Listening to Her Raunchy Music Made Me Wonder...What if Megan Thee Stallion Was Secretly Vanilla?

Megan Thee Stallion is a rapper who is known for some saucy lyrics. She talks about how good she is at wild and kinky sex, a lot. Some of her lyrics include bragging about how her vagina has so much grip men can't last more than a minute in bed with her and that she messes them up in the head and causes them to obsess about her thanks to her sex-abilities. She talks about all kinds of wild sex acts like climbing on a man's face and, "Doing a luau," and other assorted actions that incorporate pain or domination. Now, I am by no means stating Megan Thee Stallion is bad at sex, I'm sure her partner/s are always very satisfied, but what if Megan Thee Stallion was secretly vanilla and had us all fooled?

Musicians will sometimes create an image of themselves that is exaggerated or over-the-top. After all, many musicians are not partying constantly (and those who do often sadly end up dead) and lots of gangster rappers are not actually selling drugs or shooting rivals (and rappers who do engage in crimes have tended to end-up in prison or also sadly dead). Hence, it would be kind of funny if it turned out Megan Thee Stallion were actually really mellow and chill when it came to sex as opposed to violently mounting her partners and riding their genitals like, "A stolen car." For all I know Megan Thee Stallion is as extreme sexually as she claims, but it would be funny if at some point the opposite turned out to be true.

Mid-November 2019 Links and News

Thanksgiving (Slowly) Nears

Thanksgiving is right near the end of the month of November this year, so it seems like we have to wait forever to eat all that Turkey/Ham/Vegetarian alternative we're looking forward to digging into. It is just Mid-November right now, so to help us bide our time here are some interesting links or bits of news you can snack on.

Links and News, Wishbone not Included

I am quite excited for a Jeopardy, "Greatest of All Time," tournament where the (arguably) three best players ever face-off in prime-time for a chunk of cash. We shall see who will win when it airs this January!

I and my other friends such the folk at Comics Heating Up are extremely excited for the launch this week of a new mini-series with the character, "The Question."Featuring the talented writing of Jeff Lemire as well as art by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz (who both have drawn Vic Sage in the past with great skill) it will most likely be quite grand. I feel like a weekly show focused on the character solving mysteries would just be awesome.

It seems like everybody has an opinion on this whole, "OK Boomer," meme. I don't have much to say besides it is kind of funny to see how mad Baby Boomers get about it considering the years they went on-and-on about how everyone else was being an overly-sensitive, "Snowflake." Because nothing can simply remain a silly meme, Fox has apparently applied to trademark the phrase for use in comedy programs or game shows.

I still have yet to watch, "The Mandalorian," show on Disney+ even though we have the service. I have heard many good things however, including one interesting observation about how delightfully old-school, "Star Wars," it feels compared to the more slick and fancy new movies. Plus, it has a baby alien from Yoda's species who is absolutely adorable!

"Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp," already had issues with how mercenary it was. Introducing a paid subscription service for the game just sounds atrocious and I'm glad I quit playing it when I did. I will always prefer versions you pay for upfront and can enjoy without micro-transactions.

Speaking of video-games I have not played in forever but sometimes follow the news of, Professor Oak and Ash's Mom are definitely hooking-up in the, "Pokemon," Universe.

"Saturday Night Live," can be quite good or pretty bad. I'll give it up to the, "Days of our Impeachment," bit that opened the last show  however. It made fun of the idea that the impeachment hearings of Donald Trump lack, "Pizzazz," and need to be more dramatic to get people to care. Putting aside how sad it is people need our President committing crimes to be, "Entertaining television," it was a good segment in all its absurdity, despite some apparent issues with where the camera was supposed to be.

God, will people please stop going on about this mythological, "Snyder Cut," unless it is in the context of a fascinating documentary tracing the history of how the, "Justice League," movie went so wrong?

