Aziz Ansari: Burried Alive

Thought I'd finally write about something other then comics, so I ventured outside my house to see some world class stand-up. I enjoyed it so much I decided to write this article. Enjoy!

On Friday night I had the wonderful experience of seeing comedian Aziz Ansari perform at the Sydney Opera house. Aziz is probably best know for his role as Tom Haverford in NBC’S Parks and Recreation, but even if you haven’t seen the show he has a certain familiarity to him. His comedy is equal parts observation, overreaction and absurdity, with a large emphasis on the delivery. In particular his angry rants about trivial things, such as sheet thread count, are a delight to watch.
 The first thing you notice about Aziz is his natural charisma and ability to instantly engage the crowd. Perhaps it’s the weird aura of familiarity or just his charismatic personality, but he has an undeniable warmth. Only a few minutes into the show something else becomes very apparent. Aziz is not Tom Haverford and is very deliberate about distinguishing his stand up from his television work. Not once during the gig does he mention Parks and Recreation and whenever anyone yells a show reference at him he's quick to shut them down, and who can blame him? There’s nothing worse for an actor or comedian's career then being typecast (something that Jim Parsons will discover when he tries to land a major role that isn't Sheldon Cooper). It's this level of professionalism and eagerness to keep his stand up as it's own entity that I really admire in Aziz.  As for the actual content of the show, 'Buried Alive' deals with getting married and settling down, something that Aziz apparently finds terrifying. But kudos to him for beginning to take on every comedians worst enemy: growing up. Its all well and fine to talk about getting going to clubs, getting drunk and getting laid when your in your 20’s and maybe even 30’s but eventually things change. There's nothing worse then a middle aged comedian delivering jokes written for a 25 year old. No-one likes a try hard comedian. With this in mind I was both surprised and impressed to hear jokes about the daunting nature of marriage, having kids, dating and the abysmal club scene. The show felt a lot more mature then his previous material in which going clubbing with Kanye and Jay-Z feature heavily. That said the show still has that fun sense of immaturity iconic to Aziz, as proven by his 15 minute rant about men sending women pictures of their penis!I went into the show with high expectations and came out feeling genuinely impressed with Aziz's  mastery of the comedic craft. Plus he didn't have to resort to any cheap comedic tactics such as religion bashing or shock comedy to keep the crowd in stitches, which is always a plus in my book. 

You can download Aziz Ansari's comedy special Dangerously Delicious here for the low, low price of $5.

Comic Review: Winter Soldier volume 1: The longest Winter

Cool guys don't look at explosions

In his life James’ Bucky’ Barnes has been many things. From Captain America's kid sidekick in world war 2,  to a brainwashed soviet operative in the cold War and even filling in as Cap after the death of Steve Rogers in the aftermath of the Marvel Civil war he’s certainly been in his fair share of conflicts, all of them someone else’s. With that in mind it’s refreshing to see Bucky taking centre stage in his own series as he attempts to fix the damage he did as the Winter soldier and reclaim the mantle as his own. Teaming up with the Black Widow, Bucky’s on a mission to tie up some loose ends, kill a whole bunch of old soviet operatives and even take on the occasional machine gun toting gorilla. 

If this image doesn't convince you to
read this book I don't know what else will

Penned by none other then Ed Brubaker with pencils by artist Butch Guice, Winter Soldier: The Longest Winter collects the first 5 issues of the series as well as Fear Itself 7.1. Following the events of fear Itself Bucky fakes his own death in order to work from the shadows and right the wrongs he committed whilst under soviet mind control. His first task: to track down and pacify the three other soviet sleeper agents he trained as the Winter Soldier. In true Brubaker fashion this straight forward mission suddenly becomes complicated when none other then Victor Von Doom is thrown into the fray.


As expected Brubaker is in fine form delivering a well thought out story arc that felt a bit like a James bond film crossed with a John Le Carre novel. Guise's art is equal parts suave, vivid and brooding. The page layout is also worth mention. Its cinematic and erratic, with panels often over lapping, helping to give a pace and cadence to the book.  

My only issue with the the volume is it's overall predictability. Don't get me wrong I think Brubaker is an insanely talented writer who's made a remarkable contribution to the captain America universe. However whilst reading 'Winter Soldier' I really did feel like he's running out of ideas. He's been working on the book for over 7 years so it's to be expected. The book plays heavily on Bucky trying to move forward by dealing with the sins of his past, and it does it well, the only problem is it's pretty much the same as what Brubaker wrote for him as cap over the last couple of years. As I said it's not a bad thing, just confirmation to me that he's doing a smart thing by leaving Marvel and moving on to his creator owned stuff. 

