josearcadio

Hello! I would like to write more next week. But I will be working a whole lot anyway, so who knows if I will be able to write more journal entries during the Holiday vacation.
I finished reading recently a few trade paperbacks of the Ultimate Spiderman comic book written by Brian Michael Bendis, also read the first Ultimate Fantastic Four written also by Bendis, and read the second volume of The Ultimates, written by Mark Millar. I enjoyed all of it, and I have to say that Bendis is amazing. He is able to write tons of stuff, most of it pretty good, and he does not miss a deadline, and his books always come out on time.
On the subject of comic books: I bought recently the Locas book by Jaime Hernandez and published by Fantagraphics. I have been a fan, not a big fan but was interested in the Hernandez bros work for a while, and when I was browsing in the Borders graphic novel section and saw the very beautiful hardcover and fell in love. (I admit I am kind of shallow in that respect, I love pretty looking books, and that is why I love leather bound books and also book editions of comic books and photograph books) I have read the first 200 pages so far and am enjoying it a lot so far. I enjoy how Jaime slowly develop characters in it, particularly Maggie, Esperanza, Isabel, Penelope and the rest of the Locas. I am in love with Esperanza especially, she reminds me a lot of a character in Strangers in Paradise named Katina Marie Choovanski (Katchoo), she is in love with someone who does not love her back and her life struggle is intensely affected by it. For those who are curious be advised that the book pays back very slowly, in a way it has a similar flow as the tv show The Wire, where the story works out very slowly, but the paybacks are great. Another show that I compare it to is NYPD Blue, which is, basically a show about a cop named Andy Sipowics, and even thought the structure of the show is basic police procedural through each individual show, but as a whole you see great characterization of one of the greatest inventions in tv fiction.
Some people may not enjoy Love and Rockets if what they are expecting are the typical superhero artwork of Bryan Hitch, Todd Macfarlane (which I also love, do not get me wrong!) but Jaimes art is very beautiful and expressive, I love how he draws the woman form. It would be so great if other artists took the time to study Jaimes work, because al those mega busty women that are everywhere, from the X-men to all those Crossgen books, are awful looking and extremely boring.
I saw on Sunday a very pretty movie called Garden state and I enjoyed it a lot. I laughed a lot and also was very surprised with some of the turns of the story. For example, there is a scene that is set in a way that reminded me of one of my favorite books, Cien anos de Soledad, where, for no explanation a ship is found abandoned very far away from any sea or river. The music on the movie is good and works very well with what is shown on the different scenes. I enjoyed that they used a song from the old Coldplay album (which is so much better than the last one, I found the use of the piano or keyboard to be rather annoying, althought I may be alone in this, everyone else seemed to love the song Clocks).
This will be probably the longest journal entry ever, and that is what happens when you do not update often, aaagh! Haha!
These are some of the recent musical acquisitions: the Snow Patrol album, a Sick of it all outtakes album, the recent Fobia release, which is very good, kind of a greatest hits album with two new songs with the old stuff remastered and with liner notes written by the very good Mexican writer Xavier Velasco (the author of El Diablo guardian), the last two Plastilina Mosh albums, the last two Walkmen albums, the Squirrel Nut zippers Hot album, the Paul Simon Graceland album, the Bob Dylan Nashville skyline album, the first Ramones album in the remastered edition released in Rhino records, the Pet Shop Boys Alternative double album, the second album Wilco recorded with Billy Bragg, the O brother where art thou soundtrack, the Pantera Cowboys from hell album and many others.
I got one of my Xmas gift early, the Neverwhere miniseries on dvd!! My very dear friend Sirenia got it for me yeah!! For those who are not that cool (hahahaha!) Neverwhere is a work in prose by Neil Gaiman (the Sandman comic book, American Gods) that is a very beautiful and scary fantasy story set in a weird version of contemporary England. I strongly recommend it, particularly if you already are a Gaiman fan.
Anyone a Marx Brothers fan?? I really really want the recently released dvd boxed set released, the one that has Duck soup and Horse Feathers. I already own A night at the opera, which is comedy heaven!!!!!! I will have a great weekend!! I will watch so many movies on dvd, plus the complete seventh season of Buffy!!! And Mary Poppins, and Its a wonderful life and some Hitchcock (North by northwest, The wrong man, Strangers on a train, etc.)
I am leaving for my other house for the weekend, probably on Thursday so I will not be able to check on the site so I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. Hopefully you will be near people you love and love you back. To everyone who is away from someone dearly beloved because of economic and/or geographic reasons (Anele and Jo, I am thinking of you both) hopefully next year you will be able to move or something, get more money and time to fly often, etc. A kiss and a hug to everyone, muchos besos y abrazos para todos los latinos, and to everyone else from everywhere in the world.
This site is very special to me for many reasons, one of them is that I have wanted to keep diary for a while and have not done so for many reasons but now I have been writing steadily for more than three months and that has me in a good mood, yeah! Hopefully next year I will keep on the writing!!