Lastly, the game platform company Valve that used to make games actually announced the have a new, "Half Life," game in the works after over a decade of people waiting. The reason this was not huge news as you would normally expect is that it is a prequel game that uses VR. Yeah, that VR-headset technology some people thought would be huge years ago and which has had a lukewarm-at-best reception by the gaming market. More will be revealed November 21st apparently, so perhaps this will sound more exciting as details emerge? For now, it is quite underwhelming.

Soon-ish We Shall Feast

While it may still seem a bit of a ways away, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. Then, after that it is one big wild mess of all the Winter holidays before the New Year.

Superman Revealing His Identity Again Seems Like Such Lazy Writing

I am a fan of the comic writer known as Brian Michael Bendis. I am realistic tho, loving some of his work and admittedly thinking parts of it are not as good (his team-books oftentimes were lackluster compared to titles focused on a singular hero). Some time ago he went to work for DC Comics after years at Marvel and his big thing right now is having Superman reveal his identity as Clark Kent...which yes, happened like a couple years ago when Lois Lane spilled the beans.

This seems so lazy because as I said, it happened some years ago and nobody really cared, so why are we treading the same/really similar ground? I would argue the fact Clark Kent and Superman are the same person is the least interesting thing about both identities, the whole point is that Superman represents goodness and doing the best you can while Clark Kent is a way for Superman to live a normal and human life...so by revealing they are the one person that erases the point of Clark Kent, arguably. Heck, having Clark Kent as an identity helps humanize Superman as well, keeping him grounded despite being so almighty--there is a big monologue in, "Kill Bill: Volume 2," about this actually:



Bendis does not seem to care about any of the reasons I and the late David Carradine list as the upcoming, "Superman," #18 will apparently have the big reveal (unless this is all some clever trick to hide a more wild twist, in which case that would be pretty impressive). I have not seen any excitement about this, just people shrugging and thinking this is a redundant idea from Bendis at best or, "Chasing headlines," at worst, as my friend Agent Poyo at Comics Heating Up describes it. Perhaps this will be a great story somehow, for now I'm not that enthusiastic.

The Cortaca Jug Was Today and at MetLife Stadium!

The 61st annual Cortaca Jug occurred today. It is where the Division 3 Football teams of Cortland and Ithaca play against each other. It is a healthy little rivalry and each college takes turns hosting every year. One neat thing was Ithaca was the host but was able to get the game at the huge MetLife stadium where actual NFL games happen. The stadium was flooded with Red for Cortland and Blue for Ithaca as the teams played today. The college I attended (Cortland) lost, sadly, but it was still cool to have the whole thing occur where it did!

"Universilent" #1 and #2 Review

In a previous post where I discussed my time at the most recent Toyman show I mentioned having met and purchased comics from Kevin Kessler of Kazolf Comics. Titled, "Universilent," the series takes place in the far-future where sound has been erased from Earth and a number of the main characters are deaf. Mr. Kessler is himself deaf and came-up with this idea for his series of a World with no sound, "Just as Kevin's World is," as his comic's biographical-section discusses. I bought the first and second issue of, 'Universilent," and greatly enjoyed reading them.

The two issues focus on a squad from the future-version of Earth (now called Eyeth) as they inspect a possible danger on another planet. The second issue reveals this threat in full after hinting about its powers. Kessler illustrates the dialogue in the creative way of drawing the character's hand-gestures as they communicate via sign language which we then read as traditional comic speech bubbles. Kessler also creates a wide-range of cool-looking futuristic robots and aliens that are delightfully strange and imposing. Were I to have any criticism it is that there is a lot of text in the first issue as a bit of an, "Info-dump," to fill readers in on this future-Universe, but by the second issue with the background established the comic is able to focus on what it excels at--neat robots, strange aliens, and wild space-battling action.

"Universilent" is only two issues in so where exactly the plot may be heading is unclear, but I'm excited to see what happens next. I encourage you to visit the website for, 'Universilent," where you can buy the first two issues for yourself and check the series out--I know I'm eager for issue #3!
4.5 out of 5 stars (for both issues).

