tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29119330781998000982011-10-17T06:15:56.428-04:00Immolation SuperhighwayMatt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.comBlogger851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-35958640218957054852011-08-15T15:11:00.005-04:002011-08-15T16:47:14.887-04:00

Famine, war, economic collapse and some genuinely scary human beings angling to become President of the United States, and this is what I fill my time with blogging about. I hate the new Superman costume. Few days ago, Warner Brothers released a promo image of Henry Cavill as Superman, busting out of--or in to--a bank vault. And while the shot itself is nicely staged, and Cavill certainly

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-58405442888934593142011-07-21T20:11:00.006-04:002011-07-23T15:34:03.988-04:00

This is an outgrowth from a discussion I've been having on facebook about the prospect of the upcoming third Christopher Nolan Batman film, 'The Dark Knight Rises,' which, despite the shit title, benefits from the fact that Nolan is, by and large, batting a thousand at this point.If you have nine minutes handy, here's a summation of the Bane storyline from the mid-90's Batman comics. Also, the

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-77978637197513863562011-01-26T15:14:00.005-05:002011-01-26T15:40:35.317-05:00

Davey keeps the jar under his bed, where it's dark. The killing jar. Grasshoppers are the best. He keeps the jar beneath where his head rests on the pillow so he can hear them struggle. Grasshoppers fight the longest. Sometimes they'll hold out for more than a day. In the mornings he'll lay on the wooden floor of his room, flat against his stomach, and pull up the bed skirt that blocks the light

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-53542263923173649602011-01-18T13:09:00.002-05:002011-01-18T13:43:08.307-05:00

The curious problem with any review of a theatrical-release film is that film's immediacy. I get in, my box of Hot Tamales snuck in under my coat, I sit down, and two hours later I gotta leave. It's not like I can get the projectionist to rewind so I can watch the whole first and second acts again. This is a roundabout way of apologizing for whatever diffusiveness afflicts this writeup, but

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-12161213958595772402011-01-13T13:33:00.003-05:002011-01-13T16:08:24.126-05:00

We carry forever the imprint of those we have loved. At least, that's what the poet says. And science, as ever, is keen to catch up to poetry. That's what they call them, then. Imprints. That's what brought me to Mars. My name is Hawker Ellis. I work in Recovery.An imprint is a digital clone of your beloved's personality. Everything they are, reduced to ones and zeroes. And it is dispiriting how

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-57266619556459975012010-11-28T12:37:00.007-05:002010-12-01T11:18:25.262-05:00

Long-time logophiles know that curious words crop up to describe groupings of animals. An unkindness of ravens, a parliament of owls, so forth. And on the same day that a friend of mine was bemoaning the sheer number of metaphors she had to wade through, I came across this delightful Wondermark comic.So I thinks to myself, what's the word for a whole bunch of metaphors crammed together? A

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-1069208599151322302010-07-06T20:34:00.003-04:002010-07-07T06:49:59.327-04:00

When you're going to step out on your wife, you'd better have a plan, and Mark Maitland had a doozy. It wasn't that he didn't love Stephanie, he was the first to point that out, even (and usually) to whichever girl he was explaining the intricacies of his marital woes to. No, he loved Stephanie. Which is why he bought the spandex, ultimately. He didn't want to hurt her.Annual company shareholder

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-9825735887470686682010-05-10T13:03:00.005-04:002010-05-11T15:26:10.664-04:00

"People are always talking--psychiatrists--about how it's your Mother's going to screw you up. Well, not my Mom. My Mom was a peach. She put up with the whole thing all her life, never said anything to him or to me.""?""No, it wasn't anything like that. It wasn't. My Father was just what you'd want. He never hit me, he never touched me, he just...he wasn't my father. I mean, sure, he was my

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-45399642922479750212010-04-06T20:03:00.007-04:002010-04-07T10:26:35.404-04:00

So I hate the new theme song. Let's just get that out of the way, first. The negativity. Because I am a geek and therefore on some level cannot be happy unless I have something to grouse about. I hate the new theme song. Beyond that, when "Silence in the Library" came out back in 08, and Steven Moffat was announced to be Dr Who's new show-runner, some fans worried that he'd rather run out of

