Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #156 - The Revolution: Throwback Thursday

me in school play 1973

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #156 - The Revolution: Throwback Thursday

Hi Mom,

I am in Homework Hell, so this is a short one.

Here's a picture of me from a school play performed in 1973 about the American Revolutionary War.

I believe that's my good friend Tim Travis on the left, just partially in the frame.

I promise more substantial content soon, Mom, as I am not even writing this on Thursday December 10th but rather two days later (Saturday) after the most intense two days of recent weeks. I think this is the first time I have let two days go by without even publishing a rough draft version.

I feel your love around me and your pride in me as I try to barrel through this work. Finals are next week. Projects due. Grades to complete for my job. There's been very little time for anything else.

But I do think of you, Mom. Even amidst all the madness, I think of you.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 158 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.10 - 10:10
really 1512.12 8:16

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #155 - Reprinted T-shirt Nonesuchery pt.1 -UoFM

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #155 - Reprinted T-shirt Nonesuchery pt.1

Hi Mom,

This is kind of a cheat. I am swamped with home work and work work and exhaustion. So, even though it's not the new year, here's a reprint of the new year's wish from my T-shirt blog.

This post is not listed in my T-shirts favorite category, but I am rather fond of it. This post features a great miscellania of nonesuchery. Enjoy.

T-shirt #286 - Michigan - The Rose Bowl 2005 - Happy New Year!

I do not own any Michigan State University Spartans gear. I wish the Spartans well and a victory today in the Rose Bowl.

I am ashamed of Michigan's performance in the so coveted (that's sarcasm) Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. I don't even want to write about it.

I know I promised comic book content today, but that will have to wait. Today's entry will be short. But I will share a few photos or images that have been sitting in my T-shirts blog folder. I know I did photos yesterday, but I promise to only share a few.

Hey, it's New Year's Day!! Happy New Year to you and yours. 

Oh, and I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I make resolutions all year. I have lived up to many of mine as evidenced by this damn thing.

So instead of resolutions, some geeky and sundry various nonsense. Enjoy.

But I do like this resolution that I posted to Facebook (via Warren Ellis via someone else).

These next two links may not work unless you are registered to and/or logged in to Facebook and/or Good Reads. But I post them here for posterity or my own reference. But give them a try. Or try them via my Facebook and/or Good Reads pages.

YEAR IN REVIEW - FACEBOOK

My books from 2013 on Good Reads

If not, here's the books.

I love this cartoon. I am posting it separately to Facebook to make sure more people see it. Thank you Twitter-world.

I also love the following cartoon.

Along with yesterday's Roald Dahl quote, this was one of my favorite things Liesel posted all year.

Just because.

Well, not really.

A student of mine got this as a tattoo.

And I am teaching mythology, so it was meaningful.

From my wife, just this morning.

THE BEST TIME TO BLOG

I may return to the subject above in a future post.

Crazy big win in fantasy football.

The awesome New Yorker cover by Chris Ware.

If you do not know Chris Ware, click his name. Or Google Search images of Chris Ware to see his amazing art.

The equally awesome New Yorker cover by Adrian Tomine. I wrote about Adrian Tomine most notably in T-shirt #98 - Optic Nerve. 

The pets, recent photos. First Vespers and then Satchel.

Sleeping puppy...

sleepy puppy.

'Nuff said. (following photo via Warren Ellis)

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 79 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.01 - 10:16

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Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 157 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.09 - 22:22

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #154 - "Get used to it." The Force Awakens & Diversity

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #154 - "Get used to it." The Force Awakens & Diversity

Hi Mom,

More stuff in my continuing series of stuff I care about much more then you do, but when I share with you, then you listen politely and let me know your proud of me for being a strong intellectual and full of curiosity and as you always encouraged me to be.

I wrote about the racist and bigoted backlash against the new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, almost 50 days ago in Hey Mom #106.

