My First Game at Yankee Stadium 2008 - Countdown to the end

Ahh, Yankee Stadium. It was great to be back in the House that Ruth built for the final season before they move into their new digs across the street. The Yankees as you may or may not know haven't been playing the best baseball in the past few years and unfortunately this year has been no exception. Thankfully with Moose on the mound the Yanks were able to hold onto the win against Cleveland 6-3. The Yanks at this point are about 2 games from 500. which ironically is still better than how they were at this time last year. So instead of droning on how bad the Yanks are and bitching about whether or not they are gonna make the Playoffs. I think I'll just stick to talking about this remarkable ballpark where I have seen many an incredible thing in my 31 years of life.

I was at Yankee Stadium two years ago in May of 2006 where the Yankees were down nine runs to the Rangers and Jorge Posada hit the 2 run home run to end the game in the 9th inning. My friend Meshesha was with me and he was convinced the Yanks were done after Texas scored 7 runs in the second but I refused to leave. Somehow I got him to stay through the gradual comeback. Meshesha had already bolted through the archway debating whether or not he should wait for me. There were two outs, he was so convinced that it was over but I wasn't swayed. It only took a few seconds for Jorge to crush a two run home run and seal the victory. Man that was a rush, I had seen the Yanks come back from deficits before but that had to be one of the greatest comebacks ever.

I was here at Yankee stadium during the Playoffs of that year to watch the first game against Detroit. Derek Jeter was at the top of his game hitting five for five in the game with two doubles and a homerun. It was magnificent! The Yanks won the game 8-4. I was there with my friend Ori and the playoff atmosphere in Yankee stadium was electric. They had the 2006 playoff logos on the field--it was spectacular. The place was packed to the brim, I swear I must have waited at least an hour to get my big ass Foster's brew cup--a staple at Yankee Stadium, as Cody can attest. I had my Australian ale and my hot dog and enjoyed the one and only game the Yanks would win in the series. Well I guess you can't always get everything you want.

I was also here in 1996 when the Yankees won the World Series for the first time in 18 years against the Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately I got to witness the only two games of the series that we lost. But it was my first world series and it was pretty cool. Except of course for losing the two games, especially the one on Mickey Mantle's birthday, where Andruw "Jackass" Jones broke his playoff record for hits in a game. But I've seen some great home runs from the soon to be greats like Jeter, A-Rod and Posada. I was able to see new Yankee skipper Joe Girardi back when he was a catcher for us at the aforementioned 96 series, he played with power and passion. I've seen pitcher Chin Ming Wang go 9 innings without giving up a run and only a couple of hits.

But I think the thing that sticks out for me as the most memorable thing I have seen or done at Yankee stadium is walking through Memorial Park, passing by the plaques of former greats like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. A few days earlier my Grandfather passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer's. He was born in New Jersey but as a kid he got to live right across the street from Yankee Stadium. He would tell my brother and me all of his stories about watching Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig play ball. So of course I grew up to love the Yankees, after those stories who wouldn't. As Grandpa got older and his memory began to fade he still remembered the team he loved as a kid. There were times I swear he couldn't remember my name but he could tell me who Paul O'Neil was and what position he played. So after he died, my dad and my cousin Steven went to the first game we could get our paws on-- which puts us back in Memorial Park where I scattered his ashes on the grass next to some of his favorite players. As in true Yankee fashion the Yanks lost that game but two days later, July 18, 1999, David Cone had his perfect game against the Expos. Dad and I were convinced after that it was Grandpa's doing and it could only have been possible in Yankee Stadium.

Iron Man

As many of you may or may not know I work for Paramount Vantage--the indy wing of Paramount Pictures. If you have read the blog in the past you probably have noticed that I don't do many, or really any reviews for Vantage or for our parent company Paramount. Mostly because I do take these reviews seriously, and I don't want there to be a suspicion of bias for films distributed through Paramount. I do this mostly because there may be a film that I don't like and--you know you have to be fair if you only review the ones from your company that you like -- well it's like Fox News, not really fair and balanced. But I really wanted to comment on this film so I'm just going to say right off the bat. I work at Paramount Pictures and I loved Iron Man. There, I said it. You can call me a plant if you want--but if you'll notice I waited a few days after it made over 100 million at the box office over the weekend so really at this point what does it matter?

Yes I loved Iron Man as a big summer blockbuster and I especially enjoyed the pacing and character development. As much as I love Spider-Man and the subsequent films, I have to say that Director John Favreau has surpassed Raimi in the ability to successfully transfer from comics to the screen. As I have viewed the Spidey flicks again on DVD I have noticed that they are not nearly as fun and exciting as they were when I first saw them--they have great moments, especially the second Spidey, but overall they just feel hokey and goofy. And therein lies the problem. Now that I have seen Iron Man I see what could have been with Spidey. Iron Man is not goofy or hokey. The relationships with his assistant Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) his best friend Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) and even with his mentor/rival Obediah Stane (Jeff Bridges) are very strong and great to watch. And it brings the funny too, the film never takes itself too seriously. They also were able to show a bit more of the larger Marvel universe in this film with the appearance of opperatives of Shield and including a cameo from a certain one-eyed Shield commander after the credit sequence at the end of the film. They also had a great reference in the film to the possibility of Rhodes becoming War Machine--awesome!

