Keane

So it was 2 in the morning and I was in the back of a taxi listening to my iPod. The atmosphere was made up by amber street lights on a dark night with snow fall. I was coming home after spending the night with a girl I met a week ago. I tend to be promiscuous when I’m single, and like to choose women that have the girl next door look. While the sex was great, I also tend to love the softness of a women in my arms. So in that mood of affection I was listening to Keane. Slightly buzzed from the wine I had earlier, the music sounded amazing and was just what I needed to compliment my mood. Of course all of this happened earlier this morning, but I felt it necessary to post Keane as providing my song of the day.

Song: Untitled 1
Artist: Keane
Album: Hopes & Fears
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hopes-Fears-Keane/dp/B000268QB2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1298783346&sr=1-1

Green Candles

Title: Green Candles

Writer: Tom De Haven

Art Work: Robin Smith

Publisher: Paradox Graphic Mystery

Green Candles is the type of mystery graphic novel that I like.  It’s lengthy, it has nicely drawn characters, and the story moves at a nice pace.  The story centers on private detective John Halting, who is asked by schoolteacher Grace Penny to investigate strange photos she is receiving in the mail.  The photos are of a green candle, and in every new picture sent it is burning down slowly.  Grace Penny assumes that it is coming from someone in her past, and that when the candle burns out someone will kill her.  While focusing on Grace, the graphic novel also has other sub-stories that allow the reader to see how complex the life of detective Halting is.  The sub-stories that are included are about how John is dealing with his divorce, his relationship with his daughter, and helping his friend find his runaway son.

I really appreciated the sub-stories because it allowed for more twists and turns throughout the whole novel.  As writer Tom De Haven said in the introduction of the book, he wanted to create a story that would allow for a series of other books to come.  Thus by adding the sub-stories he didn’t make the life of John one dimensional or limited to one book, but has created the possibility for more stories of the detective.  I liked the ending of this book because it solved the mystery of who was sending the photos in a clever and smart way.  That’s a characteristic of a good mystery novel, having the ability to make the ending a surprise whose revelation makes everything clear.  I really enjoyed this novel and would definitely recommend it to people that like smart mysteries.

DC Comics:

http://www.dccomics.com/dccomics/graphic_novels/?gn=1501

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/GREEN-CANDLES-Paradox-Graphic-Mystery/dp/0671004670

Lego Minifigures: The Mime

This toy is from series 2 of Lego Minifigures and was released in 2010.  The Mime’s accessories include 3 heads (smiling, sad, and scared), and a hat (beret).

Lego:

www.lego.com

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA98R_Q_NXQ

Coldplay

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Maybe it’s the hopeless romantic in me but I always enjoy celebrating this day. I make sure to tell all my friends, family and loved ones that I love them. And when it comes to the woman I’m dating, I like to wine her and dine her. I buy the flowers, make the dinner reservations, write her a love poem, and make sure the night turns out special. I guess its kind-of-a day to bring out your cheesy romantic side, without having to be criticized. When I think of a love song that captures the emotions I feel when I am in love I would have to say its “For You” by Coldplay. It has this soft, vocal, almost magical feel to it that (in my opinion) is best heard late at night when all you do is reflect and think about the one you love.

Song: For You
Artist: Coldplay
Album: Shiver / For You / Careful Where You Stand [Single, Import]
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shiver-You-Careful-Where-Stand/dp/B00004SA6A/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1297738693&sr=1-3

Song of the day

I wanted to start a new blog thread dedicated to songs I am listening to on a particular day. Whether I am feeling happy, sad, angry, aggressive, confused or in love there is always a song I can choose that will relate to how I’m feeling at that moment. Most of the time it probably won’t even be about how I’m feeling, but just how much I like a song. Heck, sometimes I don’t even know the words to a song or what it is about, I just listen to it because I like the beat. I will try to provide the name of the song, artist, and if possible write a brief summary on why I chose that song. I will also try to provide a video link from youtube.

Joker

Title: Joker

Writter: Brian Azzarello

Art Work: Lee Bermejo and Mick Gray

Publisher: DC Comics

A while back I went to my local toy store to check out what they had.  While I was there I started talking with the guy that worked in the store.  He told me he was a huge fan of the Joker, and even showed me a tattoo he had of him.  I was surprised to meet someone that loved the Joker that much.  I also have to agree, the Joker is a pretty awesome character.  In the Batman movies he is always the character that most people like as well because he stands out from the rest of the evil villains.  Later that week I went to my local library to check out what they had in stock.  To my surprise they had a graphic novel of the Joker, simply called Joker.  I just had to get it and once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop.  This graphic novel blew my mind away.  The artwork is so amazing; it mixes between regular comic book drawings and paintings.  The Joker is drawn similar to the version Heath Ledger created in the movie The Dark Knight, with a Glasgow smile and his iconic green hair.  You can almost feel the emotions of characters from how they are drawn.

What complements these drawings is the darkly written story line.  It simply brings the Joker character to a whole darker and scarier level.  The story is written from the perspective of an up-and-coming criminal named, Jonny Frost.  Jonny is so ambitious to make his name be known that he is willing to join the Joker and follow him where ever he goes.  At first the Joker is shown to be the regular villain that everyone knows, creating the type of havoc that everyone loves.  As the story progresses and Jonny starts to get to know more about the man he idolizes, he soon starts to regret this decision.  The Joker goes from sinister to psychopathic to a beast that no one would envy, and would actually fear.

However for Jonny it is too late by the time he realizes what he has gotten himself into and this is what I found brilliant about the book.  Everyone always finds the good guy, be it Superman or Batman boring and instead like to follow the bad guy.  But in Joker, you come to realize that the bad guy is someone you don’t ever want to meet, and that when you do feel helpless the only person you can call is the good guy, Batman.  When the Dark Knight finally does appear, you really start to appreciate what he does; he fights evil.  As simplistic as that may sound, one will only understand how great this is until you have been through hell and see someone at the end of the tunnel willing to help.  I have to say this is by far my favorite graphic novel of all time.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_(graphic_novel)

DC Comics:

http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=10157