FANGASM WEEK FOUR

“Zombie Fanpocalypse” aired on October 15.  In yesterday/s bloggy
thing, I forget to mention Fangasm was bumped out of prime time by
a rerun of Ghost Hunters. That probably wasn’t a good thing.  This
week’s episode also aired at 11 pm. 

In the previous episode, the interns pitched super-hero concepts to
Stan Lee.  Not surprisingly, Stan isn’t going forward on any of the
ideas, but Regina Carpinelli, the CEO and Co-Founder of Stan Lee’s
Comikaze, seemed pleased with their efforts.

Molly talks up a “drink and draw” event at an Irish pub and talks
the others into going there with her.  The event has a zombie theme
and Regina offers to have a friend of hers do their zombie makeup.
However, before that happens, the interns have some actual work to
do.  They have to help make a huge octopus tentacle for the company
booth at Comikaze.  Sal and most of the others think this will be
a cool experience.  Molly and Kristin, not so much.

Molly has a press pass to E3, an electronics and gaming expo, and
asks Regina for the time off to attend.  Regina allows this on the
condition that the ladies pass out Comikaze fliers and talk up the
convention.  Regina seems less than thrilled with this arrangement
and I think Molly and Kristin lost some points there.

Molly gets easily distracted at E3.  When she and Kristin attempt
to hand out the Comikaze fliers, it doesn’t go well.  Eventually,
Molly just starts “hiding” the fliers on exhibitor tables.  Which
probably won’t do Comikaze much good. 

Observation. Kristin doesn’t seem to be more than Molly’s shadow.
She seems capable, intelligent and nice, but has yet to distinguish
herself.  She needs to do that.

Sal, Paul, Dani and Andrew totally rock the tentacle-making.  Mike
does the work in his usual half-assed manner.  Sal has an affinity
for props and thinks he would like to work in the field.  Andrew,
who lives in the area, offers Sal a place to stay if Sal chooses to
pursue that calling.
   
SFX makeup master Eric Fox comes to the interns’ place to create
their zombie makeup.  Dani is interested in makeup work and helps
with the work.  She takes advantage of the situation to learn from
Fox.  She’s personable, smart and talented.

On to the personal stuff...

Before the zombification of the interns, Andrew gets a visit from
his girlfriend Lisa.  She’s terrific and has a laugh eerily similar
to Andrew’s.  Save for Molly, the other interns are impressed with
Lisa.  Molly makes a crude joke about the couple’s sex life.  I’m
hoping the producers are churlishly selecting scenes to make Molly
appear unpleasant and that this isn’t who she really is.  Alas, I
can only go by what shows up in the episodes.

Having had a gelato date with Dani, Sal wants to take things to the
next level.  Dani seems to want to keep Sal securely in the dreaded
“Friend Zone,” but there does seem to be a glimmer of interest on
her part.  I like both of these kids.

The zombie drink and draw event is great fun for most of the cast.
Mike comes off as a major douche.  He flirts with one girl while he
waits for the arrival of another girl he invited to the event and
while he claims to be interested in Molly.  For her part, Molly is
pissed at Mike and upset that no guys are hitting on her.  I felt
bad for both of them.  That said, if this is who they are in real
life, I wouldn’t want to hang out with them.

After four weeks, here’s how I rate the interns and their chance of
landing a steady job with Comikaze:

1. Dani
2. Paul
3. Sal
4. Andrew
5. Kristin
6. Molly
7. Mike

Look for my comments on week five sometimes next week.

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In other things that have crossed my mind of late...

Doc Savage has been one of my favorite heroes since those long-ago
days when I would travel into downtown Cleveland to buy well-read
used copies of the Bantam paperbacks from the formidable Mrs. Kay
of the legendary Kay’s Books.  She could be a terror if you got on
her bad side, which is why I stopped going to her store with some
friends of mine who would never see any other side of her.  I would
go by myself and, for some reason, Mrs. Kay liked me.  Knowing that
I was a Doc Savage fan, she would put aside any Doc books for me to
see before she put them on sale.  More than once, she even gave me
a break on the price.  I was as beloved then and I am now.

I hated DC’s most recent Doc Savage comics.  They were written by
a writer who has proven to have no concept of or connection with
actual heroic fiction.  Even when he was replaced, the improvement
was minuscule.  As with so many other great characters, DC Comics
dishonored the Man of Bronze.

That said...I am very much looking forward to Dynamite’s new Doc
Savage series by writer Chris Roberson.  While it probably won’t be
Doc exactly as he appeared in the best of the old pulp novels, I’m
hoping it will be far more entertaining than the DC dreck and more
respectful of Doc’s legacy.  I’m not always such a font of optimism
when it comes to revivals of treasured characters, but I’m getting
a good feel about this revival.

I’m just a Doc-eyed optimist.

******************************

Within an hour of President Obama signing the bills to fully reopen
the government and raise the debt ceiling, I received an annoying
Republican robo-call asking me to answer some survey questions.  I
only listened to the first one and I wish I had written it down on
account of, however I would have answered it, the survey was rigged
to make it seem like I was against the Affordable Care Act and my
president.  So, naturally, I didn’t answer it.

The popular position is that the Republicans didn’t gain anything
from their shutdown of our government.  I don’t see it that way at
all.  They gained extra time to air lying commercials disparaging
Obama and the ACA.  They gained extra time to plan the next fiscal
crisis fight. They still haven’t accepted that they lost the last
presidential election and lost seats in Congress.  They still don’t
understand that, when you removing the disingenuous false rhetoric
from the conversation, the ACA is a damn good thing for Americans.
I’ll be amazed if the insane House Republicans don’t hold another
vote to abolish the ACA and/or impeach our President.

I believe the single biggest threats to American democracy are the
Republican attempts to disenfranchise voters and their redrawing of
congressional districts to give them greater representation in a
House of Representatives they have already paralyzed with all
their nonsense.  I think Republicans who engage in these behaviors
are criminals and traitors. 

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2013 Tony Isabella