Goodbye, Tom Spurgeon

For years I have loved reading Tom Spurgeon's website, The Comics Reporter. The man was a huge name in comic-related journalism, having been the editor of The Comics Journal for five years in the 1990's and doing The Comics Reporter for over 15 years. He had been health problems these past years and I just recently learned he has passed. Sometimes with the comic-books coming out that week he would put-up a post of the stuff that looked interesting...and now we won't have him to tell us about any future weeks or share his thoughts on comic conventions, note the birthdays of comic creators, or the like.

Sometimes Tom would have a fun theme for the weekend where he would ask people to contribute their thoughts about comics (like, "Name your five favorite close copies of Batman."), and I would sometimes email my thoughts for a segment if I had an opinion. He also would at times request people send him links to retrospectives written about shows or famous comic-creators who had passed and I'd do that too. Now I'm writing an obituary for Tom himself, and it feels so strange and just wrong to be doing so. There is a big hole left in the comic industry and journalism by Tom's passing, and although I did not know him super-closely I enjoyed our occasional email correspondence and checked his site daily. Goodbye, Tom, you will be missed.

Thoughts on Disney+ AKA the, "Puppy Dog Pals," Streaming-Service

There is a new streaming service called, "Disney+," which allows you to stream both seasons of my son's favorite show, "Puppy Dog Pals," for just $6.99 a month, commercial free. Considering how much space old episodes we recorded are taking-up on our DVR and that the DisneyNOW app has tons of ads, this is a great deal with the launch of Disney+ this week we eagerly subscribed. Apparently, this streaming-service includes other features beyond, "Puppy Dog Pals," as a nice bonus too, as I posted on Facebook to my friends/Tweeted to my countless (okay, 100-ish) followers.

I'm being silly, but one of the main reasons our house thought Disney+ sounded good was it included a lot of Disney Junior shows Clarkson loves, in addition to a number of classic-to-newer Disney films he will watch (Clarkson always is down to view, "Moana," for example). Plus, there is, "Star Wars," content and a chunk of Marvel movies that are not currently tied-up with other services for a bit longer. Also, it is just $6.99 which is a Hell of a deal considering how expensive all the other streaming services are becoming. Speaking of, "Other streaming services," it is not secret I am getting sick and tired of so many streaming platforms emerging, but yeah, Disney+ is pretty snazzy so far.

Clarkson's favorite show besides, "Wheel of Fortune," or, "The Price is Right."
Yep, cartoons and game shows are his jam.

We've watched some of Clarkson's shows plus, there is, "The Simpsons," which is fun to check-out old episodes of, and the original content like, "The Mandalorian," which is based in the Star Wars-Universe is apparently off to a good start as a weekly-updated show (I have not watched it yet). Plus, in the future Disney+ will have my, "Moon Knight," show, so I was going to have to get it at some point no matter what for that. There is by no means as much content as some other streaming services, but what is there is mostly killer with no filler. Even the, "Filler," is stuff I like, such as those old hokey Disney Channel movies I watched as a kid--"Mom's Dating a Vampire," and, "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century,"--or the direct-to-VHS sequels Disney did for some years (anybody up for, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves," to kill an hour?), so it is all pretty snazzy stuff.

With everyone using Disney+ it has had some technical hiccups, and we've seen those too having tried it out. Shows and movies suddenly having the screen freeze while audio continues, the whole program slowing to a near-freeze and then speeding-up really fast. It is a little annoying but not system-breaking glitches. The program itself is easy to navigate and will feel familiar to anyone who has used Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Disney+ is still clearly really, really new and will need some time to add more content, but as it stands now it is pretty snazzy. Plus again, that is a great price (there is a combo version that has Hulu and ESPN stuff as well, should want to explore that). Disney+ is not perfect, but it is pretty cool and it has, "Puppy Dog Pals," which is basically worth the price alone.

