Adidas Diablo
The last Adidas product I owned was a pair of Stan Smith tennis sneakers way back in Middle School; and despite their recent return after being buried by Nike and Reebok (what, did they have to wait for stripes to come back, or just not think of making basketball shoes altogether--even British Knights did that), it took a different product entirely to regain my interest: with the exception of the Diablo model, however, their line of sunglasses is exceptionally lackluster. The "third eye," to which it has been referred, is nothing more than an extension of the single-piece lens--gimmicky, perhaps to the casual observer, but remarkably useful as a means of protection for the heretofore unshielded lower forehead in speed sports; still, anywhere else, it does look downright silly. Fit and quality can only aspire to the level of Oakley, and the frame can best be described as fishing rod material, in weight and feel. Complaints aside, there's a reason, I suspect, that director Spike Lee continues to sport aged Sub-Zeros, which is the inundation of the superior E-Wire; this one might serve him as well.
My own E-Wires were stolen from me at the Taco Bell near LAX, on Century between LaCienega and Aviation, the afternoon of Wednesday, July 27, 1996. I mourn the loss as I would the death of a loved one; thus, my elegy: "He who was my companion through adventure and hardship is gone forever." More crap like this, and I'm certain to devote my life to crime-fighting ("I shall become... a bat").
Summary: Betty and Veronica Double Digest No. 59
Story List
"Picture This!"; "Barrette Brouhaha!"; "Two for One"; "Wet and Wealthy" (V); "The Good in the Bad" (B); "A Dummy Date" (R); "Cast of Characters"; "Something Special"; "Curse of the Ancients" (A); "Just the Facts" (B); "Bait Trait," "Fright Sight" (L); "Tough Stuff" (M); "What Kind of Hue Am I?"; "In a Class by Himself" (A); "The Lonely Heart of Riverdale" PART 1 (D); "The Lonely Heart of Riverdale" PART II (D); "Word of Mouth" (V); "Dune Tune" (B); "Plane of Battle"; "Court Report" (V); "The Recluse" (Jo); "Gag Gig" (Jo); "Video Revolution"; "Hold the Phone" (A); "Belle's Bell" (B); "Having a Ball" (S); "Sassy Lassy" (E); "Fashion Whirl" (S); "The Stray" (D); "Pop Tate's Designer Hamburgers"; "It's a Snap" (G); "Disc Whisk" (H); "Faultless Behavior"; "Rough Race" (A); "Betty's Diary" (B); "Muscle Madness" (1); "Meal Zeal" (S), "Food Fad (S); "Wishful Thinking" (B); "Summer Bummer"; "Cook Look" (Li); "Covered Girls" (S); "The Promise" (A); "Repair Flair"; "Soap Queen" (V); "Suits Me Fine!!"
Guide to Abbreviations: 1(, Archie)/A(rchie)/B(etty)/D(iary, Betty's)/E(thel)/G(ang, Archie and the)/H(ot Dog)/Jo(sie)/L(odge, Mr.)/Li('l Jinx)/M(oose)/S(abrina)/V(eronica)/R(eggie)/[none] (Betty and Veronica)
Story Highlights
- "The Lonely Heart of Riverdale," a bittersweet story of love's labor lost (and this time it's not Betty's whose is), revolves around a certain Declan McManus, which, if memory serves correctly, is the real name of pop hero Elvis Costello
- Think I've got a nunchuck up my butt for making such a fuss over the Tiger Loman stereotype last issue? Make that a bamboo pole: "A Dummy Date" features Riverdale's Chinese restaurant, Chan's Lotus Gardens, complete with smilin' buck-toothed waiter
- This month's Editor's Notebook raises the controversy surrounding the story entitled "Ear Ache," which was to appear in Archie #447 but, explains Victor Gorelick, failed to meet publishing deadlines; in it, Archie, ever the Riverdale cultural pioneer, is seen wearing an earring--excuse me, but how long has it been since the body-piercing craze has come and gone in every other part of the known world? (The Punisher? Come on! At the time it should've been Spawn...) Make it one with a condom attached, and I'll dig it
The very first installment of Mark Waid's much-anticipated mini-series, sort of a Dark Knight Returns for Superman, didn't disappoint (unlike his last, the forgettable Underworld Unleashed, and, while I'm at it, the recent DC Versus Marvel fiasco). Any book casting Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as Gotham City gangstaz must be purchased.
Click to read invaluable Usenet annotations for Kingdom Come issues number one, two, three, and four.
The Prisoner vs. The Man Who Was Thursday
The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton, Penguin Books (1908), 186 pages.
The other night I stayed up until five in the morning to finish a book. Yes, that's right--a book. And
when I finally put it down, I curiously came away with the same, warm feeling inside I get after watching
TV. Not just any old television show (though the time of night might suggest otherwise), but an episode
of the Sixties science-fiction espionage drama, epitome of the overused term "cult classic," and my second favorite of all time: The Prisoner. One man a detective (whose insight into the human condition is comparable to that of Chesterton's own Father Brown) and the other a spy. One whose goal is truth and the other's freedom. Each faces a conspiracy of unimaginable proportions.
Farbeit from me to accuse Patrick McGoohan, god amongst even heroes, of plagiarism, but the parallels
seem so numerous that I am led to suspect more than mere inspiration at work: six against one; the coat-tails of the conspirators (a la "The General") and the fancy-dress ball ("Dance of the Dead"); the taunting grimace of the fleeing enemy ("Fall Out"); and even the daunting image of the all-encompassing face that closes the episode--the list goes on. (Oh, how I wish I had uncovered this in time for my high school English project!) What clinched it for me was an observation made at the very end of the nightmare:
He had no idea that he had walked so near London.
The times they have a-changed (and so have they even since No. 6 screamed something about being a free man)--what was then an anarchist is now a revolutionary; what was then metaphysical is now allegorical--but the fact remains that G. K. Chesterton, some sixty years before McGoohan, had stumbled upon what is, unquestionably, the best pre-re-telling of The Prisoner.
