The Hobbit and the Piano Guys

This is a music blog sort of day. You may recall that these are the same people who brought you "Cello Wars" and my music blog featuring "Bring him Home" from Les Miserables.  If you don't recall them, you'll still like this -- they're doing the entire soundtrack of the Ring cycle (Tolkein, not Wagner) with two guys.

Enjoy all.

 

interview

It' been a lazy, annoying, tiring weekend. I want a vacation from my long weekened.

However, I do have something for you.

I have another interview.  Who knew that anyone else wanted to talk with me?

Enjoy.

Darth Donald and Padawan Mickey -- Disney eats Star Wars

It's a bit late to comment on Disney buying Star Wars from George Lucas, but there have been so many rumors and lies around the project, it's hard to know where to begin.

Item 1: Disney owns Star Wars, Lucas will be the creative consultant on Episodes 7, 8, and 9.  The Schwartz will be with Disney (Mel Brooks joke, ignore me).  Episode 7 is slated for 2015, putting it up against the next Avengers film, supposedly, a Justice League Film, so that'll be fun.

On the one hand, Disney seems to know what they're doing when it comes to franchises -- they acquired Marvel without destroying the Avengers Storyline -- no matter what the NYTimes whined about the Avengers film -- and have yet to ruin the marvel movies. So, we'll see.

Item 2: The writer for Toy Story 3 will be penning the script, and we don't seem to have a lock on the director yet.

This actually annoys me a bit.  Star Wars has enough writers with the books to write a whole television series -- were Michael J. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn too busy?  In fact, forget stackpole, I'll take Zahn.  No, I don't need to have The Heir to the Empire series Zahn wrote twenty years ago as episodes 7-9; for one thing, everyone is too bloody old. Unless, of course, you're going to recast everybody, in which case, we can have a party ...

Nathan Fillion as Han Solo anyone? Morena Baccarain as Princess Leia? Sean Maher as Luke Skywalker? Adam Baldwin as Darth Vader?

Oh, did I not mention that?

Item 3: THEY'RE BRINGING BACK DARTH VADER......

Ahem....

I'm really, deeply, seriously hoping this is a joke. A bad joke. Told by Fozzy of the Muppets.  Where's the "Wokka Wokka"?

Item 2 (Reprise) -- if you want to talk about writers, were Zahn or Stackpole asked? Were the writers of the Bioware videogames (who have made the best Star Wars stories outside of Zahn for the last 15 years) even considered? Or did they have the writer in mind when they started negotiations to buy the series?

Conclusion: I'm wary, but hopeful. Lucas is being shoved out of his own company. Creative consultants are what happened to Joe Quesada when he was replaced.

Disney may not screw up Star Wars even more than it already is. Here's hoping.

Music Blog Lindsay Stirling's Moontrance

For this one, you have to listen for the music.  Otherwise, it just looks like a really strange rendition of Thriller ..... only with better music.  Also, I think the only reason this vid was done with zombies had more to do with Halloween than anything to do with the music itself.

Enjoy all.

Again, ignore the zombies.

Sex, politics and comic books. Oy!

So, twas the week after the election, and all through the nation, you had 19-petitions to secede, from places as diverse as Texas to New York, a wave of people want to get the heck away from Barack Obama.

What does that have to do with this blog? Nothing. Nothing at all.  Except for the fact that the top ten blog posts of all time  for A Pius Man has to do with either sex, politics, or comic books.  So, somehow, I have to link up Obama's appearance in Spider Man with the latest sex scandal, and I will have the ultimate blog post -- especially if I have a musical interlude by Two Steps From Hell.

If one is to believe social media, there is no allowing for a middle of the road approach. I have right-wing friends who are somewhat sane-ish (no one I know is completely sane), but some of the left-wingers were so loud for so long with some pretty heavy-duty insults, I had to defriend some of them, and block at least one altogether from Facebook.  There was a "worship Obama and watch only MSNBC" or "you're an evil, right-wing homophobic 1%-er with no human decency, and that goes double if you're Catholic."  And if you're Catholic, you're old-fashioned and stupid.

And after Obama won, it got worse.

And, of course, whenever someone was called out on it -- such as "I hold the belief you're pissed off about, you think I'm evil?" -- the reply of everyone is a standard, "Oh, I don't mean you!"  But after a while, when they make no distinctions between "you" the "friend" and all of those people who are evil for even holding an opinion contrary to their own .... yes, they do mean you. I mean, hell, when they say that you're a threat to humanity, you hate people (women, puppies and Christmas), and you start to get the impression that if a church filled with Catholics were blown up, they would celebrate, and maybe shed a tear or two when they found out you were in it.

After Kathey Giffords was shot by deeply psychotic Jared Loughner, we were all told that rhetoric kills, and we all have to be civil.  Where did that go?

If you're now wondering about my politics, I covered them here, so you can save your disparaging remarks.  Frankly, I'm on the side of civility, and right now, the loud, utterly psychotic ranting is coming from the left side, and I see no one on the left throwing a net over their more insane members. Read through the article on my politics and when I'm no longer being labeled as evil for even having opinions on these topics, then we can talk.

Now, if the current atmosphere keeps up, I'm sure I can get more blog viewers by tacking hard to one political end or the other. I'd rather not, because I like holding onto what sanity I have with both hands, and maybe my teeth.

I'm also sure I can get more readers by introducing sex as a topic more often... but, again, I'd rather not.

And I stopped reading comic books a while ago.

If I do not hear back from Chesterton Press by the end of the year, I will give self-publishing a try on A Pius Man.  It'll take me a while though. So, we'll see what goes on here. And, with any luck, it'll work.   But I'd much rather not. Really, I'd rather not.