This aside, Winter Soldier is a must read for any Cap fan. Other Marvel fans will enjoy this too but it probably won't resonate as much with them. 

7/10

Shameless self promotion: Pop-thinking volume 2

Someone promoting themselves on their own blog?..Well I never!

As you may or may not be aware as well as writing this blog I also write for a very cool pop culture review site by the name of Vivid Scribe. We do reviews, feature articles and eBooks about comics, film, music television and everything in-between. Every now and then the very talented Kate Krake , who runs the site, manages to convince me and the rest of the contributors to write pop-culture centric essays. She then has the tedious task of editing and compiling them into an eBook. Below is a link to the glorious result: Vivid Scribe's Pop-thinking volume 2.

Topics covered include the ethics of fan fiction, the problems with labelling violent horror 'toture porn' and not one but two Batman essays, one of which (lets be honest it's the crappier one) is written by yours truly. In summary you should check out the book and support this great Aussie pop culture site.


Click Here to download your free copy

My week in popculture

Below I have summarised my last week's pop culture habits into some quick little reviews:

Reading

American Virgin (published by vertigo): very edgy, refreshing and confronting take on sexuality and Christianity. Written by man of Action's Steve T. Seagle and pencils by Becky Cloonan its a really enjoyable read up until issue 23 which tries to wrap up the series quickly and does a terrible job of it. That said found the first 22 issues hilarious and thought provoking.  7.5/10

Watching

Revolution: Just finished the first three episode and have not intention of watching any more. 3.5/10 (Click here to read my review)

Hotel Transylvania: What could have been an enjoyable and intelligent all-ages animated comedy quickly degenerates to rapping vampires and fart jokes. Even a highly talented cast of voice actors (For cast list click here) couldn't save this film. 4/10

Looper: Looper is exquisitely written, well acted and brilliantly plotted and thought out. In a cinematic market flooded with remakes, sequels and prequels Looper's bold originality really stands out. 9/10

Playing

Fifa13: The very kind folks at EA sent me a review copy of Fifa 13 that I unfortunately have had barely any time to play. Have played about 2 hrs so far but like what I see. Another solid and well polished fifa game. tentatively 8/10 (proper review coming soon )

The Three episode rule: Revolution

So you used a power icon as the 'O' in the title screen.
How innovative.

The 'Three Episode Rule' was passed down to be from my television loving older sister who told me you can't properly judge a series until you watch at least three episodes. So after watching the first three episodes of 'Revolution' here is my verdict: 

What do you get when you cross Falling skies with Lost, throw in a cast of average actors and a mediocre script that assumes your audience is a bunch of idiots? You get J.J. Abrams latest television offering Revolution, and after giving it a probationary period of three episodes I am confident it’s not worth watching. Yes I know Abrams brought us lost, Alias, fringe and the Star Trek reboot so suggesting he’s latest show is absolutely rubbish is a pretty bold claim, but it’s a claim I'm willing to make none the less.

Revolution is set in the near- post apocalyptic future where civilised society has more or less crumbled after all electronic devices simultaneous stopped working 15 years ago. Admittedly it’s a solid premise and a pretty cool concept but it's really not enough to make up for the average script and painfully bland characters. The actual storyline of the show revolves around Charlie and Miles Matheson, an uncle and niece    trying to rescue Charlie's brother, Danny,who was captured by the oppressive Monroe Militia. Through dialogue and the occasional flashback the Monroe Militia, led by General Sebastian Monroe, are positioned as the opposing force of the series and are determined to restore the power in order to use their stockpiled helicopters, tanks and other modern weapons that haven't worked since the blackout to gain military superiority. The absence of electricity has also resulted in a scarcity of bullets and guns leading to  lots of swordplay and civil-war era weaponry. 

As for the actual characters, Miles is the cookie cutter 'bad guy on the path to redemption'. He's an alcoholic killer whose  deadly with a sword and *surprise surprise* has a dark past. Somehow they managed to make Charlie even more unoriginal. She's a head strong teenager who can look after her self, wields a cross bow and is essentially indistinguishable from Katniss, the protagonist of The Hunger games. The supporting characters are all equally unoriginal archetypes and are composed mainly old acquaintances of Miles with the occasional mysterious figure who knows something about the blackout thrown in for good measure. The worst part is none of these characters are actually cool, funny, relatable or  even interesting, though they are trying so hard to be. The acting all feels terribly forced. 

