I Am Iron Man

No, not Ozzy. This guy.



CNN reports that Robert Downey Jr. has been picked to play Iron Man in the film adaptation of the Marvel Comic hero.

My first thought was Robert Downey as a superhero. Odd. My second thought was Robert Downey as the babe chasing, alcoholic millionaire industrialist, Tony Stark.

Priceless

Save the Liver

I recently attended a "knife skills" class at a local Sur La Table. Sadly the focus of the class was on safety and not on lightening fast mincing and chopping.

Some useful things I did learn:

• How to peel a melon. Family members will actually eat them if they are cut up into bite size pieces in the fridge.
  
  
• The most useless cut in the world is a brunoise, which is a mince producing bits of carrot or potato the size of small grains of rice. Good only for a Vichyssoise.
  
  
• If you are slicing onions thinly, slice from the side of the onion. Much more visually appealing results.
  
  
• Always dry your herbs in a salad spinner before mincing. This avoids that molten mush of green slime that collects on your knife and cutting board.
  
  
• And finally, always remember to tuck your fingers under when holding the vegetables and choke up on the knife.

Stephen, you ignorant slut

From the Daily Show's Ten F*cking Years, two guys who have faded into obscurity.

Dog Heaven

Today is the seventh wedding anniversary. The wife and I spent Saturday in Carmel by the Sea. Carmel is one of our favorite day trips. We honeymooned in nearby Pacific Grove and we manage to get down there a few times a year. It is only a bit more than an hour south of San Jose and the drive (depending on which route you choose) takes you through Salinas (birthplace of John Steinbeck), Castroville (the Artichoke Capital of the world), Monterey, the aforementioned Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach and the famous 17 mile drive.

Since Pepper has joined our family about 18 months ago, Carmel has become even more of a must do outing. Carmel by the Sea is the most dog-friendly town in all of California. The local beach allows dogs off leash, and shops welcome you to browse with your dog and often have a bowl of water and free milkbones available. And one of our favorite restaurants, The Forge in the Forest has an outdoor seating area especially for customers who bring their canines and a doggie menu. Pepper likes the Quarter Hounder.

Here are a couple of pix of Pepper enjoying the beach and a shot along the beach towards Pebble Beach.

Family Foto Friday

I was visiting my sister over the holiday weekend and we spent part of the time scanning some family picutres. The girl standing in the back is my Grandmother Luba and the bearded gent and the woman sitting next to him are my Great Grandparents.

I Wanna Be Automated

More fun and games. Make your own Punk Music with the Punkomatic.

Via Daily Kos

I Want Ghandi

Political Compass has a very interesting Quiz. I myself was a Libertarian Leftist.

Oh, these Modern Times

Bob Dylan has a new album out, Modern Times and there is a live video of Bob doing Cold Irons Bound. From the bits I've heard, if you liked Love and Theft and Time Out of Mind, you'll like this one too.



I try not to delve too much into politics and religion at futurballa blog, but here is an intersection of the two that caught my interest. Jackie Mason is suing Jews for Jesus for using his image in a brochure. What is the old saying? When you lie down with dogs...

Good Evening godless sodomites. Here is the high point of last Sunday's Emmy awards.

I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust.

Via the Onion AV Club, a list of the 14 best movies featuring Theremin Music.

Some entries that qualify for the whodathunkit award. The Ten Commandments and The Delicate Delinquent.

Fun, fun, fun

I've always been desirous of a little British roadster, a'la an MGB or Triumph Spitfire, but lacking any mechanical inclination whatsoever and not having deep enough pockets to have a mechanic on personal retainer, I have wisely resisted. Recently, a family member who buys and sells cars gave me an opportunity to pick up a high mileage, but well running Miata. These cars definitely have the look and feel of a classic roadster and are tons of fun to drive. At the price I picked it up, I figure I can get my money's worth no matter what happens.

A good friend who has been driving classic sports cars for years had this suggestion. Upgrade your AAA membership to plus(100 mile towing radius), don't take it out if you absolutely must be somewhere on time, and if you end up on the side of the road waiting for a tow, keep a good attitude about it. With that in mind, I took the plunge and have been having a blast ever since.

If you are a would be Miata owner, be sure to look in on Miata.net. Great resource.

My 1995 Black and Tan

Marvelholic

My name is Rick and I'm a Marvelholic...

47 years old and I still read comic books (enjoy fart jokes too). But I would like to come to the defense of comic books. There are some pretty amazing writers and artists around these days and some of the old heroes like Captain America and Thor and Daredevil are getting a postmodern face lift at the hands of authors like Ed Brubaker, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar.

A few favorite series.

This last year or so of Cap under the helm of Ed Brubaker has reintroduced the red, white and blue eyed hero as a stranger in a world he doesn't understand, where all of his old compatriots are either dead or have betrayed him. The first arc of Brubaker's Captain America run are available in trades. Winter Soldier, volumes 1 & 2.