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-147575187611679032010-04-02T17:24:00.005-04:002010-04-02T17:52:04.646-04:00

Not only do there continue to be little whispers of rumors of a US Torchwood remake (and the almost inevitably straightened-out Captain Jack that would follow) but another rumor rumbles and bubbles and gurgles and does other nasty things, that of a Barbarella remake.This is a terrible idea, for the following reason: Americans would make it.When Barbarella premiered in 1968 it was a French

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-69201172741992851642010-03-27T16:46:00.009-04:002010-03-27T17:01:54.887-04:00

If I had a tumblr, this is what it'd look like:

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-84667097141234655122010-03-18T17:28:00.005-04:002010-03-18T18:13:01.161-04:00

If St. Patrick's Day is essentially a celebration of the broadest, most negative of stereotypes about the Irish, suppose we expand on this? For example:St. Patrick is also the Patron Saint of Nigeria, so next March 17th, try and commit as much Internet fraud as possible.May 3rd. Take May 3rd off. It's the feast day of St. James the Lesser, patron saint of Paraguay. Nobody gives a crap about

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-69970180777187049502010-03-17T19:54:00.006-04:002010-03-17T20:15:26.116-04:00

There are many things which fill me with anger. Other drivers. John Boehner. Things that make no sense. John Boehner. The Texas Board of Education. The Itawamba School Board. Drunk people on a Wednesday afternoon. John Boehner. But there's one thing that sticks most in my craw, today. Mad Men Barbie.Now, normally I'd be content to dismiss this as yet another marketing scheme, like, say, Mad Men

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-49727153780430415232010-03-17T19:15:00.002-04:002010-03-17T19:48:46.765-04:00

Once again it is St. Patrick's Day and despite my move from downtown Ann Arbor to downtown Ypsilanti, my (admittedly beautiful) afternoon was smudged a bit by random bouts of emerald-clad drunken revelers. So, in lieu of buying a three-piece orange suit and pissing off the people to whom this holiday actually matters, I'll act out by pointing out more saints than the Patron of Delirium Tremens:

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-60603735496906726042010-03-12T14:42:00.004-05:002010-03-12T16:16:09.911-05:00

Rumors persist that Torchwood, the BBC's "for adults" Doctor Who spinoff starring the omnisexually fabulous Captain Jack Harkness may be making the trip across the pond, like so many successful British shows, to a series in the United States. And like so many UK/US remixes, including the DOA travesty that was 1996's FOX 'Doctor Who' TV movie, this fact is troubling. Take a look at this comparison

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-33574896659348143032010-03-08T07:59:00.004-05:002010-05-10T13:25:01.501-04:00

(1) The Great BeyondIt was during simulated midnight when the good ship Josephine Baker powered down above 61 Cygni B II and Barstowe told them it was going to be just like that film Alien.“I’m telling ya,” he said from the secondary Nav interface. “Strange radio transmission, little backwater planet, us…we’re gonna get all kinds of chomped upon.” Barstowe had this theory, and by now all 96 of

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-14463531918366102062010-03-06T13:56:00.002-05:002010-03-06T14:12:13.307-05:00

One day, more intelligent minds than mine will mine the rich depths of trashy TV, I'm talking Spike TV levels of awful here, specifically Spike TV's "1000 Ways to Die," which is on now, for the thesis of TV as a method of social control.I'm watching this shit. It's on RIGHT NOW. "1000 Ways to Die." Some smug, gravelly-voiced asshole is intoning--again, smugly--all the miserable, urban

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-79363984823891955672010-02-28T17:59:00.004-05:002010-02-28T18:07:22.294-05:00

It appears I was wrong about Lost. Stray no further if you are among the unanointed and don’t want to be spoil’t.Way back in May, I prophesied, falsely, it now seems, that Juliet’s final act would simply have caused “The Incident,” the very thing Jack was aiming to prevent. The show’s insistence on keeping up with the Sideways Universe now pretty much shoots that theory all to hell. I think I

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-47717411179110689442010-02-17T14:48:00.002-05:002010-02-17T14:51:57.589-05:00

I've found my Lois Lane. That is all.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-73312297920059933542010-02-17T13:43:00.005-05:002010-02-17T14:47:38.965-05:00