Entertainment Weekly published a great special issue on Star Wars and The Force Awakens in November, which I have been slowly reading. I just finished it, every word. I was especially struck by this article, "The Face of Change,"  about new cast members Daisy Ridley and John Boyega as "shaking up" the Star Wars universe. It seems silly to talk about the casting of a strong woman and a sensitive black man (actors are both British, so "African-American" does not apply here) in character roles. Egads, there's people of color and women in the universe with white men and women (and Wookies and Droids). What a shocker!! How shall we protect ourselves from all these people of color and women?

Let's set aside the fact that it's an interesting racial comment that the AWOL stormtrooper Finn has black skin but wears armor that is all white. SO MUCH potential for analysis there.

But here's what Boyega said that I really loved, which is the core of today's short post. First, he comments on how children do not seem to care about the gender of characters or the color of their skins as much as adults seem to care. Children will pretend to be these characters no matter what they look like. Following that, Boyega said

"we've been having a continuous struggle with idiots, and now we should just force them to understand--and I love the way I just used 'Force' there, by the way--just force people to see that this is a new world. There are loads of people with different shades and backgrounds. Get used to it."

Hell, yeah!

Well said, John Boyega.

I am starting to get really excited for this movie.

The Force Awakens opens December 18th.

"I was raised to do one thing, but I've got nothing to fight for." ―Finn[src]


Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 156 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.08 - 10:10

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #153 - Warren Ellis & new year's resolutions

Unnamed image from Orbital Operations by Warren Ellis - 1512.06

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #153 - Warren Ellis & new year's resolutions

Hi Mom, Except when he is suffering from the "Terrible Flu Gone Wrong" or a "Miscellaneous Neurological Event, " every Sunday Warren Ellis sends us, his dear readers, his weekly newsletter, in which he writes about pretty much whatever he wants, though mostly his work and his working life, but also interesting thoughts that occur to him that may be of interest to the people who at some point subscribed to his weekly think-aloud. I look forward to it each week and enjoy it immensely as I have enjoyed all things Warren for almost ten years now, which includes an occasional podcast of haunting music (Spektrmodule - see links at the bottom of this post), comic books, novels, essays, opinions about whisky (mostly scotch), and assorted other items.

I like the news letter timing, also, as he sends it late in the day on Thames Delta time (where he is stationed in his sea fort and central command post), which usually ensures that it's in my in box by bed time.

Here is the header to verify that I indeed subscribe and to verify the name of his iconclastic missive, and then the snippet that I wanted to share with you, Mom.

 I like this advice.  It reminded me of you, Mom, and of making things a little bit better for myself as I miss you, step by step, year by year.

"It's all incremental. 

"Lots of small victories is better than one big one."

Thank, Warren.

Here's some links of my favorite stuff on Warren that I have written, but fear not, dear reader, and brace yourself, Mom, as I am going to re-publish the best piece soon when I am need of a quick content day.

WEEKLY COMICS 1408.20 - SUPREME BLUE ROSE

T-SHIRT #299 - GRENDEL AND THE BROKEN PHONE

T-SHIRT #75 - SPEKTRMODULE

T-SHIRT #284 - DOCTOR WHISKY

T-SHIRT #22 - I MISS FREAKANGELS

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 155 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.07 - 19:31

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #152 - Forgetful and Clumsy

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #152 - Forgetful and Clumsy

Hi Mom,

It's getting worse. I am very forgetful lately. Last night, I made coffee to start based on the programming. When I woke and went to get coffee, I saw the coffee maker was on, but there was no coffee. Why? I forgot to put water in the coffee maker.

Right now, you are laughing like crazy, Mom. I can hear you. I can hear your cries of "why would anyone do such a thing. Don't you know coffee makers need water to make coffee?"

Yeah, you're a riot.

Then later in the day, I made rice and I left the stove burner on for even though I had moved the pot off the heat for 15-20 minutes.

I am dangerous. My mind is not functioning properly.

And I am clumsy. I am banging into things, I am dropping things, I am unsafe, and things are unsafe around me.

I do not know if it's a ton of java code, Pre-Calculus, or just age and decrepitude.

