When reality imitates fiction, it shows in my bank account

When reality imitates fiction, it shows in my bank account

So the feedback loop that my life maintains with the fiction I enjoy is as strong as ever. Immediately after I watched The Passenger the other day--a film about coincidence and identity theft, among other things--I checked my online bank statement and discovered that, coincidentally, someone had stolen my identity. Well, they hadn't fully stolen my identity. What an Usaru Fadii had done, however, was counterfeit checks using my account number. Luckily my bank scans in the physical checks themselves so I could see first-hand my routing and account number faithfully duplicated on this false check. The person even had the same bank branch address on hers, slightly modified, but there it was: "Melrose & Fairfax Branch".

Needless to say, I was on the phone but quick and, a mere day later, the cost of the check ($86.20 made out to PetCo) was credited back to my account, the old checking account was closed and a new one opened. No harm, no foul. Unfortunately, I'm reliant on what little cash I have in my wallet and my credit card until my new debit card arrives sometime next week (hopefully).

On a lighter note, here are some books I'm trying to get my local library to buy for me...and posterity, I suppose:

A Disease of Language by Alan Moore with artist Eddie Campbell, the team that brought you From Hell

Jew Gangster : A Father's Admonition by one of my favorite comic creators, Joe Kubert

Little Nemo in Slumberland - So Many Splendid Sundays which collects all of the Sunday strips by landmark comic strip illustrator and animator Windsor McCay in a tome so large it has to be seen to be believed

Challengers of the Unknown Archives as created by Jack "pre-King" Kirby

Watching:

Logan's Run

Nacho Libre

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Reading:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

The Waste Land and Other Poems, T. S. Eliot

Krazy & Ignatz 1925-1926: "There is a Heppy Land Furfur A-waay", George Herriman, Bill Blackbeard (Editor)

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marv Wolfman, George Perez

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The Glendale Public Library

The Glendale Public Library

Would it be wrong of me to make a suggestion--partly as comic snob, partly as a heads-up--that could potentially change up the shelving at the Glendale Public Library ? Their graphic novels section...well, they don't have one per se. The graphic novels they do have take up two full sections in the TEEN area of the library. I understand the reasoning behind their thinking; the comics on the shelves (a lot of manga) primarily draw teenagers. On the other hand, they've got a copy of From Hell and other comics of dubious content on those shelves, which is a little beyond the sensibilities of most adults I know, much less an adolescent.

If teenagers wanted to seek it out, they'd still be able to find it if the book was located elsewhere in the library. I don't understand under what system of classification (beyond its being a story told using words and pictures) that From Hell would ever otherwise be categorized as TEEN.

Beyond the issue of content, Eddie Campbell--coincidentally the artist of From Hell--brings up a good point in his interview in The Comics Journal a few months ago when talking about the distribution of different media across a retail floor. One wouldn't expect to find the DVD of From Hell next to the comic. Similarly one wouldn't even expect to find the DVD of it next to its VHS equivalent. The problem we encounter with this analogy, however, is that DVD, comics and VHS tapes are all different formats. DVD and VHS--though their formats are different--both fall under the umbrella of the "home video" medium. Conversely, books and comics are the same format (ink on pulp paper enclosed by high gauge cardboard or paper) but two different mediums.

It's the problem of the similar format that make it difficult to justify having a graphic novel section as opposed to just lumping it in with TEEN. On the other hand, some of the content of these comics are certainly unsuitable for a teen audience, not to mention that comics are an entirely different medium than literature. I think the whole thing is all the more frustrating because I would expect librarians to be the last group of people to judge books by covers.

[I apologize for the scattered path this post takes. I wrote it while cleaning and reading and eating.]

Watching:

The Passenger

Reading:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

The Waste Land and Other Poems, T. S. Eliot

The Fixer : A Story from Sarajevo

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Protracted exile

Protracted exile

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. I lost my Internet for a week and a half. In that time I logged in a lot of Double Dash on The Cube and have since gotten ashamed by friends in front of my girlfriend several times.

Seeing as how I just wrapped up yet another McBride--this one written by our regular script supervisor (and my friend) Rachel Stuhler and former McBride prop master, Jamie Latta--I am, of course, sick. That being said, I'll write something more substantial after I sleep some more.

Watching:

The Omen (1976)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Not as good as I remembered.)

Forbidden Planet (A genuinely brilliant sci-fi film.)

Night Watch

Fists in the Pocket

"The Gospel of Judas" (An utterly banal and facile documentary on arguably the most important discovery of ancient text in the last several decades. Disappointing.)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Just as good the second go-round.)

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (Manipulative, to be sure. On the other hand, it backs up its blatant sentimentality with damning facts about the store giant's awful policies [like informing its workers on how to apply for medicaid and welfare instead of providing decent wages and insurance coverage themselves].)

Reading:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell

The Waste Land and Other Poems, T. S. Eliot

Sandman: Seasons of Mist, Neil Gaiman & various artists (Finished.)

Five Fists Of Science, Matt Fraction, Steven Sanders (Finished.)(Murky art and an unsatisfying climax mar this otherwise entertaining book.)

Persepolis : The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi (Finished.)(A nice little pick-up from the local library. I'm displeased that they have all their graphic novels shelved in the "teen fiction" section regardless of its content and with no regard to whether the book's content is even fictional. [Persepolis is a non-fictional autobiography of a the author growing up in Iran in the 1970's and 80's.])

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