Since my attempts to blog about politics tend to devolve in to rants (seriously, you should have seen the one I planned about cherry-picking the Real America. Completely. Imploded.), I've decided to direct my ranting powers toward something a little more down-to-Earth. I'm talking here about Superman, the Man of Tomorrow.News has reached me of the rumor that Christopher Nolan will be shepherding,

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-38704284647994726062010-02-11T12:01:00.007-05:002010-02-11T12:54:36.077-05:00

A number of complicated, trenchant, well-phrased and generally bloggable thoughts came screaming through my head as I glimpsed the inaugural authorial work of one Mr. Gerard T. Doyle.Who is Jerry Doyle?, I hear you asking. THIS is who Jerry Doyle is.Or was, rather. For five years, Doyle played Chief of Security Michael Garibaldi on the syndicated TV show ‘Babylon 5’ Garibaldi was an intensely

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-55366596707587623232010-01-21T12:08:00.004-05:002010-01-21T12:18:14.829-05:00

When you're eighteen, you play Venus.When you're forty, you play Medusa.That is all.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-46066184714195937622010-01-16T12:47:00.003-05:002010-01-16T12:59:15.586-05:00

[image 1]Single word conveying exasperation. Witty statement. (1)[image 2]Point-by-point analysis of how image 1 is simply Missing . The. Point., starting with the tips of the guy's wings. Witty statement. Briefly bring math in to this. Assert that image 1 is incapable of appearing realistic on screen. Rational acceptance that the vagaries of prime-time television can't allow for the kind of

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-71773805341846360532010-01-04T11:45:00.002-05:002010-01-04T12:06:37.270-05:00

So, you've got through David Tennant's swansong and are eager for more 'Who?' Can't wait 'till Spring to see it turned up to 11? Want to bone up on your classic series knowledge? My recommendations for the best serial for each of the seven classic Doctors is below. Where possible I've included a clip of the episode, although in the case of One, Five and Seven, they're fan-made trailers.First: The

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-390036937681513902010-01-04T10:17:00.007-05:002010-01-04T11:42:49.224-05:00

Where to start? I finally watched the Dr Who New Year's Special yesterday, and like everyone else, I was half keeping my eye out for that last minute. For our first glimpse of The New Guy, Matt Smith.So let me get that out of the way first:So there's that, then. He still looks too young to even shave, and his first few lines didn't do much to dispel the off-put feeling I felt when his casting was

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-22646425745698656812010-01-02T14:15:00.006-05:002010-01-02T15:18:18.603-05:00

Full Disclosure: I have not seen the 2010 New Year's Day Dr Who special, "The End of Time, Pt. Two." It's on its wholly legitimate way to me right now. So I'm sitting here, studiously avoiding spoilers for the next few hours or so, and I'm thinking, what with this being a milestone and all, the passing of David Tennant's--an actor who has become as synonymous with the role as anybody--era, that

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-2600549569074992822009-12-31T10:25:00.005-05:002009-12-31T11:36:04.069-05:00

So I saw Avatar. And after seeing the trailer for Clash of the Titans, I find it pretty hilarious that here's a Sam Worthington movie where his entire job description involves blending in to an environment. Specifically (that is, if you've been living under a rock the last six months) the environment of the planet Pandora and its blue catlike inhabitants, the Na'vi.First things first. Visuals,

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-77553812287564384992009-12-27T11:16:00.002-05:002009-12-27T12:14:54.348-05:00

Sometimes, things slip by me. Like the entire career of Sam Worthington. Where'd this guy come from? It's like Hollywood, bemoaning the lack of charisma in its current generation of actors, decided to cast the SAME uncharismatic actor in every damn movie. You might have noticed him in Avatar. Or last summer's Terminator 4, where he was the one who looked distractingly like Christian Bale in a lot

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-77068160702269064392009-12-21T02:27:00.002-05:002009-12-21T02:42:35.063-05:00

There are stars out here. Actual, proper stars. Get about five miles from town and on a clear night like tonight, the whole sky is laid bare. I can see the Milky Way, faintly, from the ground. I'd forgotten. I always forget, it seems, things like the stars, or the lonely, sparse beauty of the place, coming up north from Wyoming across the sandy bluffs, ragged with scrubby trees. I'll be home a

