20081113

The Music's Over

Damn, looks like the hard drive I'd been storing all my mp3 on died... 80 gigs of music disapeared... well maybe a quarter of them I can re-rip, but hmm gonna be a lot I'll miss. Especially since I don't have any list of what was there even.. gah. I'd be upset.. except I haven't listened to any of them in over a year since I started using pandora...

20080919

Customer #1 "You can find a lot of information about that on the web."
Customer #2 "The FBI surfs the web, don't they?"
Everyone just goes quiet and sort of eyes the guy sidelong.

20080906

Couple of stoned chicks wandering around the store bemoaning the fact that there were no books on turtles, because one of them just got a turtle and she needs a book on turtles, etc. Kinda creepy chicks too, very drug chic.

20080726

San Diego Comic-Con 2008

Thursday
Watchmen

Sci-Fi Channel
Kevin Eastman
Steve Rude
Colleen Doran
David Petersen
Bill Plympton
James A. Owen
Simon Bisley
Rick Geary

Eoin Colfer

www.ComicMix.com

The Con Mob
Mark Buckingham, Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges - Fables.

hEcToR SeViLlA

Dalek

Dalek going after David




Friday
Max Brooks the Zombie guy

Bill Tucci - AIW

Bill Tucci - booth girl

Daniel Liester artitst on Zenescope's Beyond Wonderland


Steve Purcell - Sam & Max

Underworld chicks



Princess Lia's behind




On the way out.


Senor Donut!

20080720

Guy with a cane, and perhaps a slight English accent, comes in looking for Byron, finds a combo Byron Keats Shelley, and when purchasing says "I should go next door," (across the way is a BevMo) "and get some Absinthe for reading this."
"I wouldn't be surprized if they did have some there." I say.
"Oh, they do. Trust me, I know." he answers with a grin.

20080626

Fwd: Coraline

The stop-motion animated feature film based on Neil Gaiman's Coraline is set for a wide release on Feb.6
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12793.html
 

20080612

The creeps were out today, the 1st wanted to trade moldy, thrashed books for credit, and of course got annoyed when I declined. The 2nd was a couple having a spat, or getting a divorce, or something, I _tried_ not to listen to them, he put a book on the counter and wandered off, the she cursing under her breath) dropped a stack on the counter and left saying he would pay, least he owed her etc. He kept looking around, until long after she started to lean on the horn, and of course wouldn't get her stuff...

20080505

CBLDF wins!

At 4:30 on Friday afternoon, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund received word from its attorneys that all remaining charges against Rome, Georgia retailer Gordon Lee had been dropped:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12417.html
 

20080413

Arrrggh! my back is killing me! and I can't figure out what the hell I did?!
Started Fri morning - and wasn't too bad, thought maybe slept bad or something, it was a bit worse on Saturday, and even worse today. I wasn't fencing - there was none thursday, and nothing big Tuesday, I guess could have been moving boxes or something - but you'd think I remember doing something! gah, hope it quits soon.

20080408

Best info booth question of the day - phone in - What's the name of that place across the way from you?

20080330

It's astounding how a pretty girl can get anything she wants. I'd never really seen it in action before. So A- and I were at the show, she's 20 has a pretty, though not striking face, and it fairly well endowed, but was wearing several layers of sweater & coat, so certainly wasn't dressed to thrill. Over the course of the day she was given several items just for expressing interest in them. Then while standing in line and being chatted up by some guy who she wasn't interested in and who she said was annoying - until he bought her lunch, then she was fine with him hanging around. And she wasn't even _trying_! I'd heard of this but really seeing it in action was amazing. Guys will do anything for a pretty face if it smiles at them... Not that I can claim dispassion or something, but it was interesting seeing it from the outside - as it were - for once.

20080318

Another loss

Report: Arthur C. Clarke, Dead at 90
By Sharon Weinberger icon_email 1.gif March 18, 2008 | 6:06:00 PM
clarke.jpg An aide to the famous science fiction writer tells the Associated Press that Arthur C. Clarke has died. That's all the news available at the moment. The author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, reportedly died in Sri Lanka, where he had been living for over 50 years.
If ever there was a need for a good biography, it is about Clarke. Revered as both a futurist and science fiction writer, he is also credited with proposing geostationary communications satellites. The breadth of his work and mysterious private life (which included accusations of pedophilia) would make for an intriguing story.

20080221

New Risk; Borders download centers

Hasbro is planning a fall release for a revamped version of Risk that will provide 3 different modes of play depending on the players' skill levels and the amount of time they have to play the game--yes, there will be a 60-90 minute version, but you won't be able to conquer the whole world in that time frame:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12112.html
 
Borders has opened the first of 14 "concept" stores planned to debut this year--and in addition to the state-of-the-art digital center, the store's have a special emphasis on several categories including graphic novels:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12115.html
 

Fwd: Monopoly the Movie?!; Akira Live!

Universal signed an agreement with Hasbro to produce four movies based on Hasbro properties such as Monopoly, Magic: The Gathering, and Clue:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12110.html
 
Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros. are planning to release the first half of a 2-part live action adaptation of Akira in 2009:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12113.html
 

20080218

Blu-ray Wins!

In the wake of the decision by Wal-Mart to carry Blu-ray discs exclusively starting in June, Toshiba is ending support for the HD high definition format:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/12088.html

20080109

Drunk lady back this morn in fine form.

20080108

Libraries, Endless Quest

A new survey shows that the youngest adults use libraries more than any other group:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/11839.html


WotC�s Mirrorstone Books imprint is reviving the Endless Quest series:
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/11860.html

 

Violent Movies Reduce Violence

Violent Movies Reduce Violence
Says New Study by Economists
January 08, 2008

A new study presented to the American Economic Association and summarized in the Business Section of Monday's New York Times argues somewhat counter-intuitively that violent movies actually reduce violent crime.  By comparing nationwide statistics for crimes of violence over the past ten years with attendance figures for movies rated for violent content by the kids-in-mind.com Website Gordon Dahl, an economist at the University of San Diego and Stefano Della Vigna, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley found that when young men, the group responsible for most violent crime, attended a violent movie on Saturday night, it reduced violent crime, an effect that lasted past the weekend carrying over through Monday and Tuesday.

 

Dahl and Dell Vigna's Freakonomics-like study found that from 6 pm until midnight on weekends, violent crimes decreased 1.3% for every million people watching a violent movie with crime dropping 1.1% for each million people who are watching a mildly violent film.  In the hours from midnight to 6am, violent crime dropped 1.9% for every million attending a very violent film and 2.1% for each million watching a mildly violent film.  The same effect was still apparent when theaters showed non-violent movies that appealed to the same teenage (and 20 something) male demographic, but to a lesser degree.

 

Professors Dahl and Dell Vigna's study, which has implications for all types of media that contain violence including comic books, anime, RPGs and videogames, has placed the large community of psychologists who have conducted "laboratory" experiments purporting to show that violence in media leads to violence in real life in a state of near apoplexy.  Whether the effect is the result of catharsis, being "scared straight" by Hannibal Lector, or merely the consequence of sequestering a large portion of the population most likely to commit crimes during hours when a high percentage of crimes are committed, the economics professors maintain "on days with a high audience for violent movies, violent crime is lower," and that over the period that they studied (the last decade) the showing of violent movies in the U.S. has reduced the number of assaults "by an average of 1,000 per week or 52,000 per year."