Do we really need a reason?

I went over to Trader Joe's today to get a few non-essentials (man can't live on staples alone--well, maybe he can, but it's not much of a life) and saw, much to my non-surprise, the store will be closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving. That would be good enough for me, but the sign on the door adds this remark:

"...so that our crew can enjoy the holiday with their families."

Each major holiday, I see similar signs, and it always makes me wonder: Are there people who, barring such an explanation, will go up to the store on Thanksgiving, pound the door, peer inside, and wonder why the hell they can't get in to stock up on tempura shrimp?

Really, I think this situation falls into the "no explanation necessary" category. If you want to close your establishment on Thanksgiving, close it. If you close on a random Wednesday without apparent reason, I might be miffed for wasting the trip, but I think I get the picture on a big holiday.

If you want to assure me that you celebrate the occasion, well, that's fine, but unless you stop selling what I want at a reasonable price, I won't patronize your joint just because I know your employees like digging into a giant turkey like most of the rest of us.

I guess if someone has to say something, that explanation is a lot more customer-friendly than, "Trader Joe's will be closed Thanksgiving because nobody wants to work that day and we don't think you'll come out here and shop, anyway."

'Tis the season to be shopping

You're about to hear, if you haven't already, scores of dire prognostications as to the upcoming holiday shopping season. With the economy reputedly in the crapper, plus the natural tendency for the media to jump on anything that justifies a "Worst Christmas Season for Merchants in Years" headline, you just know there's gonna be some doom and gloom.

It's only common sense to believe people will cut back given all the bad stuff going on. But can we be sure people are gonna cut back on buying stuff? I'm starting to think otherwise based on anecdotal evidence--a fancy way of saying, "I talked to a few people," but, hey, one of these people was my wife, and I'm reasonably sure I can trust her.

Turns out the malls around here are already packed. Mrs. Shark returned burned out, frustrated, and dispirited after a brief shopping excursion last weekend. The mall was insane. This was the week before Thanksgiving, remember.

I've heard similar experiences already. In other words, though the world may be falling apart, though numbers just came out today reporting a big drop in consumer spending in October, I still have no reason to believe going to a shopping mall--or a big shopping center/plaza/strip mall/what have you, for that matter--will be anything less than a big migraine in the weeks ahead.

Maybe I'm wrong, though. Perhaps my area is insulated from the economic woes. Perhaps the shopping situation is so chaotic here that even a drop to mildly chaotic wouldn't register. I suppose it's even possible that all those families at the mall are just walking around and not actually shopping--but I doubt it.

In summary, then, the Cultureshark Christmas Economic Forecast calls for the following: Long lines, non-navigable parking lots, stifling crowds, and general confusion. You heard it here first!

Good-bye, Monthlies

My post title sounds like a bad Judy Blume novel, but the "monthlies" to which I refer here are the comic books I've been buying regularly for the last several years. I suspended my pull list--the regularly published titles I ask my comic shop of choice to reserve for me each month--and said good-bye to the world of regular funny book purchases. I told myself I was going to come into the store to get stuff, freed of the obligation of getting every issue of a title every month. Heck, I even told the friendly comic store guy that. I believed it at the time, but now, a couple weeks later, I'm becoming more used to the idea of, as they say, "waiting for the trade."

There's nothing like the joy of getting a big stack of issues at the local comic shop, and the thrill is even greater when someone goes back behind the counter--or better yet, into a back room--and gets a pile just for you. That jolt was getting weaker and weaker for me lately, though, for several reasons:

* Price: Comics are just too expensive these days. Sure, many things are, but comic books are disproportionately high, with 3 bucks the standard at DC and Marvel and 4 bucks reportedly on the way (already here for many high-profile titles). That price point discourages sampling of new titles and limits purchases. And independent comics, many of which offer less pages for more bucks, offer even less value. I'd love to try different titles and support smaller publishers and non-superhero-based titles, but the cost is usually just too high.

*Storytelling: Bitching about decompressed storytelling in comic books has long been a favored pastime among fans, and this phenomenon finally caught up with me. I've always been a DC guy, though I read and enjoy Marvel as well. So I'm biased, but I think Marvel tends to be a little more decompressed these days, with even the better titles paced to fill trade-paperback-sized arcs, often at the expense of a tighter, faster-paced story.

