A Few Random Things

I finally got a bicycle so now traveling around the city is a lot easier and a lot more fun. On first glance I was starting to assume that no one in Obihiro was locking their bike, but in fact the wheels of the front tire is locked up. Too bad someone could just pick up your light-ass bike and carry it to their apartment. Just saying.

Still, I have a nice little black bike with a little basket and a light generator (which all bikes seems to have) and is adorable. Unfortunately, I have to keep it in my room but it doesn't take all that much room. Soon my knowledge of Obihiro will be a lot batter and maybe I'll find a few more cool places.

I just had possibly the most delicious curry I've ever eaten at a place call Soup Curry Waruw... or maybe it was called Soup Curry Maruw. Now I didn't know what Soup Curry (or Curry Soup) would be like but it was absolutely wonderful. It was full of big chunks of delicious veggies and a chicken breast and rice of the side. Now I've never had curry soup before but I wasn't sure how to eat it. Curry by definition is a sauce, but you can make a sauce into a soup. Anyway, it was basically a flavourful soup with a side of rice. So I poured the soup on the rice and ate them together. In retrospect they can probably be eaten separately but they taste good together too.
The restuarant itself is a hole in the wall (though for all I know it's a part of a franchise) and looks a little rundown but it has a cozy feel to it. I also like the fact that reggae music is being played in the background, the place has a whole Hawaiian tiki look and they serve curry. A little confusing. They also have a couple of vintage Great Mazinger-type toys. Also like many small restaurants there's manga lying around waiting to be read (though I have no idea why none of there places have anything from the cooking manga genre. What the hell?

I finished reading Young Avengers Vol. 1 and my opinion of it hadn't changed. It didn't help that it was sort of obvious where the ending was heading, though I could easily see further volumes being better reads. This had a good artist and an OK writer but something didn't click.

I also am halfway through Day of Vengeance, which is one of the four mini-series that lead into the Infinite Crisis book. Unfortunately before the titular story begins there's a three-part Superman story that leads into the story that's just God-awful. Awful art but Ian Churchill (he doesn't even strike me as someone who should be drawing Superman) and a terrible script by Judd Winick. I was told this guy was a good writer but this was painful. It was an unbelievably generic story that feels over twenty years old (in a bad way) opening with a early Alan Moore wannabe type feel, then a generic Eclipso possesses Superman story (I'm positive that they've done that many times, yet they act like it's the first.) and then it's just a boring Super-battle. In fact the way Captain Marvel beats evil Superman was already done much better in Kingdom Come.

The actual story is kind of fun and the art is OK. But it also didn't click. Still the author does something I appreciate, which is taking B-level characters and making them interesting. I have a soft spot for B-level characters because their status quo is less fixed. I don't care what you do to Superman but he'll always get his status quo back. However, you can do anything you want with Detective Chimp.

Actually Detective Chimp is made into a fun character here: a talking Chimpanzee with only the ability to talk, heightened intelligence and eternal youth. Basically, he's an asshole detective in a Sherlock Holmes hat (deerstalker) who wears an "Everybody Sucks but Me" shirt. I also like Ragman who can borrow the strength of all of the people he punished for their sins, so it's like he's powered by purgatory and the souls in his costume work off their karmic debt. It's a really cool idea in my opinion.

The plot sounds fun but I'm not that into it yet: the most powerful character in the DCU (the Spectre AKA God's Wraith incarnate) is tricked into wiping out all of the magic users and the only people to opposed him that haven't been spanked or killed by the Spectre is a ragtag group (one of those things) of random magic types... and Captain Marvel, and Marvel is in the middle of getting his teeth knocked out. I'll have to wait till it finishes to pass final judgment but I have to say this is a fun story, but nothing special.

Also Justiniano art's good but it doesn't fit here. His art is good but when I read it I get the impression that these aren't the characters that he was meant to draw, except maybe Nightshade. Seeing the way he draws Nightshade, I get the impression that he should be drawing Birds of Prey. It really seems he was meant to draw when in tight clothes doing martial arts.

Also, I've been listening to I Love Movies radio podcasts. I can't promise that you'll like it (though I'm sure Darcy will) but generally obscure comedians (and Patton Oswalt on one show) and host Doug Benson. Mostly it's just talking about movie but there are times that are just very funny, though exact moments don't come to mind. So that's what I've been up to.