Casa Fury has been virtually quiet but physically hopping lately, as Contessa and I spent the last week in frenzied preparation for our annual end-of-July pool-and-grill fiesta. Despite predictions of heavy rain, frequent lightning strikes, and a plague of frogs, Saturday saw neither a drop of rain nor any sudden increase in the density of the frog population in our immediate area. Indeed, the festivities went off without hitch or hiccup. There were champagne margaritas (a worthy successor to the screwmosa); there was a series of rap battles; there were silent but ultimately approving (I think) evaluations of my masculinity based upon the new charcoal grill I had purchased; there was a lot of red wine and beer spilled into our pool. There was no appearance by fan-favorite Tequila Contessa, but up-and-comer Gin Contessa was a hit. There were a lot of people I’d never seen before.
And there was, alas, no appearance by Gorjus, who sent me an e-mail claiming “car troubles,” which is the phrase he uses when he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s contracted another case of gonorrhea. [Note to Gorjus: WE ALL KNOW.] I might have sent him an e-mail the night before the party in which I threatened to get revenge on him for his absence by driving up to his house, seducing him, spurning him, and then writing a serialized roman a clef about our brief but torrid affair in which I satirize him as a desperate and inept lover. Also, one or both of us would be vampires. That’s what spending a whole day pressure-washing a deck in the sun will do to you. Now I’ve thought better of it. The roman a clef is so 1990s, you know?
Since we’re still a bit post-party blurry here, I leave you with some delightful links and a new nugget about my brother:
Comics! Funnbyook fans: we take Paul O’Brien’s The X-Axis for granted. Every week he goes out and reads every single X-Men-related title produced and reviews them (he doesn’t review every single one every single week anymore, but who can blame him? The new system of focusing on issues that begin or end a storyline, plus a few one-shots and significant mid-arc issues, works great and cuts down on the repetition that was beginning to plague his reviews—more because of the joyless, repetitive nature of the books than because of O’Brien’s insights). But! Here’s my point: it’s a solid read each week, but occasionally a truly abhorrent comic will push him into uncharted territories of righteous indignation. Wolverine #55 is just such a comic, and O’Brien’s review is not to be missed.
More Comics! Although it’s a fairly mundane bit of trivia in the comics world, it may be news to some of you that the Archie Comics characters were licensed to Spire Christian Comics in the 1970s and appeared in a series of earnest and unintentionally hilarious comics like Archie’s One Way [to Heaven], Archie’s Parables and Archie’s Sonshine. Dorian Wright of Postmodern Barney has helpfully excerpted some of the highlights from these comics here and here. If I had known about these growing up, I would have been way into them, desperate as I was to find some parental approval for my nerdy enthusiasms. (Thus my oft-related consumption of all those Janette Oke books). Here’s Tom Spurgeon’s obituary for Spire/Archie artist Al Hartley.
On a related note, a friend recently sent me the link to this Planned Parenthood-produced Spider-Man tale; it may have been all over the internet and back again by this point, but it was new to me. (Commenters seeking to place evangelicalism and Planned Parenthood on opposite ends of a moral spectrum will be subject to condescending eye-rolling.)
One More Comics Thing! The seven fans of our Suicide Squad retrospective should know that Dave Campbell is celebrating Suicide Squad Week. Click over and enjoy!
Literature! I know you all go and read Ed Champion’s Return of the Reluctant every day already, but if you haven’t taken the time to download and digest a few dozen of his Bat Segundo podcasts, you really should. Ed has scored interviews with a diverse an impressive array of authors: just this last week, I listened to interviews with Alison Bechdel, Richard Ford, China Mieville, Joe Meno, Amy Sedaris, Edward P. Jones, Mark Binelli, and others. I don’t hesitate to declare Ed one of the great literary interviewers of our time—listen for how often his subjects are struck by his discovery of an unknown-to-them pattern of imagery or tic of diction.
The Family! Would it surprise any of you to learn that the woman with whom my brother is currently living (as a boarder, not a romantic partner, or so he says) was recently paroled after serving a near-decade for conspiring to murder her husband? No? Would it surprise you that, knowing this, he’s apparently not being any nicer to her than he is to anyone else?
Aw shucks, Prof. I’m blushing. Thanks.
Um, I’m blushing for an entirely different reason.
I knew about the Archie-Spire connection, but Jesus and Liberace? Oh my.
I’m certain I owned some of those Spire Archies.
Poolapalooza ‘07 rocked
They must never, ever end.
Does your brother’s “landlady” seem like she’d conspire to murder a husband?
“Landlady” is my new euphemism of choice for all lady-related matters. I haven’t met this one—she doesn’t live near my family, which I guess is good.
Glad you had fun at PP’07! You’ll have to join us in a couple of weeks when we celebrate “Poolapalooza Aftershock: Wow, We Bought Way Too Much Beer. Please Help Us Drink It.”
Ooh – sounds like PP’07 may become my second favorite party of the year. Well, third – Spanishtown, ya know.