A few months back, Kevin got us in to see a 15 minute preview of the new James Cameron film Avatar.  The event was similar to the Dark Knight preview we saw a few months before that premiere, but I have to say this was disappointing by comparison.

The problem I had with the preview was that none of the five scenes we were shown were in any way complete.  We saw enough to get the idea: the human military has some interest in a strange alien world, they send in operatives who have uploaded their consciousnesses into the bodies of the indigenous people, mayhem ensues.  The main protagonist appears to be a disabled marine who is made able to walk again in this new body and serves as the viewers’ guide to the alien world.  However, without any real context for the scenes, it was hard for me to get into.  The preview for The Dark Knight gave us the full bank heist scene, and I think anyone who saw it was completely on board for what to expect.

The real showcase for this event was the 3D IMAX technology used to produce the film.  It looks gorgeous when things aren’t really moving around, but the action scenes fell apart.  I struggled a bit having prescription glasses under the 3D goggles, but eventually found a configuration that worked.  Although it was amazing to see the way the scratches and imperfections of my lenses were intensified.

It was kind of interesting to see Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) and Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) working with James Cameron given his success directing properties that made them sci-fi stars.  This movie may be great, but I wasn’t convinced enough to buy advance tickets for the December 18th opening as we walked out.

Everything I write here would be completely meaningless if I didn’t mention the hours I’ve spent watching the Phillies this Fall.  I’m beginning this post 1.5 innings into Game 5 with the Phillies up 3 to1 in the game, down 3 to 1 in the series.  We’ll see how things change as the night progresses.

The schedule for the post-season is atrocious.  I understand Major League Baseball wants to make money, but this is ridiculous.  If you’re willing to have a game start at 2:30 in the afternoon, why not have a game start at 1PM?  This would allow all the games to start earlier and end at a time when everyone could stay awake to watch the late games end (barring extra innings).  And if a game is scheduled for the middle of a work day, it’s pretty clear that MLB is not concerned if anyone can see it (same goes for putting it on TBS, more on that later).  With this in mind, why can’t first and second round games go on simultaneously?  Also, while I can appreciate that Yankees and Red Sox fans are legion and spread all over the country, I don’t know that having your prime time games reserved for these franchises is worth marginalizing fans of other teams.

Baseball in November is just asking for trouble.  In 2001, the World Series was played in November for the first time as a result of the tragedy of 9/11.  Eight years later, it’s scheduled to go into November.  The days off are another cash grab for MLB and the networks so that they can have a prime time weeknight game as often as possible.  The ad dollars are so important, that there was nearly a week off between the end of the NLCS and the World Series so they could start on a Wednesday.  As we get deeper into the Fall, the weather in cities like Denver and Minneapolis are going to make it impossible for them to host games without delays.  This year’s post-season even featured a “snow-out” during the NLDS in Colorado.  Of course, the postponed games this year all happened to fall on Saturdays, the lowest night for ratings, and therefore, ad revenue.

The FOX and TBS broadcasts are awful for the most part.  Enough has been said about Joe Buck and Tim McCarver to fill a book, but TBS employed commentators that were unlistenable.  I don’t want cheerleaders for the big market teams, and I don’t want people that are showing that they don’t really know the game.  At the conclusion of NLCS Game 5, the play by play announcer called out “here’s the throw to the plate, not in time.” There was no throw.  I can understand getting caught up in a moment and missing something, but calling something that didn’t happen is borderline insane.

I’m not writing all this because I’m cranky that the Phillies are down in the series.  In fact, they’re up 8 to 1 and I’m still annoyed at MLB. I’m even annoyed that it’s so close to MLD.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about digital comics lately. It all started with a paper I had to write for a Marketing class that finished up last week and was largely responisble for me not posting much lately. I was writing about Marvel’s failure to turn their success in cinemas into comics sales. It was admittedly a hatchet job. I had three pages to make my point and there was very little room for balance. Maybe I’ll post it here later this evening… But as I was finishing my paper and writing about the company’s distribution channels, the whole paper took a completely unexpected left turn into a discussion of digital comics.

My main complaint was that yes Marvel has invested in digital comics with their Digital Comics Unlimited online service, but the fact that the books aren’t new or portable really handicaps it despite the reasonable price point. It’s possible that I’m just strange, but I have NO desire to be handcuffed to my computer when I want to read comics. It’s also why I don’t really take full advantage of the amazing but has-to-be-illegal HTML Comics site.

I get that digital comics could on first glance potentially cannibalize sales of their print books but think about it this way. First, a large percentage of the people buying Marvel’s books are not like me at all and they view their books on some level as an invesment. They put the comics in bags with card boards backs and squirrel them away in special boxes. These types of people are not going to abandon Marvel’s pamphlets for digital comics. These people might be willing to purchase additional Marvel books that they don’t currently collect, however, if they had a low-cost way of doing so.