Bendis is probably the biggest name in Comics today. He has even been immortalized in a Simpsons episode, in which Comic Book Guys says, "Big Ethel kills Moose to get Jughead's attention? Oh, Brian Michael Bendis, you've done it again!" His work on The Avengers and New Avengers has been superlative. In Avengers Disassembled he tore apart Jack Kirby's most famous team.



Perhaps the most interesting series around today is Mark Millar's The Ultimates, which take a twist on the Avengers team in which Cap is a bit of a self righteous prig, Thor is a new age hippie whose divinity is brought into question and Giant Man is an abusive husband.




Along with these journeyman, a perusal of the shelves at your local comic book store, if you can get over the stigma and enter your local comic book store, you'll find series by Buffy's Joss Whedon (Astonishing X-Men), scifi author Orson Scott Card (Ultimate Iron Man) and Neil Gaiman (Sandman, American Gods) has returned to monthly comics having resurrected Kirby's The Eternals with artist John Romita Jr.

Space Vampires and Metaphysicians

Michael Blowhard offers this short post on the English author Colin Wilson. Michael links to this Guardian piece on the 50th anniversary of Wilson's debut.

I have been a fan of Wilson for many years. He is an odd duck to say the least. His early career was probably best defined as a sort of poor man's Sartre and author of the treatise The Outsider. Later, he probably became best known for writing books on true crimes and the occult.

However, it is his fiction that always hooked me. A weird combination of occult, sci fi, sex and murder, interspersed with bits and pieces of philosophy. A prime example of fiction of this sort would be the provacatively titled Sex Diary of a Metaphysician, which is, as many of his books are, sadly out of print. Perhaps his most famous novel, if one could call it that, is The Space Vampires, which became the source of the Tobe Hooper movie, Lifeforce. A fun sci fi film that features copious nudity by actress Mathilda May (IMDB lists her character as Space Girl). The movie also features Steve Railsback, Peter Firth and Patrick Stewart.

All that is New is Old again

New look, new feel,new purpose. Yes futurballa blog has returned to a standard blog form. Look for more written postings along with the usual photos. And in proper blogger tradition, we'll start off with a couple of Elsewhere links.

Via Kevin Drum we discovered WoldCat.org, an archive of the world's libraries. Plug in an author or title and it will point you to where it can be found. Even things like college film projects. George Wallace directs.

The above mentioned Mr. Wallace, aka Friend Fool, laments or celebrates (you decide) major changes in direction at Bonny Doon vineyards.

This is already pretty viral, but I had to share.
Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (episode 1)



And finally, here is a reflective image from the Grand Tetons.

A leaf of all colors plays a golden-string fiddle

I'm considering going back to actual blogging. Of course we would still include pictures, but maybe actually write something (hopefully) of interest from time to time. What think you, gentle readers, who I have culled to a lonely few?

synesthesia

Patterns and Colors. I smell purple.

Thermal features from Yellowstone National Park.

We're going to Jackson

Near Jackson Hole, Wyoming this is one of the views that photographers flock to. The old barns along Mormon Row with the view of the Grand Tetons behind them. One of the most interesting was the one on the end of the row that was in the process of collapsing, but by the time I got to Jackson Hole, the collapse was complete. Alas.

You Say Buffalo, I Say Bison

The future's so bright I've got to wear sunglasses

Our trip to Yellowstone took us through the state of Idaho, and a side trip to Craters of the Moon National Monuent . On the way to the park you pass through the town of Arco, Idaho. Arco is a town where time has stopped. An artifact from the Atomic Cafe, in which it is and always will be somewhere around 1958. Its claim to fame, the first city to be lit by atomic power.

I Think it Says it in the Hat

In search of the elusive Moose, we went our entire 12 days in Yellowstone and Montana without coming across a moose, but on our last day in the Grand Tetons, we tracked down a cow moose and her young near the Jackson Lake junction. I'm no wildlife photographer, but I managed to get a couple of clear shots of mama moose and kind.

Here you go, George.

Mother and Child Reunion

I have returned from an extended hiatus and a long vacation in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. It was a most amazing vacation, and while it did not result in a lot of photographs that I would consider classic, I did shoot a massive number of images and a number are certainly "blogable". The main problem was the difficulty in getting morning light. Our lodge was in Big Sky, Montana, about 45 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone. After entering the park, it took a fair bit of driving to reach any location that you wanted to shoot. Even getting up at 4 am and heading out the door unwashed (sorry for the graphic nature of that image), was often not early enough to get the best light.

Nonetheless, we managed to see a lot of wildlife. Mostly Bison and Elk, but we also saw Bear, Antelope, Eagle, Egrets, Marmots, and Moose. Some amazing thermal features and astounding landscapes. On route we made stops at Craters of the Moon in Idaho and the town of Arco, Idaho. Arco is the first town to be powered by Nuclear power in America and has maintained a kind of 50s vibe that is both funny and scary. Pictures of all of this to follow in the next days and weeks, but to start us off, here is an image of a black bear and her cub that we came across while driving along the north end of the park.