Comics and Couture

Moving house

2009-07-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

Dear, darling readers, the time has come for me to say adieu to Blogger. I'm moving over to the same name at Wordpress in an effort to consolidate all my efforts, to keep everything together and, most importantly, to share with you more often. Check me out at the new address:

Comics and Couture

[insert pop culture reference]

2009-07-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you're here and reading this, it's probably because you either love my delightful way with words (who could blame you?) or you're interested in news and reviews on everything from Dark Reign: Avengers to True Blood to Rilo Kiley to Marc Jacobs' fall line. Either way, you're in for a treat.

I and a few talented, opinionated others have just formed the sure-to-be-brilliant blog team over at [Insert Pop Culture Reference], where we plan to cover all things pop culture, from the latest films to the latest gadgetry. You can find more of my insights there as well as reviews from people who know the comics world far better than I. There should be a great range of views and a lot of fun.

Liking what you see? Follow us on Twitter! As a group, we're popcultref. On my own, I'm shelightsupwell.

I know things have been pretty quiet here of late and I apologize for the massive amounts of fail I've racked up. Here's the true story as to why: I've been writing a script.

By initial inclination and college training, I lean toward writing novels, but I'm currently on a break from writing one of those, instead exploring the wide world of writing for television. It's far more complicated than most people realize. We all watch TV and think, Man, I could have done that better, don't we? So much goes into it, though, that we don't think about when we're lounging on the couch. Since this is only my second try - my first attempt got abandoned a third of the way in when I realized my plot was crap - I don't expect much will come of it.

Wish me luck, everyone, and when you're done doing that, remember to go check us out at [Insert Pop Culture Reference]! I promise you, it's gonna be a blast.

2009-07-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

One week until San Diego Comic Con 2009! Unfortunate circumstances being what they are, I'll only be attending the con for one day, but I'm still jazzed. Luckily, I have a few friends who'll be going and taking notes for all of us on the days I'm missing, and you can expect I'll come back with a full report of all I see.

What happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas, but what happens in San Diego comes full throttle back to the internet.

My primary mission is to attend the morning's Chuck panel. After that, it's a matter of debate: do I give up True Blood in favor of Fables or vice versa? Only time will tell.

What are you going to see? What do you wish you could attend?

2009-07-02T23:34:00.001-07:00

Hey there, readers. I've just been discovering the wonders of Tumblr. Yeah, I know I'm way behind, but where my friends point, I wander, and this actually looks pretty neat. Marvel fans, if you're out there on Tumblr, let me direct you to:

http://fuckyeahmarvel.tumblr.com/

It's brand-spanking-new and about to become a glorious repository for all things awesomely Marvel. My own name over there is shelightsupwell. Come follow me!

2009-06-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

I just found this linked over at Complications Ensue:

The Tip of Your Tongue Tool.

Get your mind out of the gutter - it's a site to help you figure out that word you just can't quite remember and it's been bugging you all day, oh god, someone tell me what it is.

return of the clones

2009-06-28T13:41:00.000-07:00

I've been radio silent a couple days, despite the intent to post a recap, like, yesterday. This is not a testament to my grand ability to fail for once (the recap is, in fact, mostly done), but to my hope to succeed. I've been away pushing toward a major deadline, so keep your fingers crossed, dear readers, that I win out this time. Details on that another day, once I's are dotted and T's crossed, etc.

In other news, a strange little Hollywood anecdote: I have to tell you this because I was told this before I went to sleep last night and it creeped me out, and now I have to creep you out! Eddie Murphy has a clone! Not a literal clone, of course, though that would also be creepy, but he has this stuntman/stand in/photo double, Virgil, right? And Virgil allegedly got plastic surgery to look just like him and works on all his movies and everything.

A reputable source whose name I cannot share at this point said it was really creepy because he did this film Eddie Murphy was in once and sometimes he'd be talking to an Eddie Murphy guy and not know if it was Eddie Murphy or Virgil. If I were Eddie Murphy, I would be afraid that this was the beginning of some cracked suspense story that ends with him dead and his identity stolen. I mean, not really, but creepy all the same, right?

The More You Know: True Blood

2009-06-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

Because I have nothing much better to do than share with you my newfound love of vampire TV and because I want to take a crack at this whole recap-writing business, let me get you up-to-date on what's happened on True Blood up until this last week.

Previously on True Blood: An entire season of Sookie and Bill hooking up for a little bloodplay and the occasional candlelit bath, while brother Jason wrestles with that age-old question, how do you know if you're a murderer?

As the women of Bon Temps drop dead at a rate that suggests that, pretty soon, there won't actually be any women left in Bon Temps, fumbling detective Andy Bellefleur tries to pin the crime on Jason only to wind up being - shockingly - wrong in the end. Sookie gets drawn into vampire nightlife and introduced to Eric, former VIKING and the "sheriff" of Area 5, their part of Louisiana, who runs a vampire bar called Fangtasia (yeah, even Sookie thinks that's a lame name) and thinks Sookie's abilities could be useful, and while he proves to be right, he does so in a way that ends with Bill killing another vampire to protect her. His punishment is to turn a kidnapped teenage girl into a vampire: Jessica Hamby, who apparently equates vampire with naughty schoolgirl.

