Friday, March 09, 2007

Free Form Comments

Random comments, questions, thoughts, ideas, suggestions as well as self-promotion and anonymous personal attacks -- put them here. Also, I have been very busy and have not updated the blogroll in a while -- if I said I would add you and did not, this would be a great time to remind me.

For those of you keeping track of my progress at Oxford, today I submitted the two required copies of the thesis and all required forms to the Examination Schools there. Probably in the middle of the summer I will fly to England to defend the thing in person; if that goes well, and I think it will, I will have my doctorate. Now that I have finished my work on the thesis and the book (which will be out in less than 10 weeks) -- as well as my Benbella essays and my class prep -- I am going to try to get this videoblogging thing going. Sorry for the delay, but hey, I had good reasons.

12 comments:

brad said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
brad said...

I can't wait to call you Doctor Klock. CANNOT WAIT.

itsallinyourhands news: Subscribe to our shows in HD at iTunes. Just paste this link into your browser and you'll start receiving the latest episodes as soon as they air: http://www.itsallinyourhands.com/itunes.html
We've also launched our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/itsallinyourhands

Thanks for watching and voting!

Stephen said...

Since I plugged it here in an earlier thread, I thought I'd mention that my Cerebus series is at last done -- eight parts (two introducing the series, five analyzing covers and a conclusion), plus an appendix with links.

If you're interested, you can read it here:
http://stephenfrug.blogspot.com/2007/03/covering-cerebus-index.html

SF

Anonymous said...

Rented Christopher Nolan's The Prestige the other night. Though the rivalry between the two magicians always left me cold in the previews, the movie itself is a stunner. If you liked Memento (but perhaps were underwhelmed by Batman Begins), there's a good chance you'll enjoy this film. It's best to go into this one knowing as little as possible about it.

Anyone else here seen it?

Geoff Klock said...

Troy -- I also rented the Prestige this week, and Troy is dead right, it is a stunner. Like Troy I was underwhelmed by Batman so I did not see this in theaters, but now I wish I had. Knowing as little as possible is right. The movie is great.

Anonymous said...

I loved The Prestige. Nolan sure knows how to cast his films (except for his unfortunate blind spot named Katie Holmes).

My web series Something To Be Desired is currently on hiatus until March 26th, but you could always use this time to catch up. We're about halfway through our 4th season, so there's a lot there if you're interested.

Anonymous said...

I think the "unfortunate blindspot" is actually the idea of Batman's 'love interest'. Can Batman have a girlfriend? A relationship? Bat-flirt?

Silver St Cloud is the archetypal bat-girlfriend.

Mitch said...

Hey Geoff-- Can a make a few blog entry requests? These are things that I'd love to hear your thoughts on:

1. The band Radiohead- You list them as one of your favorite bands in a couple of places.

2. The movie Boogie Nights- You have said before that you think it's well done, but that you don't like it for other reasons. I'd love to hear more about that.

3. Sam Keith's The Maxx, which you've said before was the first comic you really got into. I've just read the first volume, so I'm interested to hear what you think.

Geoff Klock said...

Mitch: I will see what I can do.

brad said...

Geoff, when you talk about Morrison at his best, you often say that his comics feel like they're from the future. Well Tim and Eric make comedy from the future. This is what SNL will look like in 2027. My experience goes something like this: I start watching one of their segements, and it's colorful, and it's pulling from at least ten different genres simultaneously. And the characters are acting wild and the form in which they exist is not sacred to them: whatever they're context or whatever the narrative, the characters are playing right at the very edge, where they'll either fall into an abyss or pop the bubble they're living in and send the universe imploding in on itself. Then all of a sudden, something magical will happen. I will have a moment of clarity. Every aspect of their surreal antics will align, and I will peak like a hippie in the desert. I'm filled with unexpected joy. It's hard to define, but I'll try: Hardly anything saturates my entire brain anymore. In this media-soaked world, my brain is distended. Most things just fall in there without eliciting a visceral response. But Tim and Eric manage to fill the whole fucking thing up. And once my threshold is reached, it's unrelenting, and I'm laughing like I'm being pinned down and tickled. And I'm grateful to them for making me lose control.
I love Saul, too. But Tim and Eric are really trying to break out of the cage.
It's true that Saul is a satire of a throwback, but I think that that's a limited way to look at it. It's a lot more then that. First of all, it's not exclusively a satire. Sometimes it is the actual thing. Sometimes it's like watching what Sid and Marty Croft would actually be making if they were still making shows, taking green screen and puffy costumes to there logical extreme. It's true that Saul (and every other character) is actually two characters at once. They are the character in the story and they are the actor playing the character. This carries through the entire production. Every element of the show, from the sets, to the music, to the editing, invites you to think about the people behind the scenes: who are just as schmucky as the fictional actors.

Unknown said...

Hopefully somebody is still reading this thread, but I wanted to let people know that this week is Will Eisner Week on my blog, in which I'm examining his work, focusing mostly on the "Contract With God" trilogy. I would love any comments or feedback if anyone reads my posts. Thanks.

Geoff Klock said...

Brad: WOW -- thanks. That was just what I wanted to read. And thanks for the link Matt.