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-64062908773324182782009-12-05T13:48:00.000-05:002009-12-05T13:52:10.130-05:00

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-36816661317928161332009-11-21T11:16:00.001-05:002009-11-21T11:16:31.859-05:00

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-9496471672524368752009-11-21T10:23:00.003-05:002009-11-21T10:59:53.459-05:00

I tried watching The Empire Strikes Back for what was probably the eleventy-first time last weekend. Alas, Lucasfilm pulled some predictably asinine tomfoolery and the non-digitized version does not conform to the dimensions of my laptop. I have had no trouble with other DVDs, they all fit my computer automatically, as does the "Special Edition" version of Empire and the other Star Wars

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-41547380327384054892009-11-20T17:41:00.005-05:002009-11-20T18:09:59.760-05:00

Of course I came to the party late. 'Weeds' ended its five-season run on Showtime on August 31. I'm about halfway through season 4 at the moment, so, again, late. But let me just say this: though my research has been unscientific at best, I feel comfortable making the following pronouncement: Nancy Botwin is (or was) the best-written lady-character on TV.It goes back to the Bechdel Rule. The rule

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-28350184031131608112009-11-16T06:43:00.002-05:002009-11-16T06:58:15.428-05:00

I am still me, tethered to the shore. The light has gotten brighter in this room since I turned it on. Pupils dilating. Can your trip be about something? Does it have to be? Must you record & retransmit everything for the hope of public adulation? The difference between experience and transmission (for lack of a better word).That the only virtue of life lies in experiencing it, but that the thing

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-48076333520105302192009-08-18T09:27:00.003-04:002009-08-18T10:03:40.360-04:00

Emptying your pockets is the first ritual. Make sure you're not carrying any deadly devices. Or smuggling in cheaper booze. Guys at the door ahead of me, 30's probably so why do you feel so out of place? several-beers-a-day voices, low and gravelly and laced with subliminal menace.Don't be too judgmental. That might become a problem later when the two guys in head-to-toe white latex costumes (

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-60528184390073292932009-08-12T21:15:00.003-04:002009-08-12T22:04:52.684-04:00

So my computer up and died. Or very nearly. The old girl is on life support, each one of her faculties being ever more diminished day by day, it's like a watching a loved one die, only since it's my computer the loved one in this case is the weird uncle who owned all that porn.I'll try and be better about updates. Maybe even some new short fiction, but no promises. Off to the races...

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-80676817188856238202009-07-16T23:29:00.002-04:002009-07-17T00:02:58.770-04:00

The Sotomayor hearings have finally ended on Capitol Hill, with the nominee gingerly dancing around any actual points of law while Republicans, led by Senator Jeff Sessions, continued--though mostly losing steam at this point--to hammer away on one sentence in one speech she made eight years ago. Sessions, along with Senators John Cornyn of Texas and John Kyl of Arizona (and I think that dick

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-84883039451919903452009-07-08T21:56:00.007-04:002010-05-10T13:29:31.224-04:00

It wasn’t what she wanted. The procession, the cavalcade of famous mourners, the speeches, the tears, the mausoleum with scenes from her films played on a 24-hour loop. What she wanted, and she’d been quite clear on this to Danny at least, was to be taken to Bikini Atoll and blown up with a nuclear bomb.For a long while there, Skye Ferris was the most beautiful woman in the world. She grew up

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-5736581054581819282009-07-06T20:58:00.004-04:002010-05-10T13:29:56.277-04:00

It was in tears on the steps of the Governor's Mansion that C. Quincy Arberghast, two-time Governor of the Great State of Michigan, revealed to the world and apologized for the disappointment of his life."I have been," he confessed, "for the past thirty years, in a committed, monogamous relationship with my wife Carol."He apologized to floozies. He apologized to hot-tub manufacturers. He

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-12289582850146201562009-07-06T20:52:00.002-04:002009-07-06T20:57:08.108-04:00

This is your boot on work. I'm strangely proud of this, as I'm strangely proud of every pair of boots I demolish in the course of a year.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-80265465710756033222009-07-02T22:21:00.003-04:002009-07-02T22:23:19.637-04:00

