A belated happy sixth anniversary to my Phoenix-based friends Kim & Rad. According to the Internet [aka Wikipedia], the “appropriate” gift for them is either iron or wood. Hmm. Rad’s a big comic-book fan so I’m confident he already owns a copy of the Iron Man DVD, no luck on me being clever there. Wood is a trickier one that Ethan & Kelly were able to solve. Maybe, I can find a way to combine the two. 
 
Either way, it was a fabulous weekend in Phoenix. The weather was warmer than Austin’s, for 2002. They were married outdoors in a really nice ceremony at this private clubhouse place. Even our hotel room had a great view of Camel Back Mountain from the porch. I think the climate took the sting off of the Bears losing [as expected] for my friend Steve staying next door with his family. Kim & Rad’s wedding was also memorable for people bugging me about if I was going to get married to Somara. Obviously the answers varied, based upon who replied. I showed her the following Spring, didn’t I?! 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 10, 2008 2:42:32 PM CST ( 1 comment )

With huge apologies to my cousin in Tampa who is also a season-ticket holder of the Lightning, but imagine my relief at the news this morning on the EPSN widget. 
 
Holmgren finally got rid of Downie for Tampa’s prospect Carle to solve the ongoing blueline problem and then promptly lost to Tampa this evening. With all the temper issues Downie had while he was in juniors plus the dirty hit he did to somebody on the Senators during last season’s playoffs, Philly got the better of the deal. Maybe Barry Melrose can knock some sense into this kid because Bobby Clarke couldn’t. Otherwise, I think he’ll have a short career. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 8, 2008 9:04:31 PM CST ( 0 comments )

Tuesday night I was at the nearby Best Buy picking up the new Futurama movie when I saw the latest Guitar Hero game set up. It's no secret that GH is trying to compete with Rock Band after the Red Octane-Harmonix divorce in 2007 [thanks Activision]. The latest in the GH franchise is World Tour, no idea why such a dumb name. It includes a drum kit and microphone in addition to the faux wood guitar [as lead or bass]. Sounds just like RB. However, the hype is over the drums co-designed by three famous drummers [Stewart Copeland is the only one I respect] and the guitar's new sliding interface for those big Metal solos. Oh, there's the recording studio allow you to make new tunes…without vocals for some odd reason. 
 
Anyway, I took a shot at playing it. I also wanted to see if there were any immediate differences in game play, content, etc. So far, I wasn't impressed. The song choices weren't terribly different, about a fifth of the songs are available in RB yet some they offered are rather lame for a "rock" game. Michael Jackson? Willie Nelson? Both are great artists yet they don't belong here unless there's a R&B and Country Hero game. I shouldn't have been surprised due to the disappointing choice offered at the end of GH3, "Devil Went to Georgia" from the Charlie Daniels Band. GHWT gets a pass on this because RB also had a stinker or two [the Outlaws cover namely]. The two I played were tunes I wish RB offered in the DLS despite how overplayed they are on the radio: "Band on the Run" and "Hotel California." I tried them at medium difficulty…I am nowhere as skilled as Denny Laine or Joe Walsh. These were enjoyable. The dealbreaker was how long GH took to load between songs on a PS3. If I didn't know better, it felt more like a PS2 with everything loading from the disc. Next time, I'll take a stop watch [in my iPhone] to time them and eliminate the perception argument. 
 
No matter what the results may be, I'm not dropping Rock Band for this. It has too many resemblances to GH3 which was disappointing and RB has at least a one year head start in numerous areas. 
 
There will be a more elaborate review of Rock Band and its refined sequel Rock Band 2 in the very near future. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 7, 2008 4:30:35 PM CST ( 0 comments )

Thanks to the explosive growth in Houston during the early Eighties, school at Clear Creek started before 8 AM and with a 45-minute bus ride, this meant I had to be at my stop before 630 AM. Getting up around 5-530 AM wasn’t too new, my previous year attending Strake conditioned me for such exhaustion. I just now had the opportunity to take a brief nap when I got home instead of being stranded on campus for two-three hours. This also meant I was the only person in the house who was awake this early. Most days I don’t even recall anyone else getting out of bed before I left. Either was very stealthy [not likely] or my parents and brother were heavy sleepers. 
 
