Fear And Loathing In Geekdom #1 A New (batch of) Hope

Ah… that’s the fresh smell of a brand new column… smells kind of like new car mixed with nacho cheese Doritos.

My name is Brent Chittenden and I’ve been around geekdom a long time (I write for Comic Book Daily, I have a podcast called TATANS, but yet I have a girlfriend… weird huh?) and if one thing is certain, the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one brings a lot of lists. Best Of’s, Worst Of’s, etc, but I thought I would make a list of my hopes and wishes for various nerd projects lined up for 2012..along with a couple of special requests of mine.

It’s my column, I’m allowed.

Think of it as a bunch of open letters, thoughts and suggestions to/about objects, people and things.

Prometheus

Please don’t suck.

Out of the myriad of sequels, comic book based films, remakes, re-treds and others and despite the fact that this is kind-os-sort-of-maybe a prequel to Alien, Prometheus is the film I am most looking forward. Alien was a film that really took a hold of me in my early teens and wouldn’t let go. The first trailer was everything I hoped it would be. It showed me somethings I wanted and a ton of things that I have no clue what they mean.

The Dark Knight Rises

Dear Dark Knight Rises:

I think I speak for everyone in the geek community when I say we are slightly worried you may have gone of the rails into a villian bender. We’ve seen other potentially good films do it before; Spider-Man 3, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin and we are worried you’ve done the same. Bane, Catwoman, Talia, rumors of other characters. I think what we want more then anything else is that The Dark Knight Rises remembers that it’s a Batman film and not a film about Bane.

Rush: Clockwork Angels

Hear that sound?

That’s the sound of Mr. Green yelling at me through his computer monitor.

But luckily this is my column and I can talk about Rush for just a second.

I’m a big fan of Rush but I must admit, a recent convert. Their new album Clockwork Angels sounds like it’s starting to shape up really well. We got a sneak peek at two tracks last year and if they are any indication, this album will be rather good. Supposedly this is a bit of a concept album. What that concept is however remains to be seen.

But how good is the question.

At the very least, it’ll give me another opportunity to see them live in concert.

Geof Darrow:  Shaolin Cowboy

This is a little biased as Geof is one of my favorite people in the comic industry; two of his prints are on my walls (one of which he signed with small dinosaur sketch), he’s down to Earth, humble despite his amazing skill and has the best story about a pencil sharpener.

Seriously, he does.

But due to his work on movie stuff (and the inactivity of Burleyman) and just the work pace Geof keeps, we haven’t seen much from him in a while. Illustrations in Dark Horse Presents, a few pin ups (a stand out in The Rocketeer Adventures) and covers (a fantastic Godzilla cover), but no full work. 2012 might see that change for a bit as it looks like the return of Shaolin Cowboy both to comics and in a pulp novel written by Andrew Vachss with spot illustrations.  As a fan, I can’t wait to see how it looks.

 

 

 

Colt Cabana and The Art of Wrestling

Aside from my own podcast and the internet radio extravaganza  that is Geek Hard, there’s  not a lot of stuff on the internet I listen to. I listen to the various incarnations of Review a Wai on the Fight Network’s site, The Nerdist and I listen to The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana.

Colt’s an indy wrestler who had a very brief stay with the WWE but man is he a good talker. That’s not to say he’s the best interviewer but there’s something about his show that can capture the attention of even non-wrestling fans. My hopes is this translates to some bigger bucks for Colt as he comes up with some of the more interesting questions. Take his interview with Tracy Smothers (former WWE, ECW guy) where he brings up the following:

“Didn’t you wrestle a bear once?”

Which launches into one of the best conversations I’ve ever heard on a podcast that includes the technique of having a pro wrestling match with a bear. Side not of geek trivia, Jill Thompson, artist of Sandman fame, has drawn tshirts for Colt.

Borderlands 2

I loved Borderlands and had Gearbox just released Borderlands with new character classes (or as downloadable content) that would have been pretty decent in itself. But the fact we’re getting a new game with new character classes just makes me happy. I can’t wait to murder the crap out of psychos in hockey masks for hours on end.

Nickleback:

Dear Nickleback.

Stop it, just stop it.

You are the dirty little secret of a ton of people. You sell millions of albums but yet I can’t think of a single person will admit to buying an album. You have tons of money, just give the rest of us a break for say…12 years? Or forever, that’s good too.

And bring Theory of a Deadman with you. They’re your fault, you deal with them.

Happy New Year!