Saturday, November 15, 2008

Living In The Shadow Of Adam West

I woke up sometime early this morning – it was still dark out – and thought that I should roll over and look at the time, figuring that it was, as had been the case all week when I found myself in the same situation, probably five to eight minutes before my alarm was going to go off. Then I remembered that it was Saturday and promptly went back to sleep.
I ended up getting up sometime around 9:30, at which point I sat around and did nothing in particular for about 45 minutes before deciding that I should shower, dress, and head out into the world. I ended up sitting around doing nothing in particular for an additional 45 minutes.
The new cell phone I’m planning to buy was released on Tuesday, so I decided I was going to head to an AT&T store to see if it was available. In particular, I decided to go to the one at the Dulles Town Center, as I had a yen for the bourbon chicken they sell at the food court and I wanted to swing by Wal-Mart as well.
I decided that I wasn’t going to take 7 to get there, deciding instead to take the reverse of the route I usually take home from work, which meant driving through Ashburn. Once I got to Ashburn I noticed that I was low on gas, so I went to the Safeway, as with the Safeway Club Card discount gas is usually cheaper there. While I was filling up the car, the Universe decided that it wasn’t going to be stymied in its efforts to drench me with rain by the fact that I was covered overhead, so the wind whipped up and the rain went horizontal.
However, I noticed that there was an AT&T store in that plaza, so I decided I would just go there and forego the trip to the Town Center and Wal-Mart.
The AT&T store was closed when I got to it, though, and I’m assuming that it’s permanently closed, as it looked pretty abandoned.
So it was back in the car and off to the Town Center, which was positively teeming with people. They’re already doing the whole picture with Santa thing.
Making quick work of my lunch so as to get away from the filled to overflowing food court as soon as possible, I headed to the AT&T store, which, despite actually being open, looked just as abandoned as the one in Ashburn.
They didn’t have the phone, and, having no other reason to linger, I left the Town Center and headed to Best Buy to see if they had the phone or some other shiny piece of gadgetry that I could waste money on. They didn’t have either, so I went to Wal-Mart, which was even more congested than it was last Sunday.
I thought the whole economy thing meant that people don’t have any money and as a result wouldn’t be out shopping. Other peoples’ loss is supposed to be my gain in this regard, so what’s the deal?
I suppose that’s what I get for living in one of the wealthiest counties in the country.
Deciding I couldn’t take it any longer, I took off, planning to head to Super Target in Leesburg to do my grocery shopping, figuring that it probably wouldn’t be as crowded.
Along the way, though, I decided that I just wanted to go home. Still, I did need some groceries just to get through the night, so I stopped at the Shoppers in Ashburn and bought milk and bread, deciding that I really didn’t absolutely need anything else.
At different points during this overcast but fairly warm day it’s been slightly rainy, very rainy, almost sunny, and positively nasty. It decided to go the positively nasty route as I walked back to my car, and remained so for the duration of my drive home.
Once I got home, I couldn’t think of anything finer to do with my time than to take a nap, so that’s what I did.
My real world aggravation and agitation decided to follow me into the dream world, so while I slept I had a bunch of stressful dreams in which really irritating things happened. As an example, at one point I dreamed that I was driving somewhere, though I had no idea where I was headed. Deciding that wherever it was I wanted to go was in the opposite direction, I made a sharp turn into a parking lot so that I could turn around. As I tried to get back on the road, though, I found that I couldn’t shift gears and was stuck partway on the road, unable to move.
But now I’m awake – though I still feel like I’m stuck in neutral – writing this, and trying to figure out how I’m going to feed myself with just bread and milk.
Last night was largely spent dozing on the couch and watching a bunch of TV – both recorded and live.
Among the shows I watched was the new Batman cartoon on Cartoon Network, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
The basic premise of the show is that each week Batman will team up with some other hero – or maybe even villain – from the DC Universe’s stable of characters.
Like the current Brave and the Bold comic series, the cartoon takes its name from an long-running comic.
In its earliest days B&B was simply an anthology series, featuring stories about characters like The Silent Knight, The Viking Prince, and the Suicide Squad. In fact, the Justice League of America had its debut in the pages of B&B.
However, somewhere along the line it became a team-up book, that, like the cartoon, featured Batman paired with other – usually lesser-known – DC characters.
When I was a kid, team-up books were fairly popular. In addition to B&B, DC published DC Comics Presents, which featured Superman teaming up with a different guest star every month.
On the Marvel side, there was Marvel Team-Up, which paired Spider-Man with a rotating stable of guest stars, and Marvel Two-In-One, which did the same with The Thing.
(Marvel can be forgiven for calling a book Marvel Two-In-One, as in those days porn was not nearly so ingrained into our culture.)
The current B&B comic doesn’t limit itself to Batman and..., but has an ever-changing lne-up, with pairings such as Superman and Catwoman, or Green Arrow and Deadman.
Anyway, to get back to the cartoon, as has been the trend in recent animated series based on comics, the target audience is very young children, so it’s much goofier and more light-hearted than, say, Batman: The Animated Series, or Justice League Unlimited.
However, it was not as cutesy and insultingly goofy as that abominable Teen Titans series from a few years back.
Overall the episode, despite being geared towards such a young audience, was entertaining, and at least it doesn’t go the anime route in terms of style, which is always a plus.
I was also intrigued by some of the familiar faces displayed in the opening title sequence, as it seems likely that at some point they’ll be appearing on the show to team up with Batman. I can’t help but think that, no matter the circumstances, it would be cool to see an animated version of Kamandi, the Last Boy, for example.
I’ll probably watch a few more episodes to see if it hooks me, so clearly it wasn’t as utterly off-putting as the aforementioned Teen Titans, the recently-canceled Legion cartoon, or - *sigh* - Krypto the Super-Dog.
While I’m not bothered by the light-hearted approach, I can’t help but wonder why that’s such a trend lately. I mean, what would be so wrong with doing a more straightforward and serious approach geared toward a slightly older audience?
Also, as I watched it I couldn’t help but think that despite the success of The Dark Knight, the character of Batman will never be able to get out from under the campy shadow of Adam West. The campy, pudgy shadow of Adam West.
(I will concede that he is awesome on Family Guy, though.)
Anyway, I suppose that’s more than enough to write about a kids’ cartoon.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with what remains of my evening. I still need to eat something, but that probably won’t take long.
Maybe I’ll watch some of the R-rated Riff Trax movies that Scott can’t watch.

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