News for the Week of October 1, 2008
Rick’s Writin’s
With actor and all around great guy Paul Newman's passing on Friday, I
went about trying to figure out where he ranked on my all time personal
favorites list. I came to the conclusion that he was in my top five, joining
Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne. Many of
you younger pups may not be as familiar with Paul Newman's work as, if
you are a movie buff, you should be. I'm going to give you some films
to see that will help you appreciate how truly great Paul Newman was.
First, his earlier years: The most famous is "The Hustler (1961),
where he plays pool shark "Fast Eddie" Felson. This one also
has Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott, and is a pretty gritty look at
high stakes pool playing. The other two from this era would be either
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)" with Elizabeth Taylor (also in
her prime here) or "Long Hot Summer (1958)" the film on which
he met his long time wife Joanne Woodward. These latter two films Paul
plays the same type of character, kind of a southern drifter/scoundrel,
but they're early examples of why he became a big star. You can't help
watching him. Next, are two of my all time favorite movies and a classic.
The classic is "Cool Hand Luke (1967)", a must see for many
reasons, even if only for Prison Warden Strother Martin's line "What
we have here is a failure to communicate.". The favorites are Paul's
team-ups with Robert Redford, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(1969)" and "The Sting (1973)". Newman and Redford make
a great team, and both these movies have a great story as well as excellent
comedy bits. These two movies also helped solidify Redford's star power.
For a movie that is just fun, see the hockey flick "Slapshot (1977)".
I'm sure this one isn't mentioned as a top movie by any means, but it's
always been a personal favorite of mine. For the later years of Mr. Newman's
career I think the best ones to catch are "The Color of Money (1986)"
where he again plays "Fast Eddie" Felson, this time mentoring
pool shark Tom Cruise. This is the film Mr. Newman won his only official
acting Oscar, though he was nominated about ten times. "Hudsucker
Proxy (1994)" has Mr. Newman as an evil boss to Tim Robbins, and
one I'm recommending though I haven't seen it "Nobody's Fool (1994)"
supposed to be one of his all time best performances. I really need to
see that one. Lastly, Mr. Newman plays a 1930's crime boss in a good one,
"Road to Perdition (2002)", based on an original graphic novel,
also starring Tom Hanks, Jude Law and a pre-Bond Daniel Craig. There's
some homework for you. I hope you enjoy these, and if time only lets you
pick a couple be sure to catch "Butch" and "Cool Hand Luke",
and try to fit "The Sting” in. You won't be sorry.
We get a bit of a break this week to catch up after last week's huge volume
of releases in which Marvel alone had 28 titles out. This lighter week
should also help us with time to get the store square after the big over
haul we did last week. I hope you folks like the new layout. If not, please
say so and why. Of course, if you have any suggestions, please feel free
to mention them, though no guarantee we'll use them. We always want to
hear though. Okay, the releases this week are lighter, but we DO have
two pieces of the Batman RIP story, Batman (#680) and Nightwing (#149).
For those of you worried that you're getting lost with the Bat titles,
there's going to be a two issue synopsis coming next month, with the story
narrated by Bat butler Alfred, as he goes over what has been going on
and leads us to what's next. So, don't fear the Bat is RIP. Justice League
hits issue #25, with some time altered hoodoo voodoo going on. DC Universe
Decisions (#2 of 4 mini), the political based book that almost none of
you seem interested in based on sales of the first issue, arrives. Maybe
the Justice League can figure out how to bail out the banks. Since Marvel
deemed fit to release everything last week, they've not left a whole lot
for this week. Laurell K. Hamilton's second Anita Blake story "Laughing
Corpse" gets started with a five issue mini and Marvel has finally
released the first "Marvel Zombies" story in a soft cover collection,
but aside from some small titles, that's about it from Marvel. Zenoscope
has the second Beyond Wonderland (#2 of 5 mini), but all in all, it's
a good week to catch up on stuff you may have had to leave behind due
to budget busting release schedules from weeks past. Perhaps you'll find
a graphic novel or book you've never seen before because we had to bury
it on a shelf, and now we can display it with our new set up. Look around...I'm
sure if I'm finding stuff I don't remember having, I'm sure there will
be something new for your eyes too.(Of course my memory could just be
going, but we won't get into that).
Looks like this was a good week for the Seahawks to have a bye, if the
college teams are any indication. Man, both the Huskies and Cougars are
poor. It almost looks like the only win either of them could get is when
they play each other in the Apple Cup game, assuming they both can't lose
it. Last day for the M's season, Thank God. It looks like if the M's win
today, they'll lose out on having the first pick in the Baseball draft.
I wonder how long it'll take them to start making their moves. The new
GM should be in place pretty soon after the season is over, unless the
want somebody with a playoff team, like Dodgers Assistant GM Kim Ng. She's
supposed to be very sharp and has great credentials, being with the Dodgers
seven years and before that with Yankees GM Brian Cashman. It'd be interesting
to have the first woman GM in baseball, but she's also an outsider. We
need the fresh eyes and she's supposed to be very good analyzing talent.
Til next week...
Paula’s Picks
We got all of the heavy lifting done at the shop! Yay! We’ve gotten
a lot of compliments on the new layout: “roomy,” “the
shop seems bigger,” “you can see more books,” “brighter.”
I’m not sure where that last one comes from, but I thought that
it seems brighter in here somehow too. I think it might be because we
took all of the posters and shelves off of one of the walls so you can
see the white of the walls more. It helps bounce the light around the
room better (I learned about that on Color Splash). We still have a lot
more organizing to do, so if you can’t find something, please don’t
hesitate to ask. It has been a really hectic and busy week. I just got
back from my days off so I’m feeling nicely rested. I started to
come down with something on Thursday, but my Friday of lounging around
the house in my pjs, eating chicken soup and drinking my oj seems to have
cured that.
We’re getting the new House of Mystery #6 this week. I’ve
really been enjoying this series. I love that you get 1 complete mini-story
in each issue. They also have some great guest artists working on those.
This week’s issue features art by Tony Akins who does Jack of Fables.
We’re also getting the hardcover collection for Stephen King’s
Dark Tower: Long Road Home. It’s the second in a series of comics
about the Dark Tower novels.
The Boys also comes out with its newest collection this week as well as
issue #23. Rick and I have been told numerous times that we should read
this series. Maybe, since it is a light week, I’ll be able to get
to this one.