Who is Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)? I'm sure that when Favreau was making this film he knew he was going to have to give some deeper character background. Most of the world knows about Spidey, Batman and Superman, but Tony Stark/Iron Man had roughly the same problem that Daredevil had when it came out. Outside of the comic world the average Joe had never heard of Iron Man or Tony Stark. So they open with a fantastic scene with Tony hammering the booze and laughing it up with soldiers before he's almost blown up by terrorists. They flash back hours earlier and they get a great quick intro back story on Tony Stark as he receives a humanitarian award. He's shown to be a genius and the head of a Fortune 500 Weapons Manufacturing Company. Of course Stark isn't there he's playing the tables in Vegas as he plays up the billionaire playboy without a care in the world. He beds the hot reporter played by the very sexy Leslie Bibb and we get to see his cliffside bachelor pad. Howard Hughes would have been proud. Favreau adapts the capture of Tony Stark from the comics. The location has changed but the situation remains the same. In the Comics Tony is captured by the Vietcong in the film Tony is captured by Afghani Terrorists called the Ten Rings. As in the comics Tony has a life threatning injury and he is forced to build a device to protect his heart. Now we were told before the film was made that the Mandarin would be the main bad guy. I didn't hear them mention him in the film but the Ten Rings is most definitely a reference to the Mandarin and I would assume that the character of Raza could someday become the Mandarin? Maybe?

Anyway Tony is forced to build a missile for the terrorists and instead he builds the Mark I, the first Iron Man outfit. When he escapes and returns home he realizes that his weapons have not benefited mankind and he is now determined to use his wealth for good instead of destruction. Thusly he builds the second Iron Man suit the Mark II. Which was built entirely by Stan Winston and his ILM team and it is amazing to watch. I really enjoyed the workshop sequences where Tony tinkers with his Iron Man suit always trying to perfect it. When Iron Man beats the shit out of terrorists and then takes off for the skies to duel with a pair of fighter jets I swear I couldn't always tell when something was complete CGI or when it was a guy in the suit. I think Marvel needs to continue their relationship with ILM with every film they make because you can just see the leaps and bounds in technology from Spider-Man to Iron Man. It really is incredible. Oh, and I didn't even mention the bad ass fight sequence between Iron Man and Iron Monger. It was far too short but it was amazing to see, again it was as if it was ripped right from the comic book. The bar has been re-set and every Marvel film, every comic film, from now on has to try and measure up to Iron Man's success. It is a great cast, they all had excellent chemistry and I'm really excited to see what they can do with Iron Man 2 in 2010.

Grade 4 1/2 Buckets

New York Comic-Con 2008

This past weekend I and my fellow Cave Drawing Inkers attended the big outrageous and packed NY Comic Con at the Convention Center. The Javits Center was nuts with people I haven't checked the final tally but it had to be at least 100,000. I saw, what has now become, the norm at Comic-Con. Two smoking hot Leia's in full out Slave girl outfits. Of course no Con would be complete with at least two or three not so hot Leia's in Slave Girl outfits. There were many stormtroopers and Boba Fetts and for their third straight year the Ghostbuster crew. There always seems to be four of them and they all have very intricate proton packs. I walked the show room floor taking in all of the sights and sounds. There was a new Spidey game coming out for all stations except of course my measley little Gamecube, I've gotta get a damn Wii or an X-Box or something so I can play these bad ass superhero games. Especially after I saw the demo for the Iron Man game which I think was playing on the X-Box. The freedom was incredible and the graphics were top notch, not to mention the little gadgets that go boom on the suit. Damn I need an X-Box.

I found a few of the guys from Cave Drawing Ink, Ezio, Ori, Greg and a few newcomers like Young Nam Heller and Blair Kamage. Young Nam's stuff is pretty amazing, but don't worry you'll be able to see his stuff in our new book titled Rise of the Outlanders that's coming out later next month. I'm sure I'll whore it out a bit more as we get closer to the due date. Anyway so I hung out with Blair a bit as we found ourselves in line at the Indiana Jones/Star Wars panel. I thought they were gonna show some exclusive Indy trailers for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but they just rehashed the teaser trailer from three months ago. They showed some cool trailers for the upcoming Star Wars: Clone Wars animated film coming out this summer. It was um, ok, but I'm not really sold on the animation style, I guess time will tell. They also talked a bit about the animated Clone Wars show that will spin off from the film in the fall. Again, the animation is not really that exciting but I like what they are trying to do with it storywise and of course you can never get tired of new Star Wars stories.