One morning late October or early November, I was going through my routine to get ready for school. It was a bit after 6 AM and the phone rang. Not wanting anyone to wake up, I answered it quickly. There was a male voice on the other end with an unrecognizable accent asking if he could talk to Steve Maggi. I replied that’s me. The guy then said he was calling from South Africa. Oh, I think you want my dad [he’s Sr., I’m Jr.] As Dad was rushing into the living room, saying he was expecting this call, I was telling him, hey there’s some joker claiming to be in South Africa wanting to speak to you, is this a prank from your puckish co-workers? Dad wasn’t too amused but I had a bus to catch. 
 
Later that evening, I found out it was a recruiter trying to see if my dad was interested in working there. This was before Botha declared the national state of emergency but South Africa already had a pretty bad reputation in 1983. We had just moved to this other side of Houston over the last several months, I know I wasn’t keen on moving yet again, and half way across the world to a country neighboring some hostile Third World dictatorships. 
 
The whole experience was still a great crash course on the nation and its state of affairs. My opinion remained negative over their government yet I was now intrigued…because my knowledge of geography got temporarily suspended. I stupidly thought Australia was closer, thus I could visit there during school breaks. This was rectified in a week by glancing over an atlas; imagine how the Internet would’ve solved this misconception faster. Besides, I had never been to another country which wasn’t attached to America. South Africa was going to be a hell of an adventure so I wanted to go, especially after I learned of my parents’ plans if this job came through. Dad would go while the rest of us returned to Springfield. After attending the infamous party during our month there, I preferred to take my chances in a volatile land. 
 
Alas, it fell through. Dad said the interview was a mixed bag. I think some of the details he was given warned him of how unpleasant the place could be. When you think of cities in South Africa, Johannesburg, Cape Town or Pretoria come to mind. Welkum is where this job was. It’s some coal mining place about the size of Peoria, IL that wasn’t close to anything interesting. If I came along, I’d be living in a compound where all the “foreigners” stayed, never getting to see much of the real Welkum. The recruiter said not to bring the TV neither since state television was boring for American tastes. Never mind the PAL v. NTSC matter. 
 
Not going was for the best. As I mentioned earlier, President Botha declared the infamous state of emergency which demonized the nation even further. Reagan didn’t do much yet I think we’d be forced to come home for our own safety. Thankfully, South Africa didn’t meet the same sorry fate Zimbabwe did as so many “activists” in college hoped for. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 6, 2008 8:20:35 PM CST ( 0 comments )

It's hard to be a Flyers fan some days, especially this season. First comes the home opener with Sarah Palin [aka Dan Quayle in a dress] which became a curse; of course, I don't really believe in such superstitions, it's just a convenient scapegoat. 
 
Now there's talk of Brendan Shanahan joining the team since the aging star got stiffed by the Rangers. He's a great a player and will easily make the Hall of Fame but they might as well sign Petr Nedved [again] and Mats Sundin. My Flyers need an experienced defenseman to fill the void left by Desjardins, Johnsson or Jason Smith. I think the only matter stopping this repeat of Bob Clarke-esque acquisitions is the salary cap, something I wasn't keen on originally. 
 
Meanwhile, I saw the sad news about Martin Brodeur being out for surgery. He won't return until the season is close to over, thus putting him behind schedule on beating Patrick Roy's record for most wins and Terry Sawchuk's on shutouts. Brodeur will achieve them, he just won't have any additional weeks or months to raise the bar much higher. 
 
Closer to home, Jeremy and I put in our first payments on season tickets for the upcoming Texas Stars. We are slated for seats number one and two on row three. Jeremy thinks there is no row two, it's the aisle or something between ours and the people paying double to be on the glass. I'm just happy to be on the corner [section 120] side with the Stars shoot twice. Sadly, another Bats fan called me a traitor. I think he was kidding, I hope. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 6, 2008 2:16:25 PM CST ( 0 comments )

I haven’t posted a DVD review-story-recommendation since July due to inertia [*cough!* laziness], other stories were more pressing as they were more timely in nature and probably a touch of my ongoing anxiety [which subside a few notches with the end of the election]. This hasn’t meant I stopped watching and buying DVDs. Heck no! I’m an American to the end; consuming is in my DNA. Besides, we don’t have cable-satellite anymore so we watch our collection instead. This leads to purchasing more to build a library to loan out to friends, relatives and co-workers. 
 
Sadly, I was finally motivated to get off my butt to cover a trio of animated comedies I have always enjoyed because Fox officially cancelled King of the Hill to make room for more of Seth McFarlane's mediocre crap. The following are three shows to consider when [Adult Swim] isn't available. 
 