Liv felt strange as the effects of Professor Zodiac's Transmogrification Ray took hold.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-42466101636341287872009-06-29T18:46:00.005-04:002009-06-29T21:33:07.172-04:00

Comparisons are at the heart of the superhero geek community. So certain hypothetical situations come to mind, like who would win in a fight? Superman or Thor? Or, alternatively, Which Superhero Would Construct The Most Efficient Bong?Batman: In his never-ending quest to both understand and subsequently terrorize the Criminal Element, Batman must try and understand what drives these criminals

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-68226171598439994322009-06-24T21:36:00.008-04:002009-06-24T22:51:00.862-04:00

When I was a kid, playing at Star Wars, I wanted to be Lando Calrissian. I like to think that my childhood self recognized that, even more than Han, Lando represented the lone morally gray character in the Star Wars universe, but really it was the cape. I fucking practiced walking around with a blanket on my shoulders, trying to keep it up on sheer force of awesome. Keep in mind I was, at most,

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-27816511159562597122009-06-22T21:56:00.002-04:002009-06-22T22:11:26.088-04:00

So, apologies to his estate, and all that.The Val'Ahr'Ahrin of Trepanis V are a willowy, telepathic people who are unique in the universe as they are the only alien race known to eat poetry and excrete literary criticism. This is to say that their highly developed telepathic brains draw sustenance from rhyme and meter, metaphor and simile, image and verse. This is to say further that as a

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-30220569796832606862009-06-20T13:30:00.004-04:002009-06-20T14:06:41.189-04:00

Back up. Let's go back in time. Twitter apparently has some kind of ace word-search function where you can follow someone if they mention casually in one post a word which coincides with your interest. I don't really see the point of this, but since my own twitter feed is entirely facetious and fictional, I suppose I can't really complain. So, the way-back:Dateline April 8: My fictional alter-ego

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-80440995251320723412009-06-17T18:41:00.002-04:002009-06-17T18:53:35.093-04:00

I realize having a blog is essentially howling in to the void, and I realize that these things quite often become simply repositories for meaninglessly personal drivel, but there's something I just have to get off my chest:PEOPLE! (Especially journalists, especially reputable journalists) STOP USING THE WORD "WAY" FOR EMPHASIS! I don't know where it started, or when it started but it needs to

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-81093043329815710892009-06-12T22:05:00.004-04:002009-06-12T23:02:21.022-04:00

Today is the day TV stations across the United States switch their signals from analog to digital.It's pretty much a nonevent as events go: most people I know have cable and there's been a slow stream of PSA's about this thing since at least the middle of last year. It was originally going to be February, now gets settled in to June 12th, destined to be a footnote against what I can only hope are

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-24796820566840141532009-06-09T20:47:00.003-04:002009-06-09T22:18:49.548-04:00

A few years back I caught about half of a documentary on...The Sundance Channel? I think it was the Sundance Channel, so this was of course back when I had so many channels they could afford to be named after Western characters. At any rate, the film in question was Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (which, by the way, came out a full three years before the similarly-titled Anchorman and is

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-71786206893541759342009-06-09T01:33:00.004-04:002009-06-09T22:19:43.225-04:00

Twilight on Titan, beneath the terraforming mists. Perpetual, unending twilight that casts no shadows. They were together, once.*picture from a professional skywatcher, attempting to catch the apparently newfound 'asperatus' cloud.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-44751868255475528272009-05-31T23:54:00.003-04:002009-06-01T00:18:40.050-04:00

What do you suppose the protocol is for telling someone you based a character on them? Or that one was at least inspired? And what are the legal ramifications, I wonder? Obviously famous people don't count. If you're in the public eye, if you're Paris Hilton or Al Gore, then the boys from South Park can make crude paper cutouts of you and mock you to their hearts' content. But you gotta wonder...