Second, in the last sales figures I saw, the only Marvel book to sell over 100.000 copies was Captain America: Reborn. If the average Marvel movie makes $200 million, which is a conservative estimate since many make far more, and the average movie ticket price is $10, we’re talking about 20,000,000 people who are paying to see Marvel products on the screen. If Marvel could convince just one out of every 200 people who sees their films but doesn’t read comics to buy that Captain America title, sales would double. One out of 400 of those people picking up the title would result in a 50 percent rise in sales and that’s just their top book.  What about all of the books that sell 50,000 copies? I don’t believe that reaching this audience is an impossible challenge, but I highly doubt most of those 400 people even know where a comicbook store is, let alone would they seek one out. And I know charging $4 for a 22 page book is not going to help matters at all.

Wow, have I digressed. Digital comics. Right.

The first comics technology I was exposed to for the phone was an Iverse produced prequel to the latest Star Trek film that was originally published by IDW Comics. IDW are mostly known for publishing licensed comic based on Angel, GI Joe, Transformers, 24 and now Star Trek, though their output is definitely more diverse than that. Not only was the story of that first digital book strong (and it addressed many of my complaints about the film), but the technology was impressive and the price point of $.99 an issue was impossible to ignore. I immediately saw the potential for comics in this new medium. No longer would you need to make a concerted effort to seek out a physical store that sold only comics to purchase obscure books. Suddenly, you could click your phone a few times and be reading a book seconds later. It’s kind of amazing to be honest.

Both Iverse and Comixology have released strong iPhone apps. They both offer primarily indie comics at a price point of between $.99 and $1.99 per issue. The apps also both offer a large number of free comics to sample before committing to following the books either in print or digital form. Issues are usually broken down to be viewed panel by panel for an easy reading experience. This feature can, however, result in the reader not being able to appreciate the artist’s layout of the full page. Iverse compensates for this problem by offering the option of physically turning the iPhone from a landscape to portrait view, which shifts the image on screen from a single panel to the full page. It’s pretty slick. You move from panel-to-panel by swiping your finger across the screen.

I was less impressed with Panelfly’s app which seemed to have simply have scanned the pages of the book I tried out. I needed to expand images to read the lettering and scroll around on the page with my finger to see it all. Not my favorite experience at all.

The concept of digital comic books is relatively new to me and so far I’ve been mostly downloading free books to sample with several pleasant surprises. I’m really looking forward to exploring Elephantmen, Atomic Robo, and We Kill Monsters in more depth. Their sample issues were all very engaging and worth trying out.

Several indie publishers including IDW have been very vocal about the fact that making their comics available digitally has both increased the sales of their physical books as well as provided an additional low-cost option for their products to potentially reach an audience that never goes into comicbook stores. Many indie publishers have largely been squeezed out of the Diamond Previews catalogue in recent years making it increasingly difficult for indie comics to reach the market at all.  Some of these “books” are reportedly selling more copies online than in stores. While this is great for the publishers, I’ve long been of the opinion that digital comics won’t matter to most people who read comic books until one of these apps hooks up with Marvel and DC. Plenty of people likely disgree with that attitude.  Marvel and DC, however, have to date seemed more worried about the danger of online piracy than the potential digital comics represent to expand their market.

Until today.

Today Marvel released a handful of comics for Iverse, Comixology and Panelfly. Strangely not only did Marvel not release the same books to all of the services, the price point varies with Panelfly offering their books at $.99 and the other companies offering their books at $1.99. The books released include the first Marvel Zombies mini-series, the first few years worth of the latest volume of Captain America and Astonishing X-men books, some Amazing Spider-man issues and more. I cannot stress enough how potentially game changing this could be for this industry, though I think Marvel needs to release way more books (including newer ones) to really move things forward. Hopefully that will come with time.

As things stand now, if Marvel continues to release just old issues digitally, their program will exist as just an alternative to their terrible collected edition program that seems to constantly let most of their trade paperback books fall out of print. Of couse, there’s no real reason why digital books should EVER go out of print, so this is not totally a bad idea…

I do hope Marvel pushes their price point down to $.99 as that seems to mostly be the digital standard. If I have to choose between spending $1.99 on 22 pages of a Marvel comic and an episode of Lost on iTunes. Marvel loses everytime.

In addition, there’s the rumor that this mythic Apple Tablet product that might not even exist but might be released tomorrow or next year will come loaded with a comics app called Longbox. That’s one more game changer if you ask me.

UPDATE: It’s been pointed out that I didn’t specifically state that DC Comics continues to have no real digital distribution in place for their comics. It’s really pretty sad how stuck in the past they are.

You’ve seen this movie before. Over and over again.