Yet I must admit DC is guilty of this same thing. I love Geoff Johns' writing, which is good since he writes about half of DC's books these days--but his current "Kingdom Come" saga in "JSA," co-written with Alex Ross, has seemingly stretched since people sported Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers. Furthermore, Johns' character-based, continuity-laden writing is often more rewarding in collected format as opposed to monthly (or greater) installments. Many readers out there are sharper than I am, but the interval just gives me time to forget details and lose nuance.

*Event fatigue: DC and Marvel are in an event-driven pattern, with big miniseries setting the agenda across their product lines. This strategy is sometimes successful, sometimes not. I moved back into the hobby as a lapsed fan just in time for "Identity Crisis" and enjoyed the hell out of it, but I'm weary of these hyped series spreading out and influencing so many other books, to the point where you feel pressured to buy 3 or 4 different tie-ins a month. Yeah, you can ignore the tie-in books, but it's increasingly difficult to ignore these would-be blockbusters.

Having said all this, there is a lot of stuff out there I like and will miss. Really, the biggest consideration for me is price, because if the comics were cheaper, I would be more willing to tolerate and try to adapt to modern storytelling styles. It doesn't look like we're gonna roll back to $1 or even $2 comics anytime soon, though. So though I hope to make it into the comic shop regularly and support entertaining titles that specialize in Done-In-One stories that can be enjoyed in one sitting (like "The Spirit"), I might be at home...waiting for the trade.

Thinking of Linking

*A BBC News article about the Vatican forgiving John Lennon--sort of--for his infamous comments comparing The Beatles to Jesus. I remember first learning about the brouhaha and marveling that people blew his remarks so far out of proportion. The best thing about the controversy was Lennon's bewildered apology. For some reason, I crack up each time I hear him say that he wasn't "comparing us to Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is." Something in the way he says it amuses me because it's clear how stupid he sees the whole thing. Of course, it probably wasn't too funny to him at the time.

*An extraordinary piece by Roger Ebert chronicling his own physical appearance over the years and how he feels about resembling the Phantom of the Opera (his words, not mine).

*A spirited rebuttal to "Heroes" creator Tim Kring's assertion that his show is struggling because of the difficulty of sustaining a serialized drama in today's TV environment. Kring sounds increasingly desperate, like a guy who doesn't really know why his show isn't catching on anymore and is trying to come up with anything to convince people he has an answer.

*An appreciation of recently-deceased comedy writer Irving Brecher at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear. Ivan focuses on Brecher's radio work, but what a career--the Marx Brothers, "Life of Riley," "Meet Me in St. Louis" and on and on.

*Last but not least, Stephen Bowie offers a fascinating take on "The Donna Reed Show" while insulting the views of DVD Talk reviewer Paul Mavis. I think Bowie goes too far with regards to Mavis, but his essay is great reading.

This Week in DVD

Odd Couple Season 5: Sure, the music cuts in these sets are annoying, but at least the rest of the show is largely intact, and though Paramount half-assed them after the Time-Life Season 1 set, we at least have all seasons of this classic sitcom. And word on the virtual street is that the Paul Williams episode, a notorious Brooks Family Favorite, is mostly complete with all those great P.W. songs. Don't ask me to explain the greatness that is Paul Williams on "The Odd Couple." Just an old-fashioned looooove song...I tried to summarize his appeal recently when my wife came downstairs as I watched "Phantom of the Paradise." Let's just say my summary was ineffective.


Wall-E: Speaking of my lovely wife, I annoyed the hell out of her this summer by repeating "Wall-E" the way I heard the little robot dude say it in all the commercials. Then I started saying it over and over again even when I DIDN'T hear the ad. Now this one's on DVD, and I'm already starting to say it out loud again. My marriage might be in real trouble here, folks.


Tropic Thunder: So wait, now, I'm confused. It's OK to do blackface now, or only when you have an Academy-Award-nominated actor do it? And are we supposed to laugh with Tom Cruise now instead of at him? These Ben Stiller movies are so complex.


VCI Forgotten Noir/Crime Volume 4: These collections of old cheapo productions are great, but if you think they're really stretching the definition of the word "noir," well, so do they. At least they added the word "crime" to the title.