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-70938361678291836622009-05-30T07:18:00.002-04:002009-05-30T08:07:52.959-04:00

Oh, blog. How I have missed you. How I have totally failed to update, all through this, the merry merry month of May. I took my job because it seemed at the time to be low stress, easy work. Could come home to write, could spend work time thinking about writing. Not so much, as it turns out, especially lately.Oh, well.One of my biggest pet peeves (WAY ahead of awkward segues) is the phrase "words

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-55987136907278315822009-05-17T05:01:00.003-04:002009-05-17T05:15:55.779-04:00

Has President Obama been replaced with a double from the Evil Universe? I understand that to get elected, Barack Obama had to take the slow boat from the left back to the political center, but this? Reinstating the military tribunals, backpedaling on the Abu Ghraib photos, this is near Bush-levels of douchiness. I can only assume that he's been replaced by a pod person, an evil clone, or an evil

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-67154427251247879322009-05-17T03:52:00.005-04:002009-05-17T04:53:27.168-04:00

Oh, Miles. Will you ever stop being awesome? This past Wednesday, Lost aired its season-5 finale. I am blogging about it. There are spoilers. You have been warned.Of course every yahoo with an Internet connection and one of these here web-logs has probably already prognosticated about the various ins and outs of Season 5's "The Incident" two-parter, from the (disappointing, at least for now)

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-19001886429155348552009-05-09T10:34:00.003-04:002009-05-09T11:00:14.765-04:00

My earliest memory is a fragment. I am sitting in the back seat of my father's car. I am three years old. My father and my mother and I are at the drive-in. I am staring up at the screen, enthralled. The movie in question is Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Captain Kirk has arrived in Spock's quarters to find his friend Dr. McCoy there, burdened as it turns out with the carrying of his dead

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-62884465019064194212009-04-19T22:31:00.000-04:002009-04-19T22:32:35.704-04:00

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-47741034192109369692009-04-11T02:38:00.003-04:002009-04-11T03:28:39.383-04:00

I was watching Lost the other night. There was a cop show following, a not-entirely-unenjoyable cop show at that, but it got me and my friend thinking: just how many cop shows are on the air? After perusing imdb's TV listings, I've come up with the following list:Forensic Science Shows:CSI: Original RecipeCSI: MiamiCSI: New YorkNCISCop Shows:CastleLifeThe UnusualsFlashpointSouthlandCold CaseShows

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-55987228757327106572009-04-09T18:45:00.004-04:002009-04-09T19:00:28.931-04:00

Yeah. It's that exciting.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-88521677382657265842009-04-08T01:54:00.003-04:002009-04-08T02:05:06.021-04:00

...is the fear of microbes.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-74304058311912304452009-04-05T06:21:00.007-04:002009-04-05T07:35:55.497-04:00

Gather 'round, children, to hear the tale from the halcyon days of the mid-nineties, a time when money flowed like wine, wine flowed like even more wine, and the national debt was something Chris Rock made fun of in ads for KFC. Gather 'round to hear of the Greatest Superhero Movie you'll never see. Gather 'round to hear of Starman.No. Not the movie with The Dude. Or the short-lived TV show with

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-38471538512486005562009-03-29T19:27:00.005-04:002009-03-29T20:08:01.123-04:00

When it was announced that Battlestar Galactica was coming back to the screen, fans of the original 1970's show were up in arms about the new version robbing them of their childhood memories of lunchboxes and playsets and the show's lovable robot dogs.All that evaporated pretty quickly, and the show went on to spawn two mostly fruitless attempts to put a new spin on old saws The Bionic Woman and

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-22934975900849849152009-03-26T00:39:00.000-04:002009-03-26T00:40:12.151-04:00

I started on Atlas Shrugged, at the behest of a friend. Now, normally I wouldn't choose to write about my feelings on a book until I'd finished the thing, but at present this blog has a dearth of things to write about, I'm going to chronicle my progress through this fucker.I'm about seventy pages in. I've had the book a week. It takes me a while to get inertia started on any new novel, but that's

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-34092659803471545602009-03-25T10:56:00.004-04:002009-03-25T11:59:12.961-04:00

One of my favorite TV programs, the superlative Battlestar Galactica, ended its run last Friday. Now, one of my only complaints--though, sadly, a major one, was that the Sci Fi channel, in its infinite wisdom and foresight, saw fit to hack the program to pieces, splitting up both seasons 2 and 4 in twain, and leaving fans as much as a year to sit on their hands waiting for the show's return. It

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-39747521472622996292009-03-17T09:33:00.005-04:002009-03-17T10:54:39.185-04:00