They also showed the demo for the new Indiana Jones trilogy Lego style. It looked cute, my friends Marty and Sarah really love this shit. They made a Star Wars and Batman one that apparently were big hits. So I assume the Indy one will be too. Again I thought it was cute, but it's not really my thing. Why don't they just make another regular Indiana Jones game. It just looks cheap and crappy when they do it this way--plus if you want to play with legos then go get the real thing. Why do you have to play a game about Indiana Jones as a Lego? I guess it's just me. Near the end of the panel I was getting bored and I guess they started to figure that out cause they decided to bring up special guest stars Seth Green and his fellow co-creator of Robot Chicken. They were funny as they showed a couple of clips from the Star Wars edition of Robot Chicken. The guys talked about how pumped they were to get George Lucas involved in the episode and how he seem to give them unfettered access to the Star Wars universe.

The Con was Friday-Sunday but because of commitments at home and the fact that the Con was over passover I only showed up part time on Friday and most of the day on Saturday. I'm not Jewish but my wife is and personally I didn't want to have to sleep on the couch over the weekend or for the next week so....My stay was rather short. Overall it was cool, not outstanding or as eye popping as it has been in years past. I guess after you go to these things a few times they start to lose their luster.

Justice League: The New Frontier

I picked this up a couple of weeks ago. The animation looked great and I have heard from many people that the graphic novel this is based on, by Darwyn Cooke, is exceptional so I took a chance and bought it blind. I'm glad that I did too cause it was something special. The story takes the Justice League back to the 60's with speeches of JFK peppered throughout the movie to place it squarely in the real world. The film was written by Stan Berkowitz and directed by David Bullock.This is an origin story for both the Justice League and for Hal Jordan (David Boreanaz) who becomes the Green Lantern. The government has apparently had their fill of superheroes and has banned them from their work as champions of justice. The world is under threat by a super human monster determined to rid the planet of human life. The War (I believe Korea) is over and it appears that Superman (Kyle Maclachlan) and Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless) are on the outs as Wonder Woman has taken control of a group of refugee women in the jungle. The Martian Manhunter J'onn J'onzz (Miguel Ferrer) is brought to our world from Mars and is forced to live among us. The Flash, Barry Allen (Neil Patrick Harris) is a hero in his town of Central City but is unsure if he is capable of taking on the larger threat confronting mankind. Batman, Bruce Wayne (Jeremy Sisto) has refused to adhere to the government's new laws pertaining to heroes and has continued to work in Gotham against the local criminal element. I was a little critical of a new voice for Batman since we've been hearing Kevin Conroy's excellent vocal talent for so long. But I thought Sisto was great he brought a bitterness to Batman that hasn't been seen in a while. Which leaves us with the focus of the story, Hal Jordan, a cocky fighter pilot who has, after the war, been given the reputation of someone avoiding the fight as if he were afraid. Hal just wants to be a space ranger and get his chance to touch the stars. As a huge fan of the Green Lantern we get to see Hal's first encounter with Abin Sur and the passing of the ring to Hal. This story touches historical themes like the missile crisis, the red scare and blacklisting.The creature called the Centre is interesting but I would have preferred if the League were fighting against a more original villain. This reminded me of the alien villains from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and even the first episode of the Justice League animated show. But I did enjoy the characters and their interactions with each other and the animation is spectacular. If you enjoy the Justice League and you want a well scripted enjoyable ride you should check this out. Plus there are those great speeches at the end of the film by JFK about, ironically, the New Frontier. There are two discs with a couple documentaries and audio commentary with the director and producers and a second one with the creator Darwyn Cooke himself. The second disc has a featurette on Comic Books, a documentary about the Legion of Doom and an homage to the New Frontier and some bonus episodes of the Justice League-- and if you want an extra treat check out the cool website.

Grade: 4 Buckets

Memorial: Charlton"Chuck" Heston

From his memorable role as a Mexican in Touch of Evil to his bad ass cameo roles in Wayne's World II, True Lies, Tombstone and Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. Chucky, like no one else was able to define iconic by large and small roles for over fifty years in Hollywood. I myself enjoyed his booming overly choppy voice in the Ten Commandments telling Pharaoh where he could stick it if he didn't release his people. Or his cursing of the damned dirty apes that touched him while imprisoned on the Planet of the Apes. These are some of the classic and oftentimes unintentionally humorous portrayals that Heston has played over the years. He died Saturday at the age of 83 of complications with Alzheimer's.

We also cannot forget that Chuck marched with the King in the 60's as a strong advocate for the Civil Rights Movement. Sometime in the 70's or so he flipped to the other side because of his love of firearms which brought about that batshit crazy speech a few years ago where he proclaimed "From My Cold Dead Hands!" It was at that moment that I knew that even though Chucky was on one hand a great actor with some very memorable roles he was also a bad ass-- and let me tell you -- he scared the shit out of me and there was no way I would even try to rip that gun from his hands. Cold, dead or otherwise.



















So I raise a glass to you Chuck, Rest in Peace.