I need a Brain Pal.

I am so tired.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 154 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.06 - 19:28

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #151 - Anne of Avonlea

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #151 - Anne of Avonlea

Hi Mom, Dad was kind enough to accompany me to the What A Do Theatre last night for the opening of Anne of Avonlea. Following, you will find the link to my published review and the text of the review itself.

Here's my thoughts on reviewing. I am not writing for The New York Times. It's not my job to pass judgement on the production or to truly rate its quality for our small town market here in and around Battle Creek. My job is to provide readers with a recap on what is in store for them if they attend but to always give readers reasons to attend.

I did not like this production very much, which had more to do with the script than anything else.

But audiences seemed to like it, and I noted this observation.

I thought my editor's headline of "Script Leaves Audiences Flat" was a little harsh, but then, I do not write those headlines.

Still, I think people should go see the live theatre, and the What a Do theatre has a strong history of excellent productions. This is just not one of its best.

Link for published review: Anne of Avonlea

MY REVIEW

"Anne of Avonlea”
a production of What A Do Theatre
Attended Date: December 04, 2015
reviewed by Christopher Tower
gmrstudios2@gmail.com
269-488-3590 / 269-330-2247

One year after selling out its small space multiple times with the adaptation of the children’s novel “Anne of Green Gables,” the What A Do Theatre launches part two of the popular saga with “Anne of Avonlea.”
Though audiences are still delighted with the antics of the now older Anne Shirley (Averi Beck), the dramatization of this novel by Jeanette Carlisle is not nearly as well done as the first. On opening night, the Dickman Road theater nearly filled to capacity based on the promise of the success of last year’s program. The audience honored the strong cast and artful director with plenty of laughter and warm applause, but the show itself is just not as good in any aspect as “Anne of Green Gables.”
Popularity not holiday-content prompted director Randy Wolfe to stage this sequel at the holiday season. The What A Do theatre is decorated both inside and out for the Christmas holidays. The company offers special door prizes of wrapped presents under a Christmas tree to boost the festivities. But the show itself has nothing to do with Christmas, other than its popularity with families who have often given the books to children as gifts under their own trees for the holiday.
Not to be confused with a 1987 TV mini-series or the musical “Anne and Gilbert,” this production is a straight play of the second of eight novels first published in 1909 written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The books have sold millions of copies worldwide in the last hundred plus years and have been translated into 20 languages.
The play adaptation is an edited version of the second novel, eliminating key plot elements and characters. Though Anne Shirley (Beck) still begins her first term teaching at the Avonlea school, she and her adopted mother Marilla Cuthbert (Stacy Little) do not take in the twin children of their troublesome neighbor Mr. J.A. Harrison (Michael Andres), though he still makes an appearance as does his foul-mouthed parrot. Anne’s favorite pupil becomes Paulina Irving (Kailen Roop) rather than a boy named Paul, and other characters, such as Miss Lavender Lewis do not make an appearance at all.
In this sequel, Hunter King who played Moody Spurgeon last year takes on the role of Fred Wright, who asks Anne’s best friend Diana Berry, this year played by Maddy Haywood, to marry him. Christian Perez takes on the role of Anne’s love interest Gilbert Blythe, last year played by Derek Whitesell, who this year has a small role as Tommy Gillis.
The majority of the show features the activity of the young people (aided by three women played by Keely Cruz, Kelsey McGraw, and Kylie Ohrt) working as A.V.I.S. (The Avonlea Village Improvement Society) as they raise funds to make improvements to the town hall and the overall landscape of the village.
The play fragments into a vignette-type style that does not segment easily into scenes. There are wandering cows, Marilla’s ill health, romantic sub-plots, and Anne’s day dreams, but none of these elements provides working dramatic structure to the show. There are really no conflicts at all as the show unfolds in a day-in-the-life type manner. Gilbert yearns for Anne to return his love and put off plans to go to college, and a serious storm brings back a lost wife (Rachel Markillie) and ushers in the death of an unseen character, the rest of the show is series of conversations that may be more interesting to those who love the books than those who do not. The show ends rather abruptly without much of a climax as it does not build much conflict and dramatic tension in its two hour run time.
Despite the adaptation’s unremarkable script, the performers marshal serious resources and industry to show why the What A Do Theatre Company consistently offers professional, rewarding works of art to the Battle Creek community.
Following her nomination for a local Wilde award after her performance last year, Averi Beck returns for a second go at Anne Shirley. Seemingly taller and more self-possessed, she gives a fine performance, though sadly the poor script does her no favors, especially in the handling of her trademark day dreams, which here are presented as an after thought with very little explanation.
Fresh off her mind-blowing work in “August: Osage County,” Stacy Little also returns to the role of Marilla Cuthbert and does a fine job, but one wonders why she is not also joined by resident company members who made last year’s show so good, such as Dave Stubbs and Kristin Marie Stelter.
Lynda Wolfersberger Hensel fills the role of busybody Mrs. Rachel Lynde, but the script also fails to give her the kind of content that made her one of the most colorful characters in “Anne of Green Gables.”
Of the newcomers, Maddy Haywood shines brightest as Diana Berry. Kylie Ohrt has some cute business to execute as Gertie Pye. And though Christian Perez starts out a bit sluggishly, his act two work proves his acting chops in the role of Gilbert Blythe.
Once again, as last year, the set features period designs, furniture, and props with impeccable taste as arranged by Samantha Snow and Thomas Koehler. Production values are professional and seamless as always under the watchful eye of director Randy Wolfe and his family of helping hands, including Teri Noaeill, Nancy King, and Koehler.
Wolfe comments in his opening remarks that What A Do is a family and is supported by strong families, which is evident both in the loving patrons in attendance. Though the show has nothing to do with Christmas, it surely evokes warm feelings and happiness from the audience, which is what Christmas is supposed to do.