Of course today is St. Patrick's Day. Besides St. Valentine, he's the only widely recognized Saint in this country, whose flavor of Christianity boils down to several shades of Protestant. Which is a shame, because Pat and Val are gateways into a whole history of strangeness.3/17: St. Gertrude of Nivelles: Belgian Abbess at a Benedictine Monastery. At age ten, during a party her father was

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-24994155237764835282009-03-07T11:33:00.004-05:002009-03-07T13:25:31.440-05:00

I first read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen when the book was rereleased for its tenth anniversary. I was sixteen. For a while there in college I'd read the thing over again once a year, around the same time, in Spring. This Spring, the long, not-quite-awaited adaptation of the film came to celluloid at last. I got a chance to see it last night.The whole Internet must be on about this, a

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-76710811579817753012009-03-03T04:27:00.007-05:002010-05-10T13:35:57.586-04:00

John Skylark was marooned ten days in space before they found him, alone among the wreckage of the blasted space station. He came back different. Saw the world differently. Ten days adrift above the Earth with only silence and distance for company. Rescue Rocket Six's crew found him a changed man.The emptiness changed his eyes. The silence changed his ears. His wife, Miranda, found him on the

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-22837243592667515452009-03-01T22:24:00.005-05:002009-03-12T20:05:22.692-04:00

2/19: The Day of Whining Roses2/20: iDay2/21: The Day of Brightly Colored, Comically-Ineffective Rain Boots2/22: The Day of Precariously-Maintained Social Status2/23: The Day of The Evil Reverse-Zodiac*2/24: The Day of the Middling Chinese-food Place2/25: The Day of Correct Bus Fare2/26: The Day of The Complete Wanker (Unabridged)2/27: The Day of The Eyepatch as a Clever Fashion Accessory2/28:

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-46969004012709473312009-02-23T03:55:00.005-05:002009-02-23T05:49:37.930-05:00

I was born in 1980, which put me at that golden age of children's TV marketing. I grew up with the Transformers, G.I. Joe, the Silverhawks and the Thundercats, but most of of all I grew up with M.A.S.K. This show defined "awesome" for me as a kid. The good guys are led by Matt Tracker, gazillionaire philanthropist with his own monorail that runs from his palatial estate to a disused gas station

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-52281702801729445312009-02-17T17:43:00.002-05:002009-02-17T18:06:22.148-05:00

2/5: The Day of People Who Passive-Aggressively Use "We" To Mean "You."2/6: The Day of Foam-Sword Cosplayers Out on the Uni Lawn2/7: The Day You Realized You Missed the Memo Wherein "Cosplay" Was Meant to Stand In for "Dress-up."2/8: The Day of the Short Fiction Writer2/9: The Day of the Tall Fiction Writer2/10: The Day of Vintage Postcards from Around the World2/11: The Day of Ypsi2/12: The Day

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-6865710182191882592009-02-14T20:24:00.002-05:002009-02-14T20:31:41.652-05:00

From Polite Dissent: Valentine's Day: The Watchmen Way

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-21669910286696201572009-02-14T15:12:00.002-05:002009-02-14T15:13:51.636-05:00

The Doctor interacts with history. From "The Girl in the Fireplace," 2006.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-32234676324256218112009-02-09T09:05:00.001-05:002010-05-10T13:36:28.210-04:00

Kim had time to think, as the iron-winged seraphs of Archangelina Jolie rained fire and destruction down on the city of New York like capricious and vengeful children, that this was all Toby Park’s fault. Granted, she didn’t have much time to think, what with having to dodge the occasional checker cab tossed her way and negotiate through the panicked stampede away from Times Square, but in the

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-37781397658352252642009-02-07T13:45:00.003-05:002009-02-07T13:53:07.645-05:00

The Cybermen phone home. Publicity still from the mostly-lost 1966 serial "The Moonbase."