You know that movie where the kid finds that thing they really love but their parents won’t approve so they hide it from them and do the thing they love anyway even though it’s definitely going to end badly when their parents find out and someone inevitable gets arrested and then the kid runs away but something bad happens so they go home and the whole family makes nice with each other and the kid goes to do the thing they love again and the parents come along begrudgingly but in the end the parents are proud of the kid and in the middle there is some female bonding and almost a few laughs but not quite and the girl from death proof is in it but just a little.

Yeah. Whip It is like that sentence only longer. There’s some good music in it though. Oh and they gave me a free t-shirt when I went in… so that was nice I guess.

Also there were real roller derby girls at the screening I was at and they were handing out flyers for a roller derby event at the 23rd Street Armory in Philly on Saturday. Doors open at 5 and it’s $25 at the door though there are some sort of VIP tickets available for $30. End of free plug.

After a fabulous day out and about, we ended up on South Street near the Magic Gardens. Walked around a bit and at 5pm, since we hadn’t eaten anything since morning, decided to grab some dinner. We had spent the earlier part of the day celebrating, so a nice dinner rather than Jim’s Steaks seemed appropriate. Right across the street was Supper. We had heard good things in the past, and checked the menu posted outside. There was a rabbit dish listed, so I was sold.

They just opened at 5pm, and we were welcomed to have the restaurant to ourselves at 4:58pm. Perfect. Upon receiving out menus, I noticed the lack of a rabbit dish. So sad. But I do love restaurants that change their menus often. And I will definitely love Supper as long as the pretzels don’t go away.

carrot orange soup

So let’s start from the beginning. Housemade Soft Pretzels with green chile-and-beer fondue to start. They were incredible pretzel bites, sea salt, and the fondue was amaaaaaaaazing. It would have been great to have 6 pretzel bites instead of 4. That would have been the perfect pretzel/cheese ratio. But, as soon as I was considering using my finger to finish the fondue, fresh from the oven bread arrived. Not just white bread. This bread had entire cloves of roasted garlic floating about in it. So delightful. Tiny cloves, so they weren’t too overwhelming. Next, Pete had the Carrot and Orange Soup with coconut marshmallow and mint. Presentation was everything. A large bowl arrived with two tangerine slices and some mint on the bottom, and on the side, a coconut marshmallow spread across and toasted. The carrot soup was then poured around the tangerine slices. Oh! It was so good! And with that coconut marshmallow…..mmmmmm.

brisket

Ok! Time for dinner! I was concerned about the mushrooms in the Red Wine Braised Brisket with mushrooms, onions and kasha. After a quick check with the chef, the waiter was happy to tell me they could do green beans instead of mushrooms. What?! I LOVE green beans! YAY! Pete ordered the Supper Burger w/ bacon, gruyere, sweet onions, tomato and duck fat fingerlings. He initially questioned me on the duck fat fingerlings, but after a quick explanation had no issues. Some more fresh baked bread arrived. This time a honey wheat as well. Delightful. And then the moment we had been waiting for. Supper! The food arrived and was just amazing looking. Mine was off the Plates menu, which was described as slightly larger than an appetizer. Pete’s was a Large Plate, which should have been a classic entree size. This was about right since I cleared my plate, and Pete was full before he finished. I definitely think most restaurants give too much food, so I thought their menu was set up perfectly.

supper burger

After one bite of his burger, I was told I had to try it as it would fall apart the further he got. I was barely able to get one bite without it collapsing, but it was worth the messy hands. We concluded it was a burger that needed a fork and a knife. I do not like cheeseburgers, but this was soooooo good. Worth taking a bite of a cheeseburger for sure. The brisket was a thicker slice than I have ever seen, and only one small strip of fat. Possibly the most meat ever served to me when I ordered brisket. Red wine glaze, pearl onions, kasha, craisins, and capers….I had a hard time not wanting a little bit of everything in each bite. Ahhh…. It was all delicious.

banana bread pudding with nutella

Relax a little, enjoy the company, then it is time for dessert. We were given our options, and rather than our typical discussion of what to share, I ordered one for each of us immediately. A flourless chocolate cake with cocoa crumble & housemade dulce de leche ice cream for me, and for Pete, the Banana Bread Pudding with nutella and housemade vanilla ice cream. The flourless chocolate cake can really only be described as chocolate butter. It melted in my mouth. For the bread pudding, the nutella provided the perfect amount of chocolate to an awesome dessert.

flourless chocolate cake

Really, I can’t find anything wrong with our visit. I enjoyed every bite that I took, and cannot wait to go back. It doesn’t hurt that, while I was concerned with the $10-$11 price tag of glasses of wine, my glass was larger and fuller than possibly 2-3 glasses at an average restaurant. And it lasted me until moments before dessert was served. Which is exactly when I like to finish my glass of wine with dinner!

Maybe one month we will try out the Sunday Supper. But for now I am content knowing that it is restaurants like this that scare me away from the idea of living “too far” from the city, and that we will without a doubt go back.