Burke's Law Season 1 Volume 2: I already enjoyed most of these episodes on American Life, and though I'm not sure what the rewatchability factor is on the show, VCI seems to be doing a great job for fans, notwithstanding the split seasons. And they're not calling it "Burke's Law Noir," so points for that.

The Texan: I know very little about this old western TV series, but I mention it, anyway, because...well, why not? I don't know much about "Hawaii Five-0," either, which gets a season 5 release this week.



Star Trek Season 3 Remastered: OK, so now that Paramount has put out all the fancy new tricked-out versions, that means we can all get the original versions dirt cheap, right? Right, Paramount? Right?


McHale's Navy Season 4: Shout Factory quietly keeps this series going.

Journey Into DVD: The Royle Family Series 1

"The Royle Family" is a great example of a TV show on DVD that gives me pause at first, but soon grips me until I wind up tearing through the whole thing. At first, this 1997 Britcom is a little off-putting. OK, maybe a lot off-putting. But these 6 episodes of Series 1 leave me wanting many more.

It's mostly a group of people--mostly the titular Royles, but friends and neighbors as well at different times--huddled around a TV in their living room and chatting. There's a low-rent feel to everything, with the grainy video, limited camera angles, and the not-TV-attractive cast. And the characters have some unpleasant habits in which they indulge throughout the show, with smoking being one of the least offensive of them. The patriarch, Jim Royle, is shown picking his nose, scratching himself, grabbing himself, and doing other things.

So there's an overall crude atmosphere that might turn you off. But something happens as you watch this show, and you get hooked. At least, I sure did. There are only 6 episodes, and each one of them goes by so fast it really leaves you wanting more.

In his excellent review of the show, Paul Mavis at DVD Talk describes the phenomenon that occurs when you watch "The Royle Family." You may feel a little superior to these people--after all, they're rude, crude, and they just sit around on their arses watching telly--but soon you realize that, hey, what does that make YOU? After all, YOU are sitting on your arse watching THEM?

Mavis doesn't make this connection, but when I watched this disc, I thought of another nineties comedy, "Beavis and Butt-head." They were crude characters who sat on the couch watching TV, and while you at first laugh at what they're saying and maybe laugh at them, you also get the postmodern commentary on the audience.

However, "The Royle Family" is quite different in the sense that you really care about them. There's a narrative that unfolds over the course of the 6 episodes, as Jim and Barbara's mid-20-ish daughter Denise prepares for her wedding to Dave, who comes over and hangs out a lot. There are several levels of humor in this show. There is the sheer joy of laughing at what the characters say and do for their own sake. Hey, I like a good joke about shite as much as the next bloke. There is also the ironic sort of humor like that in the title--their names are Royle, but this family hardly represents the typical picture of a "royal family." But there's also a more subtle humor, often rooted in a less obvious irony, that becomes increasingly evident the more you watch.

Fact is, these people are talking about more than just poop, and their interactions get to essential human feelings and issues with which we can all identify. But beyond the humor, as you watch and get wrapped up in the lives of the Royles, you pay attention to the dialogue and appreciate more of the wit. You also notice how much the inhabitants of this household, though often sarcastic and cutting with their remarks, actually care for each other. It starts out as a loving glance or two, then maybe a kind word, and eventually you get some true outward displays of affection. Fear not, though, the show remains crude and amusing even in these moments.

Well before the sixth episode, I was well beyond the "meta" enjoyment of the show and was laughing WITH the characters as much as anything. Furthermore, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, even if it wasn't going to be much, and I didn't want to leave their company.

It's hard to describe this unique series and do it justice, but it's a very funny, clever Britcom that I would speculate is just as fresh today as it must have been in the late 90s. It takes you into a world all its own and creates a vivid watching experience. And, oh, yeah, it's hilarious. So the show is outstanding. Let's talk about the DVD extras.


Uh, yeah, there are none. I know very little about this show, and it would be nice to learn more, but there are no featurettes giving context, no audio commentaries, no bonuses at all. Perhaps the writers--primarily the actress and actor who play Denise and Dave--prefer to let their work speak for itself or are afraid to pull back the curtain too much. Still, this bare bones disc is a disappointment to anyone who is delighted by the program and wants to learn more about its production or its place in British culture. Lucky for me, though, there is something to look forward to: Series 2, a DVD which I hope to acquire and watch in the near future.