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-51963605281497850862009-02-04T14:11:00.003-05:002009-02-04T14:15:24.147-05:00

...is the fear of bats.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-5871065170145459952009-02-02T04:47:00.002-05:002009-02-04T14:03:16.756-05:00

1/29: The Day of Those Weird Stacks of Rocks.1/30: The Day of Briefly Forgetting Where You Live.1/31: The Day of Free Wi-Fi.2/1: The Day of Owning Enough Bumper-Stickers to Encompass Your Many Beliefs.2/2: The Day of The Groundhog. Everywhere. Can't avoid it. Sorry.2/3: The Day of The Collected Works of Akira Kurosawa.2/4: The Day of Shooting Yourself in the Foot.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-608091910544065042009-01-31T22:54:00.002-05:002009-01-31T23:03:33.171-05:00

The Doctor and Romana are not where they thought they'd be.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-5599473710388133362009-01-27T23:40:00.002-05:002009-01-27T23:46:41.630-05:00

...is the fear of cats.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-59233308195287218592009-01-26T10:27:00.001-05:002009-01-26T10:27:43.902-05:00

1/22 The Day the Manolete Died1/23 The Day of the Condo1/24 The Day of Intrusive Advertising (This Day has been brought to you by Fritos)1/25 The Day Most Of the Damn Snow Melts and All You're Left With is Glacial Ice Where Your Sidewalk Should Be1/26 The Day of the Other New Year1/27 The Day of the One-Week Anniversary1/28 The Day of Mondegreen

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-5890645454546419872009-01-24T02:17:00.004-05:002010-05-10T13:37:15.313-04:00

She comes in all slow and languid, like the first blush of summer, like a jazz tune just beginning. Outside it's winter and deadly dark. She's all auburn curls and wounded eyes. She's got one of those voices like the poem says, "lovely, dark and deep." She tells me her name, Samantha Frost, and though I haven't been out of the building since the blizzard began, though I have the place's ancient

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-41657006111248389182009-01-23T19:51:00.005-05:002009-01-24T17:46:35.803-05:00

Series producer Verity Lambert shares a cigarette with a Strange Alien Life Form. She was my age when she got her first producing gig, that of the newly-minted TV series 'Doctor Who' in 1963. Since it was her first job she was overseen by producer Mervyn Pinfield, but soon took over the reins full-time before moving on to a distinguished career at the BBC, helming many popular shows and movies

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-1138503007472383642009-01-20T18:33:00.002-05:002009-01-20T18:39:47.534-05:00

About time.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-21765997433438874182009-01-12T16:01:00.007-05:002009-01-19T23:34:53.158-05:00

1/15) The Day of the Giant Stroller1/16) The Day of Faux-Lesbianism as Performance Art1/17) The Day of Facebook1/18) The Day of Midnight Movies1/19) The Day of the Fairy Doors1/20) The Day of Hope1/21) The Day of Change

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-14322718927507163922009-01-12T06:28:00.009-05:002009-01-12T07:34:26.688-05:00

Friends, I have been remiss, and there is much catching up to do. For now is the time to relate to you the byzantine intricacies of Ann Arbor's own personal zodiacal calendar, the Arboreal Zodiac. Unlike other antiquated and let's-face-it-downright-lazy attempts at assigning astrological significance to years, as in the case of Ancient China, or months, as in the case of Ancient Greece,

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-65403562343299966952008-12-17T17:11:00.000-05:002008-12-17T17:33:41.393-05:00

I am planning, over the next three days, to do nothing but eat fried chicken and edit. For I, my friends, am writing a novel.People get this look on their face, some of them anyway, when you tell them you're writing a novel. Like you've told them you still live with your parents.At all times, the novelist must be vigilant against the feeling that everything s/he thinks and feels and says and does

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-91467939045764046002008-12-17T03:03:00.001-05:002010-05-10T13:37:46.197-04:00

On the day the umbrellas rained down on the lower east side of Manhattan, Norma da Vinci's father died. High above the earth in a chartered Cessna, flying quite illegally, the once-legendary performance artist Roman Montigue released his payload of one thousand black umbrellas. Each one had a switch, designed by a friend of Montigue's to activate remotely and deploy the umbrella, the idea being

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2911933078199800098.post-22914298149026590992008-12-17T02:32:00.000-05:002008-12-17T03:51:44.373-05:00

In the future, from our place in the skies, we will name the continents of new worlds in the way we used to name the constellations.

Matt Largohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02234586356940042314noreply@blogger.com0