Meanwhile, Sookie's best friend Tara has an ill-advised but steamy affair with her boss Sam, who is, though no one but Sookie knows, a shapeshifter. Form of a cute, cute dog!

Jason falls in love with Amy who gets him hooked on V, because vampire blood apparently is life force in its purest form and therefore a drug. That's right, kids, you can finally get high on life. But then, of course, Amy is murdered, much like every other woman Jason's slept with since the season began. So Jason finds Jesus.

And Sookie finds out that her friend's fiance Rene Lenier is the killer and his real name is Drew Marshall. You know he's evil because he was faking that adorable Cajun accent the whole time. Epic Battle Ensues, Bill nearly gets himself killed stumbling out in the sunlight to save her, Sam swoops in at the last minute (Wonder Collie Powers Activate!) and Sookie winds up saving herself by pretty much taking the killer's head off with a shovel. Okay, so she's a hundred times more badass than Bella Swan (what, like that's hard?).

This season: Sookie finds out about Jessica and gets fucking PISSED; Lafayette, Bon Temps' resident chef-gay dude-drug dealer-pornographer, turns out to have been kidnapped by vampires and locked up in a dungeron; Tara's taken up residence with a totally sketch older woman named Maryanne who ~just wants to help~ but totally raises Sam's hackles (I mean this literally); someone tore out the heart of a local con woman and left her in Andy's car; Jason goes to Bible Camp; Bill teaches Jessica about recycling; Eric gets pissed off when his prisoners interrupt when he's getting his hair did and takes a massive bite out of some dude's side.

Next up, True Blood 2x02: Jesus Asked Me Out Today.

RIP Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

I've been offline for the last several hours, so I'm only just finding out the news of Michael Jackson's death, but wow, did I not see that one coming. Yeah, in the last few years, he got more than a little creepy, but you can't deny he had a major effect on music. I remember watching his videos on MTV back when I was little and MTV still actually played videos, and I think we've all had days when we couldn't get "Billie Jean" out of our heads.

Rest in peace, Michael.

You've got vampire in your cleavage.

2009-06-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

The middle of the summer's a bleak time for television. Great for catching up on your reading, but terrible if what you want is an hour of televised escape. I end up going back a lot and watching things I've already seen (Alias currently - I'd forgotten just how badass Sydney Bristow really was in that first season) or getting into something new. That's the beauty of Netflix, right?

So I spent the last few weeks getting up-to-date on HBO's vampire hit True Blood.

In the midst of the Twilight craze, it's hard not to suspect that any of the many vampire-related films and shows coming out in the next few months aren't just a product of some executive demanding a chance to jump on a speeding bandwagon. This adaptation of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels was no exception in my mind's eye, but with so many of my friends getting sucked in, images of Bill and Sookie were everywhere, sleek and sexy and shadowed. Now, I can't blame those execs. I've always been a sucker for a bandwagon myself, jumping in halfway through a season, sometimes later. I like it better that way. Let everyone else clear the path, let the fans get settled, so I know which corners of the internet to avoid in order best to ignore the inevitable wank of every fandom, infant or ancient.

Besides, my friends have good taste.

True Blood, for those few out there who still don't know what it's about, tells the story of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a pretty blonde in her mid-twenties who waits tables at Merlotte's Bar in tiny Bon Temps, Louisiana. She's also something of a psychic. Whether she likes it or not, Sookie's got the ability to read people's thoughts, which can complicate things by more than a little if she doesn't work to shut everyone out. Despite this little "disorder" of hers, she leads a pleasant enough life, but a quiet one until the night Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) walks into the bar.

Since vampires "came out of the coffin" two years previously, Sookie's been just about dying to see one. Bill's her first.

The two quickly fall into a whirlwind romance, predicated largely on a) Sookie's relief at her inability to hear Bill's thoughts and b) their nigh-on ridiculous need to rescue each other from a variety of pitfalls and near (un-)death experiences.

I wound up pushing through the first season at a pace of about four episodes a day, despite the fact that I do, actually, have work that needs doing and some semblance of a social life to which I must attend. While the first few episodes run a little dry, the trouble isn't that it's poorly written or acted; it's that, in this age in which vampires are once again rising up to seize the imaginations of the millions, it's a little bit generic. Sookie's got a sweet, accepting grandma and a dumb but pretty brother, a boss who's a little in love with her, a sassy black best friend, her flamboyant gay cousin, a serial killer on the loose. She's a slightly smarter, equally impulsive, psychic Bella Swan for the crowd that wants a little (or a lot of ) on-screen sex in their vampire stories and she lives in a typically charming Southern land of stock characters and obvious social commentary (omg, are vampires people? Are they MONSTERS? Do they deserve rights or are they the minions of Satan?). The hearing of thoughts aside, you kind of have to wonder, what sets Sookie apart anyway?