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Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 153 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.05 - 10:10
and again 1512.06 10:00

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #150 - Hey, Mom, Comics!!

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #150 - Hey, Mom! New WEEKLY Comics!!

Hi Mom,

Gee wiz, Mom. Comic books. I felt it was time for some comic book content. And there's no time more fitting than for entry #150 in this series, in which I have written a bit about comic books, but not entirely and not frequently.

I appreciate that you were always supportive of my comic book reading, Mom. You bought me my first comic book, and when I was little, when we went to the grocery store, if I was good, you would buy me a small book or a comic book.

When I was older, you bought me subscriptions to comic books, so that issues would arrive in the mail for my favorite comics. And then there were always the boxes of comic books for Christmas, which you let me open on Christmas Eve, so that when I woke up at 3 a.m., I would have comic books to read while I waited to wake you and Dad at 6 a.m.

Most of my birthday cakes were decorated with a comic book hero, and there were many more comic book related gifts over the years as well as pilgrimages to  comic book stores when we took trips, before these were more common place and there was a great one in Kalamazoo.
This love for comic books continued until now. A large amount of the content on my T-shirt blog was devoted to comic books as I own many comic-book-themed T-shirts, many of which you gave me as gifts, Mom. Part way through my T-shirt year, I decided to feature a list of the comic books I purchased each week, ranked in the order I would read them as setting the stack in order is something I do each week.

I collected those blogs, here: COLLECTION OF WEEKLY COMIC LISTS FROM 365 T-SHIRTS.

My idea with these comic book posts was to give myself a reason to write about the current comic books, as the T-shirt themed posts were often more broad in scope, featuring a tribute to DOCTOR STRANGE or WONDER WOMAN.  And so I devised the weekly comic book list feature to write about my thoughts on current comic books. When I ceased daily publication on 365 T-shirts, I tried to continue to keep up with the weekly comic book list feature on this blog, SENSE OF DOUBT, with entries, such as this one: COMICS FOR 1404.09 or this one: COMICS FOR 1404.16.

