as a three-piece. Excellent, excellent show, and getting to hear I was the best DJ that ever played there (though I disagree about the term “DJ”) was a nice self-confidence boost. I choose to ignore the person saying I was the worst that ever played there. Iron Maiden fans. What do they know?