The more I watched Revolution the more I was convinced it was desperately trying to be Lost. It uses the same story telling techniques, primarily flash backs and switching between characters  all with a healthy helping of action, but lacks the compelling characters. Sure a good premise and flashy special effects might get me to tune in for an episode or two, but if the characters are rubbish I'm not going to stick around. 

For a show claiming to be innovative and original, Revolution sure does steal a lot from other tv series and films. It looks like The Walking Dead, plays out a bit like The Hunger Games, is structured like Lost and treats it's audience like idiots just like every reality TV show.  In conclusion  I found Revolution over hyped, poorly written and even more poorly acted. With great shows like Madmen, Game of Thrones and the Newsroom (to name a few) on our television sets I can't see why any one would choose to waste their time watching this drivel.

3.5/10

Comic Review: Grant Morrisons' 'Happy' issue one

Cover to 'Happy' Issue 1

‘Happy’ marks a very different writing direction for ‘rock-star’ comic book creator Grant Morrison. For starters, you would be forgiven for mistaking it for a Mark Millar comic with the amount of course language contained within. On the first page alone the ‘c-bomb’ is dropped three times and this merely sets the pace for what is a comic filled with foul language, violence and sexually explicit scenes. Heads up, if this sort of thing disturbs or offends you then you will probably want to give ‘Happy’ a miss. The same Morrison magic that made ‘Action Comics’ and ‘Batman’ seem so real and yet at the same time fantastical is now used to bring a world of dirty cops, Mafia and prostitutes to life. Perhaps what makes Happy such an explicit and disturbing read is the fact that Morrison writes it so well.

The story follows Nick Sax an ex-cop who now works as a sort of freelance Hitman. After a Hit goes wrong, Nick takes a bullet to the shoulder and winds up in a mob controlled hospital where he meets a blue cartoon horse by the name of Happy who only he can see. Happy provides a bizarre contrast to the gritty criminal underworld portrayed by Darick Robertson’s art. Although a lot of the comic feels very much like your cliché crime fare, happy the horse provides a true spark of originality to the story.

Hey Grant, Mark Miller called and
said he wants all his curse words back. 

I have no doubt in my mind that Morrison will use the stark contrast between happy and the ‘real world’ to make some sort of powerful statement in the following three issues. The question in my mind is how Morrison will do this and I'm looking forward to having this question answered.


 In itself ‘Happy’ issue one really does not warrant any attention. However what does warrant attention is Morrison’s reputation and history of writing great comics. With that in mind I’ll stick my neck out here and give ‘Happy’ a 7/10

Comic Review: Manhattan projects volume.1: Science. Bad

Comics and WW2 alternative history have long gone hand in hand. From the Hitler punching shenanigans of Capitan America to ‘project ‘Ragna Rok’ of Mignola’s Hellboy universe, the 1940’s seem to be a goldmine of potential for the imaginative writer. Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra follow in this proud tradition to bring a truly harrowing, whacked-out and unexpectedly hilarious jaunt into an alternate 1940’s America. I am of course referring to the ongoing series ‘Manhattan Projects', published by Image Comics.

'Manhattan Projects' operates under the premise that the development of the atomic bomb was simply a public cover for an array of much more bizarre and ethically questionable scientific endeavours, collectively known as the ‘Manhattan Projects’. And by bizarre, I mean recovering weapons from alternate dimensions, liaising with Aliens and turning the deceased President Roosevelt into an advanced AI. The book features an all-star roster of the Manhattan project scientists, each playfully altered by Hickman to be visually individual and tremendously flawed. Einstein is a brooding drunk, Fermi is some sort of alien, Daghlian is a radio active skeleton, Feynman is stuck up and Oppenheimer suffers from multiple personality disorder.
The book’s tone is deathly serious with little humour to be found in the dialogue itself. Ironically this adds a level of hilarity that can only come from seeing some of history’s greatest scientific minds talking about reverse engineering  a Japanese zen powered teleporter (with the zen provided by a dedicated team of ‘death Buddhists’) with straight faces.

Don't you remember  learning about Oppenheimer gunning down hordes of Japanese death robots in history class?

Admittedly Pitarra’s art took me a little time to warm to. His scraggly and lean human figures and restricted colour pallet aren't the usual comic book fare, but once you get used to his style it becomes apparent he was the perfect choice for art duties. His frail human figures and dull  colour scheme complement the story perfectly and this book showcases some top-notch visual storytelling. I often found myself stopping for a couple of minutes just to soak in the amount of detail and artistic balance that flow from Pitarra’s pages.

In short I really cannot recommend this book enough. It is easily a buy and costing just under $20 it  is not a hard purchase to justify.

8/10