But I fell behind. The last entry I published was this one for WEEKLY COMICS FROM 1408.27. I started a switch over to write about the lists grouped by month, but stalled at September 2014. Now, over a year later, I have over a dozen draft pages of comic book lists in ranked order that I have not published. I considered publishing all the list in one entry, but I know that this ranking and listing is more interesting to me than it is to anyone else, even you, Mom. And so, I have not done that grouping yet. Heck, I even struggle to make a post in Hey Mom ever day, as I have at least nine posts on this blog that I considered unfinished.

And so, here's the current list in the hopes I can get back on track with publishing the lists and as a minimum making a few remarks on the comics for the week, which is after all, the purpose of what I am doing with the listing.

I found a cool website that does comic book round ups, so I made the header of the list a link to that site as well.

I had cleared some of the back log (comics that go unread for months), and so I discovered I had missed Batgirl #42. Normally, this issue would not hit the top of the stack, but since I read all the others before and after it, I wanted to find out what happened and not wait.

Art often is the deciding factor in the ranking, so given that I love Frank Cho's art, Totally Awesome Hulk #001 takes the top spot, followed by Warren Ellis' new take on James Bond, and then Invincible Iron Man #004 mainly on the strength of this awesome cover (see above). Recently, the new launch of Doctor Strange took a top spot as I adore the art of Chris Bachalo. Doctor Strange #003 falls to fifth here only because I will savor it slowly, and so I placed other comics that are quicker reads ahead of it.

There are a lot of new #001s because Marvel is going ahead with its post-Secret Wars universe even though the Secret Wars comic will not wrap up for another couple of months because of delays in production. So, we are reading the aftermath before we learn the story behind how the new/old Marvel universe turned out as it did.

You will note that despite the Batgirl issue to start the stack, DC comics does not earn a spot until the #16, which like Batgirl is a catch up, not a comic that came out this week. DC has been very disappointing by and large and this week Marvel surely dominates the stack. But there are three comics outside the big two publishers with the aforementioned James Bond, which joins Grayson, Black Widow, and Velvet in the industry's new found fascination with spy thriller comics. There's also the wonderful comic from the minds of Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang from Image Comics, Paper Girls, which is quite fun, and there's Dynamite's latest DOC SAVAGE comic -- Doc Savage Spiders Web #1. I am a real sucker for Doc Savage comics, so this one gets an order even though my comic book budget is tight.

Also, please note that only one comic hits the back log, as I have cleared it somewhat, though Batman and Robin Eternal #8  from the Back Log moves up to join  #9, though both are low enough in the list that I am unlikely to get them read before next week's comics come out. I love weekly comics, but they are tough to stay on top of given the numbers I buy each week. Also, my reading time is divided now, especially with Finals Week looming.

I am not sure if this is a cost saving mode or not, but I chose to wait out buying Grant Morrison's 18 Days  as a trade paperback, as I do here with VOL 01 War Begins, rather than buying the individual issues.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And now at the end, my favorite part, the comic book cover gallery, though I will try to keep it brief (as I already posted three covers).

WEEKLY COMICS FOR DECEMBER 02, 2015



Batgirl #42 (only because I missed it now I am catching up)
Totally Awesome Hulk #001
James Bond #2
Invincible Iron Man #004
Doctor Strange #003
Star Wars #013
Extraordinary X-Men #003
All New All Different Avengers #002
All New X-Men #001
Paper Girls #3
Daredevil #001
Guardians of Infinity #001
Vision #002
Doc Savage Spiders Web #1
Spidey #001
Superman: Lois and Clark #2 (also catch up back issue)
Batman and Robin Eternal #8 and #9
Green Lantern #47
Robin War #1 (of 2)
Rocket Girl #7
Teen Titans #14
Action Comics #47

BACK LOG

Nova #2


SPECIAL PURCHASE

Grant Morrison's 18 Days TP VOL 01 War Begins

 Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 152 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1512.04 - 10:10
and again 1512.06 - 9:36

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COMIC BOOK COVER ART GALLERY