I'm out. And I'll talk to you all later. Hopefully, I'll have a topic next time, as opposed to these vague meandering posts that barely have a point.

Getting back to work

So, this blog is called A Pius Man: A Holy Thriller.  But there's a graphic for a novel called It Was Only On Stun! by a Declan Finn when the blog is by a John K. For those of you keeping track, you know that I gave up on traditional publishing and went my own route, experimenting with a lesser novel that was a murder mystery at a science fiction convention.

So, what's happening with A Pius Man?

First, A Pius Man should be coming out next.  It will either come out in January, or else we'll be working on getting it out next year.

Who's we?  Well, that's a funny story.

When I published It Was Only On Stun!, I interviewed as many places as possible. I wrote as many guest blogs as I was allowed.  I spun my wheels until the tires popped.  I've sold about 60 copies, more or less.

However, it was not all for naught. You see, what's happened is that my guest blog on Catholic humor caught someone's attention.  It was around the same time I kept tagging John Ringo on Facebook and didn't realize I was posting on his wall at the same time.  However, a friend/fan of Ringo saw the words "Catholic humor" and decided to swing by. He's a freelance editor with Chesterton Press.

If you check, you'll realize that Chesterton Press is a Catholic press.  They like Catholic books.  And A Pius Man can qualify, for the most part.  ously, how many Catholic presses are going to read a book where there are RPGs flying all over the place and priests who look like they could be assassins?

One will be more than enough for me.

So, while I'm waiting on that for happen, I'm considering my options. I've recently gotten a full time job -- well, it's not full time as I'm writing this, but may be as the blog is published.  I'm working as a writer at NYU-Polytech in Brooklyn.  It's a bit of a hike, but the hard part is getting to the trains  After that, I get an hour to read ... usually, if I can even lift my arm in a train crowded in by sardines in a city that just suffered from a major hurricane. 

So, don't worry, I haven't completely lost my mind, blog posts to the contrary.  I just had to rid myself of some toxic people in my life as a bit of a cleanser. Think of it as green tea for the soul. 

I'm just glad the elections are over. Those things were annoying as hell.

Music Blog: Assassin's Creed 3, by Lindsey Stirling

Who would Captain America Vote For? Villain's edition (Who would Norman Osborn vote for?)

Last week, I posted an article that suggested who various and sundry superheroes would vote for.

This week, I think it's time the villains got a shot at it.

Norman Osborn aka: the Green Goblin (Marvel).

One of the most evil bastards in the Marvel universe, Norman Osborn, by day, is a seriously big big business Wall Street CEO.  He is a vicious psychopath and merciless killer.  Norman Osborn mostly resides in New York City, which makes him a definite shoe-in for a Democratic voter, no matter who the candidate is.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of Wall Street tycoons are supporters to the Democratic party -- John Corzine, Robert Rubin (Goldman Sachs), Citibank, and George Soros (Democrat and Obama's biggest supporter), Brookfield Asset Management, Lehman Brothers (who now work for the Obama Administration).

And can you imagine what Osborn would do with a stimulus package?

VOTE GOES TO: Obama.

Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin (Marvel)

By day, he is a businessman, though not as big as Norman Osborn in the business world.  He is more local in his business interests and his crime. And, in his personal life, he left the crime world and moved to Japan, mostly for his family.  He actually stayed out of the crime business for his wife.  Only when his family was threatened, and his wife lost to him that he reentered the world of crime. Add to that he spent a lot of time in Japan learning philosophy, martial arts, etc.

While you can say many things about the Japanese, their traditional culture is very, very conservative.  And, between that and his [relatively] small business interests, Fisk probably comes out as both an economic and social conservative.

VOTE GOES TO: Romney.


Poison Ivy, aka Dr Pamela Isley (DC).

A radical environmentalist, heavy on the mental, Poison Ivy is the ultimate eco-terrorist.  She also happens to be bat-guano insane, taking monomania to a whole new level of crazy.  A one issue voter, she cares nothing for the "War on Women," since she has already declared the human race something worthy of extinction, and only cares about environmental issues.

Since she makes current Left-wing ecofreaks seem reasonable, she'd probably find the most hard-line environmentalist she can.  Barring that, she might actually approve of standard contraception and abortion, since it means fewer people to trample her precious flowers.

VOTE GOES TO: Obama



Harley Quinn, aka Harleen Quinzel.

A former shrink, Harley Quinn went quite mad a while ago, falling for the Joker.  She has a long history of tolerating abuse and putting up with whatever his narcissism and whimsy dictates.

However, she also had had enough at one point, and shot the little bugger.

Her mind would hear the phrase "War on Women" and think "War? What War? Who's shooting?"  Her sources of information would rely on either her precious "Mista Jay" or her best friend, Poison Ivy.  And, let's face it, Joker would enter a polling place to gas everyone to death, and then vote for Ron Paul.

VOTE GOES TO: Whoever Joker tells her to vote for (see above), or whoever Ivy tells her (see above).


Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle.

A professional thief, Selina would not be the type of person to complain about the 1%. She loves the 1%. After all, without them, who else would she rob?

She is also a single mother (or she was, pre-nDCU), so she's not exactly the pro-abortion type, assuming she even dwells on the matter. And, let's face it, she, she has a tendency to jump the bones of the richest person in town. But, would this make her a Romney voter? Not necessarily.

However, Selina has also occasionally worked as a thief for the federal government; if she voted, she would vote her paycheck, and go for the guy most likely to fund the Company she works for.

Also, Romney might remind her of another rich white conservative she occasionally sleeps with.

VOTE GOES TO: Romney.

[More below the break]