happiness, with or without coca-cola
October 27, 2010
An interesting study in how you can rework a tune and repurpose a commercial, I think.
As far as I can tell, the original song was written, and parts of the original video used for, a commercial for Coca Cola. Apparently, they decided that maybe they had something, because the resulting longer video and song are utterly and completely divorced from anything to do with Coke; if you didn't know it was meant for/used in an ad, you couldn't figure it out from this video. And oddly enough, I don't remember seeing or hearing this when it was a commercial.
And now it's getting a reboot in what will undoubtedly be Coke's new holiday-themed commercial. At the moment, it's only the music; no doubt the trippy yet snowy and holiday related visuals are yet to come. Unlike the original, it's not going to feature what must have been a wildly expensive cast of up-and-coming music stars (with the occasional already-there persons scattered in)
YouTube - Train - Shake Up Christmas
I wonder how long they'll be repurposing that music, and how many different ways and in how many different commercials we'll see it.
Posted by iain at 10:26 AM
recently read, drives us bats edition
Hey, I'm not the one who decided to release 6,789 Batman-related titles every week through the end of time. Anyway, let's try for a few quick(ish) hits on some of last week's singles, shall we? Let's shall.
Oh, and I think, even though this is the end of the week, I shall just note: SPOILERY SPOILERS WHAT SPOIL AT MIDNIGHT AHEAD! ONE, AND MAYBE TWO, OF THE ISSUES BELOW MAY ACTUALLY HAVE THE ENDINGS DISCUSSED! BEWARE!
Azrael 13 (David Hine/Guillem March; DC)
Quite honestly, it's impossible to talk about this issue without giving away major points, so I'll just do it up top. In this issue, we sail from the gnostic gospels straight into Dan Brown territory.Yes, that's right; we're talking about the descendants of Jesus.
But before we get to that point, we get to bounce back and forth between Michael and Father Day recovering the Shroud of Turin and trying fruitlessly to escape the chapel -- or, really, not actually trying to escape, but angsting about lots of things -- and the Crusader flaying Father Grieve. Which he manages to survive. There's a lovely scene where Father Grieve, muscles and viscera exposed, carries his skin to Michael and Father Day to tell them exactly what's going on and who the suit of sorrows is really meant for.
Honestly, I think this story might work better when it's collected, and you can just immerse yourself in it and go from wire to wire without coming up for air. Although, that said, this story has veered so spectacularly from the early arcs to this that it feels like it's dealing with different characters altogether. Part of that, of course, is the fact that the suit of sorrows is driving Michael messily mad. But there are certainly threads that were discarded; the Ra's al-Ghul/Talia storyline, where Michael was told he would need to go to them to find out the truth of the suit of sorrows, has disappeared entirely, and might not fit the story as it is now. He seems utterly disconnected from anything remotely resembling sane humans. And the story is effectively depicting all Christians, especially Catholics, as dupes of the Church. To be sure, Protestants are merely clueless; Catholics are being actively deceived.
It is a weirdly engrossing story. I think, at this stage, I keep reading to see just how much farther off the rails this story can go, and every issue it keeps leaping even further away. And March's art is actually keeping up with the weird.
Impossible to recommend or qualify, but utterly fascinating, in a train wreck sort of way.
Batman and Robin 15 (Morrison/Irving; DC): In which Dick gets shot in the head to remarkably little immediate effect, the Joker turns out not to be entirely on the side of evil, Damian rescues Commissioner Gordon from Pyg, and we find out more about Doctor Hurt. This issue, in fact, dovetails really beautifully with issue 5 of "The Return of Bruce Wayne". Irving's art is, as usual, spectacular, and well-fitted to Morrison's storytelling.
Excellent; Highly recommended.
Bruce Wayne, The Road Home: Commissioner Gordon (Adam Beechen/Szymon Kudranski; DC): Honestly, alone of the "Road Home" stories so far, this one is kind of awesome. Principally because this is the first issue in which Bruce isn't testing someone; he comes in the middle of a crisis and helps out, only to discover that Gordon has more or less got it covered. The Vicki Vale thread continues, and actually makes absolutely no sense this time through, mostly because it isn't quite about her. It's about Ra's al-Ghul using her for ... something. Offscreen, he lets the underworld know that Vicki has information revealing the secret identities of the Bat clan, basically setting off a free-for-all as everyone tries to get hold of her to get the information out of her. It's not at all clear why he does this; after all, he knows Bruce's secret identity. And causing chaos for chaos' sake isn't really his style. Regardless, this issue is more about showing why Commissioner Gordon makes such a good partner for Batman, and making Bruce realize it. (And also demonstrating that the corruption of the Gotham PD will never ever ever be gone.) Kudranski's art is interestingly dark and textured, and a great match for Beechen's story. It's apparently a hard lead into the Oracle "Road Home" story, which, given that she already knows that Bruce is home and is the Insider, should be a very different story than the other Road Home titles. This one, however, is the only one that really does stand alone, even meant as a lead in. If you want to see something that shows you the core of the Bruce/Gordon relationship, this is a good title for that.
