G.I Joe #0

This is band new reboot of the G.I. Joe story by IDW spear headed by Chuck Dixon of mostly Batman fame and honestly there is probably no single writer ever made that could fit in more perfectly since Chuck loves taking his characters on international espionage conspiracies and Joe obviously couldn't be a better fit for that.

The other writers who are working on seperate books are Christos Gage who has been writting some small X-men mini series lately and Larry Hama who is well renown for his writing of G.I. Joe in the 80s.

This book is a compilation of small stories giving you a sample of what there books will look like.

Anyways what do they fare? Well the Chuck Dixon one looks great but the story is a little weird because they sneak on a ship that is carring illegal arms and then hold the arms dealers up but then a guy with a bazooka yells at the Joes in a foreing language they tell him to "drop it" and he says "go to hell" then the next page the ship is empty and they blow it to bits and escape so what happened to the arms dealers and the bazooka guy? they said this was supposed to be a non lethal excersion? and they don't show the Joes killing or shooting anyone...but when they get to the rescue boat they have a prisoner even tho he's dying tho we are not sure how cause he looks un-injured.. so there must have been some miscommunication or they just said "screw it" cause either way it makes no sense.

The art by Robert Atkins is really pleasing especially the subtle use of colors.

Next story with Larry Hama has Hawk trying to recruit Duke after he won a purple heart in Iraq.
Of course if he didn't say yes Hawk said he would have supposedly shot him.
But that doesn't really matter cause he is now he will be considered dead to everyone and will be undercover with a codename which is an interesting idea having the Joes be covert this time around of course the story is short with nothing but talk but it is still an interesting conversation.

Next one is by Christos Gage and Mike Costa with art by Antonio Fuso wich deals with some undercover spy named "Chuckles" and him getting saved by a double cross by some communists by some unkown guy who has a sniper friend and well thats about it.
The art sort of looks similar to dustin Nguyin who is doing Detective right now.

The best part of the book is the character designs and sketches by Robert Atkins were he goes into detail about updating the Joe's and Cobra's uniform.
Theres also an interview with the writers at the end.

And it's only a dollar so you really really can't beat that.

Steve Earle -Guitar Town

The Debut by Texas Troubadour Steve Earle shows all the promise that a great debut cd should and more especially for an artist who is known for personal and heartfelt yet vivid lyrics with with flinty vocals which propel the best songs on here and while the album starts off with the raucous classic "guitar town"with the hilarious line "everybody told me you cant get far 37 dollars and a jap guitar" And the Rockabilly influenced "hillbilly highway" shows his knack for vivid and personal details with the line "i was born in the land of plenty but now that ain't enough" the most heartbreaking song is "my old friend the blues" which strips away the tinny 80's mainstream country production.

Steve Earle -

Elvis Costello - My Aim is True

Well certainly this was unexpected i got this at the local used record store ( deluxe edition too !) so that was pretty much a steal, of course i was expecting this to be more punk rock than it really was but i can't say that i'm disapointed at all.

Theres so much variety on here it's practically breathtaking and Elvis pulls it off so simply and easy it doesn't feel like he's showing off at least compared to the genre-hopping he started doing in the 90's and beyond.


Probably the best song on here is the ballad "Alison" which features some very lovely jazz guitar type soloing.

Also another gem is the traditional rock and roller "Mystery Dance" which sounds like it came straight from the 1950's.

The deluxe edition features a lot of acoustic demo's and some really nice country rock songs with wonderful steel guitar playing.


Can't recommend this enough honestly even if you are familiar with the singles.

Incredible Hulk - Hide in plain site

Ok this is part of Bruce Jones's work on the Hulk and i'm really not feeling this arc at all .
It's basically Absorbing Man caught in some sort of secret underground lab/prison and somehow is able to absorb minds without even touching them??

Absorbing Mans powers only work when he touches something and not only that since he can enter minds he has become intelligent and crafty so we spend 98% of this arc completely out of character on purpose which makes me wonder why he didn't just make up a new villian capable of entering peoples minds?

I never really understood why Absorbing Man is one of the Hulks arch enemies in the first place since his mythos has nothing to do with the Hulk but i can assume that some writers decided to use him as a foil to take a break from the ever present gamma conspiracies .

anyways A/m blackmails Bruce Banner to get him to realease A/m from his prison and when he does he somehow takes on the properties of the whole entire lab.

In the end they trick him into popping into one of the professors minds and since that professor is dead he can't escape yet at the end he somehow appears in a baby in china?

The art by Leonardo Fernandez is nice in a slightly angular way that seems very popular nowadays.

I guess i would give this about a C

Stella Soleil -Dirrty Little Secrets

Britney Spears created sort of a weird trend where failed female rock singers turned to remaking there image and incorporating teen oriented dance pop.
Vitamin C and Stella Soleil are the ones that come to mind since they both had failed careers singing "alternative rock" before the teen pop explosion during the millennium.

Stella used to be an a slight industrial rock band called Sister Soleil which noone seems to remember.
And the cover art here is quite nice recalling 40-s and 50-s pin up queens.
And strangely enough the music isn't half bad at all.
The semi hit song from here was a remake of a middle eastern hit pop song called " kiss kiss" which is probably the sexiest and best song on here.
Tthe rest mix dance pop with bits of pop/rock guitar with various producers (including Phil Thornally of the Cure !) and most of the songs deal with sex and love and tho her voice isn't perfect she seems to know how to work within the boundaries of her limitations and delivers some slightly quirky vocal performances.

It's a shame that her career bottomed out after this and went into dog grooming since she shows some capabilities.

I would give this about a B :)

Tampoline -Joe Henry (music)

I became familiar with Joe Henry thru a tribute album called Sweet Relief where he collaborated with his sister in law Madonna on a song called "guilty by association"
which was a perfect little song and made me go out and get Trampoline by Joe Henry which is a pretty great recording even tho it now seems like a transition album from his alternative-country roots to his now jazzy art rock albums.
technically Joe has a strange but slightly sexy croak that resembles a younger Tom Waits and has almost all the idiosyncrasies locked down tight with reverberd guitars and funky live drums dominating most of the album and with strange lyrics like "theres something caught in my teeth and a cricket that wont let me sleep/ he sizzles like a radio another world away he laughs at me and my bare feet my flashlight robe and brown tv"
Recall prime Tom Waits with his obsession with gritty details and white trash surrealism.

the strangest thing is most of the guitars are played by Page Hamilton who was guitarist for heavy metal band Helmet of course theres no heavy metal here and shows what a great musician he is.

the most startling song because it sticks out the most is "i was a playboy" which with heavy pathos recounts a players lonely life after his looks and charm have faded.