I’ll kick off with the long awaited Duckman set covering the first two seasons. Back in the mid-Nineties, this obscure cartoon on USA never developed much of a following despite Jason Alexander as the lead character's voice. It did have a brief rerun stint on Comedy Central but this network never pushed it like their current support of Futurama. Klasky-Csupo used to produce The Simpsons before this, so my guess is they acquired the rights to Everett Peck’s comic strip to keep something adult in their portfolio to counter all the kiddie fare they did on Nickelodeon: Rugrats, Rocket Power and As Told by Ginger. The premise revolves around the misadventures of Duckman, an incompetent private detective who spends his free time hanging around topless joints. His wife Beatrice died a year earlier and left the house to her twin sister in the will; the mean-spirited, exercise-obsessed Bernice who continuously denigrates everything about Duckman. Living with the bickering duo are Duckman’s three sons: Ajax [a complete idiot], Charles and Mambo [the two-headed one]; and the flatulent mute Grandma-ma. He fares better at work because he takes out his frustrations on the receptionists; the sickeningly sweet stuffed bears Fluffy and Uranus; and can get away with bullying his business partner Cornfed, a pig with Joe Friday mannerisms. 
 
Duckman’s antics vary. Some cover as very obvious social commentaries on America’s character, celebrity rehab resorts and the nature of comedy. Others are escapades involving him in a reality show, dating a very ugly woman, overcoming his guilt in Beatrice's death and meeting his reincarnated mother. Filling out the cast were spectacular guest voices, something a cable-only cartoon didn’t have normally until Duckman. This list included Michael McKean, Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Ben Stiller, Katey Sagal, Bobcat Goldthwait, Gilbert Godfrey, Heather Locklear and Tim Curry [Duckman’s recurring nemesis, King Chicken]. Watching the set in a couple evenings did reveal one element I grew tired of quickly, his predictable lectures disguised as rants. These must have been less noticeable when he was only on once a week. Still the bulk of Duckman was a treat to revisit because much of survived the passing of time, few jokes were caught up in current events which keeps its re-viewing capability high. I'm sure I'll see things I missed the first time. 
 
In the extras department, Duckman is pretty thin. Only the pilot has a commentary from creator Everett Peck and star Jason Alexander. There is an explanation of how the show was developed and brief interviews with the primary cast EG Daily, Nancy Travis, Greg Berger, Pat Musick and Jason Alexander. The "making of"featurette surprised me the most: I figured Peck was a political cartoonist or underground comic guy, not an instructor and consultant for other animated shows. If you’ve seen his original Duckman strips, you’d think Peck was a self-trained doodler who got a group of talented animators to clean up the characters to make this show possible. Thankfully, his creation got to keep its mean-spirited humor through the transition and it did better a hundred times better than Family Guy or in a less-preachy manner than South Park. 
 
Another series I thought was great, had a much shorter life span on two networks which didn’t “get it.” Everyone has seen the majority of The Critic thanks to Comedy Central playing it to death which made its complete boxed set less compelling in 2004. I bought it more recently since I got enough “distance” from its stint on cable. Much like Duckman, this show was developed by another set of people involved with The Simpsons but these were the hit show’s key writers: Mike Reiss, Al Jean and the legendary James Brooks. If you watch the DVD extras, you’ll find out the original plan for The Critic. It was going to be a live sitcom for ABC about the characters of a daily morning show; a cross between Broadcast News and Larry Sanders. Jon Lovitz would be a minor character, the faux program’s movie critic. Due to the logistics and Lovitz’s availability, the live series was scrapped so the trio revamped it as a cartoon revolving around the film critic. It worked out pretty well. This allowed Lovitz the opportunity to keep shooting movies while he would lay down his voice tracks between gigs. 
 
Admittedly, the show appears centered around poking fun at movies [many of the jokes were rather dated too] which is probably what killed it in the ratings. Such a pity, the writers did a terrific job going beyond the superficial premise. Half of the episodes really cover Jay’s relationships with his family, co-workers, boss, friends and the women he dates. Jean even admits, the whole point of having the main character be a film critic was to stick in brief clips poking fun at contemporary films. Strip away those jokes and the bulk of the show is not terribly different than The Simpsons as it tried to recapture the emotional resonance Jean & Reiss nailed in the legendary first season on Fox. 
 