Excellent; Highly recommended
Batman Beyond 5 (Beechen/Ryan Benjamin/John Stanisci; DC)
In which we find out who it was that attacked Terry, the new Catwoman helps Bruce save him, and we discover that Amanda Waller has, sadly, gone brilliantly batshit insane. She has decided that Gotham should always have a Batman -- more importanly, I suspect, a Batman under Cadmus/her control. And the steps she's taken resulted in a murderous lunatic running around Gotham. Oh, and Bruce accidentally admits something important to Terry. This isn't a bad story, exactly ... but I think we got Beechen at his best in the above Commissioner Gordon story, and at somewhat less than his best in this story. In particular, the idea that Amanda Waller, of all people, would decide that Gotham needs her to make it a Batman is just bizarre.
OK; No recommendation because it's the fifth issue of a six-issue arc.
Power Girl 17 (Winick/Basri; DC)
The first issue of the current arc that hasn't felt like it should have a "Brightest Day" banner on it, instead we get ... Batman. Seriously, people, he's everywhere this month. Any road, the villain of the piece, whom we've known about for a while, finally makes an appearance. Bats and PG's new sidekick, Nicco Cho, help her figure out where to find said villain, although not who it is. I hope the revelation of the villain to PG means that we're near the end of this arc; with all the crossovers, it's felt like it's gone on forever. That said, while taking a more serious approach overall, Winick has managed to sustain much of the humor that Palmiotti and Gray put into the character; the one major difference is that whereas Palmiotti and Gray let her enjoy her life and enjoy being a superhero, Winick hasn't let PG enjoy much of anything at all, as all aspects of her life have fallen apart. In terms of the art, Basri manages something really interesting this month; the bulk of the issue looks much like the last one, but somehow Batman looks as though he's come in to visit from a Fraser Irving issue of Batman and Robin. He really looks very different from anything else in the issue, somehow.
Very good; Recommended.
(Purely a side note: Is it wrong that right now, I kind of want a new issue of "The Network" that focuses on some big conspiracy that can only be uncovered by the technosidekicks of the DCU? There's wossername that Barbara sent to handle the Web's tech, there's Proxy who handles Batgirl when Barbara's not available, Barbara is the only person who works with the Birds, and now we've got Nicco and PG. If you could figure out how to make it work, it would be kind of awesome. Though maybe it should be a big one-shot/annual type deal.)
Knight and Squire 1 of 6 (Paul Cornell/Jimmy Broxton; DC)
In wihch THEY ARE BRITISH. THEY ARE VERY VERY BRITISH. OH, THEY ARE SO BRITISH ... Sorry for the shouting, but half the issue is dedicated to establishing the setting and how very different the British do things than the Americans do, and not a lot else. If you didn't see the earlier issues of Morrison's Batman run in which Knight and Squire appeared, you don't actually know much more about them at the end of the issue than you did at the beginning. But you do know that the British superheroes and supervillains handle themselves very differently than the American ones. Even the ones who patterned themselves after American heroes and villains. Because they're British. Thing is, if this had been the first issue of a full ongoing series, it might not be a bad start. As the beginning of a miniseries ... it seems rather a waste of space, really.
No recommendation, because this was an utterly pointless issue to start off a miniseries.
And now, a musical reward for having survived to the end of this entry:
Because Neil Patrick Harris makes everything better, doesn't he?
Questions? Comments? Batarangs?
Posted by iain at 12:23 AM
recently read, batastrophic edition 2: return of the batastrophe
October 20, 2010
In which we get to see what happens when you tie one big event to another big event, and the last two issues of the first big event ship late.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 (Grant Morrison/Ryan Sook, Pere Pérez, Mick Gray, Jose Villarubia; DC): In which Bruce finds himself in Gotham shortly after his parents' death. Of course, having no memory of himself, he doesn't know anything about that. He winds up getting shot, winds up in the hospital, and thence winds up working for Marsha Lamarr, a friend of his mother's. Marsha seems to want him to prove that Thomas is still alive and that he had Martha murdered. Of course, this being Gotham, nothing is quite what it seems to be. Through her, we see some of the connections to Dr Hurt and several other characters and storylines. (And, somewhat incidentally, it helped me figure out how the Kanes and Waynes were connected, and where Kate Kane falls in relation to Bruce. But I digress.) The style of the main story is hard boiled noir, dames and double-crosses galore. Bruce, despite having no memory and getting more and more suspicious of what he's being asked to do, fits into the role of noir detective like a hand in a glove. Fitted into that are flashes forward to the present, with Tim/Red Robin and the Justice League trying to figure out how to stop Bruce, especially since Superman, Green Lantern, and the others sent to stop Bruce seem to have gotten lost in time. ("Time Masters", an allegedly related miniseries, has become almost completely disconnected from this story, and I suspect has been so spectacularly delayed that it wouldn't matter if it got back on track anyway.) And at the end of the story, almost all of the connections stand revealed. Almost. The artwork is pretty much perfect for the story it's helping to tell, stylish and stylized just enough.
