In not to fine a point I have never been a follower of Labor Day. Quite the opposite. One single day set aside a year to celebrate the sacrifice made by 98% of Americas population to bolster up the other 2% is really just a patronizing insult, not to mention a national excuse to get drunk. If you TRULY want to celebrate all that the working class has done for our country, raise the freaking minimum wage to a "living" wage and we'll call it square! Don't bother me with anything else.
ANYWHO!
Yesterday was the first day we have taken off in a month and used it for cleaning and some light household repairs. Yay, fun! All in all, by the end of the tumultuous day I figured I should have probably just gone to work and saved myself the headache! Proof positive that the Maternal curse from my Mother is still FULL in effect we once again had to pay a visit to PJAC. (Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center)
Oh, yea.
BUT, this time around for an all together STUPID reason.
Mid cleaning we discovered we were short a few things and sent our eldest, Elijah to the store. As it was a hot one yesterday, by the time he got there he was a tad bit parched so he went to one of the check out isle coolers and got himself a drink, and popped it while he did the shopping. Apparently in the process of shopping he ran into a couple of buddies and he spent a few minute talking, and finishing the drink. Now as is his penchant for absent mindedness he discarded the empty drink can, finished his shopping, went through the self check out and left. Trailed inconspicuously by one of the many "plain clothes" detectives now employed at the local Wal-Mart. Once exiting the store he was approached, confronted and brought back inside. He attempted to explain but they did not believe him, regardless of the fact that he not only had cash on him, but my card as well. He was summarily arrested, put in the back of a cruiser and I was summoned to come down and get his personal effects. In the end, after seven hours we were called to come get him, being informed that no charges were being filed.
ARRRGH!!
Thank you very much to our buddy Daniel and my lovely wife for going to get him, as she was keenly aware sending ME in this situation would have put my mouth in shooting range, inevitably landing me in an adjacent cell.
Yep. Should have just gone to work!
BUT! In the end I got a sympathy bonus, as when they were coming back to the house they stopped at Daniels place as he is ONCE AGAIN redecorating his flat and had a few things he thought we might like. When I say "we" I mean "me"! He entered the house bearing some sweet wall art! First and foremost an AWESOME oil on canvas of a "poppy" field close up! This one now sits over our dining room table. Then he produced a handful of fanboy posters. Two of "Xena: Warrior Princes" (remember that thinly veiled "Power Woman" show!?) they will be hanging in the girls room (they are after all their mothers daughters!) A Youngblood poster for the boys and an Avengers (comic book, not Movies) poster and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles poster (comic book, not movie) that will SO be going up in the shop!
Which brings us to TURTLES! (see how I did that there? MASTERFUL segue!)
Now, I don't know if anyone reading this has read any press about the upcoming TMNT live action film due out in 2014, but a lot of the fan response have been LESS then gratifying! Producer Micheal Bay (Transformers) is spearheading this project in which the blurb "Aliens invade Earth and inadvertently spawn a quartet of mutated reptilian warriors, the Ninja Turtles, who rise up against them to defend the world." has caused many to lament the fact that they are "rewriting" and "destroying" the TRUE origins of the Turtles!
Apparently these people never actually READ the Comic Book!
Let me explain (and this may take a FEW lines!) Created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman And Peter Liard in Dover, NH (they were regular customers in the Portsmouth, NH Comic Book shop I worked at "Comic Relief") the quartet of Shelled Ninjas were spawned after an evening of brainstorming (apparently alcohol was involved) as a parody primarily of DareDevil, and Frank Millers "Ronin" series. This DD connection is very evident in the first issue where Splinter is revisiting the tale of their creation in the sewers of New York city. Now here's where we dig WAY back to April of 1964 when Marvel introduced DD. In his origin young Matt Murdock rushes to save an elderly blind man who is in danger of being hit by an out of control delivery truck, as Matt dives into the old man the truck swerves at the last minute dislodging a canister of radioactive waste that strikes and breaks open on Matt's head, rendering him blind but with all other senses super enhanced. Now here's where the Turtles take over the origin. After the canister strikes Matt Murdock it continues to bounce down the street, striking and breaking open a fish bowl carried by another young man walking home from the pet store thereby freeing the four baby turtles he had just purchased and spilling them and the ooze down a nearby sewer grate. As the young turtles crawled about in the radioactive goo they were found by Splinter (the rat)who also gets caught up in the goo (I'm not going to go through the even longer story of Splinter, suffice to say the movie was pretty close to the comic on that part) Splinter then raises them and trains them in the ways of the Ninja (as he learned by watching his master)
OK.