The DVDs' extras include commentaries on several key episodes, an explanation of the program’s evolution with Jean, Reiss, Brooks, Lovitz and LaMarche; and the entire collection of The Critic’s brief run on the Internet as a web cartoon circa 1999-2000. I think many detractors of this program might reconsider watching it again because of its legacy. What legacy? Many of the writers went on to produce episodes for The Simpsons and Futurama: Ken Keeler, Patric Verrone [WGA president during the recent strike] and Tom Gammill; Larry Sanders: Jon Vitti; Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Nell Scovell; and Hollywood’s current golden boy, Judd Apatow. 
 
Closing out is King of the Hill Season One, a show I feel will have a key spot in TV and animation history. I broke down and scored it around my birthday because I hadn’t seen much of it in syndication. It’s still as funny as I remember when it debuted in 1997. Maybe my perspective is colored by 14 years of living in Central TX since I am familiar with the common stereotypes it features, but you’d have to seek them out in the nearby towns around Austin. Many long-term residents such as my wife, have always found this cartoon annoying; it probably hits too close to home like Office Space does for me. 
 
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels did an incredible job creating another animated show about a family without resorting to making it into a poor, carbon copy of The Simpsons, aka Seth McFarlane's over reliance on flashbacks, “what if” jokes and absurdity. A huge part of its longevity was how it remained anchored “reality,” never allowing the writers to cop out with the creative license animation can take, namely physical humor, exaggerations or continuity violations like “Treehouse of Horror.” King is really just a sitcom using animation to get around casting restrictions [Stephen Root and Toby Huss each play at least two recurring characters] and sometimes, cartoon characters can get away with saying certain things live actors wouldn't dare on TV. 
 
King shines in the extras through numerous deleted scenes-alternate endings [I prefer the one aired in “The Company Man”] and the “Making of” featurette. There are commentaries but I skipped them because they’re narrated in the voices of the characters. Maybe I’ll go back, check out the ones done by Greg Daniels though. My only hope is that Fox allows King’s writers time to wrap up everything and give one of their longest running programs some closure. Not a cheap, tacked on ending Married with Children had foisted on it by Fox. Something conclusive and classy like M*A*S*H or Newhart. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 4, 2008 4:56:35 PM CST ( 0 comments )

Jeremy let me know yesterday that it’s pretty official, Austin will have an AHL franchise next Fall. Details are available here but he was at some festival where the team had a table passing out information, namely over season tickets. As much as I dislike the Dallas Stars and I would prefer the team to be called the Austin Stars or Bats, it will be “our” team. I had to make my case to Somara over dinner last night. It wasn’t too difficult because I’m only purchasing one ticket through quarterly payments which will be cheaper than what I did on a game-by-game basis of the Icebats. Jeremy and I are shooting for a spot near the corner where the T-Stars shoot twice. 
 
More details as they happen because they can't give any, namely which franchise will be relocating to the area, my immediate guess would be the Quad City Flames or Rockford Ice Hogs. I will always have a place in my heart for the Icebats and the 12 seasons they gave us. However, I’m more excited to be in a league that includes Milwaukee, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio and Peoria. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 2, 2008 11:57:54 PM CST ( 0 comments )

Sooooo many stories to write lately, namely the ones pertaining to 1983 or 1988 having priority. Then this piece of joy appeared in my e-mail! I knew Cindy was due for a second child but I completely forgot when her girl was due. Too bad she wasn't born while I was in Vegas, see if she had a great spell of luck as Asher did, lucky number 25. 
 
Congratulations to Cindy and her husband, whose namely I rudely forget. Their son Gus is also a big brother. Drop them a line to say, way to go. I need to get the usual gift from my mother-in-law to ship up. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 1, 2008 2:41:25 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

How I love Austin. I get to meet famous people all the time! Ever since I shook hands with Oliver Stone at the Dog n’ Duck in 1994, I have had many brushes with greatness. 
 
Seriously though. This fellow Apple employee’s Halloween costume rocked. I caught him on the way back from helping my friend Bryant with his MacBook. He graciously posed for me so I could take his picture. I didn’t make him do the Gary Owens voice. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ October 31, 2008 8:37:01 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

Earlier in the week, Somara spent a little money on a "costume" for Kuroneko. Sadly, she isn't a good sport about anything on her head like those more famous Japanese cats. We did receive a good laugh or two seeing how long this stegosaurus hat stayed on the cats' heads [see photos]. Miette was ignored because she's wiry and all muscle, translation: our forearms get covered in nasty scratches. 
 
Happy Halloween from Kuroneko, Nemo and Molly. 
 

 
 
 
 
 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ October 31, 2008 9:30:15 AM CDT ( 5 comments )