Good; Recommended -- Surprisingly enough, if you haven't read any other issues of The Return, this one almost stands alone. It wouldn't be difficult to piece together the shape of what's going on, although you'd be missing a few (dozen) details.
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home (DC)
- Batman and Robin (Fabian Nicieza/Cliff Richards)
- Red Robin (Fabian Nicieza/Ramon Bachs/John Lucas)
- Batgirl (Bryan Q. Miller/Pere Perez)
- Outsiders (Mike W. Barr/Javier Saltares/ Rebecca Buchman)
Reviewed in a lump because they're all sequenced and ... honestly, there's nothing that special about them.The idea is that Bruce, using an incredibly zippy high-tech suit that gives him functional invisibility, super speed and a few other tricks, tests the various members of his Bat-family now that he's returned and all of the traps that Darkseid left behind have been defanged. (Thus blowing the end of "The Return of Bruce Wayne", which won't ship until next month, at best.) He uses methods and techniques tailored to each of the people. Having seen that everyone somehow managed without him, he concocts a plan for how to proceed, while still apparently leaving everyone doing what they clearly do well. (Batman, Inc., anyone?)
It starts with Batman and Robin, in which Dick and Damian, among other things, prevent the assassination of the mayor of Gotham by Killshot and/or the Order of Spiders. Vicki Vale also continues her investigation into the lives of Batman, Robin, Red Robin, Tim, et al. (I will point out that this investigation into Batman, Robin, Tim and who could be whom has been singularly unexplained and unmotivated; she seems to be doing it because she's obsessed, and for no other real reason.)
The story continues in Red Robin, in which Tim is trying to figure out why the order of the Spider is trying to assassinate various mayors and heads of state. (Mostly succeeding, too.) In the meantime, Vicki Vale finds out the truth behind her investigations, and doesn't know what to do with it. (Alfred does get an absolutely priceless line: "We thought he was [dead], but he's better now.") In "Outsiders", Bruce -- somewhat incidentally -- helps the Outsiders prevent an unrelated assassination of a head of state. In "Batgirl", Bruce does nothing but test Stephanie -- that said, Barbara has a perfectly awesome moment with Vicki Vale. There is a thoroughly puzzling conversation between Bruce and Alfred about Cassandra Cain -- a conversation that makes me wonder if she may reappear later as a different member of the Batfamily.
As mentioned, there's nothing particularly special about these titles. Bruce is testing everyone to see if the Batman Inc. concept is going to work, or if he'll need to put things back the way they were. The other throughline is Vicki Vale's nonsensical investigation; I assume it's going to have something to do with something at some point. The artwork runs the gamut from stellar (Richards in "Batman and Robin") to very good ("Batgirl" and "Outsiders") to barely serviceable (Bachs in "Red Robin" -- his Vicki Vale is particularly cartoonish). Moreover, Vicki Vale in particular has an oddly wide variance in how she looks from title to title. Granting that different artists do things in different ways, she ought to be easily identifiable from title to title, especially with four appearances in the same week.
OK. No recommendation. I suspect it may wind up being necessary to understand Batman Inc, when it appears, but other than that: meh.
Massive Awesome (Stephen Lindsay/Rolf Lejdegard; 215 Ink)
In which a sentient piece of bacon and a sentient pickle (that thinks he's a zombie, but really isn't) are members of a military task force. Or ... were. Turns out that they've been forced to retire, because they were "loose cannons". (Well, Bacon was. Pickle was, you know, being zombie-like and somehow got himself arrested, but don't ask how or why.) And just when it looks like Bacon and Pickle might settle into retirement, they're attacked by an Evil Person and his pet ninja ... creatures.I honestly cannot describe the purely fantastic lunacy of this title. Fighting Bacon! Fighting neo-zombie Pickle that really isn't a zombie! Humans who think this state of affairs is perfectly normal! Ninja ... things that attack in broad daylight in downtown Hollywood! This is not the sort of comic you read when you want your normal superhero epic. Not your average ordinary story. This is the sort of thing you read when you just want to sit back and enjoy the heights of true absurdity.
It also has a backup "Jesus Hates Zombies" story, which would, all by itself, be enough to sell me on the issue.
Highly recommended. I'm not sure a quality ranking would really apply here, somehow. I mean, seriously: a world with talking sentient food. How does Bacon take it when people eat nonsentient bacon in front of him, one wonders? I think I hope I get to find out.
I think.
Questions? Comments? Cigars, cigarettes, Cigarillos?
Posted by iain at 01:19 AM