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T-shirt #230: Central Regionals Disconsin 2005Ultimate season is over.
And I am still here. I still have unfeatured t-shirts. I still cannot see the end of the closet's contents, but I am starting to be a little concerned. But there's plenty of Ultimate shirts left to share both from KUDL and other sources, so onward and forward; once a week I will post an Ultimate shirt. By the way, those are my cleats in the photo to the left.
KUDL goes on with indoor, but I am probably out until the spring.
My ability to play indoor is limited, and I scheduled surgery on my toe for Friday to make sure I finished ultimate season with Huckfest before going under the knife and needing a week or two of non-running recovery. It's just an in-grown toe nail, but a bad one.
I am guessing at the date of this shirt. I may be off by a year or two, but I do not feel like investigating. I do remember attending this tournament with my Masters team. After one day, when over the course of five games, I played maybe five points, I decided that my time would be better spent going home and getting work done. This was my last tournament with this Masters team, which I helped start. I don't fault the decision to keep me on the sideline. I was not the only one. And I am not the most stellar player, though I do recall that in my five points I had a block and did not turn over the disc. Also, I kept tight on defense, and the player I was guarding never caught the disc. Not that these statistics make me the greatest player on my team. Hardly. I was old and slow then, and I am older and slower now. But I did not have the time or money to travel to Wisconsin for a whole weekend to be a cheerleader. The team had grown, playing time was at a premium, and I had better things to do with my time. My only regret is that I did not leave Saturday night, but instead spent a lousy night in a hotel room before I decided at Sunday breakfast to beg off and head for home. Luckily, I had not car pooled.
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I am always amazed that I am still playing ultimate. I am 51 years old. I am old, slow, and very tired. I am not in great shape. And yet, I still go out there and routinely chase people who could be my children, such is our age difference. They could be my children and have children of their own making me a grandfather, such is our age difference.
For a few years now, I have been threatening to get a shirt made that says "I have been playing Ultimate for ## years straight, and gee wiz, am I tired." The current number would be 29 years. Maybe I will make the shirt next year as it would be my 30th year of playing Ultimate.
Hey! What if I make this my last shirt, one that will announce the start of Ultimate season in the spring in March of 2014? This plan assumes I have or will acquire another one-hundred and thirty-five shirts between now and March 22nd of 2014. I am starting to worry that I may not currently own one-hundred and thirty-five shirts and not sure I want to fund the shortfall. But I have continued to resist the urge to count my remaining shirts, so I may be closer than I think to the necessary total. And I do continue to acquire new shirts though not a significantly large number. However, both Christmas and my birthday approach, and guess what will be on my list? It might be close. But I sally forth and infiltrate. I will prevail.Okay, back to the subject of comic books to finish yesterday's content (which is today because for the first time in a long time, I am writing a day ahead), but first: I finished Dune. Here's my brief GOOD READS review:
Obviously, _Dune_ is a masterpiece. It is one of the most important novels of the 20th century, not just in science fiction. I rather liked the audio edition with a large cast of narrators and characters. The production values for the audio book were very high, and I recommend it. However, in this re-read, I found the villains to be a bit wooden and over-wrought, cliché. I also wonder how much this book influenced George Lucas as there are many parallels between Baron Harkonnen and Darth Vader. One element of the Baron's characterization is his predilection for young boys. As one of the earliest depictions of any "alternative" sexuality in fiction, let alone science fiction, it is a shame that it must be demonized and made monstrous, made something innate to this man's evil, rather than something positive and normal. Herbert's writing is tight and well done except for those two criticisms. I am inspired to go on and re-read the next two in audio editions and finish all the Herbert books (seven in all?) that I never read.COMIC BOOKS REVIEWS - continued from yesterday: T-shirt #229.
Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril (VERTIGO: Hogan/Sprouse/Story): I have been a fan of the Tom Strong comics since the inception of "America's Best Comics" by Alan Moore in 1999. Though Moore no longer writes the series, I have kept up with most publications of Tom Strong stories. Though I did not like some of the Terra Obscura comics very much, I love the Tom Strong concept as it has "strong" [heh] parallels to Doc Savage, and I am a huge Doc Savage fan. This current incarnation brings back original artist Chris Sprouse with the most recent and dedicated writer Peter Hogan. Though Hogan may not have flights of fancy as exotic as Moore's, his story telling is solid and Sprouse's art makes the whole thing beautiful. This book is definitely worth picking up as a smart variation on traditional superhero themes with a deep root in the pulps of the 1920s-1930s. Issues three and four (of an eventual six) complicate the plot of the science hero's journey to Terra Obscura to solve the problem of a mysterious illness. Issue Four especially ends with a very captivating cliff hanger. These issues moved up in my stack from where I reported them originally, and the next issue will rank even higher.
MIND THE GAP #15 (IMAGE- McCann, Esquejo, and McDaid) - I have mentioned Mind the Gap a few times as one of the many comics from Image that are of top quality and beating the best offerings of the big two (Marvel and DC) in many ways. Mind the Gap #15 is the last issue of the first phase of this comic book story, which shifted the emphasis from a mystery of how a young girl, Elle Peterson, ends up in a coma and who is responsible, to a story of history, conspiracy theory, and genetic engineering. "Act One" frequently used the tag line: "Everyone is a suspect. No one is innocent," and now the advertisement for Act Two bears the line: "Everyone lies. Every truth hurts." Color me intrigued, which would ne a reddish-purple. This issue of the comic features some fascinating back matter about the author's reasons for creating the story. The art by Rodin Esquejo and Dan McDaid is beautiful. The comic's story so far has been collected in two trade paperback volumes with a third due soon. This is definitely worth reading, especially for those uninterested in or tired of standard super-hero fare.
Shaolin Cowboy #1 (DARK HORSE: Geoff Darrow) - I wrote about Geoff Darrow's amazing art in regards to his Rusty the Boy Robot and the Big Guy comics in T-shirt #146. I mentioned his Shaolin Cowboy series from the 1990s at that time, though I did not know that another Shaolin Cowboy book was due. I must admit I skipped the crazy, tiny-font type "the story so far," which must number over 2000 words of front matter. Though, I skimmed it and it looks hilarious. The art is gorgeous; it's really an art-driven book. There's story but the weight of the story is carried by the art. Front matter aside, there's not much writing here. But it's a GREAT comic, even for $3.99. Darrow's art is beautiful and the taciturn Shaolin Cowboy is a great character. Check this one out!!Oh, and there's ZOMBIES. And as seen in the picture below, a whirling chainsaw, which is pretty sweet. We don't see that on THE WALKING DEAD.
A more full review of the wonderful Saga (also from Image) and Velvet (Image, too) will have to wait.
Though if interested, enjoy Charles Skaggs' excellent review of Velvet.
Speaking of Sir Charles, he wrote a nice post about the new X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer.
The film is due next May.
I am not thrilled with the clip as an adaptation of the Days of Future Past classic X-Men tale.
But as an X-Men movie, without knowing the source material, it looks very good.
Check it out.
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