Things I am excited about:

All-New X-Men (2012) by Brian Michael Bendis & Stuart Immonen

So Marvel did a big re-branding after the awful Avengers vs X-Men series, introducing a new "era" of comics called Marvel NOW! You know, like, RIGHT NOW! Brian Michael Bendis, who single-handedly saved the Avengers franchise during his 200-issue-long tenure, and made this "I only read indie comics that have sad, lonely men pining after manic pixie dream girls Belle and Sebastian hurrr" reader go ape-shit over volume after volume of Captain America, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Luke Cage trading quips... is now taking on another cornerstone of Marvel Comics, the X-Men. It's only two issues deep right now, but it's great. I'm a little worried the storyline could get a bit predictable when time-travel is involved, but Bendis is good at fucking with his readers.

The art is also fantastic-- I've been in love with Stuart Immonen's work since Nextwave. Just the right amount of comic-style and realism.

A Face in the Crowd (1957) Dir. by Elia Kazan, Written by Budd Schulberg

Ahead of its time. Featuring an incredible performance by pre-TV show Andy Griffith as the charismatic, hilarious, terrifying Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes. Shows what celebrity can do to people on all sides, and how celebrity can corrupt everything. Patricia Neal plays Marcia Jefferies, a radio producer who discovers him, and watches him grow from charming gimmick to indoctrinating the American public. Walter Matthau plays the pipe smoking cynical writer I've always wanted to be. WATCH THIS MOVIE.

Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (2012, Blue Note)

Hip-hop jazz awesomeness featuring Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Erykah Badu, and more. Weird covers of Sade and Nirvana. These guys are the shit.

#001: Don Don Johnson, "Tiny Socks"

A made up 45 sleeve for my own amusement:

MusicTime: "Christine" by Lilac

Listen to the album. Nostalgic, loud, catchy as hell. Recorded at and by the awesome Different Fur Studios here in SF.

ALSO, HI BLOG.

Patton Oswalt and "Going"

I need this shit right now. From the new AV Club interview:

"It took me until my 40s to realize it: There’s no destination. There’s no getting anywhere. There’s just the going. The key to life is to make the going really fun. Because people that are like, “If I just get to this, then boom!” And then they get there and there’s this dawning of an afterwards. Whereas I’m just always in the going. And it’s not a frantic going like, “'I gotta keep going or I’m gonna go nuts!' I can not do anything for weeks or months if I need to and just sit and read books or watch movies. I’m just as fine consuming and absorbing new art as I am trying to make it. But it’s all in the going."

@robdelaney is a funny dude.

NSFW. His schtick rips off Louis CK a bit, but this is a pretty good set.

MusicTime: Rachel Toups

Last weekend, Corinne and I went to the Hecho Local craft fair to support our buddies Danielle (aka Bunny Dee) and Annie (aka Hummingbird Girls)-- we got a lot of drinks, comics, a sketch from Danielle, Corinne bought some new outfits from Annie, and we got one awesome chicken:

The event also had quite the variety of musicians, everything from folky singer/songwriters to old people playing what sounded like "Big Bottoms" by Spinal Tap over and over again. Unfortunately for the vendors placed directly in front of the stage, the music got louder and louder as the day went on.

I ended up seeing two pretty amazing artists/bands that day: one of them is Rachel Toups, a singer/songwriter and an incredible guitarist. Her playing and voice reminds me a lot of St. Vincent, and her EP Creature is actually available for free via Bandcamp. She sold copies at the event, each one decorated differently with puff paints, marker and whatever else. I bought the one covered in googly eyes.

She's one of those musicians that are so good, they make everything they're doing look effortless. Everything pretty much slowed to a halt during her set-- impressive stuff and I hope we get to see her again.

Here's one of my favorites of the five songs on the EP, called "Foxes":

Richard Phillips' Fancy Fashion Fiasco

These kinds of videos can be very stale, there's nothing to them other than vanity and just staring at a celebrity. Something about the cinematography in this is captivating. Also, hey, hot girls.

STYLE

judging books by their covers.

Open Letter knows how to design books.

"The Library" by Sergey Stefanovich

Spotted at the Green Apple Blog.