And then something shifts. I can't tell you what, because, in all honesty, I haven't figured it out yet, but something changes. This seems to be a pretty common take on season one, actually. Everyone I've spoken to agreed: they don't know what it is, but suddenly, you get hooked. It pulls you in and doesn't let go, and even though I can't put a finger on what about it's different, I know something is, because somewhere about halfway into the season, I couldn't stop watching. Maybe the characters just get fleshed out or maybe you just get attached. Either way, it's quite a ride and it has an amazing soundtrack. I can't recommend it enough, especially its theme song, Jace Everett's sexy "Bad Things." Good goddamn.

Season two has only just begun, which makes now the perfect time to catch up and jump on in, because there's really nothing like the guarantee of a weekly viewing of Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) shirtless and puppy-eyed. And if you can't get your hands on those first two episodes, hold your horses, darling readers, and I'll be catching you up shortly.

True Blood airs on HBO, Sundays at 9 pm.

'Easy A' films pep rally, earns a fan

2009-06-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

Readers, in my introduction post made just a few hours ago, I promised movie news and celebrity encounters. It's entirely possible I only made this promise because I already have something to report on that front. As a note, I did not actually speak with any celebrities firsthand - not on this movie set anyway. I did, however, spend a grueling thirteen hours on the set of Easy A (2010), Paramount's new vehicle for up-and-comer Emma Stone.

Allegedly based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Easy A tells the story of Olive (Emma Stone, Superbad), a high school girl who's apparently fairly ignored until she decides to rev up her reputation by pretending to sleep around. Yeah, she's faking it on a grand scale. But when she's faking it to piss off Amanda Bynes and it involves Cam Gigandet and Penn Badgley, and Malcolm McDowell's her principal? Darling, I'm so in.

Yesterday's shoot - on location in Ojai - involved three separate pep rallies. I won't tell all, because that would actually be fairly dull (short story: I spent a long, long time just sitting around), but things I learned in my experience of life on set are as follows.

Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) was on set from the early morning, painted head-to-toe blue to portray the school's mascot, the Blue Devil.
Even being painted blue doesn't prevent him from being hot. Take it from the girl sitting closest to him before the shoot. And making a spectacle of himself in front of two hundred cranky teenagers? Doesn't keep him from behaving like a total professional, under-his-breath cursing aside.
Each of the film's three pep rallies will involve a stunt of some kind, two successful and one failed. We were told to act concerned and stunned, but I think we were all much closer to cracking up. It probably had something to do with the costume.
Oh, didn't I mention? At some point, Penn stops being a Blue Devil and becomes, for various plot reasons, a Woodchuck. Gossip Girl fans, be prepared to have to hold in laughter of your own when Badgley prances across the screen yelling "WOOD! CHUCK!"
This film has, as of the most recent count given to me by More Informed Sources, not one, not two, but three musical numbers. Given that other reports on the interwebs tell me Cam Gigandet (The O.C., Twilight) has been spotted on set with a guitar, I'm banking on a fourth.
Yesterday's number was a song and dance I can't get out of my head, entitled "Knock On Wood." I expect WAY too many magazines to come out with punny headlines about Emma Stone being a Stone Fox, har har, given that she spends this routine in a black corset with red piping, teeny black shorts, sheer stockings with a seam up the back, high heels and a big red-and-black feather boa. Punny though they'll be, however, they won't be lying.
Let it also be known that this little number involves Penn Badgley dancing with her, albeit still dressed as a woodchuck.

Suffice it to say, I'm looking forward to seeing this film come out for real, and I didn't have to fake a bit of my enthusiasm during our cheering scenes.

start at the very beginning

2009-06-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Consider this the thinking woman's approach to pop culture, all of the pleasure with none of the guilt.

Tune in to read my posts and I promise you a regular dose of everything from high fashion to classic literature, with stops along the way for movie, book and music reviews, thoughts on television, celebrity encounters and a look at modern American culture that critiques and embraces in the same breath.

I'm here to tell the world just why there's no reason to thumb your nose at haute couture (not even how silly it sometimes looks) and that people can laugh all they want, but there's nothing wrong with being an educated woman who can't get enough of Gossip Girl. There really shouldn't be such a thing as a guilty pleasure: anything that gives you joy has merit.

It's not simply possible, nor is it a contradiction, to be a smart, literate, well-dressed woman of the world who gets excited on Wednesdays when the new comics come out; it's a lot more common than the world wants us to think.

And that's why I'm here. Because honestly, I'm getting a little sick of seeing the media tell us that these are opposing ideas, pretending that pop culture can go hand in hand only with flightiness, that intelligent adults won't fool around with issues of Dark Reign: Young Avengers, that the only reason women could possibly possess for attending something like Comic Con will be Jake Gyllenhaal's washboard abs or the promise of that firsthand peek at Robert Pattinson's frankly frightening hair.

In short, make mine Marvel and Marc Jacobs.