the LA Times went down to San Diego and brought back story after story about Comic-Con, the biggest convention in the world about comics and its relationship with Hollywood.

and most of that coverage was on our newest blog, Hero Complex.

now im probably the wrong person to talk to about something like this, being the Blog Editor and all, but it seems to me that events like Comic-Con, or oh i dont know, The Olympics, just might be best served on a medium like a blog.

a multi-media medium where you can have video, and tons of photos… a place where you can update dozens of times a day, providing up-to-the-minute news and spectacle.

a place where everyone who is as passionate as the attendees can camp out and geek out and enjoy and comment and gossip and discuss. as much as i love newsprint, i cant imagine any local paper allowing 40+ stories over 4 days for a comic book convention. it just isnt done. but you house such a thing on a blog and you shouldnt be surprised that it becomes one of the most popular places on your web site.

speaking of video, the above piece was done by katy newton, and the key to it all is the wide range of participants. the one thread that you hear in all of these voices is love. they love the comicbook world, they love being surrounded by people of like interests, and they love telling the story.

and i love that they got the head honcho of dc comics to stand still for that long so they could tell this story in this unique manner.

i think the oakparkmastermind is off the market, boys

but its hard to tell because even though erin is one of the finest bloggers alive

and even though she appears to be wearing a wedding dress and has said wedding

and ceremony

and “my brother performed the ceremony, it was five minutes long.”

there arent any photos of the “promise to be best friends with my boyfriend until the end of time” or of said boyfriend (now husband). there are photos of erin with a young lady, and of a female dj, and of a receipt from an expensive brunch at the pump room (a facility typically reserved for fanciness)

but since its the web and erin we will have to take her word for it.

in which case, congratulations erin, you rule!

i dont like will smith. or is it wil smith. dont like how i dont know how to spell it.

i started not liking him right around the time of the fresh prince. i felt that rap and hip hop were off to a nice little start and then he had to show up in this parody of rap that didnt do anything to the genre except water it down. yes parents just dont understand was funny and sorta different, the first hundred times, but mtv shoved it so far down our throats that it wasnt funny any more.

i also didnt like how dj jazzy jeff wasnt the slightest bit jazzy.

it also didnt help that my little sister bought the tape and watched the show.

summertime wasnt a bad single but that was about it for his musical career if you ask me. then came the acting. i use that word and consider an asterisk. he isnt a bad actor he just isnt all that amazing. he was ok in that one movie where he pretends hes someone else, six degrees of separation, but is that really acting?

his wife is fine, his kids are ok, his religious choices are his plus as a Christian who am i to judge. but because he rubs me the wrong way as someone who really has no true love for hip hop black culture or pushing the envelope i took a pass on Ali, iRobot, and pretty much anything else that he’s been in. especially the wild wild west a show i adored as a lad when james garner robert conrad ruled all over it.

therefore it was a tough decision when i was met last night with the choices at the arclight that presented me with seeing the dark knight again or a film about a reluctant and drunk black superhero. the premise seemed fine, i just knew i was going to have a hard time rooting for the fresh prince. since he was never fresh, etc.

im very happy to say that it was a fine film with an excellent soundtrack, and some great themes in regard to love, sacrifice, abandonment, pr, and partnership.

and still im shocked that al sharpton or jesse jackson hasnt come out to say “why you gotta have a black superhero be a drunk?”

came over yesterday. there was wine, women, and song.

just like it oughtta be.

often i talk about love here on this url and if it bores you, sorry. maybe its cuz im a libra. maybe its cuz im a cubfan. maybe its because love is everywhere and its hard not to want to sigh over. maybe because its what drives some people, like me.

yesterday chris came over and we drove around LA, we drove to the grove to get her a new iphone and we were turned away cuz apparently they are rationing them. they have an interesting deal going there, you can show up at 8am and they hand out tickets. then you have all day to redeem your ticket for the opportunity to buy an iphone. so technically theyre not sold out after noon, cuz they have iphones in the back, and some for tomorrows lottery. and the next day, etc. but if you show up, say 1pm, with your truest but no ticket, then you get no phone.

so we ate crawfish at the farmers market. after crepes. and before ice cream.

then we drove back to my place to drink wine with jeanine.

the wine was special. right around y2k tsar played in madrid, spain. many of our friends flew out there to ring in the new year. why not? chris and i were about to break up. our bags were packed, our lease was about to run out, we knew what was gonna happen and we were suprisingly good about it. so i said, lets go to madrid with our amigos and she said si papi.

the only one who couldnt make the trip was jeanine.

one night all of the friends went to a little tapas place called el abuelo. getting 20 people to show up at one place wihtout cell phone or email or text messages, and in a foreign land, was a tough trick but we all got there and ate shrimp and fish and tapas and we drank the most wonderful wine. it was so good and surprisingly cheap ($4 a bottle). chris and i decided that we would bring back a few bottles. one for my boss who had given me the time off, one for each of our parents, and one for jeanine.

for some reason any time chris and jeanine had been to my house together we forgot to drink the bottle of wine… until yesterday. jeanine and chris hadnt seen each other for over two years cuz chris was saving the world in uganda. i was very afraid that the cheap wine wouldnt keep. i was also nervous that maybe it was just the vibe in madrid that made the wine seem so delish. but im happy to report that no no the wine was wonderful, as was the company.

but of course. but of course.

update: video evidence of jeanine rockin