With me so far?
It's in issue four, five and six that we learn the company TCRI that produced the aforementioned GOO is actually staffed by a group of aliens oddly reminiscent of a B-Movie "crawling brain" creature. Stranded here after their ship crash landed on a routine surveillance expedition they integrated into our society using a humanoid exo-skeleton (think the little guy in "Men in Black") and began constructing a way to get themselves home. The canister that struck young Matt Murdock was some of the last material they had been salvaging from their down ship. In the ensuing issues the Turtles are transported to ANOTHER alien world ruled by a warring race of dinosaur like Triceritons. Eventually the Turtles make their way BACK to our Earth but with a few of the spike heads in tow.
Battle ensues.
WHEW!
SO, here's where the confusion lies. The majority of "Turtle" fans were spawned from the pizza spinning "Hero's in a Half Shell" cartoon series, and strings of Movies that severely veered away from Eastman and Liards original vision (although I do love the homage that is paid them in the first movie when the officer is questioning the thug after the final fight and he gives up the Foot's lair at "East Liardman Island"). It sounds to me as if Kevin Bay is "Going Back To Formula" on this one. Although it remains to be seen what variations there may be as they state "inadvertently spawned by an invading alien force". I've seen teaser art on the flick and their is some indication it may be both TCIR's and Triceretons involved, so perhaps, just perhaps they may stay true to the original. Real Turtles didn't live for Pizza.
The other gripe is on the casting of Megan Fox as April O'Neil. Whereas I agree that there is no real need for "Cheesecake" in this film, it's Micheal Bay so I guess I just best accept it's inevitability, but keep in mind she did do a pretty good "ass kicking" job in the first Transformers so perhaps we'll get lucky. At least DC let calmer heads prevail and NOT let her don the tights and tiara of Wonder Woman! Now THAT would have been a travesty!
SO, as a traditionalist I say don't poo-poo the latest incarnation of the shell-heads it is after all the REAL one!
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| A far cry better looking then the foam rubber suits of it's predecessor! |
Crime in that part of the world must be way down as to call in the police for a kid not paying for a soda. Wally-World detectives should be better trained. Perhaps, collect the evidence, confront the absent-minded youth at the check-out. I'm sure if it was my kid and my tax dollars I'd shop elsewhere from now on.
ReplyDeleteObviously wanting to justify the increased security they waited until he left the store to confront him, Problem is, that that store is the only place around for a few miles all the difference when you don't drive. They have a real problem with theft, hence all the new security. This is what happens when Walmart swoops in and devours the competition. We use to shop at Sweetbay which was located next door and avoided Wally with all our might. Unfortunately SB closed their doors in February so we have had to suffer in silence.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you know, I also wondered about the young man being followed so automatically by the rent-a-badge. Seemed a bit hinky.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, seeing how everyone complains about Wally Mart in all of it's many variations, do you remember the movie, "Demolition Man"? One of the jokes in that movie was about how they only had one restaurant left: Taco Bell. we're getting tot he poiint here in Aemrica where we will only have one store left: Wally. You got yer Walmart Wally, yer Sam's Club Wally and yer Neighborhood Wally.
But at least they have bike racks in front of every store.
Simply put, it's profiling. Elijah is 6'3" weighs about 240, dark hair, brooding eyes and almost always dresses in black so he kind of sticks out. As far as your comparative movie parable, here's another. Pixar's "Wal-E" (the robot's name alone says it) and the global corporation "Buy N' Large". The fact that THEY and NOT any government controlled the evacuation of Earth tells you the course of Capitalism!
ReplyDeletePS. The only real benefit of their bike racks is it gathers together all the fodder for the neighborhood bike thieves!
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