Two Rumors I've Heard Enough to Maybe Believe about the Marvel Cinematic Universe

In February of 2018 I shared three rumors relating to Marvel/Disney. The one about plans to make a, "Blade," movie turned out to be extremely true, as I was proud to brag about when his flick was announced as in-the-works during July of 2019. Well, of those three rumors I also mentioned there was some possible planning to utilize Ghost Rider in a big way, but it was unclear if it would be the Robbie Reyes version that drove a car or a more old-school iteration like Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch. Then a planned Hulu show with a Robbie Reyes-styled Ghost Rider was canceled and it is all seeming to fall into place. You see, I've been hearing some chatter from people (who won't be named) that tend to steer me in the right direction about stuff so there is a rumor I'm starting to believe and another rumor that grows out of it.

The first rumor is to possibly expect to see Ghost Rider in the, "Blade," movie in some way, shape, or form. I don't know if we are talking just Johnny Blaze (maybe Ketch) before he become the Ghost Rider, a brief appearance of the well-known flaming skull in the after-the-credits stinger, or what, but Marvel/Disney has plans for Ghost Rider in the MCU and he'll be popping-up in a Blade-related film, supposedly.

This leads to the next rumor I've heard that makes some sense but seems a bit more shaky. Basically, you may recall people were mumbling about a, "Dark Avengers," team, but thought it would be something like the comics with Norman Osborn. What if I told you this, "Dark Avengers," is actually just a more commercial-name for the Midnight Sons AKA Marvel's team of supernatural heroes? The thing is some of the better-known Midnight Sons have complex copyright concerns (Morbius has his film rights over at Sony), so if a supernatural team were being built why not just call it the Dark Avengers?

This could all turn out to be smoke being blown up my tuckus or it could end-up I'm right on the money. As it is, I am pretty ready to believe the first rumor I've heard and kinda see the logic behind the second, but think that is less credible and more a case of the people I've talked to stretching the limits of what they actually know versus giving me solid scuttlebutt.

Happy Veterans' Day!

Veterans' Day is every year on November 11th. With that in mind I just wanted to thank all the Veteran's who helped keep our country safe and those currently serving as well! I have a number of friends and relatives who have served (or are serving) in the armed forces and they all deserve to be honored and thanked. While there is a lot to unwrap politically in regards to the those in power who control the military and sometimes misuse it horribly (a number of Presidents have gotten us embroiled in pointless conflicts), we always honor and support the troops who serve our country.

I Feel a Mixture of Joy (For the Show) and Dread (Due to Some of the Fanbase) as, "Rick and Morty," Returns for Season 4

It has been a good year-and-a-half since there has been a new episode of the television show, "Rick and Morty." Tonight it returns to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block at 11:30 PM Eastern, 10:30 PM Central. This new season will be 10 episodes and it is going to start-off with five straight weeks (I think) of the show and then there will be a break before the season finishes-out its second half in early 2020 or so, I imagine, with the show returning after the winter holidays. I am both excited and honestly dreading this a bit because while I personally love the show, it has a fan-base that can be pretty toxic.

Don't get me wrong, I have met some wonderful men and women via my love of, "Rick and Morty," who have as big a fondness for the show as me while also not totally misinterpreting the show as if Rick is someone to look up to as opposed to pity. I know lots of folk who love this show and don't threaten to throw a riot if a loosely-tied-in-to-the-show dipping sauce happens to run-out at McDonald's restaurants. Sadly, however, the internet and everyday life is full of people who are unpleasant and either act like they are the only people who, "Get it," in regards to the show or who otherwise are just big jerks towards everyone else because some fandoms just can sadly develop a nasty-but-loud contingent who try their hardest to poison the entire fandom with their venom (look at the newer, "Star Wars," movies for a good example of this).

I really do love, "Rick and Morty," and am eager to watch it. I just am not that pumped to witness some people insult and otherwise be mean towards others because they think they get to be gatekeepers of the fandom for, "Rick and Morty." The show's creators have outright disowned the haters, so hopefully they'll just shut-up and let the 99% of people who are kind and pleasant enjoy our time sitting down and going on some weird and often-dangerous adventures with Rick, Morty, and the rest of the family. Yes, even the eternal loser, Jerry.